Gurugram, Oct. 16 -- On Golf Course Road, Gauri Sarin is often seen walking with a clipboard, speaking with municipal sanitation workers, RWA representatives, and roadside vendors. For over a decade, Sarin has worked on civic issues because she believes Gurugram cannot prosper if its streets keep choking.

"Gurugram should be a beautiful place, one where people want to keep coming back to," said Sarin.

An XLRI Jamshedpur alumnus, Sarin spent more than two decades in corporate executive search and leadership consulting, advising Fortune 500 boardrooms and serving as CEO of Approach International.

In 2012, she made a decisive shift from corporate suites to grassroots civic advocacy, setting up the citizen movement Gurugram Action Plan (GA...