Twelveth Leadership Conclave

Ms Silky Agrawal Founder, GeoCarte Radar Technology Pvt. Ltd., Gandhinagar

Ms Silky Agrawal is the Founder and Director of GeoCarte Radar Technology Pvt Ltd, a civil engineering services company that uses Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology to aid in construction, utility mapping, and site investigation. Ms Agrawal received her BE in Civil Engineering from Institute of Engineering and Technology, DAVV, Indore (2013), and MTech in Civil Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar (2015). She founded GeoCarte shortly thereafter, which was incubated by IIEC at IIT Gandhinagar. Ms Agrawal has worked on several prestigious projects, including working for Shree Somnath Trust, Gandhinagar Capital Railway Station, CST in Mumbai, and the Dholavira archaeological site. In 2023, Silky was conferred with the IIT Gandhinagar Young Alumni Excellence Award for outstanding entrepreneurship.

Mr Michael A. Alvarez Board Member, QB3 Program Director University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Mr Michael Alvarez holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Boston College, and certificates in Intellectual Property Management from the University of Washington and Executive Education through the UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business. Mr Alvarez has been building strategic partnerships between industry, government, academia, and non-profits for more than twenty-five years. Early in his career he was a management consultant with Accenture in NYC, focused on energy and biopharma clients. He later directed centers for industry partnering, workforce development, and entrepreneurship at several premier institutions including Stanford University, Columbia University, UC San Francisco, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is widely sought for expert opinion and guidance on translating technologies and talents from university to industry settings, human and planetary health, incubators and accelerators for startups, and the future of work in emerging and evolving sectors. He is an established author and has addressed these topics in key venues such as Nature, Forbes, US News and World Report, and the National Public Radio. He continues to advance life science and sustainability solutions through his role as program director for QB3 at UCSC, leading innovation and entrepreneurship programs and providing guidance and support to early-stage companies. He formerly served as chair and as a board member for many years for the Northern California SF based Bay Bio Institute, focused on its three-part mission of Entrepreneurship, Workforce Development, and Science Education.

Ambassador V Ashok Former India's Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Zimbabwe and Secretary, Govt of India

A graduate in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi, Ambassador V Ashok held diplomatic assignments in Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, Austria, Sri Lanka, and USA. He was India’s Ambassador to the Czech Republic and Zimbabwe and retired in the rank of Secretary, Govt. of India. Ambassador Ashok is a Visiting Professor at IIT Gandhinagar, and Adjunct Professor at National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru. Ambassador Ashok speaks Chinese and several Indian languages. He has authored a book, Dasavatara – The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu, published by Rupa & Co. He is interested in Circularity, Sustainability, Climate Change, Water, Agriculture and Energy and has delivered talks and webinars on these subjects at IIT Gandhinagar and other institutions.

Shri Harsh Bhargava President, Competitiveness Mindset Institute & Former President Bankworld Incorporated, USA

Shri Harsh Bhargava started his career in India as a Tata Administrative Service (TAS) officer with Tatas. He is an MBA from Harvard Business School. Shri Bhargava is the Founder & President of I Create Inc, a nonprofit corporation, providing comprehensive entrepreneurship programs for women, unemployed youth, and army veterans at 10 centers in India for the past 25 years. He is also Co-Founder & President of Competitiveness Mindset Institute, USA (CMI), involved in research and training of key non-cognitive skills to Indian youth and professionals. Over 5000 participants have undergone CMI’s flagship program “Finding the Leader in You” or FLY in over 90 universities and firms in India and the US including IIT GN, IIT Bombay, NID, BHU, NJCU (USA). Core skills trained in the FLY program are conscientiousness, perseverance, innovativeness, taking initiative, problem solving with communication as the cross-cutting theme. These non-cognitive skills were identified as critical for Ethical Leadership and for being Globally Competitive by a nationwide survey completed by 2700 CEOs, experts in academia, and thought leaders in India. Shri Bhargava continues his part time work as the President of Bankworld Inc, a Washington, DC based management consulting company with experience in over 75 countries. Projects include competitiveness strengthening in emerging markets and entrepreneurship. He is an author and a speaker at global and national conferences in the US and India and at universities such as the Wharton Business School, IITs in India, etc. He has been a Guest Professor at IITGN for the past 5 years.

