Top 25 Innovative Companies 2020
Mr. S Gopalakrishnan, Chairman - CII Start - Up Council 2017 -18 & Chairman of The Grand Jury for CII Industrial Innovation Awards 2018
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. 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. Errol D'Souza, Director, Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad
Prof. Errol D'Souza studied Economics and Statistics at the University of Mumbai and obtained his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
Before joining IIM-A in 2001, Prof. D’Souza was the IFCI chair professor in the department of economics, University of Mumbai, and was also a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York, and a visiting senior fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.
He has worked on academic committees of the University Grants Commission and the Indian Council of Social Science Research, and has been associated with the Planning Commission and Reserve Bank of India.
Prof. Tarun Khanna, Director, South Asia Institute, Harvard University
Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, where he has sought for two decades to study the drivers of entrepreneurship in emerging markets as a means of economic and social development. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, corporate governance and international business to MBA and Ph.D. students and senior executives. For many years, he has served as the Faculty Chair for HBS activities in India and South Asia.
A summary of his work on emerging markets appeared in his 2010 co-authored book, Winning in Emerging Markets, and an example of his comparative work on entrepreneurship appears in his 2008 first-person analysis of China and India, Billions of Entrepreneurs, both published by Harvard Business Press and translated into many languages. In 2014, his piece, Contextual Intelligence, was a runner-up for the McKinsey Prize for the year’s best article in the Harvard Business Review. His new book, Trust: Creating the foundations for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries, will be released worldwide in July 2018.
He was named the first director of the university-wide Lakshmi Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard in the fall of 2010. The institute rapidly grew to engage over 150 faculty from across Harvard in projects embracing the pure sciences, social sciences and the humanities, and spanning the region from Afghanistan to Myanmar. In this role, he currently teaches a popular university-wide elective course, Contemporary Developing Countries, where students work in multi-disciplinary teams to devise practical solutions to complex social problems. The course is part of Harvard’s undergraduate general education core curriculum, and is rare in that it also attracts graduate students from across the university, engaging ‘sophomores to surgeons.’ An online version of the course is offered free on the edX platform and attracts 50,000 students from dozens of countries annually.
In 2007, he was nominated Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum; and in 2009, elected as a Fellow of the Academy of International Business. In 2015, he was named by the Government of India to chair the national commission to help shape the fabric of India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. In 2016, the Academy of Management recognized him as Eminent Scholar for Lifetime Achievement in the field of International Management. In 2018, the Government of India named him to its commission to help select India’s Institutes of Eminence, the project to enhance India’s leading Universities for the future.
Outside HBS, he serves on numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards in the US and India, including AES, a Washington DC headquartered global power company, and India-based Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited (BFIL), one of the world’s largest firms dedicated to financial inclusion for the poor. He is a co-founder of several entrepreneurial ventures in the developing world, spanning India, China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Recently, he co-founded Axilor, a vibrant incubator in Bangalore. In 2015, he was appointed a Trustee of Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.
Dr. Rajat Kathuria, Director and Chief Executive, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations
Rajat Kathuria is Director and Chief Executive at Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi. He has over 20 years experience in teaching and 15 years experience in economic policy, besides research interests on a range of issues relating to regulation and competition policy. He has worked with the World Bank, Washington DC as a Consultant and carried out research assignments for a number of international organizations, including ILO, UNCTAD, LirneAsia, World Bank and ADB. He has published in international and national journals, besides in popular magazines and newspapers. He is founder member of Broadband Society for Universal Access and served on the Board of Delhi Management Association. He is on several government committees and on the research advisory council of SBI. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from St. Stephens College, a Masters from Delhi School of Economics and a PhD degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Prof. Manoj Panda, Director, Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi
Mr Manoj Panda is Director of Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi since November 2012. He is currently a member of the National Statistical Commission. He has earlier served as Director of the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad (2008-2012), as Professor and Associate Professor at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai (1992-2012) and as Economist and Senior Economist at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi (1982-92). He has also spent a year at the Yale University, USA on a post-doctoral fellowship (1996-97).He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Indian Statistical Institute. His research areas span monitoring and analysis of macroeconomic trends and prospects, evaluation of alternative trade and fiscal policy options from the point of view of growth and distribution, development and application of computable general equilibrium (CGE) models, construction of Social Accounting Matrices (SAM), measurement and policy issues in poverty and human development and interaction of carbon emission with economic growth and its pattern. He has undertaken short term assignments for several international organizations including the World Bank, ADB, UNDP, FAO, UN-ESCAP, IFPRI, MacArthur Foundation and Carnegie Endowment. He has published extensively in journals and edited books.
