Sh. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat is an Indian politician from Rajasthan who is currently serving as Union Cabinet Minister in Ministry of Jal Shakti. He is a member of parliament from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) representing Jodhpur in the Lok Sabha. He is also National General Secretary of the BJP Kisan Morcha, the farmers’ wing of the BJP. Before entering electoral politics, Sh. Shekhawat held positions in many forums and organisations; he was the co-convener of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, the economic wing of the Sangh Parivar and the General Secretary of Seema Jan Kalyan Samiti, an organisation dedicated to strengthen national security by developing border towns and villages. He was elected as member of parliament to the 16th Lok Sabha in 2014, with the highest ever winning margin from the constituency of Jodhpur. One of his major achievements during his tenure as an MP has been the expansion of the Jodhpur Airport, a demand that had continuously been raised during the last 18 years. As an MP, Sh. Shekhawat has received mention as one of the top five contributors to debate in the Indian Parliament. He is also Chairperson of the Fellowship Committee, member of the All India Council of Sports (AICS) and member of the Standing Committee on Finance.

R Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Prime Minister and the Government of India of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). AIM’s goals are to establish and promote a vibrant culture of innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide.

As the Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan has been instrumental to date in the launch and execution of several nationwide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives resulting in 8878 Atal Tinkering Labs being established in schools nationwide with 3000+ operational in 650+ districts and over 2 million students having access to innovative tools and technologies like 3d printers, robotics, miniaturised electronics do it yourself kits

R Ramanan was previously Managing Director & CEO of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Ramanan led CMC’s rapid transformation from a domestic government organization to a global IT private sector organization. Ramanan’s joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Mumbai in Electrical Engg and played an instrumental role in the growth of TCS with a variety of responsibilities ranging from product development, technical marketing, global business development, and general management of large centers of TCS. 

Mr. Paul Basil is Founder and CEO of Villgro Innovations Foundation and an Ashoka Fellow. Over the last decade, Paul and Villgro has incubated over hundreds of innovative enterprises. Paul also co-founded Menterra, an impact investment fund. An Ashoka fellow, Paul, is also the founder of Impact Innovators and Entrepreneurs Foundation (IIEF), a US based organisation that promotes the Villgro model in other countries in Africa and South East Asia.

Paul has also contributed to building the social enterprise eco-system in India through Unconvention, India’s leading conference on innovation and social entrepreneurship across many cities in India, Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT-Madras that focuses on research and education, Villgro fellowship that recruits global mid career professionals to experience social entrepreneurship and the India Chapter of Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs. Mr. Basil was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2002 for his outstanding social entrepreneurship in setting up Villgro. He has also been conferred the Samaj Seva Bhushan Award and the Star Entrepreneur Award.

Dr. Shamika Ravi is Director of Research at Brookings India and a Senior Fellow of Governance Studies Program, at Brookings Institution Washington D.C. She is also Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India.

Her research focus is on Growth & Entrepreneurship, Financial inclusion, Health, Gender inequality and Urbanisation. Ravi is a visiting professor of Economics at the Indian School of Business where she teaches courses in Game Theory and Microfinance. Ravi publishes extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals and writes regular opinion pieces in major international and Indian newspapers. Dr. Ravi has a PhD in Economics from New York University and M.A. Economics from Delhi School of Economics. 

Arnab is leading Government of India's strategy and implementation of Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, FinTech and Blockchain initiatives. He has co-authored India's National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence. He is an ex-Investment Banker with experience of US $20bn+ in M&A, Equity and Debt transactions across Asia and America. 

Inspired both emotionally and practically by the accomplishments of her great-grandfather, S. L. Kirloskar, grandfather, Shreekant Kirloskar, and parents Vikram & Geetanjali Kirloskar, Manasi is a keen business person, who believes in innovation, affirmative action, and diversity in perspective.

Manasi Kirloskar forges her own path, while taking pride in her legacy and embracing the brand’s values as the fifth generation of the Kirloskar family. Balancing both and growing in each with success, Manasi is moving up rapidly as a young business icon and entrepreneur. She  also holds the position of the Director in Kirloskar Technologies Ltd. and Toyota Tsusho Insurance Broker India Pvt. Ltd.

She has setup the real estate arm and worked with her mother Mrs. Geetanjali Kirloskar to set up their Financial Services Division and a 310 bed multi specialty hospital.