Shri Pradeep Bhargava Chairman, MECF Ltd

Shri Pradeep Bhargava earned his BSc (Honors) from Rajasthan University, Jaipur and B.E in Electronics and Communications from IISc Bengaluru and MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. Shri Bhargava is the former Managing Director of Cummins Generator Technologies India Limited. He had steered the growth of the Organization, made it a Market Leader and a major global player. Shri Bhargava’s association with Cummins started in 2000, where he was first responsible for steering growth and transforming a leading Engine business into a wholesome Energy Solutions Enterprise. A veteran in the industry, Shri Bhargava has held responsible positions in both private and public sector organizations. His tenure with the public sector spanned a decade, during which he worked with Indian Space Research Organization, Atomic Energy Commission, Electronics Commission, and Bharat Heavy Electrical Ltd. (BHEL). In the private Sector, he has held various positions at the Kalyani Group, first helping them diversify and thereafter spearheading the Group’s entry into Consumer Electronics (Kalyani Sharp India). He then helped steer the foray of the Group into the infrastructure sector. Shri Bhargava was the CEO of the Lighting Business of General Electric, Bengaluru prior to joining Cummins. He was the Executive Member of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). He is involved with education institutions such as Symbiosis International University, IIM Ahmedabad/ Bangalore/ Udaipur in different roles. He is an Independent Director on listed Companies, and Trustee on various Foundations. Active on various Industry forums, he Chaired CII’s Western Region and was President of Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture, Pune.

Mr Prashant Borde Engineering Leader, Stripe, Bengaluru

Mr Prashant Borde is Engineering Leader at Stripe in Bengaluru. He received his BTech in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from IIT Gandhinagar (2012). He also holds an Entrepreneurial certification from Stanford University. Prior to his current position, he was co-founder and CTO at Recko, a platform that enables AI-powered reconciliation of digital transactions. In 2021, Recko was acquired by Stripe. Mr Borde has been a serial entrepreneur, having dabbled in a variety of ventures and ideas while a student at IITGN. After graduating, he co-founded GridAnts, a company providing platform integration services that received funding from Accel Partners and Helion Venture Partner. In 2016, GridAnts was acquired my Myntra. In 2023, Mr Borde was conferred with the IIT Gandhinagar Young Alumni Excellence Award for outstanding entrepreneurship.

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia George J. Bishop, III Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering Clemson University, USA

Prof Rajendra Kumar Bordia is the George J. Bishop, III Endowed Chair Professor of Ceramics and Materials Engineering. He has served as the Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Clemson University (2013-2019). Before joining Clemson in 2013, he was a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington (UW). From 1998 to 2005, he was the Chairman of his Department at UW. He started his career as a Research Scientist in the Central Research and Development of DuPont Co. from 1986 to 1991. He has also had Visiting/Guest Professor appointments at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India; Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India; Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, India and Friedrich-Alexander Universität, Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Prof Bordia received his undergraduate degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Cornell University in Materials Science and Engineering. Prof Bordia’s research is at the intersection of materials and mechanics and is focused on fundamental and applied studies in the processing and properties of complex material systems for energy, environmental, and medical applications. Current emphasis is on ceramics, composites, multilayered, and porous materials. He has authored or co-authored over 170 peer-reviewed technical publications and has presented over 300 invited lectures and seminars. In his academic career, he has been a PI or Co-PI on over USD 70 Million of extramural research funding. He is currently serving as the President of the American Ceramic Society.

Prof Ashish Garg Professor, Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Ashish Garg obtained his BE and ME degrees in Metallurgical Engineering from VNIT Nagpur and IISc Bangalore in 1995 and 1998 respectively and PhD degree in Materials Science from the University of Cambridge, UK in 2002. Prof Garg is a Professor and the founding Head of the Department of Sustainable Energy Engineering and also founding Professor-in-Charge of the Kotak School of Sustainability at IIT Kanpur. Prior to the formation of this department in 2020, he was a Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. While on deputation from IIT Kanpur, he was also the Dean of Faculty Affairs at IIT Jodhpur in 2017, where he also laid the foundation of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. He has also been involved in setting Materials Engineering curriculum of IITs at Gandhinagar, Jammu, and Goa. He has also had brief stints at RMIT University and CSIRO, both in Melbourne (Australia) and in Tata Steel, Mumbai and Infineon Technologies, Germany. His research interests are in materials and device development for energy harvesting and storage e.g. photovoltaic, ferroic and multiferroic, triboelectric and battery materials, their device integration and scale-up, as well as in carbon neutrality and Net Zero. He has graduated over 40 Masters and PhD students and has coauthored ~200 publications. He also has a keen interest in materials and sustainability educational matters, and has led the initiatives to reform the curriculum of Materials Science and Metallurgy education in IITs and NITs. He was a Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge University before joining IIT Kanpur in 2003.

Dr Yogesh Goyal Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering and Biomedical Engineering Northwestern University, USA

Dr Yogesh Goyal received his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering from the IIT Gandhinagar and PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering from Princeton University. Dr Goyal is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology and the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University. His lab is housed within the Center for Synthetic Biology. With a unique background in engineering, developmental biology, biophysical modeling, and single-cell biology, the Goyal Lab develops quantitative approaches to problems in developmental biology and cancer drug resistance. Yogesh's work has been awarded highly prestigious awards from various private foundations including from Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Jane Coffin Childs, Cancer Research Foundation, STAT Wunderkinds, and Schmidt Science Fellows.