Prof. Soumitra Dutta, Founding Dean, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University
Soumitra Dutta (born 27 August 1963) is an author, academic, businessman and served as the founding Dean of the SC Johnson College of Business at Cornell University from 1 July 2016, until 30 January 2018. From July 2012 until June 2016, he was the Anne and Elmer Lindseth Dean of the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management. Before his appointment to Cornell University, Dutta was the Roland Berger Chaired Professor of Business and Technology and Professor of Business and Technology at INSEAD.He has served as a visiting professor in the Haas School of Business at Berkeley, Oxford Internet Institute at University of Oxford, and Judge School at University of Cambridge in England. He has lived and worked in the U.S., Europe, and Asia, including stints as an engineer with GE in the U.S. and Schlumberger in Japan.Dutta is an authority on the impact of new technology on the business world, especially social media and social networking, and on strategies for driving growth and innovation by embracing the digital economy. He is the co-editor and author respectively of two influential reports in technology and innovation the Global Information Technology Report (co-published with the World Economic Forum) and the Global Innovation Index (co-published with the World Intellectual Property Organization). Both reports have been used by several governments around the world in assessing and planning their technology and innovation policies.
Dutta's work has been widely published in both academic and management journals, including Global Intelligence for the CIO,Information Week, Brasil, BusinessWorld India, Chief Executive, Finance & Management, Chief Executive Magazine, Forbes, and The McKinsey Quarterly. He received the European Case of the Year from the European Case Clearing House in 2002, 2000, 1998, and 1997.
Dutta received a B.Tech. in electrical engineering and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. He received an MS in business administration, an MS in computer science, and a PhD in computer science from the University of California at Berkeley.
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, Director,IIT Bombay
Professor Devang Khakhar is currently Director of IIT Bombay and Professor of Chemical Engineering. 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 has been the Director of IIT Bombay since January 2009.
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.
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. 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.
Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Director, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi
Before taking over as a Director at IIT Delhi, Dr. V. Ramgopal Rao was a P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Chief Investigator for the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics project at IIT Bombay. Dr. Rao has over 400 publications in the area of Electron Devices & Nanoelectronics in refereed international journals and conference proceedings and is an inventor on 32 patents (including 13 issued US patents) and patent applications, with many of his patents licensed to industries for commercialization. He is also a co-founder of the company NanoSniff Technologies Pvt. Ltd. at IIT Bombay which is developing products in the area of Nanotechnology.
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, Techno-Mentor 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 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 boards of various other international journals. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy. He is a Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society and interacts closely with many semiconductor industries including Intel, IBM, Infineon, Applied Materials, Maxim and Texas Instruments.
Dr. Rao served as a Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter and is currently the Vice-President, Materials Research Society of India. He also served as a Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub- committee during 2007-2013 and was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.
For more information about Prof. Rao’s current research interests and a list of publications visit: http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~rrao/
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
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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. |
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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. |
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Prof. Y S Rajan, Dr Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor, Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO)
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.
Dr. Pankaj Chandra, Vice Chancellor & Chairman, Ahmedabad University
Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor and Chairman, Board of Management, Ahmedabad University since October 2015. 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. He holds a B.Tech. from the Banaras Hindu University and a Ph.D from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. 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 (IIMA). He has worked briefly with The World Bank in Washington DC. 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 (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 relooked 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 & 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).
Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include Manufacturing Management, Supply Chain Coordination, Building Technological Capabilities, higher education policy, and hi-tech entrepreneurship. He has published extensively in international refereed journals and has served on the editorial boards of several international journals. His forthcoming book studies issues of Governance, Change & Institution Building in Indian 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 & Academic Councils of several firms and institutions (Mindtree, BIRAC, NID, IGIDR, Srishti School of Art, Design &Technology, Film & Television Institute of India, IIT Jodhpur, IIIT Bangalore, IIIT Dharwad, BHU).
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.
Pronab Sen is the Country Director for the IGC’s India Central 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.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.