THE JURY

Dr. Gangopadhyay is known as the country’s best Professor for Organizational behavior & Human Resource; Former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer is the Dean with Aegis School of Data Science & Cyber Security, He is also the Founding Dean of Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Indore; Former Dean of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai (TISS); Prof. & Dean, School of Management & Labour studies

He was the Director, Central Labour Institute; Directorate General Factory Advice Service & Labour Institutes under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of India. He served as Professor in Behavioural sciences at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy; Hyderabad; He was Scientist at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, New Delhi.

He also worked as the national expert with International Labour Organization (ILO) and Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Tokyo; hD (Kolkata); PG Dip (IIT, Kharagpur).

Dr. Adriano Barbosa has received his PhD in Bioinformatics by the Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil) after training at the Structural and Computational Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg (Germany). Then, he conducted a Postdoc training at the Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Berlin (Germany) at the Computational Biology and Data Mining Group.

Between 2013-2018, Dr. Adriano Barbosa worked as Research Associate at the Bioinformatics Core of the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine at the University of Luxembourg, where he participated as scientific collaborator of the EU/EFPIA IMI projects eTRIKS, AETIONOMY and BioCOG.

Currently, Dr. Adriano Barbosa is a UKRI (MRC) Rutherford Fund Innovation Fellow and Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Dentistry of the Queen Mary University of London (William Harvey Research Institute). He is also PC member of the International Society for Computational Biology’s ISMB and member of the project management committee at the Informatics for Integrating Biology & the Bedside (i2b2 tranSMART) Foundation.

Mr. Akhil Kumar Gawar is a Director with the Government of Telangana currently looking after food processing in the Department of Industries and Commerce. He is also leading the Telangana State Food processing Society. As per his current role, he is responsible for framing the state policy for promotion of food processing industries and food preservation infrastructure.

He is working with Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation to build a Mega food park and various industrial parks in the state for food processing industries. Mr. Akhil also works closely with Research and Innovation Circle of Hyderabad (RICH) to promote upcoming startups in agri-tech and food processing space.

He brings extensive and diverse experience from the private sector having worked with large and well known companies in healthcare and FMCG domain. He has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and did his undergraduate from IIT Delhi as an electrical engineering major.

Alex is a member of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) Executive Board and has responsibility for the delivery of the external digital services MOT and Theory Test the world’s largest online computer-based test. He leads the delivery of 3 major Agile digital programs of work in DVSA, MOT Testing Transformation, Future Theory Test Service and Brexit Haulage Permits.  He is a strong advocate of user experience based developments, adopting Agile methodologies across the whole end-to-end service delivery model. He has successfully led the MOT team through a transformation journey moving to Cloud Based Computing, enabling bring your own device for the 80k users and significantly reducing the operating costs of the service.

Alex has a background as an Executive Director and organisational leader of large-scale operations across Great Britain. Proven track-record as SRO in transforming operational, and ICT business functions to drive value and service improvement.  A natural leader of projects and programs, delivering robust solutions in cross sector Government Agencies and with partners in areas such as Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Northern Ireland Operator Licensing, London Cycle Safety Initiative and Lorry Road User Levy.  A strong networker, experienced public speaker, and confident operator in cross party committees on transport topics. Alex has advised a number of overseas Government Agencies on transformation programs.

Mr. Amitabh Satyam is the Chief Mentor & Chairman at Smart Transformations. He advises government agencies and corporations on deployments of Smart ideas and solutions. He has recently authored the book “The Smart City Transformations’, along with the co-author Dr Igor Calzada of the University of Oxford. Earlier, as the Managing Partner at SAP, he advised top global clients of SAP on digital transformations of their businesses.

At IBM he was the Global Consulting Leader for Telecom for four years.  He advised on business strategy, technology architecture, applications framework, and operations methodology for global customers covering all the continents. He also established IoT practice area and the center of competence and led the key global the deals.  For two years, prior to this role, Amitabh was the business leader for a large, $1bn telecom contract. His earlier roles include Managing Director at MobiApps, Vice President for Telecom Services at Siemens, National Head of Operations at Reliance Infocomm, and Financial Analyst at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney.

A graduate of IIT Kanpur with an MBA from Fisher College of Business, USA. Mr. Amitabh has taught in the USA for four years – at The Ohio State University where he received the Hazel S. Brown Teaching Excellence award and at Rider University.

Mr. Anil Kumar Jain is currently the CEO of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a non-profit Company incorporated under Section 25 of the India Companies Act, 1956 (now section 8 under Companies Act 2013) with an objective of facilitating improved internet services in the country.

Having spent 36 years in various telecommunication roles, Mr. Jain is an expert in internet, broadband and telecom sectors. Some of the organizations he has been associated with include BSNL, MTNL and the Department of Telecommunications, India. Mr. Jain was on the board of NIXI for over 12 years before he took up the role of CEO just last year. His aim is to make the internet accessible and beneficial to every individual in our country. His aim is to make inclusive growth of Internet with easy accessibility, always available, affordable and helpful in official & home work environment.

Anil is Founder and Managing Partner at Unicorn India Ventures. He has been one of the pioneers of angel investments in India as head of operations and President at Mumbai Angels and Bangalore Angels, leading Angel Investment forums in India. Anil has helped close approximately 60 venture-financing deals and was directly involved in closure of over 25 deals. Anil has served on the Board of 5 companies and is involved with various incubation centers as mentor in India as well as internationally.

Prior to joining Mumbai Angels, he headed new projects and investment in start-ups with Artheon Group, a Telecom, IT & Energy group. His early career started with heading a branch office at Century Rayon, B.K. Birla Group Company, after which he moved to Business Access India Pvt. Ltd. providing consulting services to Scandinavian companies from diverse sectors establishing their presence in the Asian markets. Then he moved to Transasia Biomedical Ltd., India’s largest manufacturer and exporter of bio-medical equipment.

Anil graduated in Engineering and Post-Graduation in Management (Marketing) and PGDBM in Strategic Finance and Control.

Ms. Anjali Dhingra workes a General Manager with National Informatics Centre Services Inc. (NICSI). NICSI was established in 1995 as a section-8 (erstwhile section-25) company under National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India for providing and procuring IT solutions for multiple e-governance projects undertaken by NIC, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Governments and Government Organizations.

NICSI is a leading IT company with a government facing focus and more than 23 years of experience in assisting government organizations by providing state of art and cost effective solutions for all their growing ICT needs. These solutions are delivered through purchase of products and services from high quality vendors, empanelled with NICSI/GeM. NICSI’s procurement processes are fully compliant with GFR rules of Government of India.

NICSI is supporting the 11th edition of Aegis Graham Bell Awards to promote and recognize innovators and their innovations.

Ms. Anju Sharma is a member of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service and has been serving in the Government at senior leadership positions for more than 26 years. She is currently serving as Principal Secretary, Higher & Technical Education (H&TE), Government of Gujarat. She has received several awards, viz., the ‘Prime Minister’s Award for Administrative Excellence for implementing the Sickle Cell Anemia Control Program in the State (2011)’, ‘Individual Contribution Award for Health Insurance Scheme – Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) (2011)’, ‘NASSCOM Social Innovation Leaders Award’, ‘National E Governance Award’, ‘E World Award for the project e-Mamta-MCTS (2012)’, and ‘India Tech Award for the project e-Mamta-MCTS (2012)’ . She has authored two books – ‘I of the Storm – Discover your true self’ and ‘Corporate Monk – A Journey from Wealth to Wisdom’.