Prof Nuno Guimarães Professor, Department of Information Science and Technology (ISTA) University Institute of Lisbon, (ISCTE-IUL), Portugal

Prof Nuno Guimar���es graduated in 1983 in Electrotechnical Engineering at Instituto Superior T���cnico (IST/UTL), MSc. In EEC IST/UTL (1987) and got his PhD in Electrotechnical and Computer Engineering (1992) from IST, Lisbon, Portugal. He was Professor at IST/UTL (1992/1997) and Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (1997/2012), invited Professor at the TUB (Berlin Institute of Technology) Germany (2010), and consultant/researcher at AT&T Bell Labs, Murray Hill, NJ, USA (1989-1991). He was Dean of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (2003-2009), Pro & Vice Rector of ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (2012-2018). He was a member of the board and founder of several startup IT companies (1999 to 2006). He is Senior Member of ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) since 2012, Chair of the Portuguese Chapter of the Internet Society (ISOC) since 2021, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Cyberspace and Law Research Center of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon since 2022. His academic and scientific interests include Human Computer Interaction and User Experience, Digital Society Challenges, Technology and Law. He is a visiting scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar since 2014.

Shri B. V. Jagadeesh Managing Partner, Kaaj Ventures, USA

Shri B V Jagadeesh holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from Bangalore University and a master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Bombay. Shri Jagadeesh is a Founder Managing Partner at KAAJ Ventures, FalconX (a global technology company incubator), and SVQuad, an Angel syndicate that invests and guides next gen entrepreneurs. He has successfully invested in and guided several companies such as Nutanix (IPO), Yodlee (IPO), Arkin (acquired by VMWare), NetMagic Solutions (acquired by NTT), and many others both in Silicon Valley and India. Before founding KAAJ, Shri Jagadeesh served as a founding investor and CEO of NetScaler. NetScaler pioneered the concept of Application Delivery and was successfully sold to Citrix for $325M, and served as Group VP and GM for Citrix's Application Networking division. Prior to Netscaler, he co-founded and served as CTO of Exodus communications in 1993 that pioneered the concept of Internet data centers. He was instrumental in the successful IPO of Exodus in 1998. Currently, Shri Jagadeesh is an active investor and serves on the board of several Silicon Valley Startups. He is also an adjunct faculty at the Leavey School of Business, SCU and teaches at several other universities such as IIT Gandhinagar, IIT BHU and many others. He is also very actively involved with several non-profits for the betterment of the society such as UVCE Foundation - providing scholarships to deserving students, One School At A Time - that constructs school buildings for the underprivileged, and Akshaya Patra - providing mid day meals to over 2 Million children everyday. ISB Hyderabad has established a chair in the name of B V and Anu Jagadeesh and Shri Jagadeesh has also graciously endowed the Anu and B V Jagadeesh Chair at IIT Gandhinagar to promote innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal Former Director Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Delhi

Shri Subodh Kumar Jaiswal graduated from DAV College, Chandigarh with a Bachelor’s degree in English literature, economics and political science with an honour’s in English literature. He completed his MBA from Punjab University with a specialization in Marketing. He joined the Indian police service after qualifying the prestigious Civil Services Exams ( UPSC ) IN 1985 at the age of 23. He is an officer of the 1985 batch who has worked in command positions in the state of Maharashtra and the Govt. of India. He has worked as Commissioner of Police, Mumbai, Director General of Police Maharashtra, Director General, CISF, and the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A highly decorated officer, he is a recipient of the Asadharan Suraksha Seva Praman Patra (2020), President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Services (2009), Indian Police Medal for Meritorious Services (2002) and Internal Security Medal, Govt of India. He is known for his exemplary contribution in institution building, leadership and administrative acumen. In his 38 years of service in the Government, he has worked on diplomatic assignments overseas and has extensive understanding of international relations.

Prof Robert Lund Professor and Chair Department of Statistics University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

Prof Robert Lund received his undergraduate degree from Auburn University and PhD in statistics from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Prof Lund is a Professor and department Chair of statistics at the Baskin School of Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz. He is a 2007 elected Fellow of the American Statistical Association and was the 2005-2007 Chief Editor of the Journal of the American Statistical Association. He has published over 100 refereed papers and has graduated nearly two dozen doctoral students. His research expertise lies in probability and statistical climatology.