Ms. Manasi has recently been appointed as the first United Nations in India Young Business Champion for the SDG’s (Sustainable Development Goal’s).As an emerging young business leader she has the unique ability to expand the dialogue on SDG’s and business responsibility among her peers and inspire other young leaders to be proactive in their support and action for the SDG’s. In addition she will focus on the role of business in development and work with the UN on issues such as climate change, use of plastic and women empowerment.

At the age of 14 she started community service which now has been registered as her own non-profit venture “Caring with Colour” thus become a social entrepreneur.

Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula serves as Dean of International and Alumni Relations at Indian Institute of Technology Madras since September 2018.Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula, is an alumnus of IIT Madras (B. Tech.), and completed his higher studies (M.S. and Ph.D.) in Mechanical Engg. from Purdue University.

He is a Faculty In-Charge and Director of IITM Incubation Celland has been in teaching and research for over 20 years.Prof. Mahesh served as Associate Professor, Assistant Professor at Tennessee Technological University from August 2005 to July 2010.Prior to joining Tennessee Tech, Prof. Mahesh gained holistic research experience in Lehigh University.Also, he served as a General Manager of Excel India since August 2002 until March 2004 and as a senior research engineer with Goodrich Aerospace.

He expertise is in spray nozzle design, drying, atomization, combustion and experimental fluid dynamics. He has worked with students from different geographical regions and premier organizations to build next-generation solutions for problems in the broad area of Fluid Dynamics.

Shrishti Sahu is an entrepreneur and an angel investor. She has a degree in mechanical engineering (with a minor in automation and robotics) from the University of Warwick and a certificate in Capital Markets and Investments from Harvard University. She has 10+ years of entrepreneurial experience and has worked on e-commerce, social impact and financial technology start-ups. Her expertise lies in business development, growth hacking and technology.

She has worked extensively with FICCI FLO for its Women Empowerment initiatives as a part of which she launched FLO’s National E-commerce Cell in partnership with ShopClues. She is now a part of the Innovation, Science and Technology committee of FICCI. Previously, spent a year as a part of the Investment Team at Lumis Partners, a US and India based PE fund that invests in tech companies- focused on the human capital and supply chain management domains. Currently, at Facebook working on Startup Programs to serve the needs of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India & South Asia. 

Mr. Prateep Basu is the Founder and Global Head – Strategy & Partnerships at SatSure, a spatial data intelligence startup, working on creating sustainable solutions for enabling financial inclusion of farmers in developing countries. He is a seasoned space industry professional with work experience in both the business and technology front. An aerospace engineer from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Trivandrum with post-graduation in Space Studies from the International Space University, Strasbourg, Mr. Basu has worked as a scientist in ISRO, and as a geospatial industry analyst at Boston based Northern Sky Research (NSR), a global market research and consulting firm focused on commercial space industry, prior to starting SatSure.

Digbijoy has over 14 years of wide ranging experience across diverse sectors, initially started his career in education marketing with reputed educational institutes and then subsequently joined the advertising and events industry to execute several projects including a state election campaign for a national party, conceptualizing and running a restaurant chain in Delhi and several other projects. He joined the Delhi chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE Delhi), where he worked for over three years and drove various key initiatives like mentoring, deal flow, marketing, sponsorship's etc and left his last position as Associate Director of the chapter in 2008 to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. He thenco-founded an online math supplemental education start-up TenMarks Education INC. which was acquired by Amazon in early October 2013. He then joined Ennovent a seed stage accelerator/fund and eventually managed the country office for Ennovent India which is a global innovation company that helps clients accelerate innovations for sustainability in low-income markets in developing countries.

Currently he leads the startup function at Amazon Internet Services to drive adoption of cloud infrastructure for VC/Angel/Accelerator backed companies in India.Digbijoy regularly contributes to entrepreneurial blogs and publications. He also plays the role of a supporting evangelist ™ to select few start-ups in Delhi- NCR region such as Breaking Barriers, One Tree Spaces, Around247, Playyoursport, Handshake etc

Devakshi is a Public Health Professional and ex-Social Entrepreneur with a strong work experience in ICT for Development, and is a part of the Portfolio and Programme Management team at Social Alpha (FISE), a DST and Tata Trusts supported Technology Business Incubator.