Prof. Kumar’s main areas of research interest are VLSI synthesis, embedded systems design methodology and high performance computer architectures and he has published more than 100 research papers in reputed journals and proceedings of refereed international conferences. He has guided 10 Ph.D.’s and more than 80 M.Tech./B.Tech. projects. His research has been supported by the Department of Electronics/ Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Naval Research Board, ANURAG (Defence Lab) and NXP Semiconductors. He has also been a consultant to Gateway Design Automation (now Cadence Design Systems), Technology Parks Ltd, ST Microelectronics and Poseidon Design Systems. ProHe has been a General Co-Chair for the conference in 20f. Kumar has been associated with the annual International Conference on VLSI Design since its inception in 1985 and contributed to its growth in various capacities. 09. He has also contributed professionally through various national level committees including, Working Group on Microelectronics and Advisory Committee for CDAC.

In 2002, along with some colleagues and graduating students of his department, he founded a start-up company called Kritikal Solutions under the Technology Business Incubation Program of IIT Delhi. He has served it in various capacities including Hon. Chairman, Hon. Director and Mentor and helped it grow nearly tenfold. Recently he received the ACM Transaction on Design Automation of Electronic Systems (TODAES) 2007 Best Paper Award for a paper coauthored with a colleague and a student.

Mr Arvind Bali CEO of Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC), TSSC is committed to developing world class skilled manpower for the Indian Telecom industry. Established in 2013, TSSC is a not for profit organization set up with funding support of NSDC through Ministry of Finance, Government of India and Industry Associations. Mr. Bali headed Videocon Telecom and is actively involved in Business Development, Project Management & Telecom Infrastructure Development. An accomplished business leader, Mr. Bali has 30+ year’s expertise in management of various business streams ranging from telecom, plant & operations, manufacturing & utilities with globally respected outcomes. He possesses capabilities of transforming under-performing organizations with powerful analytical skills, potent communication capability & strategic vision.

Asim Tewari is G.K. Devarajulu Chair Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. He formerly worked as a staff researcher at GM’s Global R&D unit in Bangalore. IIT Kanpur awarded him a B. Tech degree, followed by MS and Ph.D. degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. He worked at the National Aerospace Laboratories in Bangalore for a short time after finishing his doctorate. After that, he worked as an assistant professor at IIT Kanpur before joining the General Motors Global R&D centre in Bangalore.

At IIT Bombay he has been instrumental in setting up the National Center for Aerospace Innovation and Research and Center for Technical Textiles. He has also worked as a co-investigator at the Center for Excellence in Steel Technology and the Biomedical Engineering and Technology (Incubation) Centre. He has built several advanced state-of-the-art facilities, including an advanced machining excellence cell, a fibre composite research lab, a 4D x-ray microscopy lab with in-situ thermo-mechanical deformation capabilities, a thermo-mechanical simulation experimental lab, and a Nano-characterization texture lab. He’s also started a research group focused on smart manufacturing, machine learning, data-analytics and IoT for various sectors including manufacturing, transportation, and defense.

His personal area of research is in mathematical models for microstructural-mechanics. He has over 100 international journal & conference publications and 10 international patents. His pioneering work in 3D microscopy has been widely cited, including reproduction in ASM handbooks. He is on the editorial board of several international Journals including Metallurgical and Materials Transactions and Image Analysis & Stereology. He is an advisory committee member for various national & international research boards and has won several awards and recognition for his research and teaching.

Dr. Archana G Gulati is the Joint Secretary, Digital Communications, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog. NITI Aayog is the premier policy ‘Think Tank’ of the Government of India, providing both directional and policy inputs. While designing strategic and long term policies and programmes for the Government of India, NITI Aayog also provides relevant technical advice to the Centre and States. Hon’ble Prime Minister of India is the chairman of NITI Aayog.

She is Indian Civil Services officer of the 1989 batch. Dr Gulati is known as Information Communication Technology (ICT) policy and regulation expert. She is the Financial Adviser to the Government of India for more than 25 years. She served as Head of Merger Control, Competition Commission of India. She has implemented successful and recognized e-Government initiatives and Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) schemes.

Dr Gulati has served as an expert on Universal Service policy with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

Mr. Ashish Narayan is Programme Coordinator in the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. His work primarily involves implementing human capacity building initiatives undertaken by ITU in the region and is presently the coordinator for the ITU Asia Pacific Centres of Excellence Network. He has been actively involved with policy, regulatory and training assignments under ITU’s programs in Asia-Pacific countries.

Prior to the ITU, Mr. Narayan worked as Deputy Advisor in the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. During his tenure in the TRAI, he worked on key telecom sector reform issues. He began his career with the Tata Telecom, an equipment manufacturer, before moving to the Indian Government Service. He has also worked with the Indian public service broadcaster in the area of broadcast engineering.

Mr. Narayan holds an MBA Degree in International Business and a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering.

Dr Modi is the Assistant Professor at Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department, IIT Kanpur (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur). His  research are areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Previously, he worked at Disney Research (DR), Los Angeles. At DR, he conducted research in multi-modal Affective computing, Conversational Systems and Natural Language Understanding (NLU).

He did his Ph.D. at Saarland University, Germany under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Manfred Pinkal and Dr. Ivan Titov. He was associated with Department of Computational Lingusitics, MultiModal Cluster Initiative (MMCI) and Department of Computer Science.

Dr Ravindran is a Microbiologist from JIPMER Pondicherry and Delhi University and later in Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK and University of Connecticut Health Centre, USA. He worked as a scientist with Indian Council of Medical Research for more than two decades and currently heading the Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, an autonomous research institution under Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Govt of India. His Scientific interests include Immunology of infectious diseases such as Malaria, Filariasis and Sepsis, regulation of inflammation and macrophage biology in infectious diseases, evolution of immune system in mammals. His laboratory uses experimental animals as well as pathogen exposed humans as model systems. He has been an active member of a large global consortium of investigators from Universities and Research institutions in UK, USA, Germany, France, Netherlands, Malaysia and Indonesia for nearly a decade working on Immuno-biology of Metazoan pathogens. He has been a visiting Professor/Visiting Scientist at University Edinburgh, University of Bonn, Pasteur Institute at Lille during the last 10 years. His group has published about 90 scientific papers in International journals. Over the last three decades 18 PhD and 16 MD students worked with him and successfully completed their degrees. Current the strength of my laboratory is 3 PhD students, 2 post doctoral fellow and one woman scientist. In recent years he has spend much of time serving as a member of Board of Governors and in Scientific Advisory Committees of several Research institutions and functioning as a peer-reviewer for several scientific journals and funding agencies in India and abroad

Balaji Parthasarathy is Professor at the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB)  and a co-founder of the Institute’s Center for Information Technology and Public Policy (CITAPP). His interests focus on the relationships between technological change and innovation, economic globalization, and social transformation. Within this broad focus, his work follows two threads. One thread examines the impacts of public policies and firm strategies on the social and spatial organization of production in the ICT (information and communications technology) industry. Another thread deals with ICTs for Development or ICTD. Here, his interests lie in understanding how ICTs are deployed in various domains of activity to transform social relationships, especially in underprivileged contexts.

Mr Bhupesh Daheria is known in education reform leader with 20 years experience in the field. His career is focused on eradicating the birth penalty through offering quality education to the masses at affordable cost. He founded Aegis School of Business, Data Science, Cyber Security & Telecommunication in 2002 with the support of Bharti Airtel; India’s top telecom firm for developing the next generation leaders.

Under his guidance in 2011 launched India’s first mMBA on tablet on Mobile University platform which was unveiled by Mr Sachin Pilot, former Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications & IT, Government of India.

Aegis joined hands with IBM which now known as the best program in Data Science and 2017 launched India’s first PGP program in CyberSecurity. Mr. Daheria is founder and Chief Organizer of Aegis Graham Bell Awards In 2013, He launched mUniversity (known as mUni Campus)– An open market place and delivery platform for the masses. His mission to launch mUni Campus is to make education accessible to all by eliminating geographical and financial constraints.

