Aditya Dev Sood

Aditya Dev Sood is Founder and CEO of the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS), an innovation consulting firm that provides design services of a kind that Indian industry never thought it would even need — User Research, User Experience Design, Design Strategy and Innovation Management. Through his consulting work, and also through his writings and his public presentations, Aditya offers a compelling vision of the central role of design and innovation for emerging economies such as India. The focus on his firm has remained on lower income and rural groups, and through contractual consulting engagements it has sought always to bring about market successes as well as the greater societal good.

Dr. Sood is a Fulbright scholar with two doctorates from the University of Chicago and a wide range of disciplinary competencies, gained through a long and diverse education, including Architecture, Art History, Critical Theory, Comparative Literature, Sanskrit Philology, Philosophy of Language, Cultural Anthropology, Social Theory and Political Economy.

Arun Maira

Arun Maira is a Member of the National Innovation Council, a part of the National Planning Commission of the Government of India. In addition to being a prolific author on leadership and organization transformation, as well as the future of India, he has worked as an experienced consultant for companies all over the world and for a diversity of industries, from automobiles and pharmaceuticals to international agencies for economic development. Prior to joining the National Planning Commission, Arun Maira worked with the TATA Group in India, the Boston Consulting Group, Save the Children in India, the Axis Bank Foundation, and CII’s National Councils, among many others. He received his M.Sc. and B.Sc. in Physics from St Stephen’s College, Delhi University.

Sukumar Ranganthan

Sukumar Ranganthan was a founding member of Mint, a business paper of the Hindustan Times in association with the Wall Street Journal. Launched in 2007, Mint brings “Clarity in Business News” to readers across the country. He has worked in several capacities in business news, from Marketing Editor at The Hindu Business Line to Managing Editor of India’s leading business magazine, Business Today. In addition to a Master’s degree in Business Administration, Sukumar holds a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and another Master’s in Mathematics.

Sunil Abraham

Sunil Abraham is the Executive Director of The Centre for Internet and Society, which aims to criticaly engage with the interaction between the internet and the public, including concerns of digital pluralism, public accountability, adn pedagogic practices. While serving on the board of directors for CIS, Sunil has worked on many projects exploring the internet and information. He has been elected an Ashoka fellow, where he explored the democratic potential of the internet, and was granted a Sarai FLOSS fellowship as well. For the United Nations, Sunil managed the International Open Source Network for the Asia-Pacific Development Information Program between 2004 and 2007. The next year, he managed ENRAP, Knowledge Networking for Rural Development in the Asia-Pacific region, which worked to share knowledge amongst the projects and stakeholders of the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

James Crabtree

James Crabtree is the Mumbai Correspondent for the Financial Times since November 2011. He covers Indian corporate news and social and political trends in the country’s financial capital. James joined the FT in 2010 and was previously the Comment Editor based in London.He was previously an editor and essayist at Prospect.

Before returning to journalism, James worked as policy advisor in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and also for various think tanks. He has also spent a number of years living in the US, first as a Fulbright Scholar at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and then living in Washington, working as a senior policy advisor at the New Democrat Network, another think tank.

James is a trustee of the charity mySociety.org, one of the UK’s most innovative technology organisations.

Aditya Mishra

Aditya Mishra is Founder & CEO of SwitchMe, an innovative web based service that helps people switch from one service to another. He is also the co-founder and Managing Director of Headstart Network Foundation, India’s largest network of early stage entrepreneurs. He advises several early stage entrepreneurs and incubators on issues of product development, sales and strategy.

Ekta Ohri

Ekta Ohri is the Senior Director-Innovation at the Center for Knowledge Societies (CKS). She has been involved in providing direction to project teams around applying ethnographic and user experience research methods as well as principles of design thinking for addressing a variety of innovation challenges in emerging economies – ranging from improving rural public health delivery systems, providing financial services to the poor and bridging their information and communication gaps through telecommunications to enhancing urban mobility experiences. Ekta has a multi-disciplinary background in Architecture (Sushant School of Art and Architecture), Visual and Critical Studies (California College of the Arts), and Anthropology (Northwestern University) and is particularly interested in exploring linkages between design, culture, and lived experience.

Lina Sonne

Lina Sonne is currently managing research at Intellecap, in Bombay, on urban poverty and inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship. Her area of interest is the intersection of innovation and entrepreneurship that is sometimes called pro-poor, sometimes inclusive and sometimes social. She is particularly interested in innovative entrepreneurs and small ventures that operate a dual bottom line approach. She is also the Editor of Searchlight South Asia, a monthly newsletter on urban poverty sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Prior to this, Lina was Assistant Professor, Inclusive Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Azim Premji University, Bangalore.