The blend of her Bachelors in Commerce (Honours) from NMIMS University, and Masters in Sustainable Development Practice from TERI University, helped augment her understanding of business and social development, bringing her to Social Alpha, where Devakshi scouts for and helps support startups that leverage technology for social impact in the Healthcare and Assistive Technologies space.

She is actively involved in Portfolio Management and has played a critical role in Social Alpha’s Quest for Healthcare Innovations (SAQHI) and Social Alpha’s Quest for Assistive Technologies (SAQAT). She also works closely with Tata Trusts’ PATH Impact Labs (TPIL) to help startups accelerate their journey of clinical validation.

Anjalli is a match-maker for social good.  She’s an External Partnerships and Programmes Director with Unilever who helps marketing teams identify causes and design programmes that serve business objectives through smart partnerships. She conceived and launched Fair and Lovely Career Foundation, a mobile skilling and guidance platform for women in partnership with edX.org, English Edge,NIIT, idreamcareer.com and testbook.com. The platform serves over 400,000 women and she’s working on launching it in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. 

An MBA from FMS Delhi and MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, Anjalli has spent 12 years serving diverse organizations through her stints in fund raising (Naandi Foundation), sustainability advisory (KPMG) and social impact consulting (Dalberg Global Development Advisors).Her philosophy is – Why try to save the world on your own when you’ll have a better chance and more fun if you tried with the right partners?

Sandeep is Head of Innovation at DBS Bank in India In this capacity, Sandeep works closely with the teams across the regions and help create a culture of innovation and collaboration. He also leverages internal and external capabilities and help create the right ecosystem for innovation at the Bank. 

Sandeep has over 18 years of experience in consulting, operations, project management, business development and impact entrepreneurship. In the past Sandeep has been an entrepreneur and business owner having set up and run businesses in the industrial products and construction sectors. 

He was most recently the Regional Manager - Asia at Ennovent, an impact focused innovation company and managed their Impact Investment vehicle and provided consulting services for organizations like the World Bank, IFC, USAID, Governement of India etc.

Sandeep holds a MBA from University Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy; & a BA(Hons) degree from the University of Huddersfield U.K

Amitabha Bandyopadhyay is a Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bio- Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur since December 2006. He conducted his doctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Umadas Maitra at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Upon receiving his PhD in 2002 he joined the laboratory of Prof. Clifford Tabin at Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral research. His research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of cartilage and bone differentiation, using a variety of knock-out and transgenic mouse strains and developing chicken embryos in conjunction with several novel cell culture techniques, developed in-house. 

Amitabha, since July 2018, is serving as the Professor In-charge of Innovation and Incubation ecosystem of IIT Kanpur. He has been associated with the bio-incubator of SIDBI Innovation and Incubation center (SIIC) since 2014. He had set up the bio-incubator and in September 2015, became the Faculty Coordinator of Biotechnology Research and Innovation Council (BIRAC) bio incubator of IIT Kanpur. He has conceptualized and executed several programs like Biobuzz, Tech Talk with a Doc and Biodesign Summer Immersion Program to build pipelines for bio-incubation at IIT Kanpur.

Since 1999, Kumar has served as the Director of SEWA Bharat, a National level Federation of SEWA organizations that serves 1.7 million poor self-employed women workers in the informal economy in India. Kumar holds a PhD and M. Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Masters from University of Delhi, and a Masters in Public Administration and Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Samir Sathe (https://www.linkedin.com/in/samirssathe/) is a thought leader and heads ‘Advantage’ program focused on small businesses in India, at Wadhwani Foundation, a global philanthropic organisation. Samir has ~25 years of rich global experience in research, strategy and transformation consulting. Samir and his team have a mission help small businesses to accelerate their growth by 2X-10X in 3-5 years to create and fulfil millions of jobs with skilled knowledge workers, using the mobile application, enabled by Artificial Intelligence.

Samir is a Master of Change from INSEAD, France. He is trained in using psychodynamic principles to solve the personal and professional problems of the leaders. 

Ganesh is passionate about innovation that solves unmet societal needs in a sustainable and scalable manner. In college, he enjoyed working on innovative projects like RC Aircrafts, Off-Road Vehicles and Soccer playing Robots. However, he discovered his profound love for Purpose Driven innovation while building prototypes of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines and innovative wheelchairs which won the Aavishkar contest in the year 2011.