Prof Shekhar C Mande Honorary Distinguished Faculty National Centre for Cell Science Complex and former Director General of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

Prof Shekhar Mande received his M.Sc in Physics from the University of Nagpur in 1984 and PhD in Molecular Biophysics, from IISc Bangalore in 1991. Following his PhD, he worked as a Postdoctoral researcher at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in the Netherlands. He has served on many national and international committees, including the scientific advisory committee of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, Italy; Management Council of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai; member of the Council of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; member of the Management Councils of the Solapur University and the Savitribai Phule Pune University; member of the Governing Body of the Indo-French Centre for Promotion of Advanced Research (CEFIPRA), etc. He is currently Distinguished Professor at the Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, the position which is generously funded by Dr. Anand Deshpande. He is an elected Fellow of all three Science academies, namely, National Science Academy of India, Allahabad; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore and Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi. He has been recognized by many awards, mainly the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences in 2005. He served as the Director General of CSIR and Secretary of DSIR, Govt of India during October 2018- April 2022.

Prof Dileep Mavalankar Former Director Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, Gandhinagar

Prof Dileep Mavalankar received an MBBS and MD in Preventive and Social Medicine from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, and MPH and Dr P.H from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, USA. Prof Mavalankar is the former director of Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar. His work experience includes faculty and research positions in NHL Municipal Medical College, Ahmedabad, National Institute of Health in Bethesda, USA, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India and Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, NY, USA. Prof Mavalankar has received several honours & awards, including the Paul Harper Award (1990) from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, USA; Hewlett Foundation Fellowship for pursuing Doctor of Public Health at the Department of Population Dynamics, Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (1984) and nominated to the membership of Alpha Chapter of Delta Omega, The Honorary Public Health Society, USA (1983). Prof Mavalankar was appointed by the Prime Minister to the high level Missions Steering Group of the National Rural Health Mission constituted by the Government of India in 2005. He was the Chair of the Technical Working Group on Maternal Health by the Government of India. He was also a member of the Steering Group on Health for the 12th Five-year Plan of the Planning Commission of India. He was Member Secretary of the Covid Task Force for Gujarat state appointed by the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He has been listed by Stanford university among the top 2% scientists in Public Health in the world. He is currently working as part-time short-term consultant to the World Bank on climate change and heat health.

Dr Darshan V. Pandya Retired IT Consultant, Philosopher of the Future

Dr Darshan Pandya completed his BSc (Eng) (Hons) and PhD in Chemical Engineering and later an MSc in Operational Research and Management Studies from Imperial College, London. An avid traveller, he has visited forty-five countries and lived in five. After working in British Petroleum in London, he taught Operational Research and Statistics at the National University of Singapore for three years before switching to the IT industry and working in the USA and Canada until his retirement in 2015.

Prof Govidan Parayil Dean and Professor, Patel College of Global Sustainability and Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies University of South Florida, USA

Prof Govindan Parayil earned his Ph.D. in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, Va. (1990), his M.A. in Applied Economics from American University, Washington, DC (1985), an M.S. in Science, Technology and Policy from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, N.Y. (1983), and a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Calicut, India (1978) (formerly Regional Engineering College Calicut). He was a Rockefeller Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in Global Environmental Change at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. Since 2017, Prof Parayil has been serving as Dean and Professor of the Dr. Kiran Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida (USF). At USF he also holds a concurrent appointment as a tenured full professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies. He was Vice-Rector of United Nations University (UNU), Tokyo, Japan (2008- 2014) and Director of UNU Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (2009-2013) while on leave from the University of Oslo, Norway, where he was Professor of Science, Technology and Innovation (2004-2015). He was Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Information and Communications Management, National University of Singapore, and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Social Sciences at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Prof Parayil has held visiting appointments at Tokyo Institute of Technology, Virginia Tech, Illinois Institute of Technology, and Fudan University in Shanghai. He served as the 2016-2017 Mark and Melody Teppola Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He has authored, edited and co-edited six books and published more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles, as well as numerous book chapters. A leading expert in the field of global sustainability with particular interest in energy and climate change, Professor Parayil follows an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability – from describing problems using knowledge and analytical tools from engineering, management and social sciences to finding innovative solutions that are user-focused and market-driven. By nurturing collaborative research and education in sustainability and fostering local and global academic, business, government and civil society engagement, Prof Parayil aims to work toward transitioning to a resilient and sustainable future.

Dr. Sunil R Parekh D.Litt., FICA, BTech IIT Delhi

Dr Sunil Parekh is a man of truly diverse interests and has vastly contributed to varied fields, including industry, social sectors, public policy, academia, entrepreneurship, culture, start-ups & research publications. He is also a fellow of the Indian Council of Arbitration. Dr Parekh is a senior member at Zydus Group (Pharma), Jubilant Group (Diversified), Boards of iCreate, GVFL Ltd., CSIR NEIST @Jorhat. He was an invited speaker delegate at COP27 UNFCCC Conference on Climate Change, Egypt. He has a wide domain experience gained over 40 years spanning both manufacturing & agriculture abroad. He had also set up & successfully managed several projects in India & Africa including Africa’s largest integrated Oil & Flour Mill. Dr Parekh is deeply connected with the startup entrepreneurial ecosystem. He founded techXchange in 2018, an India UK partnership to support startup exchange for money & market. He is involved deeply with several NGOs & is on the Boards of various universities; and has published two major contributions on Gujarat’s industrial development with OUP (Oxford) & ORF (Brookings affiliate). He has been recognised twice in the Top 100 Top Eminent personalities of Gujarat, awarded the prestigious OCND Award by his Alma Mater IIT Delhi in 2014 & ET ICON of the year in 2018. He was recently awarded a Doctorate of Literature Honoris Causa in 2023.