Sam Pitroda

Sam Pitroda is an international figure known for his strong support in India’s communications revolution and redefining the role that technology can play in India by linking it to better delivery of services to the underprivileged. He has long worked in government, business, and innovation in India. He served as Technology Advisor to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, is founder and CEO of C-SAM, Inc., with offices worldwide, and chaired the National Knowledge Commission from 2005-2008. Now, in addition to Advisor to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information, Infrastructure & Innovations, chairman of India’s National Innovation Council, charting the roadmap for India’s ‘Decade of Innovation.’ Pitrota completed his Master’s in Physics and Electronics from Maharaja Sayajirao University and subsequently received another Master’s in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 2010, he also received and Honorary degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Namrata Mehta

Namrata Mehta is a Director – Innovation at the Center for Knowledge Societies, New Delhi. She has an undergraduate degree in Sociology from Delhi University, and a postgraduate diploma in Experimental Media Arts, from Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. At CKS, she works closely on technology and infrastructure projects related to ‘mobilities’ in both urban and rural contexts. These range from mobile as well as telecommunication technologies, portable diagnostic devices and transport solutions. Prior to CKS, Namrata has developed games as a research tool for policy makers in the agricultural and urban infrastructure sector.

Divya Datta

Divya Datta anchors the Bihar Innovation Lab effort at the Center for Knowledge Societies. She holds specific interest in ‘Applied Innovation for Developmental Impact’ which serves as the foundation of all her design and research initiatives. Divya has been the principal designer of the Vaccine Delivery Kit which is a holistic resource device for field immunization delivery that ensures high quality and efficiency of healthcare services; we expect this kit to be piloted in 2013 in 8 priority districts of Bihar (led a team of 6 trans-disciplinary research and design specialists). Over her various projects at CKS she has gained expertise in rural development; chiefly in healthcare delivery, education and livelihoods and capacity building.

Mala Subramaniam

Mala Subramaniam is currently the CEO of Arghyam. She has over two decades of experience in Strategy and Execution in Banking, Education, Agro-technology, ITES and the Not for Profit sector, across several countries. She has proven expertise in identifying and establishing transformational processes for scaling standalone start-ups and start up environments in established organizations. She is a certified Executive and Business Coach, and has a management degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

Vikas Bajaj

Vikas Bajaj is a correspondent for The New York Times in Mumbai, India, where he writes primarily about economic and business issues. Starting on Dec. 3rd, he will join the Editorial Board of The New York Times in New York where he will write editorials about business and international economic issues. Before moving to Mumbai, he was previously based in New York and covered housing and financial markets from June 2006 to March 2009. Mr. Bajaj graduated from Michigan State University in 1998 and joined The Times in 2005, having previously worked at The Dallas Morning News. He was born in Mumbai (formerly Bombay) and grew up there and in Bangkok, Thailand. He returned to India in the spring of 2009.

J.C. Diehl

Jan Carel Diehl is assistant professor for the Design for Sustainability (DfS) program at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. After finishing his study in Industrial Design Engineering he worked several years as consultant in Ecodesign. Within the DfS program he is managing the international projects on sustainable product innovation especially in emerging markets. The main focus of his research is the know-how transfer and implementation of sustainable product innovation into an international context. In addition, his research has a special interest in cultural differences in product design and developing products for the so called ‘Base of the Pyramid (BoP)’.

Neera Nundy

Neera Nundy is the Managing Partner at Dasra. Her five years of investment banking experiences at Morgan Stanley and UBS Warburg bring an analytically rigorous, impact-oriented perspective to portfolio organizations Dasra supports such as SNEHA and Mann Deshi. One of Neera’s key successes is the pioneering partnership between Dasra and Social-Impact International, and the highly successful executive education program that she and her team have designed and delivered to over 100 of India’s leading social entrepreneurs that include Husk Power Systems, Embrace, Industry and Lend-a-Hand. Neera also led the international launch of Village Capital supporting successful organizations such as Milaap, SMV Wheels, Sabras and Under the Mango Tree.

Manjeet Kripalani

Manjeet Kripalani is the former India Bureau chief of Businessweek magazine. During her extensive career in journalism (BusinessWeek, Worth and Forbes magazines), she has won several awards, including the Gerald Loeb Award, the George Polk Award, Overseas Press Club and Daniel Pearl Awards. Kripalani was the 2006-07 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York, which inspired her to found Gateway House. Her political career spans being the deputy press secretary to Steve Forbes during his first run in 1995-96 as Republican candidate for US President, to being press secretary for the Lok Sabha campaign for independent candidate Meera Sanyal in 2008. She holds two bachelor’s degrees from Bombay University and a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University.

