Neeti Mehra
How are India’s cultural shifts reshaping how we live, consume, create, and aspire?
For more than 20 years, I have explored this through journalism, research, and communications.
I run a strategic consultancy that helps brands understand the people, behaviours, and contexts shaping India today through market intelligence, brand audits, and social insights.
My approach draws on more than contemporary consumer data: traditional knowledge, ecological nuance, history, place, and the lived realities of people and communities.
I work with luxury and culturally-led brands, as well as international companies entering India, helping them understand the country beyond the market.
“ How does a nation of 1.4 billion people consume, gather, travel, rest, and imagine a meaningful life?”
The Work
I look at the cultural forces behind change. My work brings clarity to sustainable organisations, intentional brands, and global companies seeking to engage with contemporary India thoughtfully and meaningfully.
I work with governments, luxury brands, non-profits, and cultural organisations to help them understand changing behaviours, values, and aspirations in contemporary India, not as a traditional forecaster but as an interpreter immersed in the country’s contradictions.
Research
Help brands build emotional value and a distinct point of view through deep research into mythology, design, and human insight.
Strategy
Turning cultural insight into sharper positioning, ideas, and direction for brands, institutions and organisations.
Public Conversation
Editorial direction and writing that bring complex ideas into the public domain.
| Hotels & Tourism Boards An intentional approach to building rooted narratives and sharpening positioning. | Fashion, Jewellery & Beauty Exploring changing ideas of luxury, materiality, craft and consumption. | Real Estate, Spaces & Interiors Looking at how the spaces we inhabit influence how we live, gather and spend time. |
| Arts & Crafts Bringing traditions, practices, heritage, and cultural memory from the archives into relevance. | Government & Public Institutions Building trust and championing social change through research and engagement. | Non-Profits & Social Enterprises Helping mission-led organisations build their outreach and expand their circle of impact. |
What informs My Work
My work is informed by sustained study of Indian knowledge systems, aesthetics, climate and contemporary life. I am interested in the relationship between people, place and the natural world, and in what traditional knowledge can offer a rapidly changing society.
Over the past decade, I have studied Advaita Vedanta, Ayurveda, Tantra and Jyotisha under Dr. Robert Svoboda. My studies also include postgraduate work in Indian Aesthetics and Yoga & Tantra at Jnanapravaha, a climate fellowship with Terra.do, and continued study of Sanskrit. I am currently pursuing Skill Up For Earth, an Oxford-Certified Climate Solutions & Strategies Programme.
About Neeti Mehra
India is changing at extraordinary speed. My work looks beyond the immediate to understand what persists, what disappears, and what returns in new forms.
I look at the tensions beneath everyday life: between tradition and aspiration, consumption and restraint, technology and memory, global influence and local identity. I examine how these forces shape the way people live, work, travel, spend, create and imagine the future.
I draw on cultural research, Indian knowledge systems and sustainability to examine changing ways of living, emerging desires and the ideas shaping public life.
Over two decades, I have worked across editorial leadership, journalism and strategic advisory, reporting from more than 40 countries and publishing across 60 global titles. I bring that long view to organisations trying to understand India and communicate with its people.
Alongside my advisory work, I am the founder of BeejLiving, an award-winning platform and India’s first journal dedicated to slow living, sustainability and traditional knowledge. Through BeejLiving, I have spent years exploring how older ways of living and knowing intersect with contemporary life, building a community of more than 20,000 across platforms.
Selected Work
A practice built over 20 years
Research into changing attitudes to health, wellbeing and luxury travel. Commissioned by leading global research organisations; selected projects confidential.
Destination content strategy for hotels and tourism organisations including Marriott International and South African Tourism.
Storytelling projects connecting Indian craft and artisan knowledge to contemporary global audiences.
Strategy and editorial work for Ayurvedic beauty and wellness brands. Bridging traditional knowledge with contemporary consumer needs, brand positioning and communication.
Panels and conversations on sustainability, wellbeing, beauty and social change, including ET Edge Global Sustainability Summit, Global Spa Awards, and other forums.
Turning complex sustainability subjects into clear public-facing communication for select corporate projects including Sonal Holland MW, AB InBev Sustainability 100+.
Testimonials
“I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Neeti for well over a decade. She consistently stands out as one of the most insightful, intelligent, and well-researched journalists I have come across in our industry. Her rare ability to approach every story with depth and sensitivity is complemented by genuine curiosity and a nuanced understanding of culture, wellness, sustainability, and luxury. She brings credibility, grace, and authenticity to everything she does.”
Etienne Marques
Founder & Chief Vision Officer, The Catalyst
Working with Neeti in the early years of my journey was instrumental in shaping my brand’s voice and positioning. Her thoughtful copywriting brought clarity and polish to my first websites and played an important role in the successful communication of several editions of the India Wines and Spirits Awards.”
Sonal Holland
India’s only Master of Wine and Founder & Director, SoHoWines Consulting & India Wines and Spirits Awards
“Neeti and BeejLiving have really been pushing out some amazing content and have created a strong niche. I especially love Neeti’s editorial curation — it feels thoughtful and well put together.”
Riaan George
Founder, UrbanEye Studio
Awards & Recognition
ET Edge & Global Sustainability Alliance #PlanetBuddy 2025
The Week Health Magazine
SheThePeople’s 40 Over 40 Awards
Press & Media
Selected commentary and interviews across international publications covering sustainability, hospitality, slow living, ecology, and contemporary lifestyles.
Projects & Collaborations
Select engagements.
The Long View
Everything you want to know about culture, slow living, and a country that resists easy conclusions.
Contact Page
For collaborations, advisory, speaking engagements, editorial and research projects, and cultural insight work.
Copyright @ Neeti Mehra 2026