Prof. Andallib Tariq,
HOD, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Prof. Gagandeep Kang,
Director-Enterics, Diagnostics, Genomics and Epidemiology, Global Health, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Mr. Jayant Patil,
Member of Executive Council of Management & Advisor Defence & Smart World to CMD Larsen & Toubro Limited, Former Whole Time Director Larsen & Toubro Limited, Vice President Indian National Academy of Engineering

Mr. J D Patil served on the Board of L&T as a Whole Time Director Defence & Smart Technologies and is currently Member of the Executive Committee of Management of L&T and Advisor to the Chairman & Managing Director for L&T’s Precision Engineering and Systems & New Age Smart Technology businesses. He is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai, having pursued M. Tech (Mechanical Engineering) in 1978.

He has a rich, more than four and a half-decade long career in L&T, and has been instrumental in growing the nascent Technology and Product Development Group of L&T’s corporate R&D with a focus on top end inter-disciplinary Product Development. 

Mr. Patil spearheaded the L&T’s foray in the Defence sector since the inception of this segment in L&T in mid-eighties; a decade and a half ahead of the opening up of Defence Production for participation by Private Companies in 2001 (licensing it in 2002). He led the development efforts for realization of weapon delivery systems for DRDO and for Indian Navy. Over the years, under his leadership, L&T built a portfolio of indigenous, in-house products, systems, technologies and platforms both on its own and by teaming up with DRDO and with the Indian Armed Forces, and is today engaged in design-to-delivery of solutions across its chosen Defence segments.

Mr. Patil was instrumental for growth of L&T’s Defence Business in focus areas of Naval Platforms (Submarines & Warships), Naval & Land Weapon Launch & Engineering Systems, Guns Systems, Missile Systems, Armoured Systems, Radar Systems, Military Communication Systems, Unmanned Systems & Avionics. He was instrumental in establishment of dedicated Defence Production Centres at Talegaon (near Pune), Coimbatore, Visakhapatnam and Kattupalli, besides specific dedicated centres at L&T’s Powai, and Hazira complexes as well as Technology Development Centres, Design Centres, & Prototype Development Centres at Powai & at Bengaluru.

He oversaw evolution of L&T’s Space businesses as the longest and most mature industry partner of ISRO (spanning more than five decades) towards development and serial production of main lift-off Solid Boosters through entire range of the six Space Launch Vehicles including those for Chandrayaan, Mangalyaan missions and Human rated boosters, crew module hardware for manned missions as also for development of special test facilities, such as Hypersonic Wind tunnel, high-altitude shock tunnel, ultra-precision angular motion simulators, range instrumentation like Precision Instrumentation Grade Radars, Deep Space Communication facilities, etc. Under his leadership L&T contributed ISRO build strategic material independence. The relationship with ISRO matured to include host of other hardware such as payload heat shields & Deck panels in advanced composites, solar array deployment devices, interstages, etc.

He guided the growth of Smart Cities, Safe Cities and Communication business with a focus on making our cities Smart and Safe. In this sector L&T has emerged as the largest Indian player in this sector with series of success stories such as Prayagraj Kumbh mela, Odisha costal storm warning system, and transforming 26 major cities of India into smart cities.

Besides being Advisor to L&T’s CMD, he is the Chairman of the Board of Directors of L&T MBDA Missile Systems Limited and Board Member of L&T Semiconductor Technologies. He is Founder Chairperson of Indian Space Association (ISpA), a society dedicated to the cause of Space Sector. He is past President of Society of Indian Defence Manufacturers – a unique society representing Indian Defence Manufacturers with focus on indigenising the Defence Sector, and was founding Vice President of SIDM, setup under the aegis of the CII.  Earlier he served as Member of Steering Committee, National Executive Committee and Chairman Defence & Aerospace Committee of FICCI. He led the Apex Industry chambers for over two decades to advocate policy change by the Government of India pre and post opening of the Defence Sector for participation by Private Sector Companies. The policy initiatives through unstinted engagement with MoD saw continual reforms over past two decades to encourage & embrace Private Sector in Defence, Level Playing Field, facilitate R&D for self-reliance and the growth of a Defence Industrial Base in the country.

He is ACC appointee on the Board of IN-SPACe (Indian National Space Promotion & Authorisation Centre) the regulator and promoter for Space sector. He is a member of CII National Committee, Chairs CII committee on Strategic Manufacturing and Aerospace Committee of CII. He also serves on the Project Management Associates (PMA) India Managing Committee and has been conferred Honorary Fellowship in recognition of exemplary contribution made towards successful projects of National importance.

He is Fellow & Vice-President (Academia, Professional and International Affairs) of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and been conferred by IIT Bombay, his alma mater, with the prestigious Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Diamond Jubilee Year of IITB. He has also been conferred Honorary Membership by Indian Institute of Metals (IIM).

Having joined as Engineer Trainee, Mr Patil has been groomed by L&T through series of in-house Executive Development programs as well as Management Development Programs of eminent institutions in India and abroad. Notable among them are the Administrative Staff College of India’s Middle Management Level Program, MDI Gurgaon’s Senior Management Level Program, Manchester Business School’s Technology Management Program, London Business School’s Senior Management Program, and Customized Top Management program by Harvard Business School.

Dr. Aloknath De,
Founder of Cyber-Physical Systems Initiative, CTO of XTrans Solutions and Executive Coach of CTO Leadership Masterclass

Dr. Aloknath De is Founder of Cyber-Physical Systems Initiative, CTO of XTrans Solutions and Executive Coach of CTO Leadership Masterclass. He has been Corporate Vice-President of Samsung Electronics, S.Korea and Chief Technology Officer of Samsung India. He is an Adjunct Professor in IISc, Bangalore and IIT-Jodhpur. He is in the BoG for DA-IICT, Gandhinagar. Dr. De has thirty two years of industry and business experience including BEL, Nortel, Hughes, ST-Ericsson and Samsung. During 2005-11, he served as Visiting/Adjunct Professorship with IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Delhi. He holds Ph.D. from McGill University, Montreal; M.E. from IISc-Bangalore; and B.Tech and Distinguished Alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur.

Dr. De is Chairman for Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) National Steering Committee for Technology and ICT for Agriculture and Environment (AgriEnIcs). He is a recipient of 'Alexander Graham Bell Prize' in Canada. He has received 'IETE Memorial Awards' for distinguished contributions in Electronics and Communications, IDC Insights Award for 'Innovation in Telecom', Zinnov Award for 'Intrapreneurship', Assocham Award for 'Çorporate Tech Leadership', Nasscom 'AI Gamechanger' Award, 2023 IEEE 'MGA Innovation' Award among many others. He has been Chair for IEEE Bangalore Section. He is Fellow of IEI and IETE. He is also Fellow and a Governing Council member of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).

Dr. Alok explores Research-to-Revenue linkage deeply. He has 50+ patents under filed/grant and developed many innovative products. With his leadership, Samsung India has touched 7500+ patents cumulatively by its silver jubilee year. This resulted in company receiving National IP award multiple times from Govt of India for highest number of patent filings and grants. Recently, he has co-edited a book on '6G Mobile Wireless Networks' with Springer and has contributed to many other book chapters. In 2022, he was cited in World's Top50 CTOs. His R&D and Business interest is in Cyber-Physical Systems with underlying technologies of Augmented Intelligence and Secure IoT. Through Samsung Ventures and as Angel Investor, he has invested in three dozen startups in India.

Dr. Dandu Radha Prasada Raju, PhD, FNAE,
Former Scientist, Dept of Science & Technology, Govt of India

Prasada Raju, doctorate in Mechanical Engg, served National Small Industries Corp Ltd and NTPC Ltd for a decade, followed by Govt of India-Dept of Science and Technology (DST) for 26 years promoting of R&D in various fields of S&T. He implemented ‘Safe Water for Everyone Using Effective Technology’ programme, impacting a million people in a few villages in AP and Telangana, receiving a few recognitions, most significant being Japanese Award for Most Innovative Development Project, Best Water Programme by Water Digest and UNESCO, Best Living Environment Award by Dubai Municipality and UNHABITAT, etc. For the notable contributions, he also received AP Scientist Award, Distinguished Alumnus by Andhra University, Eminent Engineer Award by the Institution of Engineers, AIMTDR Silver Jubilee Award by Jadavpur University and elected as Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engg. Post DST, he served as a faculty/Dean, including AICTE Adjunct Faculty Awardee, in an Engineering College and associated with a few institutions, including IITs-Madras, Hyderabad and Tirupati and IIM-Visakhapatnam, interacting with faculty in formulation of extramural R&D proposals and related aspects.

Mr Srinivas Deshpande,
Former General Manager – Strategy and M&A, Wipro Limited

Starting April 2024, Srini has taken early retirement from fulltime roles. Last Srini served was with Wipro Limited as General Manager – Strategy and M&A, closely associated with one of the Global Business Lines – Wipro FullStride Cloud.

In the three decades of professional career, Srini has led many portfolios including :

• Strategy, Marketing, Presales, architecture & consulting and sales operations for Enterprise Business Integration and Digital Experience practices
• Evaluation and due diligence of potential Mergers & Acquisitions and Startup assets
• Analyst, Advisor and Partnership engagement

Been an active Mentor with special focus on Emerging Women Leaders

Dr. Pravan Soni,
Innovation Evangelist and Founder, Inflexion Point Consulting

Dr. Pavan Soni is an Innovation Evangelist by profession and a teacher by passion. He is the founder of Inflexion Point, offering programs on Design, Innovation and Leadership. He has conducted over 600 workshops with 180 organizations in ten countries. Pavan is the bestselling author of the books Design Your Thinking, and Design Your Career, published by Penguin Random House. 

Apart from being an Adjunct Faculty at ISB Hyderabad and IIM Bangalore, Pavan is a columnist at Mint, YourStory, Inc42, Entrepreneur and People Matters. His monthly newsletter, Inflexion Point, reaches to over 20,000 enthusiasts across the world.