Prof Bimal Kumar Roy is a former Director of the Indian Statistical Institute. He is a cryptologist from the Cryptology Research Group of the Applied Statistics Unit of ISI, Kolkata.H e received a Ph.D. in Combinatorics and Optimization in 1982 from the University of Waterloo under the joint supervision of Ronald C. Mullin and Paul Jacob Schellenberg.

Currently he is working on Combinatorics, and application of Statistics in Cryptology and Design of Experiments.In 2015, Prof Roy was awarded Padma Shri, India’s fourth highest civilian honour, recognizing his accomplishments and contribution to education. In 2019,  Prof Roy was appointed as the chairperson of the National Statistical Commission, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India.

Mr. Bishow Parajuli took office as United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) Representative and Country Director to India on 1st September 2019. Mr. Parajuli brings 35 years of distinguished experiences in development, humanitarian affairs, diplomacy, fund raising, and management in over 10 countries in Asia, Middle East and Africa, including WFP headquarters in Rome.

Prior to his current assignment, Mr Parajuli served for the past five years in Zimbabwe as the UN Resident Coordinator and Designated Official of the UN Secretary General and also as the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Prior to joining the UN in Zimbabwe, Mr. Parajuli served as the UN World Food Programme Representative and Country Director in Yemen from 2013 to 2014 and in WFP HQ in Rome, as the Chief of Staff, Director of the Executive Directors Office, as well as the Director of Government Donor Relations. From 2008 to 2011, Mr Parajuli worked as UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Myanmar. Prior to Myanmar, Mr. Parajuli was the WFP Representative and Country Director in Egypt. He has also served in various positions in WFP offices in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Botswana and its HQ in Italy. Bishow holds two Masters degrees in Agricultural Development and in Business Administration and an Honors degree in Agricultural Science.

Mr. Sonowal is an innovator and most influential business development leader with more than 20 years of experience. Introduced and established SMART Technologies in India as its Managing Director, worked as different leadership role with business giants Like Microsoft, IBM, Tata Steel.

He is known for his experience in managing independent business entities for a wide portfolio of enterprise, commercial and consumer products in the ICT Industry. An Engineer and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore.

He leads an EdTech startup – Coretouch, which was founded in 2015. Coretouch help educators and learners explore the world of limitless imagination and creativity with our tools and technologies. Their interactive and digital classroom solutions, powered by patented touch technologies make learning immersive and fun.

Chetna Gala Sinha is a passionate listener who respects risk-takers — which makes her a powerful force in the banking world. A longtime activist and farmer, in 1997 she set up the Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, Indias first bank for and by rural women. Today, the Mann Deshi Bank has 100,000 account holders, has loaned over $70 million and regularly creates new financial products to support the needs of female micro-entrepreneurs. In 2006, Sinha founded the first business school for rural women in India, and in 2013, she launched a toll-free helpline and the first Chambers of Commerce for women micro-entrepreneurs in the country. In 2012, she set up a community empowerment program for farmers that supports water conservation; it has built ten check dams and impacted 50,000 people. In January 2018, Sinha served as a co-chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and later that year, she was awarded the Nari Shakti Puraskar – the highest civilian award for women in India – by the President of India.  Mann Deshi has supported over half a million women and aims to reach one million women by 2024.

Prof. D. Janakiram is presently the Director of Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT), an Institute established by the Reserve Bank of India. A Ph.D. from IIT Delhi, he was awarded the Boyscast Fellowship in 1997, the IBM
Faculty Award in 2007 and Yahoo Faculty Grant in 2009. He is a Board Member of IIIT Kurnool and Senate Member of IIIT Trichy. He has
served as Board of Studies member in several Universities including VIT University, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Anna University, Gujarat Technical University, Andhra University, SV University, JNTU, Hyderabad, JNTU, Kakinada and Academic Council member of Hindustan University. Having authored over 150 research papers, Prof. Janakiram is the editor of six books. His books on Grid Computing (2005); Building Large Scale Software Systems (2013), and Grid and Cloud Computing (2016) are very well received. He was an associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing, editor of CSI Journal of Computing, Executive Council member of Cloud Innovation Council, and a fellow of Computer Society of India. He was involved in starting several conferences including the IEEE Cloud Computing for Emerging Markets (CCEM) and Urban Data Science (UDS). He has guided 14 Ph.D., over 36 M.S (Research), and 70 M.Tech. students. He has steered many nationally-important research projects with success. He was the principal investigator for a number of projects including MobiTel: Mobile Telemedicine for rural India (Indo-German Project), Peer-to-peer Concept Search (Indo-Italian collaborative project), Service Oriented Architecture for Linux Kernel (DIT) and Cloud Bursting Architecture for Document Workflow (Xerox) and has incubated two companies in the cloud computing space.

Chatur Ideas is the inception of first ever dynamic, multifarious online platform, which will engage, counsel, and interconnect the entrepreneurial breed of India to investors, financiers, and mentors in a controlled investment friendly ecosystem. Devesh has been a seasoned wealth manager managing ultra HNI clients including some of the most reputed CXO’s and wealthy family business owners in India and overseas. He is also on the Mentor Panel of Eureka which is Asia’s largest Business Model Competition held at IIT. His excellence has been rewarded with various awards and he stands successfully as the Best Advisor and Most Efficient Leader. He is committed to add value to the start-up segment and revolutionize entrepreneurship picture in India.

Mr. Dilip is the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He leads the permanent secretariat of the industry chamber, which is the largest and oldest apex business organization in India, and a potent voice for policy change. FICCI represents over 2,50,000 members through Member Bodies covering all the States of India.

Before joining FICCI, He served as Managing Director & CEO of the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). NSDC fosters private sector investment and initiatives in training and skill development.

He has also worked in several key industry organizations, including SIAM as its Director General. He was a member of the Harvard Business School project under Professor Michael Porter that worked on the competitiveness of Indian industry. With varied experiences of working in the private sector, he advices start-ups including organizations in the digital, education, skills and livelihood space. He has also served as Chairman of an Engineering Institute.

A fellow of the World Academy of Productivity Science (WAPS), he was awarded the Indian Achievers Award in 2018, The Game Changer Award in 2015 and the Rashtriya Media Ratan Award in 2013.

Dr Ebin Deni Raj is the Assistant Professor at Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department, IIIT Kottayam (Indian Institute of Information Technology Kottayam). His research areas are Data Science, Machine Learning (ML), and Artificial Intelligence (AI). He is an ACM Distinguished Speaker in the area of Data Science. He is a recipient of Microsoft AI for Earth grant in the year 2019. He also received the best thesis award by the Computer Society of India. Previously he worked at Alcatel Lucent. He worked on developing Cloud APIs for different use cases.

Dr. Singh is a Scientist and heads Division of Biomedical Informatics at the Indian Council of Medical Research. The Indian Council of Medical Research, the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world; He has been the Co-Ordinator for ICMR’s task force which established 20 Biomedical Informatics Centers of ICMR in leading medical research institutes and medical colleges with a mandate to nucleate and support informatics in medical research through training programs and services established .

He is a technical professional with 17 years of experience in data management and analysis. He is leading a team providing data analysis services to ICMR programs like ICMR Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network, implementation research in mental health and further. 

Dr. Singh has extensive experience in handling and analyzing next generation sequence data, genotyping by sequencing and epitope prediction.

Former Deputy Director General in Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). He had been the main architect for creation of 08 Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOE) in Public Private Partnership mode for Industry led research in IITs and IIM with the support of Telecom Operators and Department of Telecom; and had managed these centres as Director of TCOE India for over eight years. He was also the promoter and founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Telecom Sector Skill Council that works towards adequate availability of skilled manpower to boost growth of telecom sector. He has substantial contribution in development of the Indian telecom ecosystem and has to his credit formation of 17 Start-Ups.

