panel of speakers

Ramesh Pokhriyal

Union Minister for Education

Ramesh Pokhriyal, known by his nom de plume Nishank, is an Indian author, poet and politician serving as the Minister of Human Resource Development in the Second Modi Ministry. He represents the Haridwar Parliamentary constituency of Uttarakhand in the 17th Lok Sabha. He was the fifth Chief Minister of Uttarakhand from 2009 to 2011. He was also a member of 16th Lok Sabha and chairperson, Committee on Government Assurances.

Pokhriyal was first elected to the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly from Karnaprayag constituency in 1991, and then later in 1993 and 1996 from the same constituency. In 1997 he was appointed to the position of Uttaranchal Development Minister. He was also Uttarakhand’s Chief Minister (from 2009 to 2011) and served as a member of Lok Sabha’s 17th session and the Chairman of the Assurance Committee. He is a representative of Haridwar constituency in the Lok Sabha.

Born in Pinani village, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, he received an MA from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University. Pokhriyal has written novels, stories, and poems. He has authored 44 books in Hindi, some of which have been translated to English as well as other Indian languages.

Parameswaran Iyer

Former Water Secretary and Sanitation Specialist

Parameswaran Iyer is the Global Lead for Strategic Initiatives in the World Bank's Water Global Practice. He has served as Secretary to the Government of India at the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the newly formed Ministry of Jal Shakti), from March 2016 until August 2020. He has also played a pivotal part in the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission. As a former IAS officer, Iyer headed the community-led Swajal Project in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand in the 1990s. He has over twenty-five years of global experience in the water and sanitation sector and has worked in many countries, including Vietnam, China, Egypt and Lebanon when working with the World Bank.

S Y Quraishi

Former Chief Election Commissioner and Writers

Shahabuddin Yaqoob Quraishi is an IAS officer who served as 17th Chief Election Commissioner of India. He was appointed as the CEC on 30 July 2010. He also served as a Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. He has a Ph.D. in Communications and Social marketing. He has authored a book titled 'An Undocumented Wonder - the Making of the Great Indian Election', a book that describes the enormity and complexity of the Indian election and a book titled Old Delhi- Living Traditions a coffee table book on the heritage city and its social and cultural life. He now pursues his interests in academics by teaching & mentoring at Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi in the capacity of Honorary Professor at the centre. He is also a current member of the International Elections Advisory Council.

Makarand Paranjape

Director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study

Makarand Paranjape is an Indian novelist, poet and literary critic. He is the Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, since August 2018. Prior to this, he had been a professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi for 19 years. Paranjape had supported Modi and the BJP government in 2016 at the time of the JNU fracas when three students were arrested and many others rusticated. Following that, his name emerged as a potential candidate for the post of vice-chancellor at the ancient Nalanda University despite the fact that the former EFL University Professor Sunaina Singh was eventually appointed for the post in 2017.

S Vaidhyasubramaniam

Vice-Chancellor, SASTRA Deemed to be University

Dr S Vaidhyasubramaniam is the Vice-Chancellor of SASTRA Deemed University. His research interests include Public Policy Development Management. He has served as an editorial member and reviewer of several international reputed journals. He is a member of many international affiliations. He has authored many research articles/books related to Public Policy Development Management.

Dushyanth Sridhar

Indic Scholar, Researcher and Public Speaker

Dushyanth Sridhar is a public speaker (Upanyaskar), and writer on topics related to Sanatana Dharma. He delivers discourses in Tamil and English. He has learnt scriptures like Sri Bhashyam, Gita Bhashyam, Rahasya-traya Saram and Bhagavad Vishayam. He has delivered many live discourses in multiple countries and in several regional television channels. He has a Youtube presence with over ten million views and content that runs for 1000 hours. He organizes religious tours (yatras) to ancient Vishnu temples in association with a travel agent and they have together have taken 2000 people to 200 temples spanning 12 states and 6 countries in a five-year period covering a distance of 20,000 miles.

Subhash Kak

Scientist & Author

Subhash Kak is an Indian-American computer scientist and author. He is the Regents Professor of Computer Science Department at Oklahoma State University–Stillwater, an honorary visiting professor of engineering at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC). Kak has published on the history of science, the philosophy of science, ancient astronomy, and the history of mathematics. Kak has also published on archaeoastronomy, and advocated the idea of Indigenous Aryans.[5] Many scholars have rejected his theories on these topics in entirety, and his writings have been heavily criticized. In 2019, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award in India.