Pavan was the only Indian to be shortlisted for the prestigious 'FT & McKinsey Bracken Bower Award for the Best Business Book of the Year 2016'. He has been invited five times to speak at the TEDx, and is featured as one of the '100 Digital Influencers of 2020' by Your Story.

Pavan is a Gold Medalist from MBM Engineering College Jodhpur, and did his PGDIE from IIM Mumbai. He finished his Doctoral Studies from IIM Bangalore in the domain of innovation management. He is passionate about fitness, spirituality, guitar, chess, reading and writing.

Dr. Santosh Mohanty,
Trustee, NPS Trust

Dr. Santosh Mohanty is a Trustee on the Board of NPS Trust and chairs its IT strategy committee. He is a Fellow at the Institute of Directors. He is associated with Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari in delivering societal services. He is in the advisory board of Institute of Health Sciences, Bhubaneswar. He teaches at IIT Bhubaneswar as an adjunct faculty.

He started his career as a faculty for ten years and then the leadership roles at TCS for twenty-five years with responsibilities to lead global service practices, scale innovation, establish leadership in product engineering, and mature intellectual property ecosystem.

Prof. Aynampudi Subbarao Rao,
President - Indian Innovators Association

Prof. Aynampudi Subbarao Rao, former Adviser/ Scientist G in DSIR is currently editing Innovation Yearbook series as President of Indian Innovators Association. Top 100 Indian Innovations (2022) and Top 100 Indian Innovations (2023) were published and 2024 edition is underway. LinkedIn profile- https://www.linkedin.com/in/indiainvents/. He is associated with CII, MIT Solve, RKVY-RAFTAAR.BIRAC as an assessor/ evaluator of innovations.

Prof Ram Gopal Rao
Vice Chancellor, BITS Pilani

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is currently Vice Chancellor for the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS Pilani) campuses located in Pilani, Hyderabad, Goa, Dubai and Mumbai. Prior to joining the BITS Pilani in 2023, Prof. Rao had served as the Director of IIT Delhi for 6 years during 2016-2021 and as a Chair Professor for Nanoelectronics at both IIT Bombay and IITDelhi.
Prof. Rao is an internationally acclaimed Nanoelectronics researcher with over 480 research papers and 50 patents, which include 20 issued US patents. 15 of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization. 100's of millions of ICs sold all over the world use the joint IP developed in his group with semiconductor industries for CMOS-SoC applications. Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (Nanosniff & Soilsens) which have successful commercial products in the market. Besides his education and research activities, Prof. Rao is also well known for establishing major Nanoelectronics Programmes in the country. For his research accomplishments, Dr. Rao has been elected a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), the Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), the National Academy of Sciences (NASI) & the Indian National Science Academy (INSA). 52 Ph.D. students have graduated so far under his supervision and are working in leading academic institutions, semiconductor industries all over the world, including in India.
Prof. Rao's research and leadership contributions have been recognized with over 35 awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of three honorary doctorates. The recognitions Prof. Rao received include the Shanti SwarupBhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences, Infosys Prize, IEEE EDS Education Award (the highest international award bestowed by IEEE Electron Devices Society for Education) and many others. Prof. Rao serves on the Editorial Advisory Boards of several leading international journals such as the ACS Nano Letters, AIP Applied Physics Reviews, IEEE Journal on Flexible Electronics etc. Dr. Rao has delivered over 200 Plenary, key-note and invited lectures all over the world.
Besides his regular teaching & research activities at IIT Delhi, Prof.Ramgopal Rao serves as a Chairman for multiple committees at the National level related to Education, Research and Innovation programmes in India. He is currently the Chairperson, Council of Management (BoG) for the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) in Bangalore and Chairperson, Board of Governors for the National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management (NIFTEM) in Haryana, two premier institutions of Govt of India.
Visit the Linkedin profile of Prof.Ramgopal Rao for his views on various matters concerning Higher Education.

Prof. Pankaj Chandra
Ahmedabad University

Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor & Chairman, Board of Management, Ahmedabad University. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and a Professor of Operations and Technology Management at IIMB. He has taught at various institutions such as McGill University in Montreal, University of Geneva, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, International University of Japan, Cornell University, Renmin University, Beijing, and IIM Ahmedabad (IIM A). He has worked briefly with The World Bank in Washington DC. He was the Chairperson of the Doctoral Program at IIM Ahmedabad and the first Associate Dean (Academic) at ISB, Hyderabad. He was part of the founding team at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIMA and its first Chairperson.
Professor Chandra has served as member of the Government of India Committee on Clusters for Development of the Informal Sector. He was a member of the two High Powered Committees – the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that re-looked at the Indian Higher Education system as well as the committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. He was a member of two Steering Committees constituted by the Planning Commission of India for 12th Plan Development, one on Higher and Technical Education (Where he also chaired the Sub-Committee on Student Financial Aid), and the other on Industry. He was a member of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) subcommittee on Teacher Education. Until recently, he was also a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He was a member of RUSA (the higher education regulator) of the Ministry of HRD, GOI.
Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include Manufacturing Management, Supply Chain Coordination, Building Technological Capabilities, higher education policy, and hi-tech entrepreneurship. He had published extensively in international refereed journals and has served on the editorial boards of several international journals. He has edited a book titled “Technology Practices, and Competitiveness: The Primary Textile Industry in Canada, China and India” (Himalaya Publishers, 1998) and has recently completed manuscript for another book that studies issues of Governance, Change and Institution Building in Indian Public Universities. He has been conducting the national survey on Competitiveness of Indian Manufacturing since the last 20 years.
Professor Chandra has been involved in several startups, has also been a consultant to large Indian and multi-national firms and serves on the Boards of several firms and institutions.

Mr. Dipankar Chakrabarti,
Executive Director, Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt. Ltd.

Executive Director, AWS Alliance Leader & Data Control Office Leader – PwC India
Qualification :
M.Tech (Nuclear Engineering & Technology) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, Nuclear Power Corporation Scholar. MDP – Corporate Creativity – Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata Certificate on Disruptive Strategy – Harvard Business School Certificate in Data Based Decision – Cambridge Judges School Certificate in Introduction in Quantum Computing – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Background :
30 Years of work-experience in multiple domains and start-ups. Enabled Technology CoE set-up for e-Commerce, IT strategy, Cloud migration strategy and implementation. 15 years in Senior Management Roles.
Dipankar is supporting multiple organizations to set up their cloud transformation strategy and supporting multiple cloud migration implementations.
Membership :
Senior Member of IEEE Life Member of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers Co-chairman for IT subcommittee for Confederation of Indian Industry Eastern Region
Visiting Professor – IIM Ranchi, IIM Lucknow

Member of IEEE standards committee of :

• 1. 2301-2020 - IEEE Approved Draft Guide for Cloud Portability and Interoperability Profiles (CPIP)
• 2. WG23026 Engineering and management of web sites
• 3. WG 38000 Data Trading System

Mr. George Paul,
Former CEO, MAIT Ltd.

A business leader with over 40 years of experience in the industry sectors of Electronic H/w, Mechatronics & Aerospace. A strong believer that the adoption of digital technology by India will yield Indian industry & the nation’s economy a global competitive advantage
He has led a gamut of functional domains including ProductR&D, Manufacturing,Integrated Marketing and Field support services. He has led teams in India, South East Asia and the Middle East.
His teams have successfully designed developed and taken to market a number of products such as Financial inclusion Tech Stack, Thin Clients, PoS, PCs, Servers, ATVM’s, Flight Computers, Avionic test jigs, Radar sub-systems & more.
He is on a number of Industry and GoIpanels to promote R&D, Manufacturing&Standards. He is a Jury Member with the India Innovation Awards from CII.Former Board member of ESSCI and prior worked extensively with academia in bridging skill gapsin this fast evolving sector.
George is a B.Tech. in Electronics & Communication from the NIT-Suratkal with several Management Development Programs from IIM-Kolkata, XLRI Jamshedpur and the Harvard Kennedy School. He has a Quality foundation from Philip B Crosby Associates & The Juran Institute.
George is presently Principal Advisor MAIT, MAIT a not-for-profit and the apex industry body empowering IT, Telecom & Electronics Hardware R&D and Manufacturing in the country.

Mr. Jayant Shrikhande,
Former Country Head - China, L&T

• Mechanical Engineer with Post Graduation in SQC & OR from Indian Statistical Institute
• Retired as CEO & Country Head China for Larsen & Toubro in 2011 – where he established 4 Manufacturing Companies and an International Procurement office
• 46 years of professional experiencein leading Organizations, cross-functional leadership roles mobilizing and driving entire resources of a business entity to acquire competitive position and achieve reasonable ROI to ensure business continuity, last 35 years as Profit Centre Head as MD, CEO, Presidentin leading Companies in India & abroad like Larsen & Toubro, IBM India, Ricoh India, Tata’s, RPG Group, Tandon Group, Elcome Group and Wongs Electronics (Hongkong)
• Followed up with last 8 Years’ Consulting & Teaching Experience post retirement
• Holds the unique record of being promoted as a Manager in IBM India at the age of only 22, within 18 months of joining the organization
• As Purchase Manager in IBM from 1972 to 1977, locally developed about 7000 types of precision Mechanical& Electrical parts from suppliers in and around Mumbai, required for making 129 Card Punching Machines for 100% export to IBM Japan and other IBM locations around the world.
• Started India Business Forum China (CII initiative) in China as its Founding Chairman
• Was involved in setting up several Green Field and Brown Field High Tech Plants in Developing Countries like India, Sri Lanka, China under severe resource Constraints
• Working as Visiting Faculty in leading Management School in Mumbai, teaching Strategic-Management, Operations-Management, Lean-Manufacturing Management
• Engaged in training Industries on various relevant topics through CII, IMC Chamber of Commerce & Industry, ‘Mentor my Board’ and other Industry associations.
• Experience in handling diverse technologies like Light Engineering, Office Equipment, Electronics Manufacturing, Heavy Engineering and Chemical Industry
• Working as Jury for Industry Innovation Awards on behalf of CII – Confederation of Indian Industries