Dr Jagdish Patel Retired Radiologist Physician Fullerton, USA

Dr Jagdish Patel is a retired radiologist physician. He graduated from Baroda Medical College and moved to USA to pursue higher education, first in Chicago and subsequently did fellowship in Diagnostic Ultrasound in Philadelphia. Dr Patel was one of the first radiologists to pursue fellowship in emerging field of Diagnostic Ultrasound. Subsequently he continued as assistant professor of radiology at Thomas Jefferson University for a few years during which he, with other colleagues, published more than 20 papers in journals of radiology. During the same period, he had opportunity to give talks in London, many places in USA and the Caribbean islands. He later joined a private practice opportunity at Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach, California, a large tertiary care medical center. Dr Patel stayed there until his retirement in 2012, gradually rising to become the Medical Director and Chairman in his later professional career. He was trustee of a Board of a private high school in Southern California where he developed special interest in improving quality of education. For many years he is actively involved in such endeavors in India. His additional interest in supporting medical care has lead him to be involved with an NGO supporting health care initiative.

Shri Jignesh Patel Founder, Charioteer Capital, USA

Shri Jignesh Patel received an M.S. in Industrial Administration from Purdue University in 1993, a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1992, and holds a CFA designation. Shri Patel established an investment platform Charioteer Capital in 2018 to make diversified private investments in sectors such as commercial properties and startup ventures. His venture portfolio includes 15+ companies in various domains, typically at the seed level. Prior to that, he was a Senior Managing Director at C-III Capital Partners – a $4 Billion NYC based real estate investment company where he was responsible for investments in opportunistic commercial real estate securities such as CMBS and CRE CLOs. For three years prior to C-III, Jignesh managed National Australia Bank’s (“NAB”) approx. $1 billion CMBS, CRE CDO, and commercial real estate loan and swap portfolio in the US and UK. Previous to NAB, Shri Patel was a member of the CMBS trading desk at Bear Stearns and J.P.Morgan for eight years. He was responsible for secondary trading of commercial real estate backed securities. He also headed the structuring group, where he led the structuring of over $30 billion of transactions. Shri Patel is an active participant in various nonprofit organizations: He is President of Pratham NY Tri-State, President of IIT Gandhinagar Foundation, and a board member of TiE NY. He was previously on the board of IIT Bombay Heritage Foundation.

Prof Deepak Phatak Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Prof Deepak Phatak received his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from SGSITS Indore in 1969, and his MTech and PhD from IIT Bombay. Prof Phatak, a recipient of Padma Shri award, has been associated with IIT Bombay since 1971. Prof Phatak was the first Dean of Resources of the Institute. He set up the Affordable Solutions Lab (ASL) at IIT Bombay in 2000 and held the ‘Subrao M. Nilekani’ Chair from 2000-2013. He initiated interactive distance education program and business incubation activities at IIT Bombay. He has served on the boards of several companies and institutions, including IDBI Bank, Bank of Baroda, IDRBT, NIA, PSL, IGNOU, IITGN IIT Indore and NIT Agartala. He is a recipient of the ‘Excellence in Teaching’ award and the ‘Industrial Impact Research Award’ from IIT Bombay. He was elected Fellow of the Computer Society of India (CSI) in 1999, and Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) in 2000. He was listed among the ‘Fifty Most Influential Indians’ by Business Week in 2009. He was conferred Lifetime Achievement Award by Skoch Foundation in 2003, by Data Quest in 2008, by ‘Dewang Mehta Business School Awards’ in 2010, by Interop in 2014, by IIT Bombay in 2014 and by CSI in 2018.

Prof Surendra Prasad Former Director Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Prof Surendra Prasad received the BTech (Hons) from IIT Kharagpur in 1969 and the M.Tech and Ph.D in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi in 1971 and 1974, respectively. He has served at IIT Delhi for more than five decades, having held a number of academic and administrative responsibilities, including as the Director from 2005 to 2011. He received numerous recognitions for teaching and research, including among others, the Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in Electronics and Telecommunications in 1987, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Engineering Sciences in 1988, the Om Prakash Bhasin Prize for research in Electronics and Communications in 1994, the VASVIK Award for Information Technology in 2006, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Systems Society of India in 2011, the Professor S.N.Mitra Memorial Award of INAE in 2021, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT Kharagpur. He was honored with an Honorary Doctorate by Loughborough University, U.K., in 2007. He is currently an Honorary Professor and INSA Senior Scientist at IIT Delhi He has been the Chairman of the National Board of Accreditation, a member of the Governing Body of CSIR and CSIR Society, Government of India, and numerous boards of IIT’s, IIIT’s, NIT’s, and other engineering institutions. 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 Science.