Dr. Jena holds a Bachelor degree in Electrical Eng., Three Master degrees – one each in Telecommunications (IIT Kgp), International Business (Symbiosis) and Defense Strategy (Madras University) – and a PhD from IIT Delhi.

He had three decades of rich experience in Indian Defense in the field of R&D, Policy Making, Project Management and Indigenous Development of Electronics, Communication &; Weapon Systems before stepping into the Telecom sector.

Dr Kumar holds a PhD degree in Biotechnology from Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh, a prestigious national laboratory affiliated to Jawahar Lal Nehru University, New Delhi. Subsequently, he moved to University of Illinois at Chicago, where he worked on Leukemia. In the next stint as a Post Doc at Ohio State University, Columbus OHIO (USA) he worked on various cutting edge research projects related to chromatin remodeling, mitochondrial Phospholipase, its role in apoptosis and role of peroxides in inducing mitochondrial dysfunction in heart, liver and brain. He is the author on several internationally acclaimed peer reviewed papers. He holds a MBA degree from prestigious Fisher College of Business at Ohio State University. He also led a team from Ohio State University to contest International Entrepreneurship Challenge, 2008 organized by Materials Research Society.

After returning from US, he joined as a Vice- President of Life Science Incubator at IKP Knowledge Park, Hyderabad where he was involved in actively mentoring Incubatee companies, creating pipeline of entrepreneurs through innovative models of team building around the technologies, working with public R&D laboratories and Universities to create entrepreneurial models of commercialization. He brought many Government Grants and created a world class center for translational research in Life Sciences at IKP Knowledge Park. As the Director & Head of BBC his current focus is on Incubating Innovations is Agriculture, Food and Nutrition, Biofuel/Bio-energy and Pharma/Healthcare. He is working closely with Karnataka Biotechnology and Information Technology Services (KBITS), Department of IT, BT and S&T, Govt of Karnataka, to create a vibrant Life Sciences Innovation cluster in Bangalore.

Currently designated with International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), A statutory authority established by Government of India. The main objective of the IFSCA is to develop a strong global connect and focus on the needs of the Indian economy as well as to serve as an international financial platform for the entire region and the global economy as a whole.

With experiences in client sites in the United States (Houston, San Francisco), Canada (Calgary, Toronto), and Mexico, Senior Technology Professional with experience in consulting and delivering transformational IT Projects for Government/Regulators (RBI) and Fortune 100 clients . Experience building up a Technology Business Incubator and exposure to the startup ecosystem.

Has experience as a member of a management team (part of the five-person core team that co-founded ReBIT, Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s IT subsidiary) with a passion for people, process, and technology. Has a lot of experience in Technology Visioning, Software Estimation, IT Roadmap Definition, Legacy Modernization, Business Case Articulation, Metrics-Driven Operations, Transition, and Vendor Management. With significant exposure to North America (US, Canada, Mexico), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile), Central America (Costa Rica), Europe (UK), and Asia-Pacific (China, Philippines, India), he thrives in geo penetration. He has managed multi-million dollar projects with multiple teams across multiple time zones.

A Paediatrician and Neonatologist from Indian Armed Forces where he has put in 28 years of service. A Graduate of the Armed Forces Medical College and AIIMS New Delhi where he did his DM specialization in Neonatology. Authored around various scientific papers, chapters, articles and he has spoken at various national and international fora. He have been the head of departments at tertiary care Armed Forces Hospitals at Kolkata and Pune and a recognized post graduate medical teacher at AFMC.

Currently working in the Health Vertical of NITI Aayog as Officer on Special Duty, where the overall work profile is provision of  policy level directions, leveraging for inter sectoral collaboration for optimal cooperation, providing vision and way forward for future India. He is engaged in various streams related to COVID Pandemic related health policies, medical education, medical institutions of national importance, Human Resources for Health and improvement of health systems amongst others.

Entrepreneurial and results-driven IT professional offering 20+ years of cross-platform experience in strategic planning, consulting, P&L management and revenue generation across diverse industry verticals including Telecom, Banking, BPO and MNC. Currently working as Director with Trust 2 Serv Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, and Maharashtra, India, developing market plans, architecting solutions and establishing markets for various products for India, Middle East and Africa.

Well versed in Business Transformation Services, Solution Sales, Managed Services, Enterprise Applications, System Integration, Information Security, Software Development, IoT, Remote Infrastructure Management, SoC, ITO and LTO. Extensive working exposure across the globe including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh Nepal, China, Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, KSA, UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Kenya, RSA, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, UK, Ireland, Germany & France.

Krishan Batra has diverse experience of 4 decades in the field of Technology & SCM. He enjoys engaging people in sustainable transformation and inspiring business excellence. In his last assignment with UN organization as Chairperson of the supply chain, he was instrumental in re- engineering business processes and implementing ERP worldwide. He started his career with Voltas after completing M.Tech from IIT Delhi. Later he completed MBA from Syracuse University in USA.

Mr. Batra was actively involved in developing EDI Standards during his tenure with the United Nations in Geneva. He is the founder and developer of UNSPSC Classification Standard which is used by SAP, ORACLE, and many others as a global standard. He is Advisor of Economic Times on use of new technology to digitize the supply chain. ISM-INDIA is an affiliate of ISM USA which is the largest and oldest organization in the world with its presence in 70 countries. ISM-INDIA is an Associate Partner of Economic Times on Supply Chain issues & knowledge partner of many organizations.

With 10+ years of experience at the intersection of Product, Technology and Engineering, Kshitij moved from Bay Area (Silicon Valley) to India at the end of 2016, specifically to join 3one4 Capital. As a part of the core team at 3one4 Capital, he has discovered budding technology-enabled companies in several sectors, analyzed investment opportunities, and helped build and execute strategic roadmaps for portfolio companies that the firm has invested in.

Being a technology practitioner and domain expert, Kshitij has had important input to the firm’s thesis on investing in technology-led enablement, access, and scaling of the solutions for gaps identified in the market. One of his key contributions has been building the technology & product audit framework as part of the due diligence process for the firm. This has helped identify core execution strengths and gaps in teams. With such awareness consciously surfaced, the team builds customized plans that have brought a unique edge to the 3one4 Portfolio companies including differentiated market strategies where the reach to consumer can be expanded and value-creation can be achieved with far more efficiency. The portfolio companies have seen tremendous value-add because of his interest and experience in Design Thinking, Agile Frameworks, Data Privacy & Security, Cloud Infrastructure Management, and Open Source technologies.

He worked as a Scientist in CARE, IIT Delhi from 1977 to 1985 where he was involved in designing and implementing real-time DSP systems. For the last 32 years, he is involved in teaching and research in the areas of digital systems design, electronic design automation and embedded systems. He has supervised 17 Ph.D. students, 4 MSR students, 216 M.Tech/B.Tech projects and published nearly 137 conference and journal papers. Further, he has held visiting positions in universities in Canada, USA and Germany. At IIT Delhi, he has been the Philips Chair Professor, Head of the Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Dean of Post Graduate Studies & Research, Deputy Director (Faculty) and Deputy Director

He has been a recipient of three National awards, ACM Eugene L Lawler award and very recently IIT Delhi’s Life Time award for his work in the disability space. He also served briefly as the Vice Chancellor of a Greenfield Institution of Eminence named Satya Bharti Institute of Technology.

Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, AVSM, VSM has assumed the prestigious appointment of Dy Chief Integrated Defence Staff (Med) on 29 Feb 2020. The Gen Officer is a medical graduate of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune University and postgraduate in MD (Paediatric) from Indian Naval Hospital Ship (INHS), Asvini. She has had the distinction of being first in Pune University in all the three phases of MBBS and was awarded the President’s Gold Medal & Kalinga Trophy for the best outgoing student of the graduate wing in academics and extra – curricular activities in 1982.