Some Break through Results achieved through Innovative initiatives

• Achieved excellent results in Improving Overall Efficiency of the Organizations worked for, including some path breaking improvements,employing Lean Management, TQM implementation and Lean -Six Sigma techniques in mass scale manufacturing.
• Scale Chemicals Manufacturing Company (Family Business)
• Revenue Increased 15 Times in 5 Year’s time
• Hard Disc Drive Manufacturing Company for 100% Exports in less than 1 year
• 98% Improvement in Scrap level of major Part (Reduction from 16% to 0.3%)
• 90% Improvement in WIP (Work in Process) level (From 33 days to 3 days)
• 20% Improvement in Productivity
• Electronics Manufacturing Mass Production in China for leading MNC’s
• Achieved 100 PPM level Product Quality
• Made the whole factory Data Transparent to MNC Clients, through Internet through introduction of Quality Information management System
• Revenue increased 3 times in 15 Months only
• Customer base (MNCClients) increased 3 times in 15 months
• Major Oil & Gas Equipment manufacturing (50 Years old Co.)
• Overall Equipment Efficiency increased 3 times-Conservative Estimate (from about 30% to 90% or Increase of 6 times–Optimistic Estimate (From 15% to 90%)
• Overall Conversion cost reduced by 50% (Conservative Estimate) or 75% (Optimistic Estimate)

Assignments include Training & Implementation in areas of :

• Review & Revamp Company’s Strategy and suggest enhancement, alternate routes for Expansion of overall business.
• World Class Business Excellence Concepts to improve overall Company Profitability
• Training & Implementation ofLean Business &TQM Philosophy.
• Theory of Constraints & Effective Project Management
• Frugal Engineering and Reverse Innovation

Jayant Shrikhande
Email : JJShrikhande@Gmail.com
Mobile : 9833003603
Linked in : http://linkedin.com/in/jayant-shrikhande-7b7a201a

Mr. Keerthi Laal Kala,
Sr. Advisor, SUN Group & Chief Evangelist, Molaka Foundation

Keerthi has wide experience in M&A, public policy, venture capital, strategy, technology innovation and socioeconomic developmental efforts. He is currently Chief Evangelist for a non-profit venture studio for ESG startups, and is an Advisor to VCFs and corporates. In a career spanning 17+yrs, he has supported investments worth USD 2Bn globally, was instrumental in developing the CII’s Enterprise Innovation Maturity Framework, has co-authored a book on Promoting Innovation in Clusters, and co-authored multiple patents among other achievements.

Mr. K. Veeramani,
Former Sr. Executive L&T

Qualification: M.Sc Engg ( Industrial Metallurgy) from NIT Rourkela, 38+ years of work experience with Larsen & Toubro Limited, 25 years in Foundry, 7 years in Quality dept of Construction Division. 6 1/2 years as Sourcing Head ( China). I have been assessor for CII in various annual event of CII. Retired and living in Chennai.

Mr. Pravin Hungund,
Former Chief Technology Officer, Wipro

Pravin's illustrious three-decade career exemplifies a blend of technological mastery and business innovation. Acknowledged as a ChatGPT expert by the Blockchain Council, his expertise spans AI, AR/VR, Metaverse, IoT, Robotics, Cloud and Blockchain. This versatility shines in his leadership of global tech initiatives like Wipro Technovation and SVIC, where he integrates diverse ecosystems including startups and academia for sustainable growth.

As a thought leader, Pravin has enriched tech discourse through articles, blogs, and keynotes at international conferences. His advisory roles with deep tech startups and academic institutions underscore his commitment to shaping the future of technology. Beyond his tech pursuits, he demonstrates a deep dedication to societal advancement through initiatives like The/Nudge Indian Administrative Fellowship and the Visvesvaraya Research & Innovation Foundation.

Currently, as an Indian Administrative Fellow with the Rural Development and Panchayat Ray Department, Government of Karnataka, Pravin drives innovation and technological transformation to tackle large-scale challenges in rural areas. His career is a testament to the power of technology harmonized with humanistic values, envisioning a future where technological advancements and societal progress are seamlessly integrated.

Dr. Rahul Verma,
Head, Content Operations, India at Clarivate Analytics

Dr. Rahul Verma, Cofounder and Chairman of NanoHealth, a health tech company preventing avoidable hospitalization resulting in reduced annual claims & increased employee productivity. This is achieved through our data driven solutions offering pro-active, personalized and coordinated healthcare. He has been associated with CII Indian industrial Innovation Awards since their inception.

Dr. Rajesh Singh,
Director - Research & Innovation, Uttaranchal University

(Dr.) Rajesh Singh, is currently associated with Uttaranchal University as Professor and Director (Research & Innovation) with more than seventeen years of experience in academics. He has been featured among top ten inventors for ten years 2010-2020, by Clarivate Analytics in “India’s Innovation Synopsis” in March 2021. He has more than four hundred and fifty patents in his account. He has forty three international & Indian patents grant, 5 PCT and published more than two hundred research papers in SCI/Scopus and referred journals.
He has published thirty eight booksin the area of Embedded Systems and Internet of Things with reputed international publishers.
He has been awarded with “Gandhian Young Technological Innovation (GYTI) Award”, as Mentor to “On Board Diagnostic Data Analysis System-OBDAS”, Appreciated under “Cutting Edge Innovation” during Festival of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Rashtrapati Bahawan, India in 2018. He has been honored with “Certificate of Excellence” from 3rd faculty branding awards-15, Organized by EET CRS research wing for excellence in professional education and Industry, for the category “Award for Excellence in Research”, 2015 and young investigator award at the International Conference on Science and Information in 2012.

RESEARCH INTERESTS AND EXPERTISE
Internet of Things, Wireless Sensor Networks, Embedded System, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Automation

BRIEF PROFILE

• Experience: 17 Years
• Administrative Exp.: Director (Research & Innovation), Uttaranchal University
• Head (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Lovely Professional University Head Robotics Research Centre (R&D), University of Petroleum & Energy Studies
• Books: 38
• SCI/Scopus Papers: 134
• PCT: 04
• Indian Patent Grant: 05
• International Patent Grant: 39
• Indian Patent Published: 450+
• International Copyright: 15
• Indian Copyright: 50
• Technology Transfer-6
• Ph.D Supervision: (Awarded-03, Submitted-02)
• Featured 2nd among top ten inventors for ten years 2010-2020, by Clarivate Analytics in “India’s Innovation Synopsis” in March 2021.
• Listed in the top 200 confederation of “Elite academician” of IICDC 2019 (DST & Texas Instruments (TI) Inc. ‘India Innovation Challenge Design Contest 2019′ (IICDC 2019) powered by AICTE mission, anchored by NSRCEL@IIMB and MyGov platform).

Mr. Prashant D. Nasery,
Manufacturing & Innovation Consulting Head Focus Engineering

Prashant D. Nasery is a Mechanical Engineer, MBA, Six Sigma Black Belt (ASQ) and a Level 2 TRIZ Practitioner certified by Matriz (International TRIZ Assocication). Prashant has 35+ years of experience in in automobile, oil & gas and service sectors in India and Middle East. He has worked for companies such as Maruti-Suzuki India Limited (MSIL) and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) LNG plant. He has also served Dubai Quality Group (DQG) as an elected honorary member of the Board of Directors. Currently he is Manufacturing and Innoation Consulting Head with Focus Engineering.

Mr. S Gopalakrishnan,
Past President, CII & Chairman of The Grand Jury for CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2021

Senapathy ‘Kris’ Gopalakrishnan served as the Vice Chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014, and as its Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys.
Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives. He was selected as one of the winners of the 2nd Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. Kris was also selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. He was elected President of India's apex industry chamber, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013 – 14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.
In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Kris the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian honor.
He serves on the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore, and is also on the Board of Trustees of the Chennai Mathematical Institute.
Kris holds master’s degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Dr. Pronab Sen, Country Director, IGC's India Central Programme

Pronab Sen is the Programme Director for the IGC India Programme. Pronab received his PhD in Economics from the Johns Hopkins University specialising in open-economy macroeconomic systems, international economics and public finance. Most recently the Principal Adviser, Power and Energy, at the Government of India’s Planning Commission, he has also had positions as the first Chief Statistician of India, acting as the functional and technical Head of the national statistical system in India, as well as Secretary, Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, Government of India (2007-2010). As a representative of the Planning Commission he was principal author and coordinator of (a) the Mid-term Appraisal of the Eighth Five Year Plan, (b) the Ninth Five Year Plan, (c) the Mid-term Appraisal of the Ninth Five Year Plan, (d) the Tenth Five Year Plan, and the Mid-term Appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)

Dr. Renu Swarup is presently Sr. Adviser for Department of Biotechnology (DBT). She also holds the position of Managing Director, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), a Public company that promotes innovation research in the Biotech Enterprise with special focus on Start‐ups and SMEs. She was not only responsible for creating but also in operationalising the new organisation. BIRAC successfully runs a large number of funding schemes for industry innovations
A PhD in Genetics and Plant Breeding, Dr. Renu Swarup completed her Post Doctoral at The John Innes Centre, Norwich UK, under Commonwealth Scholarship and returned to India to take up the post of a Science Manager in the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, GoI, in 1989.
At DBT she heads the National Bioresource Development Board and is involved in developing, funding and monitoring of programmes in the area of Energy Biosciences, Bioresource Development and Utilization and Plant Biotechnology. As a Science Manager, Dr. Swarup also looks into issues related to policy planning and implementation which also forms a part of her assignment. She was actively involved in formulation of the Biotechnology Vision in 2001 and National Biotechnology Development Strategy in 2007 as the Member Secretary of the Expert Committee.
Dr. Renu Swarup has also been closely involved in Programmes and activities related to Women and Science. She was responsible for getting the DBT Scheme on Biotechnology Career Advancement for Women Scientists – BioCARe implemented. She was also a member of the Task Force on Women in Science, constituted by the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Prime Minister.
She has been awarded the “BioSpectrum Person of the Year Award” in 2012

Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan,
Director, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore & Co-Chairman, CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2024

Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan is an author, columnist and professor of management who focuses on strategy, innovation, and education. He is listed in the Thinkers50 India list of most influential management thinkers from India.