Shri Sanjiv Rangrass Director and Board Member, Zetwark and Former CEO Agri Business, Group Head Sustainability& R&D ITC Limited Andhra Pradesh

Shri Sanjiv Rangrass is a Mentor, Coach and an Angel Investor. He is a Senior Adviser with Mckinsey. He works as an Independent Director on the board of Zetwerk - a manufacturing Unicorn and a Venture Partner in Capria – a leading venture fund that supports early-stage tech startups. He is also a co-founder of TAC (The Agri Collaboratory) - a “non-compete” not for profit, Agriculture “Think and Do Tank” – helping build Digital Public Infrastructure and Goods for Agriculture in Open Source, along with the Ecosystem and the Government. His core passion is focusing on talent development, succession planning and mentoring. Several of his mentees have gone on to launch successful start-ups like Blackbuck, Zetwerk, Log 9, Vegrow, Bharat Agri, Capillary Technologies and Orange Health where he has personally invested as an angel. He is currently focusing on Climate Investment in the Capria Venture fund and is personally investing in startups in this domain. Till June 2022, prior to his superannuation from ITC Limited, Sanjiv Rangrass was ITC’s Group Head for R&D, Sustainability and Projects. Prior to this, he was the Chief Executive of the Agribusinesses for ITC Ltd. He joined the Company in 1982 after completing his B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur. The first 27 years of his 4-decade journey in ITC were spent in various capacities in the Manufacturing & Engineering functions. He was the GM Manufacturing Operations and then a Member of the Executive Committee of the business. He also had a cross functional stint as General Manager, HR between 2001 to 2003. Interest in Agriculture, Agtech and leveraging digital for the farming community resulted in him working for and launching the Echoupal 4.0 platform which is now being launched as ITC MAARS. He has led the company wise initiative on harmonizing the Supply Chains across multiple divisions with Kearney as consultants and on Analytics in the Agri business with McKinsey. With his vast experience covering Production, Engineering, HR, Projects, Supply Chain, Agriculture and digital over 4 decades, he is sought for his inputs and advice by the industry and the startup ecosystem. He has also been a part of the team with McKinsey which anchored and supported the Expert Group for the Finance Commission of India to make recommendations to double Agri Exports from India. He has been a former Board of Governors for IIM Shillong and is an Executive Member of the Pan IIT Council.

Prof Supreet Saini Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

Prof Supreet Saini obtained his BTech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi in 2005 and PhD in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2010. Prof Saini is a Professor & a DBT/Wellcome Trust (India Alliance) Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Bombay. Prior to joining IIT Bombay, he was an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar (2010-2012), where he also headed the Faculty Recruitment Committee among other responsibilities. He is the recipient of the Young Engineer Award 2017 (Indian National Academy of Engineering) and the Innovative Young Biotechnologist Award 2011 (Department of Biotechnology). His research interests are in the area of evolutionary microbiology.

Shri Amit Saluja Senior Director and Center Head Nasscom Center of Excellence, Gandhinagar

Shri Saluja is Senior Director and Head of NASSCOM centre at Gandhinagar. In addition to NASSCOM, Shri Saluja has held leadership positions at IBM, General Electric, and RPG Transmission in a career spanning over 25 years. Having worked with industrial and technology companies in multiple domains, he has gained a rich and diverse experience in using digital technologies such as AI, Cloud, Analytics, and IoT to usher in greater efficiencies in manufacturing and driving business growth. He is a firm believer in making optimum use of technology for transforming internal business processes. Shri Saluja is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and expert in devising Design Thinking methodology for building technology roadmaps. He is also a certified Smart Industry Readiness Index Assessor and trained to evaluate enterprises on digital maturity and advice for manufacturing transformation journey Shri Saluja mentors Manufacturing Enterprises and startups on business strategy, process improvement and building technology roadmap.