Anjali Monteiro

Dr. Anjali Monteiro is Professor and Dean, School of Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. She has a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. She is involved in documentary production, media teaching and research. Jointly with K.P. Jayasankar, she has made over 35 documentary films. Their work has been screened extensively at film festivals all over the world and they have won twenty-two national and international awards.

Deepak Menon

Deepak Menon has a BE and an MBA, and several years of national and international experience with various companies, in marketing research and communications. He joined Arghyam in 2008, to work on marketing and outreach efforts of the India Water Portal and to manage its associated Portals, and later on managed its overall operations. Since 2012, he has taken on the role of Director. He is based out of Bangalore, Karnataka.

Urvashi Prasad

Urvashi Prasad is Program Officer at Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. She manages initiatives to develop sustainable models for delivery of basic services (clean drinking water and sanitation) to the urban poor in India, and to address the multiple needs of extremely poor households through holistic interventions (encompassing livelihoods, education and health services), in an effort to elevate families from an impoverished state to the level of the bankable poor.

Amy Lin

Amy Lin joined the Monitor Inclusive Markets practice in August 2011 as a Manager, where she leads MIM’s work on developing social enterprise models that provide clean drinking water in low-income, urban communities. Previously, as the HIV/AIDS Program Director for the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) in Liberia, Amy partnered closely with the Liberian Ministry of Health to create and implement strategic plans that strengthen critical health systems. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a BA in Political Science from Yale University.

Chandrima Das

Chandrima is a consultant with Monitor Inclusive Markets, and is based out of Mumbai. She is currently working on developing and understanding sustainable business models to provide clean drinking water in low-income urban areas. Before joining Monitor in March 2012, Chandrima was a Consultant based out of New York, as part of the Financial Services practice at Oliver Wyman. Chandrima has a B.Tech in Computer science and engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Durgapur and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where she was awarded several prestigious scholarships and finished in the top 5% of her batch.

Siddharth Tata

Siddharth Tata joined Acumen in September 2010 to further develop the Agriculture Portfolio in India. In his last role at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Siddharth worked with non-profit organizations to help build programs in the areas of dairy development, watershed management, and creating market linkages to improve incomes of farmers in India. Previously, as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company’s Mumbai office, he advised clients in the retail, IT, and financial services industries. He has also assisted a Mumbai-based investment firm on its agriculture investment strategy and helped launch a turnaround program for coffee washing stations in Rwanda as a volunteer consultant with TechnoServe. Siddharth has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, where he was awarded the Shankar Dayal Sharma prize for excellence.

Karthik B.

Karthik B. is General Brand Manager of Corporate Brand Management and Business Transformation at Mahindra Group.

Anirban Ghosh

Mr. Anirban Ghosh is the Vice President of Strategic Planning and New Business Development at Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. He is IIM Ahmedabad Alumni (1999). His areas of focus involve strategies to defend market leadership, gaining consumer insights, competitive intelligence, identifying and starting new businesses, acquisitions and business planning.

Mark Kahn

Mark Kahn is a Venture Partner in Omnivore Capital, a venture fund investing in agricultural technology (“agtech”) startups in India. Mark co-founded Omnivore Capital while working as Executive Vice President for Strategy & Business Development at Godrej Agrovet, one of India’s foremost diversified agribusiness companies. At Godrej Agrovet, Mark has been responsible for corporate strategy, M&A, product development, and new business incubation. He is currently a Director of Skymet Weather Services Private Limited, FrontalRain Technologies Private Limited, Godrej Seeds & Genetics Limited, and SEALAC Agro Ventures (Uruguay) S.A.

Mark joined Godrej from Syngenta, where he managed initiatives in corporate venture capital, emerging markets strategy, and business portfolio planning. He began his career as a strategy consultant with PFM. Mark earned his BA (Honors) from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School, from which he graduated as a Baker Scholar.

Punit Gupta

Mr Gupta has 15 years of experience in various leadership roles across different industries in India, Europe and USA. He is currently the Country Director, India of TechnoServe.TechnoServe is a non-profit economic development organization that seeks to help entrepreneurial men and women in the developing world to build businesses that provide jobs, income and economic opportunity. It has operations in 23 countries with a staff of over 1,000 people. During his tenure at TechnoServe, he handled a wide range of programs such as IFC’s Basmati rice water program in Haryana, aUSAID-funded program on organicagriculture and workforce development forTibetans, the development of kiwi,ginger and tumeric value chains in theNorth East, and a program on integration of vegetable farmers across 7 states into organized retail supply chains.