From 1996-2013, Prof. Krishnan worked at IIM Bangalore, where he held the Jamuna Raghavan Chair in Entrepreneurship from 2007 to 2010. After serving a five-year stint from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2018 as the Director of IIM Indore, he returned to IIM Bangalore and is currently Professor of Strategy there. He was educated at IIT Kanpur, Stanford University and IIM Ahmedabad.

Ms Candace Johnson
Co-founder, SES ASTRA

Candace Johnson, co-founder of SES ASTRA and chief architect of SES Global has been doing “New Space” for the last 35 years ever since she helped create some of the first commercial satellite television and radio distribution networks in the United States in the late 70’s and early 80’s before starting already in February 1983 on the journey that would lead to her co-founding SES, the world’s first private trans-border satellite system and to her conceiving and architecting it to be one of the largest satellite systems in the world today with the purchase of GE Americom Satellites by SES in 2001. After creating and substantially contributing to space ventures such as Loral Teleport Europe, Europe Online, Iridium, and ILS, Ms. Johnson is today Chair of the Advisory Board, Partner and Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee of Seraphim Space, the world’s largest Space Tech Venture Fund. She is also Vice Chair of NorthStar Earth and Space, a dual mission satellite constellation bringing the next dimension of security and sustainability to near Space with Space Domain Awareness and Space Traffic Management and on earth with Hyper-spectral imaging. In addition, Ms. Johnson is also founding Chair of OWNSAT, Oceania Women’s Network Satellite, an early large investor in Kacific, bringing broadband Internet to the Pacific Islands. Ms. Johnson has also just been named to the Saudi Space Advisory Council and also to the NEOM Digital Infrastructure Advisory Board.
From her early, pioneering start in the 1970s and 1980’s, Ms. Johnson’s life has been devoted to starting and building “New Space” ventures, be they privately financed, commercial satellite television and telecommunication networks, satellite mobile networks, satellite Internet Networks or privately financed commercial satellite launch ventures. Today, Ms. Johnson continues her work with a number of satellite and launch ventures related to Space Situational Awareness, Earth Observation and Intelligence, High Through-Put Satellite Internet, micro satellite launchers, as well as promoting and creating “New Space” investment funds, etc. She is thrilled that the “Golden Era of Space” in this 65th anniversary year of Sputnik is coinciding with a democratisation of space and equity investment throughout the world.
Ms. Johnson recently co-founded Oceania Women’s Network Satellite (OWNSAT). OWNSAT has become a founding investor in the Kacific Satellite System based in Singapore, where Ms. Johnson has also been a Member of the Board. OWNSAT and Kacific are bringing high through-put satellite internet to the islands of the Pacific.
Ms. Johnson is Vice Chair of NorthStar, the world’s first dual-mission satellite constellation designed to address two of the most pressing issues of our time, climate change and space debris.
Ms. Johnson was also Vice President of Iridium from 1994 - 1996 during which time she secured the ITU country code, frequency allocations in many countries around the world as well as bringing the company into the GSMA and obtaining financing from Europe.
Ms. Johnson was also instrumental in facilitating the creation of ILS, the private spaceflight partnership between Lockheed Martin, Krunichev and Energia for the marketing of the Proton launchers which resulted in SES’s Astra 1 F satellite being the first commercial occidental satellite to ever be launched on a Russian launcher in 1995 as well as facilitating the relationship leading to the Arianespace Soyuz partnership.
Ms. Johnson is founding President of Europe Online Investments S.A., the world’s first internet-based online service and satellite broadband network, and founder of Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, Europe’s first independent private trans-border satellite communications network.
Ms. Johnson is a Non–Executive Director of SES-Imagotag, a publicly quoted corporation (SESL) on the French Stock Exchange and the Chair of the Nomination-Remuneration Committee. She is also an Executive Board Member of the ICC - International Chamber of Commerce and the Vice Chair of the ICC Policy Commission. She was President of EBAN, the European Business Angel and Early-Stage Investment Network from 2014 - 2018 2018. Under her presidency, Ms. Johnson was the Co-Founder of ABAN, African Business Angels Network and MBAN, MENA Business Angels Network as well as EBAN Space, EBAN Energy and the Global Business Angels Network (GBAN).
Ms. Johnson is President of Johnson Paradigm Ventures (JPV), a principal founding shareholder with AXA, Caisse des Depots, BayerischeLandesbank, and the SPEF of Sophia Euro Lab, Europe’s first trans-border early-stage investment company based in Sophia Antipolis. JPV is a principal founding shareholder in London-based Ariadne Capital, “Architecting Europe.net”, one of the earliest supporters and promoters of Skype, the global VoIP phenomenon. Ms. Johnson has served as Founding Member of the Boards of both companies.
Ms. Johnson is founding President of the VATM, the Association of Private Telecom Operators in Germany and founding President of the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN). She is also a founding member of the Global Board Ready Women Task Force.
Ms. Johnson is a musician and artist, and in 2006 she created the Festival of the Fourth Dimension, the world’s first festival of the Arts, Technology, and Sciences, which became a major French government global initiative for Industrial Innovation and Creativity.
Among many honors, Mrs. Johnson has been decorated as Commander of the Luxembourg Order of Merit and Officer of the Couronne de la Chene in Luxembourg as well as Officer of the BundesverdienstKreuz 1. Klasse (Germany) for her work in de-regulation, innovation, privatization, and globalization and the specific projects named above. Ms. Johnson is the second ever recipient of the UN-sponsored World Teleport Associations’ “Founders Award”. In 2002, Ms. Johnson received the “Lifetime Achievement Award” also bestowed on Vinton Cerf and Tim Berners Lee from the World Communication Awards, the prestigious global telecoms organization. In 2012, Ms. Johnson received the Lifetime Achievement Award from The International Alliance of Women, and in 2016 she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace Europe.
Ms. Johnson holds Masters Degrees with Honors from the Sorbonne and Stanford Universities, and a Bachelors Degree from Vassar College. On November 12th 2016 she was awarded a Doctor honoriscausa from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Mr. Ajay Nanavati
Former Managing Director - 3M

Mr. Ajay Nanavati is a seasoned global executive with 35+ years of multi-country, cross-functional experience. He started his career with the Tata Group and joined 3M in India in 1988 as its first employee. He was responsible for forming the JV & building the organization from scratch. In the subsequent 28 years with 3M he held positions of increasing responsibility in different parts of the world. In 1993, he relocated to Singapore to manage the APAC region for the telecom business. He moved to divisional Headquarter in Austin, Texas in 1998 where he led the launch of a major new services diversification initiative for the corporation as well as integration of a large French/German acquisition. He spent the subsequent 4 years at corporate HQ in St. Paul, MN in senior strategy & new business development roles including identifying & leading the acquisition & integration of a new-to-the-company technology venture.

In 2005, he moved to Israel as Managing Director of 3M Israel. He returned to India in 2008 as the first Indian MD of 3M’s only public company outside the US. During this 5 year stint the company’s revenues doubled, market cap quadrupled, a major R&D center was set up and local manufacturing ramped up. He is currently on the board of Alicon Ltd. Additionally, he is an active innovation evangelist on various forums, mentors start-ups/SME’s and is an angel investor. He is the co-chair of the CII Directors Guild on corporate governance, a member of the CII Start-up council, Advisory Board of International Institute of Information Technology (IIITB) & Advisory Board of Israel Center, IIMB. Mr. Nanavati holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech., USA.

Dr. Girish Sahni, Director General ,Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)

Dr. Girish Sahni is currently Director General of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Secretary, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science & Technology. 

Dr. Sahni, having specialization in Protein Engineering, Molecular Biology, and Biotechnology, has contributed significantly in the area of protein cardiovascular drugs especially ‘clot busters’ and their mode of action in the human body. The team led by him is responsible for producing technology for India’s first indigenous clot bluster drug, natural streptokinase (under brand name ‘STPase’ marketed by Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Ahmedabad), and recombinant streptokinase (produced by Shasun Drugs, Chennai) marketed as several brand names eg. ‘Klotbuster’ (Alembic) and ‘LupiFlo’ (Lupin). His team has also developed a novel life-saver thrombolytic drug (Clot-specific streptokinase), India’s first bio-therapeutic molecule which is not a Biosimilar. This life-saver drug has been patented world wide and licensed to a US Pharma company for which the commercial launch is expected in 2016. Recently, the team led by him developed fourth-generation ‘Anti-thrombotic’ clot busters - the first of its kind in the world. 

Born on 2nd March 1956, Dr Sahni is a PhD from Indian institute of Science (IISc), Bangaluru. His post PhD career included a stint each in University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA: Postdoc Trainee 1984-86; Rockefeller University New York, USA: Sr. Research Associate and Adjunct Faculty 1986-88; and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York: Sr. Research Associate 1987-91, before he joined CSIR-IMTECH in 1991 and became its Director in 2005. 

Dr. Sahni is internationally recognized for his research contributions. He has been the author of several papers published in high impact refereed scientific journals and has a number of national and international patents to his credit. He is Fellow, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi; Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore, and NASI, Allahabad; Fellow, Association of Microbiologists of India; and Member, Guha Research Conference. 

Amongst the many awards he has received for his contributions, the most important ones are: National Biotechnology Product Development Award 2002, CSIR Technology Shield 2001-2002, The Vasvik Industrial Award 2000, Ranbaxy Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences 2003, Vigyan Rattan Award 2014, Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award 2013, and CSIR Technology Award for Business Development and Technology Marketing 2014. 