Shri Piyush Shah Former Executive Vice Chairman Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd., Ahmedabad

Shri Piyush Shah received his Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay. He is the founder of Hi-Rel Electronics (P) Ltd., which was established at Gandhinagar in the year 1983. Hi-Rel was subsequently acquired by Hitachi, Japan in October 2015 and it is now known as Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd. Hitachi Hi-Rel now has plants at Gandhinagar and Sanand, employing over a thousand people. Shri Shah stepped down from Hitachi Hi-Rel Power Electronics Pvt Ltd on 31st March 2018. He is now actively engaged in supporting start-up ventures in a variety of Industry/Service sectors. He is passionately pursuing new ventures in the field of Energy Management Systems and renewable energy. He has been an active member of Indian Angel Networks (IAN) for the last 5 years. Shri Shah has more than 35 years of Power Electronics Industry experience. He was the Chairman of Gujarat State Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2012 and has been a Member of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) – IT Gujarat Task force, Gujarat Council and Regional Council Committee of Western Region of CII, and a member of National Council on Innovation in the year 2014-15. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and an Expert member in the Post Graduate Board at Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad. He is also actively involved with IIT Gandhinagar as a member of the Endowment Committee. Shri Shah was an Executive Council Member of Indian Electrical & Electronics Manufacturers' Association (IEEMA) in the year 2011-12.

Prof Chandrima Shaha Former Professor of Eminence and Former Director, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi

Prof Chandrima Shaha received her MSc and PhD degrees from the University of Calcutta followed by postdoctoral training at the Kansas University Medical Center and The Population Council at Rockefeller University, New York. Prof Shaha is the former Director and Professor of Eminence, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, and the immediate past President of the Indian National Science Academy. Her research interest revolves around the phenomenon of cell death and her laboratory has contributed substantially to the understanding of cell death in unicellular organisms. Amongst the several prestigious awards, she is the recipient of the Ranbaxy Award for Basic Sciences and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar medal of INSA. She was a JC Bose National Fellow, Govt. of India and is an elected Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) Trieste, Italy; Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Delhi; Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore; National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad; West Bengal Academy of Sciences, Kolkata. She served/serving as a Member of the Council of all four Academies of Sciences of India and is on the committee for TWAS Awards. She was a Member of the trustee Board, ‘The Department of Biotechnology/Wellcome Trust India Alliance’, and also a Member of the Governing Board, ‘India International Centre’. She is currently a Member of the Governing Council, Indian Association of Cultivation of Science, Kolkata and the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Delhi. She is a Member of the ‘Scientific Advisory Committee’ of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, Trivandrum; the National Institute of Plant Genome Research, Delhi and the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa. Formerly, she served on the ‘International Consortium on Male Contraception’, New York; and the ‘Steering Committee for the Task Force on Regulation of Male Fertility’ of the World Health Organization, Geneva. She was Chair of ‘Biotechnology Based Programme for Women’, Department of Biotechnology.

Prof Jayant Singh Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Jayant Singh received his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1997, M.S. degree in Computer Science and Engineering, in 2002, and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, in 2004, from SUNY Buffalo, USA. Currently, he holds the Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professor and is the head of the department of Chemical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. Prof Singh 's current research interest is in Drug discovery, material modelling, machine learning, energy storage, selective adsorption and separation, and development of novel molecular simulations tools. Prof Singh has authored over 180 peer reviewed articles in international journals of repute. He is a recipient of prestigious awards such as NASI-Reliance Industries Jubilee Platinum Award, IIChE Herdillia Award, SERB STAR Award, JSPS Invitation Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship, Young Engineers of Indian National Academy of Engineering, IIChE Amar Dye Chem Award, BRNS Young Scientist Award and DST-BOYSCAST Fellowship. He is also an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Science, India. Dr. Singh has guided 17 PhDs and 30 Masters, and 35 post-doctoral students. Dr. Singh is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Chemical Engineering Communications and serves on the advisory board of ACS Chemical Engineering Data, ACS Omega, Fluid Phase Equilibria. He is the founder and Director of Prescience Insilico Pvt Ltd., which specializes in accelerating drug and material discovery.

Mr Saurya Prakash Sinha Product Lead, Stripe, Bengaluru

Mr Saurya Prakash Sinha received his BTech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Gandhinagar in 2013. Since 2022, he has been a Product Lead at Stripe in Bengaluru, where he is leading their reconciliation product and accounting platform. Prior to that, he was Co-Founder & CEO at Recko, Inc. (in 2017), which was subsequently acquired by Stripe. Before that, in 2015, he co-founded Townrush, which got acquired by Grofers, and later worked at PhonePe and Flipkart, as well as AVP - Product at Blinkit.

Dr Nandini Tandon Co-Founder & CEO of the IndUS Setu Global Foundation, Venture Capitalist, Silicon Valley, USA