Now, Ganesh and his team are building Arcatron Mobility, an elder care products company in one of the youngest countries in the world. Arcatron Mobility has launched a range of innovative wheelchairs that make bathroom access easier and safer for people confined on wheelchairs and bed. Arcatron has a mission to advance global standards of assisted living and make it dignifed and safer. 

Kunal is an acclaimed Agribusiness management professional with in-depth experience in diversified Agricultural operations and recognized acumen in Smart Agriculture and Food domain. Kunal has been remarkably contributing in Smart Agriculture space and has represented India at various national and international platforms advocating ICT4AG & GEO-ICT solutions in Agriculture.

Kunal is currently Chief Growth Officer with AGROMETRICS, an US based Analytics and Technology Start-up serving to Agribusinesses using AI & ML capabilities. In his prior assignment, he was Country Director at CropIn Technology. He also leaded Centre for Agriculture & Rural Development (CARD) earlier as its Executive Director and was heading Global Trade Alliances for Agribusiness at Indian Council of Food and Agriculture (ICFA) as Director-Agribusiness.

He currently provides advices on institutional capacity development, livelihood projects and program support for GEO-ICT application in Agriculture space in Africa and SE Asia and also advisor to various ICT based Agriculture start-ups in the country and closely working with couple of solution providers on State Govt ICT projects.

Kunal holds a Bachelor Degree in Agriculture & Technology and a Post Graduate Diploma in Agribusiness & Plantation Management.

A blend of entrepreneur and intrapreneur, Anupam Jalote, the CEO of icreate has successfully straddled both worlds: the corporate world as well as that of innovative start-ups.  At iCreate, his role entails institution building, promotion and funding of start-ups, driving international collaborations, coaching, mentoring and strategic consulting.

Prior to iCreate, Anupam has worked in leadership roles in leading companies such as Bharti Airtel, Escotel Mobile and Tata Communications (VSNL). After his role as Chief Process Officer at Airtel, he started his own venture in waste to energy as the Director – CEO of GreenOil Energy Sciences (Pvt.) Ltd., a VC funded entrepreneurial start up, then moved on to head iCreate.

An MBA from Purdue University, Mr Jalote has a graduate degree in Statistics from Lucknow University as well as a previous MBA from the same institution. He is passionate about putting India on the global map of developing low cost, innovative technologies that help heal the earth. He also has a keen interest in photography, baking, western classical music, electronics, reading and meditation.

 

Sanjay has over 28 years of diverse global experience including leadership roles in strategy, digital, platforms, design, consulting and leadership development. Since 2016, he is developing Societal Platform Thinking, a systemic method to resolve complex societal challenges with speed, at scale, sustainably (societalplatform.org). He advises multiple not-for-profit foundations developing Societal Platforms in education, financial inclusion, healthcare, water, urban governance and livelihoods. He also serves as a Technical Partner to Co-Impact (www.co-impact.org), a global collaborative for systems change.

Sanjay incubated a new enterprise digital platform business for Infosys. As Founder CEO of EdgeVerve, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys, Sanjay launched 6 digital platforms for Digital Marketing, Omni-channel Commerce, Customer Service, Distribution, Procurement and Credit Finance. A first in the Indian IT Services industry, he carved out a viable software product startup with innovative practices in product R&D and talent development.

As Chairman and Managing Partner, Sanjay led a $635 Million Management Consulting business at Infosys. The operations covered 20 countries across US, Europe, LATAM, Asia Pacific and India, serving 450+ clients. Under his leadership, in partnership with Stanford d.school, USA, Infosys Consulting embraced Design Thinking in a very significant way. As a practitioner of Design Thinking, he has personally mentored more than 50 strategy and design engagements with global corporations.When Infosys Leadership Institute was established in 2001, Sanjay pioneered the Leaders Teach program. Over 16 years, he developed 400+ leaders in areas such as strategy, competitiveness, scalability and resilience. 

Dr Ranjit started his career as Scientist in the year 2000 at IARI, New Delhi, where he conducted several research study on technology adoption and impact. Also taught and guided post-graduate students in the discipline of Agricultural Economics. In 2007, got selected as Senior Scientist and joined ICAR-IISS, Bhopal. After serving for 3 years, he was transferred to ICAR-NAARM in the Agribusiness Management Division. In 2014, joined ICRISAT (on deputation) and coordinating BMGF-funded project on ‘Village Dynamics studies in South Asia (VDSA)’. Received Biennial Young Scientist Award in Social Science from ICAR, Best Research Paper Award by the Agricultural Economics Research Association, New Delhi and Best Poster Award in 12th Asian Maize Conference, Bangkok.