Prof. Devang Khakhar
Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Professor Khakhar did his B.Tech. from IIT Delhi in 1981 and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1986. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay in January 1987, and has been with the Institute since then.
Prof. Khakhar's research interests include mechanics of granular materials and polymer processing. He has published over 100 papers in these areas. For his research achievements, Prof. Khakhar has been accorded several prestigious awards, which include the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1997) and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1998). Prof. Khakhar is also a recipient of IIT Bombay's "Excellence in Teaching Award" and the "Mathur Award for Research Excellence". He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian National Science Academy, the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. Prof. Khakhar served on the Science Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India (SAC-PM). He serves on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Cabinet (SAC-C), Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). He is the Executive Editor of the journal “Advanced Powder Technology”. He is an independent Director on the Boards of Indian Oil Corporation and Antrix Corporation.
Prof. Khakhar has served as Professor-in-Charge of IIT Bombay's Continuing Education Program from 2001-02, as Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering from 2002-04, and the Dean of Faculty Affairs from 2005-08. He was the Director of IIT Bombay from 2009 to 2019.

Prof. Pami Dua, Director, Delhi School of Economics

The Director at Delhi School of Economics, Pami Dua, has serious contributions to business cycle analysis, time series econometrics and forecasting which are core of current macroeconomics studies. 

Studied at London School of Economics, Dua is one of the most respected macroeconomic professors in India. She has been head of Department of Economics at Delhi School of Economics since November 2010 and is the chairperson of Agricultural Economics Research Centre, University of Delhi. 

She teaches Econometrics, Time Series Analysis, Forecasting and Macroeconomics at DSE. 

Some of her recent works include Benchmarking for Performance Evaluation (edited book), Forecasting Indian Macroeconomic Variables Using Medium Scale VAR Models and Determinants of Yields on Government Securities in India. 

Dr. Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT Trichy

Dr. (Mrs) Mini Shaji Thomas nee Mini Paul T., is the Director of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT, Trichy).
Dr. Thomas was the founder Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI), and Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, JMI. She was the Central Public Information officer (CPIO) of JMI from 2008- 2014 and the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 2005-2008. Dr. Thomas was a faculty member at Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi (now DTU), and at the REC (now NIT), Calicut, Kerala before joining Jamia. She graduated from University of Kerala (Gold Medalist), completed her M. Tech from IIT Madras (Gold Medalist, Siemen’s prize) & PhD from IIT Delhi, India, all in Electrical Engineering.
At NIT Trichy, Dr. Thomas and her team, with the inputs from all stakeholders, developed the Strategic Plan for the Institute, which aims to propel the Institute to be among the top Technical Institutes in the world. Inching towards this goal, the position of the Institute improved to 9th from 12th in ‘Engineering’, and to 24th from 34th in ‘overall’ position, in the NIRF India rankings over the last 3 years. With her keen interest, able guidance and leadership, NIT Trichy has set up the first of its kind Centre for Excellence in manufacturing in 2018, at an investment of Rs. 190 Crores, in collaboration with Siemens Industry Software, for Research and Training. The research publications, projects and consultancy at the Institute has improved substantially with consistent encouragement and recognition of excellence in multiple ways. Patent filing and publication saw a surge in the last two years with an IPR policy in place. The new offices of the Alumni Relations, International Relations, public relations and media are taking the Institute to greater collaborations and visibility.
Dr. Thomas is the President of Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute (SICI), a binational organization supported by MHRD, GoI, that promotes understanding between India and Canada through academic activities and exchanges. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the IUSSTF- Indo-US Science and Technology Forum.
Dr. Thomas has done extensive research work in the area of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Substation & Distribution Automation and Smart Grid. She has published over 130 research papers in International Journals and Conferences of repute, supervised 16 Ph. Ds, has successfully completed many research projects, and is the coordinator of the Special Assistance Program (SAP) on Power System Automation from UGC, Government of India.
Dr. Thomas has set up the first of its kind SCADA laboratory and Substation Automation (SA) Laboratory at JMI, with Industry involvement, which is bringing laurels to the University in terms of research publications, MOUs, and training opportunities and more importantly, enhanced image among the world power engineering fraternity. She, as the founder coordinator, drafted the curriculum, started a unique, first full-time, M Tech program in the Faculty of Engineering & Technology, JMI, in 2003 in Electrical Power System Management, with industry participation, which has courses on power automation and novel hands-on training. For these contributions, Dr. Thomas won the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) Meritorious Achievement Award 2015 for 'Design and Development of curriculum and laboratory facilities for professionals and students in the electric utility industry".

Dr. Bindu Dey, Secretary, Technology Development Board (TDB)

Passing out from the University of Delhi with four degrees i.e. Graduation, Post-graduation, M. Phil & Ph.D in Zoology in hand, I had a good fortune of initiating my career path with the National Planning Commisiion, working on planning and policy for Science & Technology sector. Being first class first from DU gave tremendous confidence and zeal to enter untravelled niches. Worked on many national & International projects alongwith teaching in DU for four years before joining the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science &Technology, Governemnt of India in 1992.Have stayed in DBT for 23 years starting with a Scientist C position till becoming one of the Advisers. DBT taught intericacies of project planning, bio-medical issues, public health problems and core-management forays of the Governement of India funding mechanism.
Have been deeply involved into strategy, planning (Scientific & Financial); appraisal & implementation; and assessment of deliverables of R&D projects in the Medical Biotechnology area covering communicable and non-communicable diseases. Areas have been vast and decisions need-based; in late nineties, national health priorities revolved around controlling infections; hence the system was geared mostly towards infections; in early two thousand, as the longevity increased, life-style diseases took a major toll! Initially there was a vacuum & exhaustion in terms of good science & manpower to work on Cancers; Metabolic Disorders; Renal Biology, Neuroscience etc. but as DBT teams supported more on biomarker discovery; diagnostics; vaccine development and clinical trials of modern & traditional drugs in diseases of national relevance, infrastructure developed and critical human resource emerged. Though it was a collective DBT effort, we all bathed in the glory of success!
Being the Programme Manager responsible for development & technology transfer of prototype technologies emerging from R&D to the industry after in-house/multi-centre evaluation has been an experience in itself. Handling clinical trials of “Curcumin in Cancer”; "Immunomodulation in Tuberculosis" & Live Oral Cholera vaccine under the watchful eye of Prof. M.K Bhan was training of its own kind.
Development of infrastructure in the Bio-medical Institutions & Medical Colleges of the North-East Region for research, Training & patient’s services and starting major programmes on Cancer Immunology and Biomarker Discovery in the state of J&K have been satisfying as one watches science growing in farflung areas of the country.
I have perpetually updated myself by registering in cources on IPR; GCP clinical trials; Large Data Management and Analysis; Administrative reforms etc. On- Job Diploma in Medical Ethics from NLCUI & Diploma in Clinical Research & Courses on NCDs from London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene - Research to Policy have been rewarding; these academic pursuits led to more than 50 publications with job-experience in science management.
To gratify my personal ambition, I have been working on alternate pathways in health-related “Easy-technology solutions" that led me to conceptualisation of a research-based NGO “Chandrabimb Foundation” - cbf wherein our Vision is: "From Therapeutics to Prevention"; the focus of cbf is on Tuberculosis & Cancer. Under this, we have established a cancer tissue Biobank titled “BioCollections” at Cancer Research Institute, Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust at Dehradun; herein we are working on cancer biomarkers. Our group is also working on a "Chimaeric HPV vaccine for prophylactic & therapeutic efficacy" & "A booster to BCG vaccine for tuberculosis" in collaboration with academic institutions.

Mrs. Jaya Panvalkar, Chairperson, Board of governors SVNIT, Surat

Mrs. Jaya Panvalkar, is the Chairperson, Board of governors SVNIT, Surat. Prior to this she was managing NVIDIA’S Pune Design Center for last 5+ years. She was instrumental in setting up the Pune Design Centre; right from acquisition of PACE Soft Silicon an Irish Multinational. She was the Director and Chief Technology Officer at PACE Soft Silicon for 5 years. The Design Center has grown from 65 people to 750+ in last 7 years. Jaya worked for 23 years at Central Water and Power Research Station (CWPRS), in Pune at Khadakwasla as Joint Director for the last few years of tenure. Jaya was instrumental in co-ordinating US$ 2 Billion worth of United Nations projects at CWPRS, for Hydraulic Instrumentation, coastal research, mathematical model studies & many more. One of the key areas of her contribution is setting up of research labs at more than 25 institutes all over India on GPU based Supercomputing, which include IIT Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, leading colleges like VIT, VIIT, MIT, IISERs, IIITs & University of Pune as well as research organizations like IUUCA, NCRA. She is instrumental in building the ecosystem for Parallel Supercomputing Based on GPUs in India with Infosys, Wipro, HCL, CDAC, CRL as service partners. Under her leadership, NVIDIA’s Pune Center received Government of Maharashtra “IT innovation award” - 2008 and MCCIA B.G. Deshmukh “Corporate Social Responsibility award”. She works on Board of Studies (BOS) of University of Pune, NIIT University and Chitkara University.
She completed BE and ME (Electronics and Telecom) from COEP, Pune & M.S. ( Computer Engineering) from Colorado State University , USA as a United Nations fellow & her Management Expertise has developed through the Senior Executive Management programs at Stanford, USA & ISB, Hyderabad. She is recipient of multiple United Nations Scholarships for advancement in education and technology & has been a National Scholar throughout her education. She has also received several awards including PARAM parallel processing award for special achievement.