The Gen Officer has held various key staff appts, as MG Med, Northern Command, Udhampur, Dean & Dy Commandant, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Deputy Director General AFMS (P&T), prestigious appointment of Prof & Head, Dept of Paediatric at Armed Forces Medical College Pune, Sr Adv Paed, BHDC & MH Namkum, Reader, AFMC Pune and Cl Spl Paed, CH (SC) Pune & 167 MH.

For her distinguished service Gen Kanitkar has been awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2018, Vishisht Seva Medal in 2014, Commendation by Chief of the Army Staff in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2012 (twice) and Commendation by GOC-in-C in 2008.

The Gen Officer has been nominated to the Prime Minister Science Technology Innovation Advisory Committee and Board of Governors of Medical Council of India in the year October 2018 and July 2019 respectively. Her Thrust has been to align medical education and research to Public Health needs.

Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar, AVSM, VSM has assumed the prestigious appointment of Dy Chief Integrated Defence Staff (Med) on 29 Feb 2020. The Gen Officer is a medical graduate of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune University and postgraduate in MD (Paediatric) from Indian Naval Hospital Ship (INHS), Asvini. She has had the distinction of being first in Pune University in all the three phases of MBBS and was awarded the President’s Gold Medal & Kalinga Trophy for the best outgoing student of the graduate wing in academics and extra – curricular activities in 1982.

The Gen Officer has held various key staff appts, as MG Med, Northern Command, Udhampur, Dean & Dy Commandant, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Deputy Director General AFMS (P&T), prestigious appointment of Prof & Head, Dept of Paediatric at Armed Forces Medical College Pune, Sr Adv Paed, BHDC & MH Namkum, Reader, AFMC Pune and Cl Spl Paed, CH (SC) Pune & 167 MH.

For her distinguished service Gen Kanitkar has been awarded Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2018, Vishisht Seva Medal in 2014, Commendation by Chief of the Army Staff in 2000, 2003, 2004, 2012 (twice) and Commendation by GOC-in-C in 2008.

The Gen Officer has been nominated to the Prime Minister Science Technology Innovation Advisory Committee and Board of Governors of Medical Council of India in the year October 2018 and July 2019 respectively. Her Thrust has been to align medical education and research to Public Health needs.

Director, National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE). He was a Professor with Higher Academic Grade (HAG) in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. His research and teaching interests are in modeling the Manufacturing Processes and Operations analysis in Supply Chain Networks. Optimization, Simulation and Computational Intelligence are the main techniques adopted by Prof. Tiwari to automate the decision support system for complex and large-scale problems in Manufacturing and Logistics System

He is Recipient of “Most Influential Researcher Award” in the domain of Operations and Supply Chain Management. He is the Recipient of Mahalanobis Distinguished Educator Award from the Operations Research Society of India (ORSI), in the category of Management education. Prof. Tiwari is in the editorial board of several International Journals.

Prof. Tiwari is also serving as Chairman, Sectional Committee of Global Initiative for Academic Networks (GIAN), Chairman of Board of UG Studies AICTE, First member of Board of UG Studies AICTE, and Member, Board of Governor at NIFFT Ranchi. Prof. Tiwari is Fellow of Institute of Industrial Engineers (IISE, USA), Fellow of Indian National academy of Engineering (INAE, India), and Fellow of National Academy of Sciences (FNASc, India).

Dr. Manoj Singh Gaur assumed the charge of Director, Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu on June 29, 2017. Prior to joining IIT Jammu, he was a Professor and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Malaviya National Institute of Technology (MNIT) Jaipur, India. Additionally, he was Professor-In-Charge (Coordinator) of IIIT Kota, which is currently being mentored by MNIT Jaipur. He has been Dean, Students Affairs and Head, Central Computer Centre at MNIT Jaipur as well. He also served as Chairman, Senate UG Board at MNIT Jaipur.

He completed his Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Indian Institute of Science Bangalore and Ph.D. from University of Southampton, UK. In his teaching and research career of more than two decades, he has been Investigator of a number of funded research projects in the area of Information Security and Networks on Chip. He has been part of the core group of Project ISEA (Information Security Education and Awareness) which is a major multi-institutional project in the domain of Information Security in India.

His current research areas include Computer and Network Security (Network Attack Models and Countermeasures), Mobile Platform Security, Cloud Security, Malware Analysis, Networks-on-Chip, and SDN. He has published more than 170+ papers in reputed journals and conferences. He has also contributed to a number of book chapters. He has several funded international collaborations with many countries.

Dr Mathew Varghese, heads of the orthopaedics department at Delhi’s St Stephen’s Hospital. He is a hero to his patients and other admirers, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Gates describes Dr Varghese as “my inspiration and my real-life hero” for “fighting and (having) dedicated his life for polio eradication in India”. He is public health expert his famous viral explanatory video on timeline of how the virus infects any patient. He also explains how keeping track of you symptoms can save your life. Dr Varghese joined St Stephen’s in 1990. The presentation brings out the painstaking efforts he has put in over the ensuing years. Currently, St Stephen’s Hospital is a regional centre for the national polio vaccination programme.

Dr. Muktesh Chander graduated in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering from Delhi University in first class with distinction. After doing one-year specialization in Statistical and Quality Control and Operations Research from ISI, Madras, he joined Bharat Heavy Engineering Limited as a Quality Control Engineer and received several awards for improvement in the quality and productivity.

In 1988 he joined Indian Police Service and has remained posted to several places including DIG Goa and Addl. Commissioner of Police, Crime, and Traffic Delhi and IG Daman Diu. He has served as Centre Director Cyber Division and National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre in National Technical Research Organization under Prime Ministers’ Office. He was specially selected as United Nation Police Observer and has monitored, trained and advised police in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Europe for 1 year. He has also done Hostage Negotiation course at Louisiana State Police Academy, USA and Law Enforcement Executive Development Course with FBI, Los Angeles, USA.

Dr. Muktesh Chander also holds a law degree from Delhi University, Diploma in Human Resource Management, Diploma in Cyber Laws from Amity Law School and Master’s Degree in Criminology & Police Science. He has also got Ph.D. in Information Security Management from I.I.T., Delhi. He has been awarded President’s Police Medal for meritorious service, President’s Police Medal for distinguished service, Police Medal for Hard Duty, UN Service Medal and 50th Anniversary of Independence Medal.

His current areas of interest are cybercrime and its detection, cyber terrorism, E-governance, Digital signatures, Cryptography, E-policing, Information security and Cyber laws, Social media monitoring, etc.He has written a number of articles on Cyber Crime and related topics, which have been published in various prestigious journals and newspapers. He is a resource person for premier institutes like Rajasthan Police Academy, Gujarat Police Academy, Gujarat Forensic Science University, National Crime Records Bureau, Punjab Academy of Administration, Bureau of Police Research and Development, National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, CBI, IILM Institute of Higher Education, Indian Law Institute etc., His paper on Cyber Terrorism was selected for the 35th All India Police Science Congress in 2004. He was member secretary of the Joint Working Group which formulated “Guidelines for Protection of National Critical Information Infrastructure in India”. He has also served as Centre Director of Cyber Division of National Technical Research Centre under Prime Minister’s office.

Apart from this Dr. Muktesh Chander holds a license of Amateur Radio. He is also life member of Amateur Radio Society of India. He is life member of Computer Society of India and an elected Fellow of Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers (IETE) as well as The Institution of Engineers India. He has been awarded by IETE with Hari Ram Toshniwal Award 2013. He is also life member of India Society of Criminology and Indian Society of Victimology

Mr. Nanda Kishore Reddy is a career bureaucrat from the Indian Information Service (IIS, 2008), a central civil service of Government of India. He is currently serving as Managing Director APTS (Andhra Pradesh Technology Services Ltd), IT, E&C department (Information Technology, Electronics & Communications), Government of Andhra Pradesh. He is also serving as Group CEO, APEITA (Andhra Pradesh Electronics andInformation Technology Agency) and is responsible for investment promotion for IT and Electronics sectors in Andhra Pradesh.