Dr Nandini Tandon completed her BA cum laude from Hollins University, Virginia and her PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University. A Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist, Dr Tandon specializes in transformative investments addressing critical clinical needs across the pharmaceutical, biotech, medical technology, and semiconductor sectors. Dr Tandon has a remarkable success record, with strategic investments resulting in acquisitions by industry giants like Pfizer, Gilead, Amgen, and General Electric. She held key roles at Lumira/MDS Capital and RBC Capital Partners, overseeing significant funds and establishing VC offices in the Bay Area. Beyond her financial ventures, Dr Tandon co-founded the IndUS Setu Global Foundation, focusing on health equity, women's empowerment, and climate remediation. She has served as vice chair of the technologically advanced El Camino Hospital and contributed extensively to hospitals globally, especially during and after the COVID period. Presently, Dr Tandon is an advisor to Stanford University’s Byers Centre for Bio Design and Centre for Innovation in Global Health. She is also on the boards of the Bay Area Economic Council Institute, MCI Inc, and the California Institute of Quantitative Biosciences and the Board of Advisors to the Maker Bhavan Foundation. Dr Tandon further Chaired”20/20 Vision: Investing in USA & Emerging Markets” at Stanford University, was a Board Member of the University of California, Berkeley, Centre for Emerging and Neglected Diseases and a Board Member of the C21 BioVentures. Her career spans key positions, including Chief Business Officer at Zyomyx Inc and Vice President of Business Development at Hyseq Inc, while overlooking corporate development at Chiron Corp and groundbreaking research at the Microelectronics Centre of North Carolina. Recognised for her impactful work, Dr Tandon has received prestigious awards like the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the Uttar Pradesh Ratna, and the Women of Excellence Award.

Prof Nitish V Thakor Professor of Biomedical Eng, Electrical Eng, Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, USA

Prof Nitish Thakor received his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay and earned both M.S. in and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prof Thakor is a Professor of Biomedical Engineering and neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also has an appointment in the Johns Hopkins Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prof Thakor directs the Laboratory for Neuroengineering and is also the director of the NIH Training Grant on Neuroengineering. He also served as the founding Director of Singapore Institute for Neurotechnology (SINAPSE) from 2008-2022. Prof Thakor teaches Medical Instrumentation and Rehabilitation Engineering, and his research focuses on neuroengineering (technologies for brain monitoring, brain machine interface, neurally controlled upper limb prosthesis). He is an author/co-author of more than 450 refereed publications and a Major Reference Work Handbook of Neuroengineering. He is actively engaged in international scientific programs, collaborative exchanges with various Universities. Prof Thakor is a recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation, and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, IEEE, Founding Fellow of the Biomedical Engineering Society, Fellow of International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering and is an elected member of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Thakor is a Distinguished Alumnus and Distinguished Service Alumnus of IIT Bombay.

Prof. Nitin Kumar Tripathi Director, Special Degree Programs Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Prof Nitin Tripathi is the Director of Special Degree Programmes at Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, and is a Professor of Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems there. he received his PhD and MTech in Remote Sensing from IIT Kanpur in 1994 and 1987, respectively, and BTech in Civil Engineering from NIT Warangal in 1984. Previously, he served as the Dean, School of Engineering and Technology, Director, Academic Quality, Leader ICT, and Coordinator of Remote Sensing and GIS at AIT. Before joining AIT, he worked at IIT Kanpur as a lecturer and assistant professor (1989-94). He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Geoinformatics and is a life member of Association for Geoinformation Technology and Indian Society of Remote Sensing. Prof Tripathi has authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers in the area of geoinformatics applications for health, forest, environment, and marine and coastal zone monitoring, and has guided nearly 100 masters and 25 doctoral students. He is a recipient of the DAE Young Scientists Award (1994), AICTE Career Award (1996), and Osaka City University Distinguished Researcher Award (2007), as well as the Distinguished Alumni Award from NIT Warangal (2006).

Mr Rohit Toshniwal Co-founder Sprih, Pune

Mr Rohit Toshniwal obtained his B.Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur in 1999. Mr Toshniwal is a serial entrepreneur. Currently he is a CoFounder at Sprih, building a platform to catalyze climatic action by helping organizations on their journey to net-0. Previously he cofounded Arkin Networks (acquired by VMware), which built a category leading Internet Datacenter Operations product. Mr Toshniwal is a seasoned product executive putting together world class teams, driving innovation and product execution from concept to being the best in the world. He loves to work with young entrepreneurs with big dreams, is passionate about environment and sustainability.

Prof Kazuo Yamamoto President Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand

Prof Kazuo Yamamoto has served AIT in various capacities starting as a former Japanese seconded faculty, and also as the AIT Vice President for Resource Development and Vice President for Administration on a joint appointment with the University of Tokyo and is very familiar with the Institute. He is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Tokyo, Professor for Research and Development Initiative at Chuo University, Visiting Professor at Kindai University, and is currently serving as the President of the Zosui (Water Reuse) Promotion Center in Japan and Audit & Supervisory Board Member of IDEA Consultants Inc. Prof Yamamoto was awarded the prestigious Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize 2020 for his pioneering work in developing the submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR). He has authored and co-authored 20 books and more than 130 scientific publications and was conferred 12 awards from international institutions including the European Desalination Society, the Japan Society on Water Environment, and the International Water Association, primarily for his notable invention of the world’s first operationally viable submerged membrane bioreactor (MBR).