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is currently the Director, IIT Delhi. Before joining IIT Delhi as the Director in April 2016, Dr. Rao served as a P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and as the Chief Investigator for the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics project at IIT Bombay. Dr. Rao has over 450 research publications in the area of nano-scale devices & Nanoelectronics and is an inventor on 43 patents and patent applications, which include 15 issued US patents. Eleven of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization. Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (Nanosniff & Soilsens) which are developing products of relevance to the society. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy.
Prof. Rao's work is recognized with many awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences in 2005 and the Infosys Prize in 2013. Dr. Rao also received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award, Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, TechnoMentor award from the Indian Semiconductor Association, DAE-SRC Outstanding Research Investigator award, NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee award, J.C.Bose National Fellowship, Prof. C.N.R.Rao National Nanoscience award, VASVIK Award and the Excellence in Research Award from IIT Bombay. Prof. Rao was an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 2003-2012 for the CMOS Devices and Technology area and currently serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano Letters, a leading international journal in the area of Nanotechnology. He is a Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society and interacts closely with many semiconductor industries both in India and abroad.
Dr. Rao served as the Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter and as a Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub-committee for two terms. He was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.

Prof. P. P. Chakrabarti, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur

PARTHA PRATIM CHAKRABARTI completed his B.Tech in 1985 and PhD in 1988 from the Dept of Computer Science & Engg, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He joined the same department as a faculty member in 1988 and is currently a Professor. He was the Professor-in-Charge of the state of the art VLSI Design Laboratory which he helped set up and has been the Dean of Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy at IIT Kharagpur and Head of the Advanced Technology Development Centre. He was also the co-Director of the strategic General Motors-IIT Kharagpur Collaborative Research Laboratory on Electronics, Controls and Software. He pioneered the development of the Incubation Programme at IIT Kharagpur. His areas of interest include Artificial Intelligence (AI), Formal Methods, CAD for VLSI & Embedded Systems, Fault Tolerance and Algorithm Design.

Dr Chakrabarti has made pioneering research contributions and has solved a number of open problems. His work has been incorporated in standard text books as well as industry level tools of major international companies. He has published more than 200 papers in international journals and conferences and supervised two dozen PhD students. He has worked closely with Govt as well as industry on various problems and has successfully led and completed large projects and programmes at national and international levels. Important among them include DST, CSIR, IGSTC, Volkswagen Foundation, National Semiconductor Corporation, Sun Microsystems, Intel Corporation, Synopsys, General Motors, Xerox, etc. He is a well-known teacher and mentor who has not only graduated a large number of students and developed well appreciated teaching modules but has also motivated and championed many student innovation and entrepreneurial activities which have achieved unique successes.

Dr Chakrabarti received the President of India Gold Medal (1985), the INSA Young Scientist Award (1991), Anil K Bose Award (1995), INAE Young Engineer's Award (1997) and the Swarnajayanti Fellowship (1997-98), Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (2000), INAE Visweswarya Chair Professorship (2007-9), J.C. Bose Fellowship (2013) and many other awards. He has been elected a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi and the Indian Academy of Science, Bangalore, Indian National Academy of Engineering and the West Bengal Academy of Science & Technology.

Prof. Rishikesha T Krishnan,Director, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore

Rishikesha T. Krishnan is Director and Professor of Strategic Management at the Indian Institute of Management Indore, India.

From 1996 to 2013, Professor Krishnan was a member of the faculty at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), India.

Professor Krishnan was a Visiting Scholar at the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania (Fall 2008), and at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad (2011-12). He held the Jamuna Raghavan Chair in Entrepreneurship at IIMB from 2007-10.

Professor Krishnan's main areas of interest are strategy and innovation. He was listed among the Thinkers50 India most influential thinkers in management from India (2013) and jointly received the special Thinkers50 India Innovation award (2013). Earlier, he received the Dewang Mehta Award for Best Teacher in Strategic Management in 2010.

Professor Krishnan's recent book, 8 Steps to Innovation: Going from Jugaad to Excellence (co-authored with Vinay Dabholkar, and published by Harper Collins in March 2013), outlines a systematic path for organizations to build innovation capabilities. This book has been chosen as the Best Book of 2013-14 by the Indian Society for Training and Development

Professor Krishnan is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur, Stanford University and IIM Ahmedabad.

Prof R. K. Shevgaonkar, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi

Dr. R.K. Shevgaonkar received his B.E. degree with Gold Medal in Electrical engineering from Jiwaji University, M.Tech. from IIT Kanpur and PhD. from IIT Bombay. He was a Scientist at Indian Institute of Astrophysics and Raman Research Institute. After doing his Post Doctoral fellowship at University of Maryland, USA, he joined IIT Bombay. He has occupied various positions at IIT Bombay like Dean of Students' Affairs, Dean, Resource Mobilization, Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, Head, Centre for Distance Engineering Education Programme, and Deputy Director. He was the Vice Chancellor of University of Pune and presently he is the Director of IIT Delhi. He has been a Visiting Professor at University of Lincoln, USA, and ETH, Zurich, Switzerland, and ISEP Paris, France.

Dr. Shevgaonkar has been an active researcher in the area of Optical communication, Image processing, Antennas, Microwaves, Radio astronomy etc. He has published more than 150 papers in international journals and conferences, and two books namely Electromagnetic Waves and Transmission lines for Electrical Engineers. He has guided 18 PhDs and more than 30 M.Tech. dissertations. His video and web lectures on Electromagnetics and Fiber optic communication are used worldwide through YouTube.

Dr. Shevgaonkar is recipient of IEEE Undergraduate Teaching award 2011, IETE award for his outstanding contribution to Optical communication, and the 'Excellence in Teaching' award of IIT Bombay. He has received the Education Leadership Award 2012 from Headlines Today, New Delhi. He is also a recipient of VASVIK Award (2009) in the category of Information & Communication Technology, IETE – Ram Lal Wadhwa Award (2013) and IEEE William E. Sayle Award for Achievement in Education (2014). He is Fellow of IEEE, Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering, Fellow of National Academy of Science, India, Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, Fellow of Optical Society of India, Fellow of Institution of Engineers, Fellow of Maharashtra Academy of Sciences, and Member of International Astronomical Union and Astronomical Society of India. He has been a member of many international and national research and educational committees.

Prof. Indranil Manna,Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur

Prof Manna obtained his B.E degree from Calcutta University (B.E. College) in 1983 and M Tech degree in 1984 from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. After a brief stint at Mishra Dhatu Nigam, Hyderabad, he joined IIT, Kharagpur in 1985 as Lecturer and rose to the position of Full Professor in 2003.

Prof Manna is a metallurgical engineer, a renowned educator and a prolific researcher. His significant contributions in the studies of amorphous/nanocrystalline Al-alloys, nano-fluid and laser/plasma assisted surface engineering greatly inspired the scientific community. His early contributions in moving boundary phase transformation are still widely cited. As a teacher, Prof Manna has developed several new courses and taught subjects related to phase transformation, materials engineering, surface engineering, thermodynamics and X-ray diffraction. His research interest spans from structure-property correlation in engineering materials including synthesis/application of nano-materials, surface coating/engineering, phase transition, fuel cells, sensors, bainitic steel and mathematical modeling.  Prof Manna worked as guest scientist in several institutions of excellence and universities abroad such as Max Planck Institute at Stuttgart, Technical University of Clausthal, Nanyang Technological University, Liverpool University, University of Ulm, etc.  Prof. Manna is a recipient of INSA Medal for Young Scientists, Young Metallurgist and Metallurgist of the Year Awards, MRSI Medal, AICTE career award, DAAD and the prestigious Humboldt Fellowships. He is also a recipient of the Acta Materialia Best Referee Award for years 1999 and 2003, respectively. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), Bonn appointed Prof Manna as Honorary DAAD Advisor in India for three years, INAE selected him for Indian National Academy of Engineering-All India Council of Technical Education (INAE-AICTE) Distinguished Industry Professorship for 2007-08 to work with Tata Steel, and the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) conferred upon him the GD Birla Gold Medal for 2008.  He has published about 225 peer-reviewed papers, supervised 14 Ph.D, 35 M. Tech. and 50 B. Tech. theses, carried out 32 sponsored projects worth over Rs. 16 crore and also obtained a patent on amorphous AlCuTi alloy.  Prof. Manna is a Fellow (FNAE) of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi; a Fellow (FNASc) of The National Academy of Sciences of India, Allahabad; and a Fellow (FASc) of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore.  Prof. Manna was the President of the Materials Science Section of the 97th Indian Science Congress held in Trivandrum during January 3 - 7, 2010. The INAE has recently awarded him the prestigious "INAE Chair" for two years. To date, he remains the third recipient of this prestigious chair.

Prof. Y S Rajan,
Chairman, Board of Governing Council, National Institute of Technology, Manipur

Y.S. Rajan has a proven track record of excellence as a Scientist, Technologist, Administrator, Organisation Builder and Leader, Diplomat, Academic, Writer and Poet. He combines a unique ability for original and innovative thinking with strong implementation skills. He has capability to network with multi–disciplinary and multi–cultural groups.

He has made key contributions to space research, technology and applications since 1964 and continues to be an important expert on space matters. As Scientific Secretary, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), he was responsible for a combination of scientific, technical, administrative, planning, policy and international cooperation matters. His contributions in shaping ISRO from its initial experimental phases into a major service delivery organisation have been remarkable. In the process, he has also been a creator of many institutions and sustainable mechanisms between ISRO and its end-users. He has worked with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and NASA for about three years.

He is also a well recognized authority and thought leader on technology development, business management and society linkages. While holding various positions of responsibility related to science and technology (S&T) between 1988 and 2002, he has shaped key policies and implemented several successful R&D projects with industry participation. He has been responsible for creating a series of documents related to Technology Vision 2020 for India, which culminated in a book on a roadmap for socio-economic development for India called "India Vision 2020". He has practical ground level experience in developmental issues and has founded and built organizations like Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), which he has led for about two decades. These organizations have helped to bring relevant technologies to improve productivity for the agricultural, manufacturing and service sectors.