Mr. Reddy had worked on various Government of India positions such as Officer on Special Duty to Minister for Commerce & Industry where he had contributed towards developing Export Promotion Strategies, Trade Analytics, Market Access, Internal Trade Promotion, promotion of Start-ups etc. He had also served in Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Urban Development, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting in various other capacities. Prior to this, he worked in Software industry for 8 years. These diverse portfolios have accorded him immense experience in various facets of both the private sector and the government.

Mr. Reddy, in his current capacity, is playing a pivotal role in the investment promotion and e-Governance initiatives being undertaken in the State of Andhra Pradesh. APTS provides consultancy, procurement services, implementation support to the government entities for their ICT initiatives. APEITA being the investment promotion agency is responsible for implementation of both IT and Electronic policies.

Hailing from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Reddy holds Bachelor of Technology degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Hyderabad. He authored a book titled ‘Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude’, published by “McGraw Hill Education”. He was awarded “Web Ratna (Platinum Icon)” by Ministry of Communications & IT, Govt of India for the work done in the field of ‘New Media’ for the year 2014.

Dr. Neelesh recently moved to Academia as Director, Symbiosis Centre for Alumni Engagement (SCAE), established across the Symbiosis International University to focus on creating a connected world of alumni for new possibilities.

Before, in a career spanning over 22 years, he has gained an extensive global experience in creating IP, wining and managing large international business in various engagement models, domains and technologies. Dr. Neelesh has created and managed competencies such as Cloud, Application Performance Management and Modelling and Simulation, and contributed to make them super-sized. He was leading a team of strategic consultants. He had set up 3 Customer experience and technology centers and made them profitable. As a member of Specialist Cadre – he was responsible to enable multi-fold growth for the organization in disruptive technologies.

Dr. Verma is the first woman Director General of National Informatics Centre, a Premier Science and technology organization of the Government of India. National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established in 1976, and has rich experience in providing ICT and eGovernance support to the Government for the last 4 decades and bridge the digital divide. It has emerged as a promoter of digital opportunities for sustainable development. NIC has been closely associated with the Government in different aspects of Governance  besides establishing a Nationwide State-of-the-Art ICT Infrastructure, it has also built a large number of digital solutions to support the government at various levels, making the last-mile delivery of government services to the citizens a reality.

She is also the mission director of Aarogya Sethu, Indian open-source COVID–19 “contact tracing, syndromic mapping and self-assessment” digital service, primarily a mobile app. She holds a PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Her areas of research interests include applications of emerging technologies in Governance, Cyber Security, Data Centers, etc.

Professor Olayinka David-West is an Information Systems professional with over two decades experience in the IT and financial services industries and is a passionate advocate for digital transformation and inclusive finance. Her research and practice engagements involve policy and strategic management interventions towards digitally transformed businesses and society.

Professor David-West is the Academic Director at the Lagos Business School (LBS), the premier business school in Nigeria and sits on the school’s Management Board. She leads the Sustainable and Inclusive Digital Financial Services (SIDFS) initiative, a research and advocacy department dedicated to enhancing financial inclusion in Nigeria. She is also a member of the Pan-Atlantic University senate and a governing council member of the Fintech Association of Nigeria.

She is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Certified in the Governance of Enterprise IT (CGEIT), and the academic advocate to the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). She is also a qualified practitioner of the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA).

Professor David-West frequently participates in global events providing African insights and expertise through keynote addresses, panel discussions and technical moderation.

Professor Olinga Ta’eed PhD FIoD is Visiting Professor in Blockchain at Birmingham City University and since April 2019 appointed to 7-person Chinese Ministry of Commerce ‘China E-Commerce Blockchain Committee’ with oversight of 70% of US$ 103 trillion global market. He is Founder and Director of the not-for-profit Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance – world’s leading think tank on movement of value with 170,000 members. He is Chief Editor of Frontiers in Blockchain, the peer reviewed academic journal with 475 editors. In 2017 carried out the UK’s first and only official ICO (Initial Coin Offering) with FCA guidance. Currently he is launching in the Middle East the world’s first  £210m Seratio DLT Open Bank, the TTP Procurement 4IR Foundation leading 2700 multination consortium HQ in Nairobi, and an international community charging Electric Vehicle project using blockchain.

Dr. Omkar Rai is Director General, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and has got wide experience in the matters of IT/ITeS industry. Software Technology Parks of India(STPI) was established and registered as an Autonomous Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860, under the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India on 5th June 1991 with an objective to implement STP Scheme, set-up and manage infrastructure facilities including data com & incubation for startups and provide other services like technology assessment and professional training.

Prior to joining of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), he served National Informatics Centre (NIC) in various capacities. He earned wide experience in formulation and implementation of various important ICT applications across various domains. He is also serving as Director on the Board of Directors of MTNL-STPI IT Services Limited and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). Dr. Rai has been educated in Banaras Hindu University (BHU) from where he earned his Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D in Statistics.

Professor Pabitra Mitra received the B.Tech. degree in electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, India, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree from the Indian Statistical Institute, India, in 2004. He is currently a Professor with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur. His research interests include machine learning, data mining, and information retrieval.

Ms Pamela association with the telecom sector began in 1985 and since then she has worked in different capacities with organisations such as AT&T Information Systems, IBM, HP, C-DOT, Network Programs India and Texas Instruments India. She is currently director general of the Telecom Standards Development Society of India and president of the Cloud Computing Innovation Council of India. Her works to bring together technical experts from the industry, academia and government on a collaborative platform to define India-specific use cases and develop local standards in the 5G space. During her long professional journey, several experiences have stayed with Ms. Kumar. One such memorable experience was her involvement in the development of India’s first fully indigenous telephone exchange while she was at C-DOT. Another experience was leading the design of a single-chip solution for the 2.5G feature phone at Texas Instruments India. Kumar is an electronics and electrical communications engineer from Punjab Engineering College with an MSc in electrical engineering from Rutgers University. She has also done an executive general management programme from IIM Bangalore.

An officer from Indian Defence Service of Engineers, 1989 Batch, Shri Paresh Kumar Goel, is presently on deputation in Ministry of Road Transport and Highways as Director (Transport, International Cooperation and Establishment). He is an Electrical Engineer and graduated from University of Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) in 1989. He has served all across the country including border areas in Western Sector and NE region and has a rich experience of planning and execution of Defence infrastructure projects. He has earlier also held the appointment of Director (Road Safety) in the Ministry for considerable time. Presently he is dealing with the policy matters related to Transport and International Cooperation in addition to Establishment related matters in Ministry.

Prof RK Shyamasundar is a JC Bose National Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay. He was the Founding Dean of School of Technology and Computer Science at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is a Fellow IEEE, Fellow ACM and Fellow of all National Science and Engineering academies and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Trieste. He has authored over 300 peer reviewed publications, 8 patents, and 8 books. More than 35 Ph.D. students have graduated under his guidance in India and USA. He has been a consultant to ESPRIT projects, Industries, Govt. of India etc. He is on the editorial board of Journal of parallel and distributed computing, Sadhana etc. He has served as Faculty/Visiting Scientist at various places like IBM TJ Watson Research Center, UCSD, UIUC, SUNY at Albany, INRIA, IRISA, University of Cambridge, JAIST at Japan, Max Planck Institute at Saarbrucken, Visiting Distinguished Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering, UK twice etc. One of his principal areas of research has been cyber security and is leading the Information Security Research and Development Center (ISRDC) funded by MEITY at IIT Bombay. He has/had been on the boards of IIIT Allahabad, IIIT Jabalpur, IDRBT, Bombay Stock Exchange etc.

