Aynampudi Subbarao (A.S.Rao), former Adviser/Scientist G in DSIR is now offering services as an innovation consultant in areas such as R&D project management, Intellectual Property, Technology Transfer, Taking innovation to market, open innovation network, Innovation Cluster. As Founder President of Indian Innovators Association, organizing Innovations fairs annually since 2016. His publications include IPR Licensing-Technology Commercialisation–Innovation Marketing-Guide Book for Researchers, Innovators (2017), Creating Demand for Local Innovations-Global best practices (2019).
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.
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.
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
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.
Some Break through Results achieved through Innovative initiatives
Assignments include Training & Implementation in areas of :
Jayant Shrikhande
Email : JJShrikhande@Gmail.com
Mobile : 9833003603
Linked in : http://linkedin.com/in/jayant-shrikhande-7b7a201a
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.
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.
CXO Thought leader with a diverse experience in Solutions Consulting, Business Management, Technology strategy, and Innovation. With deep expertise in Emerging technology R&D, business management and consulting, he is a trusted
advisor with a strong executive presence & business acumen led decision making. He is a Solutions Strategist (Product & Services) with in-depth experience in innovating, conceptualizing & productizing tech solutions and also
developing & executing Go-T0-Market strategies for fortune 500/1000 companies. He is widely experienced in leading H2, H3 strategic development programs across Cloud, AI, Metaverse -AR/VR/MR, IOT, Robotics & Drones, 5G, Blockchain.
He has Delivered 3000+ Emerging Tech workshops for CXO’s - Customers & Industry Advisors, delivered keynote sessions in several global conferences and published several Thought leaderships articles & Podcasts, He is on advisory
board of Industry Bodiesas Chapter President for VRARA Bangalore & Co Leader for Fusion of Emerging Tech- India chapter, Member of National Advisory Board of Journal of Health Policy Research, Chair for Environment for Rotary
Bengaluru Harmony, Co-Chair for District Agri committee for District 3190.
As a Chief Technology Officer, MetaZ Digital, he Co-founded Technovation centre, a state-of-the-art emerging tech
innovation incubation Lab and managed a spectrum of Innovation development activities from conceptualization, idea generation, Solution build & GTM. Led a large team of innovators, business analysts. architects, creative designers
and software developers. Some of the marque projects he has delivered are - spearheaded the development of 100+ immersive Digital solutions leveraging emerging tech, multi-million-dollar turnkey projects-Technovation (2013)
& SVIC (2017), spearheaded development of DIY Covigilent AI COVID cough pre-screening app and assisted a Microfinance Bank in the entire process to hire a CTO to align with their growth plans.
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, 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
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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".
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, 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 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.
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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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