After a 30 year stint with the Government of India (GOI), he joined the leading industry association In India, Confederation of India Industry (CII) in 1996. At CII, he strengthened and expanded their capabilities to interface with Government on S&T and business issues. The technology division which he expanded and strengthened has now become a powerful platform for national and international cooperation between industry, academia and governments. As Principal Adviser (2004-2010) he created unique mechanism at CII for University – Industry collaboration.

He has wide international experience and was responsible for a large number of cooperative projects between India and other countries. He has led Indian delegations to United Nations (UN) and has visited about 40 countries in all continents as a part of cooperative efforts in science, technology and business.

He is an expert in environmentally sound technologies, satellite meteorology, remote sensing, mapping systems and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) related matters. He has completed special assignments for UN organizations like UNIDO, WIPO and UNEP. He was actively involved in evolving policies and procedures relating to adopting IPR laws in India to the post WTO/TRIP situation and also in preparing the Indian Industry and institutions to master IPR issues.

His engagement with academic world began since 1976 and over a decade was responsible for funding basic research and introducing courses relating to space science and technology in several institutions. He was visiting professor in Anna University for four years (1984–88) and conducted Masters level courses. Since 1988, he has also been responsible for introducing several innovative courses and creating unique centres of relevance and excellence for industry-academia cooperation, with part funding from industry. As Vice-Chancellor, Punjab Technical University (PTU), he introduced key initiatives to improve the internal processes and the external interfaces of the university. He continues to be visiting faculty, board member and advisor to various renowned Indian academic institutions.

He is also a prolific writer and has written on a variety of subjects, including on science, technology, business, youth, leadership, social and ethical issues. He has authored and co-authored a number of books and has contributed to several others. He has also written a large number of articles in journals in India and International papers/ magazines, etc. He is an excellent communicator in written and spoken form for different segments of people ranging from school children to accomplished elders. He has written seven books of poetry in an Indian language, Tamil which has been critically acclaimed by eminent Indian poets. He has also written three books of English poems which have received very good reviews.

He was awarded Padma Shri by the President of India during 2012.
During January 2013, he was felicitated at the India Geospatial Forum, with Lifetime Achievement Award.

Prof. Pankaj Chandra
Ahmedabad University

Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor of Ahmedabad University. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2007-2013) and Professor of Operations & Technology Management at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore before joining Ahmedabad University. He has also held tenured appointment at McGill University in Montreal and has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva, International University of Japan, Cornell University, and Renmin University, Beijing. He was the Chairperson of the Doctoral Programme at IIM Ahmedabad and the first Associate Dean (Academic) at ISB, Hyderabad. He was part of the founding team at the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IIMA and its first Chairperson. He holds a Bachelor of Technology degree from Banaras Hindu University and a PhD from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Chandra was a member of the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that relooked at the Indian Higher Education system as well as the Committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. He has been a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include manufacturing management, supply chain coordination, building technological capabilities, higher education policy, and hi-tech entrepreneurship. His recent book titled ‘Building Universities that Matter’ studies issues of Governance, Change & Institution Building in Indian Universities. He serves on boards of several firms and institutions and has been involved with startups.

Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design (NID)

Pradyumna Vyasacquired a Masters in Industrial Design from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
In June 2010, Vyas was conferred with an honorary Master of Arts degree from the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, United Kingdom in recognition of his contributions to design education and design promotion.
Vyas has more than 30 years of professional and teaching experience in different spheres of design. Since the last 25 years, he has been associated with the National Institute of Design (NID) as a faculty in the Industrial Design discipline. In April 2009, he was appointed as the Director of the National Institute of Design.
Prior to joining NID, Vyas acquired three years overseas experience at the Kilkenny Design Centre, Republic of Ireland.
In July 2011, Vyas was given the award for his outstanding contribution to design education at the second edition of Asia’s Best B School Award that was held at Singapore.
Vyas was invited as the jury member for the special awards screening panel at Good Design Award (G-Mark) by the Japan Institute of Design Promotion, Japan consequently in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
He has been at the helm of design promotion events in India and has represented NID in various international and national events. He was elected as an ICSID (International Council of Societies of Industrial Design) Executive Board Member for 2009–11.
In pursuance of the National Design Policy approved by the Cabinet in February 2007, an India Design Council was constituted in March 2009 and Mr Vyas has been nominated as its Member Secretary by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India.

Prof. U. B. Desai,
Founding Director, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad

Prof. Uday B. Desai received the B. Tech. degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, in 1974, the M.S. degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 1976, and the Ph.D. degree from The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A., in 1979, all in Electrical Engineering. Since June 2009 he is the Director of IIT Hyderabad He is the Mentor Director for IIT Bhilai and IIIT Chittoor.

He has held faculty positions at different universities, Assistant and then Associate Professor at Washington State University and Professor at IIT Bombay. He has held Visiting Associate Professor's position at Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Stanford University. He was a visiting Professor at EPFL, Lausanne. He been the Director of HP-IITM R and D Lab. at IIT-Madras.

His research interest is in Cyber physical systems, Internet of things, digital fabrication, wireless communication, cognitive radio, wireless sensor networks and statistical signal processing. He has been a coauthor of 9 research monographs and author of nearly 300 peered reviewed papers in international journals and conferences.

He is a member of many central governmental committees and governing council of academic institutions. He was a member of the high powered committee for review of AICTE. He is on the board of Tata Communications Limited.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi got his B.Tech in Electronics from IIT Madras in 1980, and his M.S. and Ph.D is Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, in 1982 and 1985 respectively. After working at AT&T Bell Laboratories for a couple of years, he joined the faculty of IIT Madras, his alma mater, in 1986. He took over as Director, IIT Madras in September 2011.
His areas of specialisation are Communications and Signal Processing. His research work is in Wireless Networks, Modulation, Wireless Data, and Audio and Video Compression. He is a founding member of the TeNeT group of IIT Madras, active in developing telecom and networking technologies, and incubating companies to develop and market products based on these.
He is currently also honorary Director of the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, a public-private initiative at the IIT-M Research Park to make India a wireless technology leader. He is on the Board of Oil India Ltd.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the Vasvik Award for Electronic Sciences and Technology for the year 2000, the Tamil Nadu Scientist Award for Engineering and Technology for the year 2003, the India Semiconductor Association TechnoVisionary Award for the year 2011 and the Doyens of Madras Award for the year 2014.

Prof. G. “Anand” Anandalingam, Dean of Imperial College Business School at Imperial College London

Prof. G. “Anand” Anandalingam is the Dean of Imperial College Business School at Imperial College London. Previously he was Dean of the Robert H. Smith School of Business from 2008 to 2013. He was the Senior Associate Dean and occasional Acting Dean from 2007 to 2008. Imperial College Business School, with a focus on innovation, is ranked among the top-40 business schools in the world by the Financial Times and top-10 in Europe. Its faculty is ranked #2 in the UK in research productivity.
As Dean at the Smith School, Anand invested in ten centers of excellence including the Center for Social Value Creation, Center for Financial Policy, Center for Health Information and Decision Systems, and the Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change. He has also raised funds for multiple endowed professorships, programmes on business history and ethical leadership, and numerous scholarships for students. Under Anand’s leadership, the Smith School enhanced its corporate reach with a new facility for the Office of Career Services and programmes like CEO@Smith and Thought_Leadership@Smith.
Before joining Smith in 2001, Anand was at the University of Pennsylvania for nearly 15 years where he was the National Center Professor of Resource and Technology Management, and a professor in both the Penn Engineering School and the Wharton School. His positions at the University of Pennsylvania included serving as the Chair of the Department of Systems Engineering and directing the Executive Master’s Programme in Technology Management.
He has received numerous academic and teaching awards while at the Smith School, as well as a variety of scholarships, fellowships, prizes and endowed appointments at Pennsylvania, Harvard and Cambridge. He has been on editorial boards of top-tier journals and has also graduated more than 20 Ph.D. students, many of whom have joined top-30 academic institutions.
Anand is an expert on the application of optimization techniques to solve business problems in the infrastructure sector. He started as an energy systems analyst and spent much of his career on the information and telecommunications sector working on network design, pricing, strategy and deployment.
Anand received his Ph.D. and M.S. from Harvard University, and his B.A. and M.A. from Cambridge University.

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras

Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi got his B.Tech in Electronics from IIT Madras in 1980, and his M.S. and Ph.D is Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara, in 1982 and 1985 respectively. After working at AT&T Bell Laboratories for a couple of years, he joined the faculty of IIT Madras, his alma mater, in 1986. He took over as Director, IIT Madras in September 2011.
His areas of specialisation are Communications and Signal Processing. His research work is in Wireless Networks, Modulation, Wireless Data, and Audio and Video Compression. He is a founding member of the TeNeT group of IIT Madras, active in developing telecom and networking technologies, and incubating companies to develop and market products based on these.
He is currently also honorary Director of the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, a public-private initiative at the IIT-M Research Park to make India a wireless technology leader. He is on the Board of Oil India Ltd.
He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded the Vasvik Award for Electronic Sciences and Technology for the year 2000, the Tamil Nadu Scientist Award for Engineering and Technology for the year 2003, the India Semiconductor Association TechnoVisionary Award for the year 2011 and the Doyens of Madras Award for the year 2014.