Rangan Banerjee is the Forbes Marshall Chair Professor and Head of 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. He is on the editorial board of Energy for Sustainable Development, International Journal of Sustainable Energy, International Journal of Sustainable Engineering and International Journal of Thermodynamics and Frontiers in Energy Research. He 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 was the faculty advisor to Team Shunya the first Indian Student team selected for the finals of the Solar Decathlon 2014 held in Europe that involves designing and constructing a fully functional Solar house.

He was a member of the TIFAC Technology Vision 2035 – Apex Committee and Chairman of the Energy Technology Theme. He was a Convening Lead Analyst for Industrial End Use Efficiency and a member of the executive committee for the Global Energy Assessment (2008-2011) coordinated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. He was a Member of International committee to review UK’s Energy Research Programme in 2010 (RCUK Review of Energy). He was a member of the Working Group on New and Renewable Energy for the Elleventh and Twelfth Five Year Plans and a member of the Planning Commission’s Integrated Energy Policy. He has been involved in advising the city, state regulatory commission and energy agency, Planning commission, Niti Aayog, MNRE on energy issues. He has co- authored a book on Planning for Demand Side Management in the Power sector, a book on Energy Cost in the Chemical Industry and a book on Engineering Education in India. He has conducted two international training programmes on solar energy and several National programmes on renewable energy and Energy Management. He is also an Adjunct faculty (Honorary) in the Department of Engineering & Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University. He has been the Dean(R&D) of IIT Bombay. He has received the Excellence in Teaching Award from IIT Bombay and is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Dr. Ranjna Nagpal (Deputy Director General) heads the Agri-Informatic Division at NIC, and is spearheading the implementation of Digital solutions in Agriculture and allied domains (Fertilisers, Irrigation, Animal Husbandry, Agro-Forestry etc.).

She has more than 3 decades of expertise in conceptualisation and implementation of multiple pioneering ICT initiatives in the country, most of which have been awarded at various forums. During these 3 decades she has been a part of the growth and challenges of technology from basic IT infra to smart digital systems, which enables her to provide very valuable insights for the application of technology to solve grassroot level problems

Dr. Rajkumar Buyya is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor and Director of the Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems (CLOUDS) Laboratory at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He served as a Future Fellow of the Australian Research Council during 2012-2016. He has authored over 625 publications and seven text books including “Mastering Cloud Computing” published by McGraw Hill, China Machine Press, and Morgan Kaufmann for Indian, Chinese and international markets respectively.  He is one of the highly cited authors in computer science and software engineering worldwide. Microsoft Academic Search Index ranked Dr. Buyya as #1 author in the world (2005-2016) for both field rating and citations evaluations in the area of Distributed and Parallel Computing. “A Scientometric Analysis of Cloud Computing Literature” by German scientists ranked Dr. Buyya as the World’s Top-Cited (#1) Author and the World’s Most-Productive (#1) Author in Cloud Computing. Dr. Buyya is recognized as a “2016 Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher” by Thomson Reuters, a Fellow of IEEE, and Scopus Researcher of the Year 2017 with Excellence in Innovative Research Award by Elsevier for his outstanding contributions to Cloud computing.

Software technologies for Grid and Cloud computing developed under Dr. Buyya’s leadership have gained rapid acceptance and are in use at several academic institutions and commercial enterprises in 50+ countries around the world. Dr. Buyya has led the establishment and development of key community activities, including serving as foundation Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Scalable Computing and five IEEE/ACM conferences. Dr. Buyya received “Mahatma Gandhi Award” along with Gold Medals for his outstanding and extraordinary achievements in Information Technology field and services rendered to promote greater friendship and India-International cooperation.  He served as the founding Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing. He is currently serving as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Software: Practice and Experience, which was established over 45 years ago.

Mr Rakesh Kumar Upadhyay is an Indian Telecommunications Service (ITS) 1975 batch officer who was the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). A graduate of IIT, BHU, Varanasi in Electronics Engineering, he is also a graduate of Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) Wellington. He has obtained MSc (DS) degree from Madras University and is a MBA from IGNOU. He served telecommunications sector for more than 40 years in India and abroad and held important positions in the Department of Telecommunications (DOT), Government of India, Telecommunications Consultants of India (TCIL) and BSNL, both leading Indian Public Sector Companies-PSUs.

He successfully led these two PSUs as their Chairman and Managing Director (CMD). He served as country in-charge Republic of Yemen (ROY) and People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria for TCIL.  A widely travelled person, he headed and also was member of important Government delegations visiting foreign countries, delivering keynote addresses in many international conferences.

R Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) – a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Hon’ble Prime Minister and the Government of India of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). AIM’s goals are to establish and promote a vibrant culture of innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide. As the Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan has been instrumental to date in the launch and execution of several nationwide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives.

R Ramanan was previously Managing Director & CEO of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Ramanan led CMC’s rapid transformation from a domestic government organization to a global IT private sector organization. Under his leadership CMC share price grew over 2100% between October 2001 to 2014, its operating profits over 1338%, 72% of its business coming from the overseas markets and leading to its successful amalgamation into TCS in 2015

Ramanan’s joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Mumbai in Electrical Engg and played an instrumental role in the growth of TCS with a variety of responsibilities ranging from product development, technical marketing, global business development, and general management of large centers of TCS.

A career bureaucrat for 24 years from West Bengal Civil Service (Executive) cadre who had earlier served as an Intelligence Officer for 4 year whilst remaining in charge of various high value government installations, among other assignments in the North-East. I

Alma Mater of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narendrapur, Mr. Das has a Master’s in law, specialising in Constitutional Law from Kakatiya University; another Master’s in Business Administration from ICFAI University; Bachelor of Science with Honours in Physics from Calcutta University along with Post Graduation Diploma in Rural Development; Cyber Law, Intellectual Property Rights and Training & Development from various institutions of repute. Recently, he topped the first National Cyber Security Scholar Programme organised by ISAC, MDI Gurgaon and NCIIPC, Govt of India. He has also been trained as a Cyber Security Strategist by DSCI and CrowdStrike. He is a Certified Lead Implementer Professional in ISO 27701 and GDPR by BSI.

Dr. Sanjay is a though leader for telecom technologies. He has a unique blend of Technology, Advocacy, Education, Defence and Management. He has 30+ years of experience (including 11 Yrs in India Air Force in Tele Communication stream as a Short Service Commissioned officer) in Telecom domain in Wireless technologies like IoT, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, CDMA, GSM, Microwave, UHF/VHF. He has also worked in Infrastructure security, safety as in Smart cities, Wireline networks, Broadband Networks etc. in different roles such as Practice Head, BU Head, Delivery Head etc. He also has PMP & CWNA certifications.

Dr Sanjay has worked with various companies like TCS, Wipro, Tata Teleservices, Tata Infotech, Amdocs (Comverse), Nelco, Hinduja Group, India Satcom, apart from his Air Force tenure. He is also a member of Board of Studies for Dept. of IT at NMIMS Mumbai.  He has done his Ph.D. from Mumbai Univ in Management (Thesis on ‘Study of Customer Experience in mobile telecom networks and its impact on Operator’s financials’). He has done his BE & ME in Electronics & Power engg from VNIT Nagpur. He has also done ICWA (I), MDBA (Finance) from Symbiosis Pune, and Armed Forces Program (Full time 6 months) in General Management at IIM, Ahmedabad. Dr Sanjay has acquired PG Diploma in Big Data and Business Analytics from Aegis School of Big Data, Data Science and Cyber security, Mumbai in 2017. He also has UGC-NET (Management). He had completed LL.B. from Mumbai University and currently is a practicing Advocate in Bombay High Court and other Mumbai courts.

