A senior journalist and communication professional, Narender had embarked on his journalistic journey with The Times of India as a senior correspondent and subsequently expanded his areas of work to development communications, film outreach, and storytelling. He is the Founder Director of Woodpecker International Film Festival, and editor-in-chief of India–Africa Today (IAT). Rao is in the jury of several international film festivals and has been invited as a speaker at several prestigious conferences and summits including FICCI CSR Summit.