Prof. S.P. Kothari , Deputy Dean, Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management
Director, MIT India Program

S.P. Kothari is Deputy Dean and Gordon Y Billard Professor of Management at the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Previously, he served as Global Head of Equity Research for Barclays Global Investors (BGI), responsible for research supporting BGI’s active equity strategies, from 2008-09. Prior to joining BGI, S.P. was Deputy Dean at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and earlier he was Head of the Department of Economics, Finance, and Accounting at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In 2005-06, he was Thomas Henry Carroll-Ford Visiting Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
Professor Kothari received an honorary doctorate, Doctor HonorisCausa, from the University of Technology, Sydney in May 2013, and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, in 2013.
Professor Kothari’shighly-citedresearch focuses on financial reporting and valuation, asset allocation, explaining the diversity in international accounting practices, use of employee stock options for compensating executives and accounting for stock options, evaluating investment performance, and corporate uses of derivatives for hedging and speculation. For the past 17 years, Professor Kothari has been serving as an editor of the Journal of Accounting & Economics, a world-renowned academic research journal in accounting. Professor Kothari is an expert on economic policy issues in India, and has written numerous opinion-page editorials in The Economic Times. He served on the Board of Directors of Vicarious Visions (www.vvisions.com) from 1998-2004, and he was a Senior Consultant with Charles River Associates (www.crai.com), a business-economics and litigation support consulting firm. He has consulted with many large corporations, including leading US and international banks and asset management companies, Australian television broadcast corporations, US steel companies, E&Y, KPMG, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, and the U.S. Department of Justice. S.P. was Chairman of his undergraduate alma mater alumni association, BITSAA International (http://www.bitsaa.org/) for six years from 2005 to 2011.
Dr. Kothari received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and B.E. (Hons.) from the Birla Institute of Tecnology& Science, Pilani.

Dr. Himanshu Rai
Director, Indian Institute of Management Indore

Professor Himanshu Rai took charge as the Director of IIM Indore on 31 December 2018. Prior to this he taught at IIM Lucknow from 1 September 2016 after a leave of two years. In this 2-year period (1 September 2014 to 31 August 2016), Himanshu was the Dean, MISB Bocconi (India Campus of Bocconi, Milan), and Professor, SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy. Professor Rai is an educationist – an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), he has been teaching PG and Doctoral students at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIML) since 2006. His core area is Human Resource Management, wherein he focuses on Negotiation; Mediation; Arbitration; Strategic HRM; and Leadership. He frequently conducts training programmes and workshops for executives as well as bureaucrats around the world. He has earlier taught in the HR area at XLRI Jamshedpur. As the Convener of CAT 2010, he successfully led the largest format change in world’s testing history exceeding all global standards of testing. Through his initiatives gender and educational background parity was achieved by IIMs.
His profile includes a stint of over 8 years at Tata Steel, India, where he played a pivotal role in developing Quality Systems for his Departments and the Communication Policy for the Company. It was there that he found his passion – trekking in the Himalayas, which in turn led him to a clear vision of what he wanted to do with his life. He wished to help people become aware of their own selves, choices and opportunities that life presents them with, and realize their potential to the fullest. He believes that this can be best achieved through quality education.He decided to enter the world of academics and went on to pursue his doctorate at Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad. He sincerely believes in the power of academics to lead the change that people aspire to bring about in our society. His personal focus is not just academic excellence but achieving it on the basis of ethics, integrity and a need for self-actualization.
Himanshu has trained over 20,000 professionals, both in the private sector as well as the government. Some of his training interventions include helping Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (LBSNAA), Mussoorie to develop a training module on “Ethics and Anti-Corruption Strategies” for all Indian Administrative Services officers across career phases; “Training of Trainers” on Negotiation Skills for faculty and senior management of LBSNAA, Mussoorie, and subsequent training on Negotiation for Phase V IAS Officers (IAS with 27-30 years of service); Negotiation training for Indian (Indian Foreign Services) and Foreign Diplomats, Workshop on “Crisis Leadership” for a large Oil company; Series of workshops on “Creating Sustainable Performance at Dealership” dealers of a large auto organization in India; Workshops on “Negotiation Skills”, Leadership, and Communication Skills for more than a hundred organizations in India and abroad.
Himanshu provides strategic consultancy to the Government of India, and in particular, has audited programs sponsored by the Planning Commission of India. He also provides strategic consultancy to the state governments in areas of restructuring, strategic HR management, and employee development. An expert in interpersonal negotiation, he provides consultancy in negotiation to individuals and organizations.
Aspiring to bring in a moral compass to management education, he launched an elective course titled, “Justice, Ethics and Morality”, which has become one of the most popular courses now at the IIMs. He further helps his students discover themselves with a workshop called “Framing Identities and Roles through Exploration”.
He has published more than 30 Papers and Chapters in peer reviewed journals and books, and his current areas of research include Negotiation, Ethical Leadership, Cross Cultural Issues, Management and Religion, Spirituality, Gender, and Influence Tactics. A connoisseur of Sanskrit literature, he has also written about and given discourses on Indian and Western philosophy, which he avidly studies. His research always has a strong underpinning of philosophy and its elements. His research exploring the measurement of spirituality through an analysis of Vedic literature won him the best in-session presentation award at a conference in Costa Rica. He is a recipient of the coveted N.T.S.E. Scholarship and Infosys Fellowship. He was also awarded the best professor in HRM by a leading publishing house last year.
Himanshu looks to yoga, as a means to balance the body, the mind and the spirit. He has also introduced his students to the basic tenets of this ancient Indian discipline through various workshops.
Himanshu considers The Himalayas his spiritual abode and is passionate about mountaineering and trekking. He treks up the Garhwal Himalayas annually, also having led several expeditions up to a height of nearly 20,000 feet. He has explored most of the treks in this vast area and has scaled Rudragaira, Kala Patthar, Nagakarsang, Khatling and Chandrashila peaks.
An avid quizzer, Himanshu has conducted over a hundred quiz shows across the country and has had a delightful stint in dramatics with many plays to his credit, both as an actor and a director. He also juggles a keen interest in reading and collecting books with a strong passion for music.
For more on him, visit his website www.himanshurai.com; his latest book “Negotiation” published by McGraw Hill Education is available on https://www.mheducation.co.in/9789387067974-india-negotiationand his latest TEDx talk is available on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkn0u1aXS1o

Mr. Vipin Sondhi,
Chairman, CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2024

Mr. Vipin Sondhi is an alumnus of The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, The Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, and did his schooling at The Lawrence School, Sanawar. Mr.Sondhi has over three decades of experience in Manufacturing and Engineering based companiessuch as Ashok Leyland, JCB, Honda, Tata Steel and Tecumseh Products
Mr. Vipin Sondhi has a strong and proven track record as a leader, and is a passionate hands-on professional.
Mr. Vipin Sondhi was the MD & CEO of Ashok Leyland and a Director on the Board of Switch Mobility, a fully owned subsidiary of Ashok Leyland set up to manufacture Electric Vehicles. Ashok Leyland is the 2nd largest manufacturer of commercial vehicles in India with an international footprint.
Prior to Ashok Leyland, he was MD & CEO of JCB lndia, where he spent over 13 years, and was a member of JCB’s global executive team. He led the $1.7 billion JCB business, with five world class manufacturing plants situated in three locations, and established market leadership in the Construction Equipment Industry. JCB’s Made in India products were exported to over 100 countries cumulatively during his tenure.
He was appointed by the Government of India as the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Bhopal in December 2015. A member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Council, he is the Chairman of CII’s National Mission on Technology, R&D and Innovation and Chairman of CII’s National Committee on Future Mobility. He has held the position of Vice President of the Society of Indian Automotive Manufacturers (SIAM) and Vice President of the Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC).
He was awarded the Confederation of India (CII) Young Manager’s Trophy in the year 2000; The Udyog Rattan Award by the Institute of Economic Studies in 2011; The CEO of the Year Award at CEO India Awards in 2014. He was also conferred with an Honorary Fellowship by the Centre for Excellence in Project Management (CEPM) in 2017 and The Economic Times ‘Most Promising Business Leader of Asia - Construction Equipment Industry’ in 2018-19.

Prof. Rangarajan,
Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Prof. Govindan Rangarajan obtained an Integrated MSc (Hons) degree from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and a PhD from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.He then worked at the Lawrence Berkeley Lab, University of California, Berkeley, before returning to India in 1992.He has been a faculty member of the Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), since 1992.He is currently the Director of IISc.
Prof.Rangarajan’s research interests include nonlinear dynamics and chaos and time series analysis. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences, India. He was awarded a JC Bose National Fellowship. He was awarded the Chevalier dansl’Ordre des PalmesAcademiques (Knight of the Order of Academic Palms) by the Government of France and the Distinguished Alumnus Award by BITS, Pilani. He was also a Homi Bhabha Fellow.

Prof. Rangan Banerjee,
Director, Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi

Rangan Banerjee is a Professor in the DeptOf Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi.
Till February 2022 he was the Forbes Marshall Chair Professor in the Department of Energy Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay - a Department that he helped start in 2007. His areas of interest include energy management, modelling of energy systems, energy planning and policy, hydrogen energy and fuel cells.
Professor Banerjee has been involved in setting up a Megawattscale Solar Thermal Power Testing, Simulation, Research Facility sponsored by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. He is the faculty Advisor for Team Shunya- India’s first student team in Solar Decathlon Europe, China and US finals. He has been involved in advising the city, state regulatory commission and energy agency, NitiAayog, Planning commission MNRE on energy issues.
Professor Banerjee is an Adjunct Professor (Honorary) in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Mr. Alok Nanda,
CTO GE Aerospace India and CEO GE India Technology Centre, Co-Chairman, CII National Mission on Technology, Innovation and Research, & Co- Chairman, CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2024

Alok Nanda leads 5000+ engineers and scientists across multi-disciplinary R&D labs and industry verticals including Aviation, Healthcare, Power, and Renewables. Alok inspires collocated multi-disciplinary GE technology teams in India to create value beyond individual team potential. He is responsible to drive regional business outcomes through innovative technology solutions and to maximize value for GE from the India ecosystem through strategic partnerships, monetizing IP, and external funding.
Prior to his current role, Alok was the Chief Operating Officer at GE India Technology Centre, and General Manager for Engineering in India for GE Aviation. He developed and led an innovative and high-performing team to create deep technical impact across the GE Aviation business and established a successful Services Engineering organization in the region to support GE’s key customers.
Alok has been with GE for about 20 years and has held engineering and technical leadership positions across Aviation, Power and Global Research. Prior to joining, GE, Alok spent eight years at the Indian Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO).
Alok is the co-chairperson of the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) National Committee on R&D & Innovation.
Alok has a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai; and is based in Bangalore, India.