Sanjeev Sanyal

Principal Economic Advisor, Govt of India and Author

Sanjeev Sanyal is an Indian economist and author. He is now serving as the Principal Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India. A Rhodes Scholar and Eisenhower Fellow He was Deutsche Bank's Global Strategist and a Managing Director till 2015. He is also the author of several books including The Indian Renaissance: India's Rise after a Thousand Years of Decline, Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography, The Incredible History of India's Geography, The Ocean of Churn: How human history was shaped by the Indian Ocean and Life Over Two Beers.

Arun Maira

Management Guru and Former Member, Planning Commission

Arun Maira is a management consultant and former member of the Planning Commission of India. He is also former India Chairman of Boston Consulting Group. Maira was part of Tata Administrative Services for 25 years and worked at various important positions in Tata Group till 1989. He was a board member of Tata Motors from 1981 to 1989. He was Resident Director from 1981–86 and Executive Director in Corporate Office from 1987-89. He played a key part in Tata Motors successful entry into the LCV segment. After this he worked with Arthur D. Little for 10 years where he was Leader of Global Organisation Practice and Managing Director of Innovation Associates, a subsidiary of Arthur D. Little. In 2000 Arun Maira returned to India and held the position of chairman of Boston Consulting Group in India till April 2008. After coming back to India in 2000 and prior to joining the Planning Commission of India, Arun Maira has been on the boards of several companies as well.

Amitabha Bandhopadhyay

Associate Professor, IIT Kanpur

Amitabha Bandhyopadhyay conducted his doctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Umadas Maitra at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Upon receiving his PhD in 2002 he joined the laboratory of Prof Clifford Tabin at Harvard Medical School for his post-doctoral research. Dr Bandyopadhyay joined the faculty of BSBE in December 2006. He has co-authored a book called The Ventilator Project with Srikant Sastri.

Srikant Sastri

Chairman, i3g Advisory Network

Srikant Sastri works with CEOs and owners of fast-growing organisations to help them navigate through the challenges and opportunities in an uncertain world. As a mentor and advisor, he guides them in incubating new ideas, initiatives and ventures that bring in growth. He has co-authored a book called The Ventilator Project with Amitabha Bandhyopadhyay.

Amit Khare

Union Education Secretary, Govt of India

Amit Khare, an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer from the 1985 batch of Jharkhand cadre, became the Human Resource Development (HRD) Higher Education Secretary in 2019. Khare also holds additional charge of Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy. Khare is known for unearthing the fodder scam in Bihar in 1996. It was during his term as district magistrate that financial irregularities to the tune of Rs 950-crore fodder scam in the state Animal Husbandry Department came to light.

Vikram Patel

The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health, Harvard Medical School

Vikram Patel is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Blavatnik Institute's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is an adjunct professor and joint director of the Centre for Chronic Conditions and Injuries at the Public Health Foundation of India, honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (where he co-founded the Centre for Global Mental Health in 2008), and is a co-founder of Sangath, an Indian NGO which won the MacArthur Foundation’s International Prize for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2008 and the WHO Public Health Champion of India award in 2016.

Kris Gopalakrishnan

Co-Founder, Infosys and Chairman, Axilor Ventures

Kris Gopalakrishnan, is Chairman of Axilor Ventures, a company supporting and funding start-ups was formerly executive vice-chairman (former co-chairman) of Infosys. He is also one of its seven founders. He was elected as the president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry for the year 2013-14.

Alankrita Shrivastava

Director, Bombay Begums

Alankrita Shrivastava is an Indian screenwriter and director. Having made her debut as a director in 2011, she has since won such accolades as the Films de Femmes Grand Prix and a nomination for a Filmfare award. She is popular for being the maker of Bombay Begums, Lipstick Under my Burkha and Made in Heaven.

Subramanian Swamy

Rajya Sabha MP, BJP

Subramanian Swamy is an Indian politician, economist, and statistician who serves as a nominated Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament. Swamy has served as a member of the Planning Commission of India and was a Cabinet Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government. Earlier in November 1978, Swamy was a member of the Group of Eminent persons and was called to Geneva, Switzerland to prepare a report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on Economic Co-operation between Developing countries (ECDC). Swamy also simplified trade procedures and formulated a new export strategy which became the forerunner of trade reform adopted subsequently. In 1994, Swamy was Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade by former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He also serves as chairman of the Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions in Kerala. He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with People's Republic of China, Pakistan and Israel. He was nominated to Rajya Sabha on April, 26 2016

Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal is the Global Senior VP and Country Head of Amazon India

The Global Senior VP and Country Head of Amazon India, Amit Agarwal is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Standford University.

