Pinky Chandran is an independent journalist, researcher, and policy analyst. She is a Founding Member of SWMRT and a Trustee of Hasiru Dala, a social impact organisation that focuses on securing justice for waste pickers through interventions co-created with waste pickers and is a Board Member of The Anonymous Indian Charitable Trust. Pinky is very active in the global plastic policy advocacy movement and tracks key interconnected policy developments across finance mechanisms, waste trade, extended producer responsibility, citizen movements, and the informal waste economy.
She has co-authored several books such as Valuing Urban Waste: The Need for a Comprehensive Recycling Policy (2018); A Mirage: Assessment of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and SWM Rules 2016: Waste Pickers Perspectives Across India, (2019);“Communicating the Sustainable Development Goals-A Toolkit for Community Radio Stations”, developed by SMART and supported by UNESCO and UNICEF (2020).

Pinky is passionate about community media and believes that people should have access to create their own media. She currently serves as a Board Member at Seeking Modern Applications for Real Transformation (SMART, an NGO that runs Radio Mewat, a community radio in Haryana. In 2007, she co-founded RadioActive 90.4 MHz—Bangalore's first community radio station which attained an exemplary status of being the most inclusive community-centred station in the country, before handing it over to Jain University in 2021. She was also the finalist for the Media Person of the Year 2018, at the Namma Bangalore Awards and a delegate at the inaugural Australia India Youth Dialogue 2012. Garbage inspires her to write poetry.