Dr. Satish Narayana Srirama is an Associate Professor at School of Computer and Information Sciences, University of Hyderabad, India. He is also a Visiting Professor and the Honorary Head of the Mobile & Cloud Lab at the Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu, Estonia, which he led as a Research Professor until June 2020. His current research focuses on cloud computing, mobile web services, mobile cloud, Internet of Things, fog computing, migrating scientific computing and enterprise applications to the cloud and large-scale data analytics on the cloud. He received his PhD in computer science from RWTH Aachen University, Germany in 2008. He is an IEEE Senior Member, an Editor of Wiley Software: Practice and Experience journal, a 51-year-old Journal since Jan 2016, and a program committee member of several international conferences and workshops. He has co-authored over 160 refereed scientific publications in reputed international conferences and journals. Dr. Srirama has successfully managed several national/European/international/enterprise collaborative research grants/projects worth over 6 million Euros during the past decade, in the areas of cloud computing, software engineering and Internet of Things. He also served as an expert panel member in evaluating project grants for various government-funding bodies such as the Academy of Finland, Italian Ministry for Education, Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation, Research Council of Norway etc.

Dr. Shekhar C. Mande obtained his MSc in 1984 from Nagpur University and PhD in 1991 from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in Molecular Biophysics. After postdoctoral training of two years at Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands in the laboratory of Prof. Wim G. J. Hol, he worked as Senior fellow, in laboratory Prof. Wim G. J. Hol for three years at University of Washington, Seattle, USA. He returned to India in 1995 and joined as Scientist-C, at Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh and continued working there until 2001. In 2001, he moved to Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad and worked there as staff scientist until 2011. Since 2011 he is working as The Director of National Center for Cell Science, Pune. His laboratory has been involved in two broad research themes in the recent past: (1) structural characterization of M. tuberculosis proteins and (2) computational analysis of genome-wide protein: protein interactions. Dr. Mande received several recognitions for his studies, Fellow, Indian National Science Academy New Delhi, Elected 2010, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Biological Sciences, 2005, Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellow, since 2003, Fellow, National Academy of Sciences, Allahabad, India, Elected 2003, Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Elected 2003 and B M Birla Young Scientist Award, 1999 for his contributions to Science.

As the CEO of TASK, his major role is enhancing the employability for the youth in Telangana under the Department of ITE&C, Government of Telangana. He has been responsible for on boarding Govt. degree colleges and polytechnics, multiple industry partners as well enhanced the offerings at TASK. his priority has been to increase focus on the rural areas of the state as well as to promote skilling and placement of girls and the underserved communities. With the onset of the COVID pandemic, he has been spearheading the transition of conventional training programs to virtual (online and blended) mode, and initiated several webinar series on various subjects.

He was part of the Program Review & Support Group (PRSG) for PMGDISHA, was also part of the two-member committee which has provided guidelines to be followed for all Govt. of India Websites & apps (GIGW). He served as a member of various Govt of India’s working group like ‘IT for Masses’; ‘Technology Development for Indian Languages Program’; part of the content, assessment for NDLM & PMGDISHA. An eminent speaker at national and international forums, he is also part of the Technology Advisory Group for ‘Girls in IT’, A champion of Social & Grassroot innovations and inclusive India, his passion got him to join the advisory board of the Nagrik Foundation & Action Aid India.

Prior to joining TASK, he was the CEO of NASSCOM Foundation, the social development arm of the Indian IT-BPM industry body – NASSCOM, where he led the ‘tech 4 good’ movement in the country for little over 4 years. Prior to joining NASSCOM Foundation, he was based out of Malaysia, working as Head Corporate learning, APAC and MENA, at GlobalNxt University (formerly U21Global), a leading Online Graduate School, helping thousands of people working in corporates across the Asia-Pacific, Middle-East and North African regions with limited or no access to good quality academic opportunities.

Through his unique perspective and diverse and rich experience spanning over 32+ years, he helped take NASSCOM Foundation to newer heights and helped create much larger impact. He has also been championing the cause of collaborative CSR, where corporates can join hands for a common cause, with government and non-government entities to solve social issues and create large scale impact. As a respected leader in the space, A student of Computer Applications & Physics from Delhi university, earlier in his career, Shrikant has played a pivotal role in the success of APTECH  in India, in Latin America & the Middle East.

Soumya K. Ghosh is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.  He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur. Before joining IIT Kharagpur, he worked as a scientist in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Department of Space, Government of India, in the area of satellite remote sensing and geographic information systems. He has been awarded the National Geospatial Chair Professorship by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India. He has more than 300 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include spatial data science, machine learning, cloud computing, and IoT. Dr. Ghosh is a senior member of IEEE and a member of ACM.

Mr. Sudhir Gupta has done his B.E (Electronics) in 1979 from the University of Indore and Post Graduate Diploma in IT & Management in 1999 from the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

Captain Ramanujam has a rich experience of 30 years in Maritime Logistics and Transportation. He has been engaged with the skill eco system since its inception in 2010.

As CEO Logistics Skill Council his endeavour is to ensure Logistics Companies have at least 25% of their workforce below Managerial Cadre are skilled and LSC certified, while reducing the cost of hiring by 20% in 3 years. He is an ardent advocate of Apprenticeship and feels this should be the preferred route for Companies and Candidates as it is a win-win situation for both. He also feels Education and Vocational Skills are intimately connected and has had the support of the Academic Institutions, Industry and Government of India to embed Logistics Training in the Educational Sector in a first of kind Degree Apprenticeship Program.

She holds 20^th position as “India’s 100 Most Influential Cyber Warriors”. Ms Tulika has lead to undertaking national initiatives in technology assessment & development, several initiatives have been undertaken towards building the country’s internet resilience; significant contributions in the national cyber security strategy and cyber warfare formulation as also policy and regulations; initiatives for creation of skilled workforce; programme for encouraging cyber security industry & startups; international alliances for collaboration and confidence building measures. Member Task Force and Committees. She has Lead technology development and successful field implementation in the areas of Digital Payments; Alternate Technologies for Connectivity in Rural India; E-Readiness Assessment Methodologies; Internet Governance; Digitization & Digitalization, E-Learning; E-Infrastructure; IPv6; Convergence, Communications & Broadband Technologies;Smart Cities;Transforming Villages into Smart Villages;Security especially in Digital Payments. She has Lead research & development in the areas of Microelectronics & Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems(MEMs); Convergence of Cognitive Radio Frequency with Internet; Emerging Technologies – IoT, Data Analytics, Blockchain Technology & Artificial Intelligence. She has Technical Reports and Research Papersthat have lead to adoption and implementation– Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMs); E-Learning Models for Secondary Education; E-Readiness Assessment of India; Internet Governance Position Paper of India; Secondary Usage of TV White Space in UHF Band to provide Broadband connectivity; Smart City – IoT Framework; Security – Digital Payments, IoT, 5G; Women Empowerment through ICT, Standards – Smart Grid, IoT, Digital Payments.Digitization & digitalization; Network Engineering; Cyber Trailing, Wireless Sensor Networks; Pervasive Computing; Security in IoT/CPS; Blockchain Technology.

He has done his PG Diplomas in Cyber Law (2016), IPR Law (2017), ADR Law (2018), Company Law (2019) and International Trade Law (2020) from ILI /ISIL, New Delhi;

Dr Vinay Kulkarni has completed his B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Ph.D. in Computer-aided Manufacturing from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. He is currently the Director of Aegis School of Data Science, Faculty for Statistics and Probability, Apache Hadoop at Aegis School of Data Science and also an former Adjunct Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay In the past he has worked as a Vice President – Innovation and Incubation, Geometric Ltd, Strategic Advisor for Mindmap IT Solutions.