Mihira Sood

Supreme Court Lawyer

Mihira Sood ia an alumnus of Columbia Law School, Mihira Sood is a Supreme Court lawyer

Rajiv Malhotra

Researcher and Public Intellectual & Founder, Infinity Foundation

Rajiv Malhotra is an activist, author and the founder of Infinity Foundation, which focuses on Indic studies and also funds projects such as Columbia University's project to translate the Tibetan Buddhist Tengyur.

Suhasini Maniratnam

Actor, Director and Producer

Suhasini Maniratnam is an Indian actor, director and producer known for her works in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her film debut in 1980 with the Tamil film Nenjathai Killathe, for which she won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress. Suhasini won the National Film Award for Best Actress for the Tamil film Sindhu Bhairavi in 1986.

Anuja Chauhan

Author

Anuja Chauhan is an Indian author, advertiser and screenwriter. She worked in the advertising industry before resigning to pursue a full-time literary career. As a writer, she is known for The Zoya Factor (2008),[2] Battle For Bittora (2010), Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013), The House That BJ Built (2015) Baaz (2017) and Club You To Death (2021).

Anil Sahasrabudhe

Chairman, AICTE

The Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education, Sahasrabudhe. He has held several important Academic, Research and Administrative positions at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Tata Consulting Engineers, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) and IIT Guwahati. He also served as Director, College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) since 2006 on deputation from IIT, Guwahati prior to joining as AICTE Chairman. As an academician and researcher in NERIST and IIT Guwahati, and as an administrator in the capacity of Director, CoEP, he has taken up several new initiatives for Academic, Curricular & Co-curricular activities, Entrepreneurship, Research and Good Governance.

Dr Shekhar C Mande

Director-General of CSIR

Shekhar C Mande is a Structural and Computational Biologist and the current Director-General of CSIR. Until December 2019, he served as the chair the National Committee for the International Union of Crystallography of the Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi.

Amish Tripathi

Author, Diplomat and Director, Nehru Centre

Amish Tripathi is the director of the Nehru Centre in London and an author. He is known for his books Shiva Trilogy (The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras), Ram Chandra Series (Scion of Ikshvaku, Sita: Warrior of Mithila, Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta) and Legend of Suheldev: The King Who Saved India. The Shiva Trilogy was the fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history, followed by the Ram Chandra series which was the second fastest selling book series in Indian publishing history.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Author, Poet and Professor of Writing, University of Houston

She is an Indian-American author, poet, and the Betty and Gene McDavid Professor of Writing at the University of Houston Creative Writing Program. Her short story collection, Arranged Marriage won an American Book Award in 1996 and two of her novels (The Mistress of Spices and Sister of My Heart), as well as a short story The Word Love were adapted into films. Mistress of Spices was short-listed for the Orange Prize. Currently, Sister of My Heart,, Oleander Girl, Palace of Illusions, and One Amazing Thing have all been optioned to be made into movies or TV serials.

Ajit Mohan

Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India

Ajit Mohan is the Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India. Previously, he was the Chief Executive Officer of Star India's Disney+ Hotstar. Mohan who started his career with Arthur D. Little, has worked with McKinsey and Co. and McKinsey Global Institute as a fellow. He is an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania.

Debjani Ghosh

President, NASSCOM

Debjani Ghosh is the President of The National Association of Software and Service Companies since April 2018. A veteran of the technology industry, she is the fifth president of NASSCOM and the first woman to hold this position. As the NASSCOM President, she actively works with the industry and Government to accelerate the growth of the Industry and strengthen India’s position as hub for Innovation and Digital Talent. Before joining NASSCOM, she was the first woman to lead Intel India and the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), she was also a member of the executive council at NASSCOM.

Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and MSME

Nitin Gadkari is the current Minister for Road Transport & Highways and the Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in the Government of India. Gadkari earlier served as the President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 2009 to 2013. He is also known for his work as the Public Works Department Minister of the State of Maharashtra, where, under his leadership, a series of roads, highways and flyovers across the state were constructed – including the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, India's first six-lane concrete, high-speed expressway.