Amit Goyal is currently heading edX for India & South East Asia. edX is the world’s largest non-profit E-Learning portal founded by MIT & Harvard University. Prior to edX, Amit use to head Education Solutions Business for Samsung India and has launched various education mobility products, the likes of what we see as Byju App today.

Amit Goyal holds a Master’s Degree from Oxford Brookes University – Oxford, and has led various executive roles in leading Technology companies globally. He is a firm believer of frugal innovation and was also known as the man behind launching the worlds’ cheapest Tablet PC Aakash – A project commissioned by Government of India.

Ruchit, 25, is the Chief Executive Officer of Khushi Baby. Khushi Baby is a global health, technology non-profit based in Udaipur, India, founded in 2014 out of Yale University. Khushi Baby is a novel, evidence-based platform to track and engage health care at the last mile. Khushi Baby has been used to monitor the health of over 20,000 mothers and infants across 350 villages since launching in 2017.

Ruchit and his team have been recognized by UNICEF, GAVI, Johnson and Johnson, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan, and the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology for their innovation. Ruchit also is a third year student at Harvard Medical School and was recognized by Forbes 30 under 30 2016 for Health Care.

Dr. Milind Antani, a renowned surgeon turned lawyer, leads the Pharma & Healthcare practice at the multi-skilled, research-based international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates where he represents clients in matters allied to JVs, M&As, VC and Private Equity investments, Collaborations, Regulatory advice, IP, Licensing and Commercialization. He also leads the Social Sector Practice and represents various global and national foundations in India.

Dr. Antani has been an active participant in helping frame national policies on key impact areas, within the medical field. Recognized as a global thought leader, he has been featured by many a prestigious institution such as the Who’s Who Legal, Chambers and Partners, The Economic Times, Asia-Mena, Euromoney etc.

He has authored numerous articles and prestigious publications related to the Pharma and Healthcare industry. Various national as well as international publications such as Digital Health Legal, a Cecil Media Publication, Pharma Boardroom in UK continue to reach out to Dr. Antani for insights. A regular speaker at various prominent forums on Pharma, Medical Devices, Med-Tech & eHealth, Biotech, IP, Clinical trials, Healthcare, CSR and Social Impact investments, he is also a visiting faculty at premier institutions in Mumbai and Gujarat including the prestigious Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

 

 

Poyni Bhatt is a qualified legal and compliance professional, turned to technology business incubation by chance, helping entrepreneurs for over a decade. She has an experience of 3 decades in industry and academia. She is a founding team member of SINE, the technology business incubator at IIT Bombay, and has been managing the incubator since 2004. She has been involved in 100+ start ups incubated at SINE. Several of them have done excellently, some have failed, and most are active and running their businesses very well. SINE has got partial exits of its equity holding in nearly one third of the startups supported by it. Poyni is actively mentoring start-ups and innovators outside SINE as well. 

At SINE she has handled several collaborative international programs for innovators and entrepreneurs, most recently with Russia and Switzerland. Prior to SINE, she has corporate experience of over a decade in manufacturing and finance sectors, where she headed secretarial, legal and compliance functions. She had handled IPOs and fund raising, structured corporate M&A deals, and also dealt with various Indian regulators.

She is a member of several Indian government committees on innovation, entrepreneurship and incubation, and also a member on the boards of several incubators in India. She also takes guest lectures on entrepreneurship.

Joyeeta has worked across a diverse set of organizations - government and non- governmental organizations, multilateral funding agencies and corporates on primarily improving the quality of education in both K-12 and higher education. She joined IBM's Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs Group to manage successful implementation of some of the global Corporate Citizenship programs in India, adapting programs to country and regional internal and external priorities, and identifying opportunities for collaborative leveraging. At the last job at National Entrepreneurship Network, as a Senior Education Manager, she was responsible for leading the entrepreneurship education programs, developing capacity development frameworks for institutions, faculty, mentors and enablers. Here, she closely worked with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to catalyze a culture shift to promote entrepreneurship development in the country.