Prior to this he was in Business Consulting as an Engagement Manager with McKinsey and Company in London where he led strategy, growth and business turnaround projects for clients in Consumer Goods, Retail, Private Equity, IT and Telecom across Europe, the Middle East and India. He has also done business consulting with Andersen Consulting and Oracle Corporation in USA and India. He has an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD, France and Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Computer Science from Lawrence University, USA

Jesse van de Zand

After finishing his study in tax and business law Jesse worked several years in the world of financing and M&A. After this period he switched to Enviu, where he combines his experience in business with the social mission of Enviu. In his current position at Enviu he is business developer for African and Asian markets. As business developer and together with the Enviu Community he realizes the development of social start-ups from scratch to start-up phase. The main focus of the start-ups of Enviu is to improve the quality of life of the BoP in a profitable and sustainable way. These start-ups often have a ‘hybrid’ business model, meaning that to make products/ the use of products available to the BoP, different revenue streams are realized. This is what the expertise of Jesse and Enviu is: designing innovative, issue-driven business models based on the power of the crowd, together with the crowd.

Madhav Pai

Madhav Pai is the Director of EMBARQ India and is responsible for overall leadership and management of the program. Based in Mumbai, Madhav has led and managed EMBARQ’s involvement in BRT and city bus system projects in cities of Bangalore, Colombo, Indore, Jaipur, Naya Raipur and Surat; in capacity building initiatives with the Ministry of Urban Development, the World Bank and the British High Commission. Madhav was a senior member of the EMBARQ team that evaluated the Delhi BRT corridor in Feb 2009 and the Ahmedabad BRT corridor in Oct 2009 prior to its inauguration. Madhav has over 12 years experience leading, designing and managing urban transport programs and projects in India, Asia and United states.

MP Ranjan

MP Ranjan is Professor Emeritus, NID Centre for Bamboo Initiatives. After finishing school in 1969 he studied furniture design at NID, where he also began teaching in 1972. For a short while, between 1974 and 1976, worked as a professional designer in Madras before returning to NID as a full time faculty member in 1976.

Shrashtant Patara

Shrashtant Patara is Senior Vice President of the Development Alternatives Group. He has been working in sustainable building materials and technology development, micro-enterprise development, rural market development and management of large donor funded and Government programmes. These include the dissemination of Micro Concrete Roofing Technology in India, capacity building for the promotion of Vertical Shaft Brick Kiln Technology, development of housing and clean-energy delivery models for rural households, along with the coordination of several post-disaster reconstruction projects. Presently, he is the Chief Executive of TARA Livelihood Academy and the CEO of TARA Society.

Anand Vijayan

Anand Vijayan, Innovation Planner at CKS, comes from a background in Advertising, Marketing, Public Relations, Knowledge Managment and an even longer list of things he wanted to do. Lives which he gets to vicariously live at CKS, through the assortment of people he meets and works with.

Vish Palekar

Vish Palekar heads the Cleantech and the Solar business for Mahindra Group, a US$12.5 billion conglomerate and one of the top 10 industrial houses in India. Prior to joining the Mahindra Group, Vish Palekar was President and CEO of GE Enterprise Solutions in India. Starting his career in Cummins Engine Co., USA, Vish moved on to GE in 2000. In GE, Vish has worked in the Transportation, Water and Enterprise Solutions in Technology, Compliance, Product Management, Six Sigma Master Black belt as well as Business Leadership roles. Vish is on the FICCI Solar Committee representing Solar Developer community in India. He has been invited to various delegations organized by MNRE including Spain and a frequent speaker on solar and renewable energy topics. Vish holds an MBA from the University of California, Long Beach, a Ph.D in chemical engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a BS in chemical engineering from the University of Mumbai, India.

Ratnesh Yadav

Ratnesh Yadav is theCo-Founder and Director of Husk Power Systems. After graduating in from Delhi University, Ratnesh Yadav returned to Bihar in 2003 with a passion to do something for his home state. While travelling through Bihar he observed that after sunset life comes to stand still.Nothing is visible,no houses,no people.Life ceases to exist.But during the day its all crowded ,full of people anywhere you go.The situation was unacceptable.He experimented with many ideas like electricity generation from Bio Diesel (jatropha plants) and solar energy, but with little success. Then in 2007, with help from his friend, he set up a biomass gasification plant in Tamkuha village on India’s 60th Independence Day in west Champaran district of Bihar. Their company generate and provides electricity that is Reliable, Renewable and affordable by using agricultural waste as feedstock to generate that electricity. Now there are 76 plants operating in 370 villages across five districts mostly in Bihar powering 25000 house holds.Soon starting operations in Uganda and Tanzania. As the villagers now have regular electricity supply until midnight, their children have the option of studying late into the night.The by product after gasification of Biomass is char and that is used to make Insence sticks involving local women. Also runs an NGO Samta Samriddhi Foundation which support education of 250 kids in villages.

Neha Ahlawat

Neha Ahlawat is Associate Director – Innovation at the Center for Knowledge Societies. Neha has an undergraduate degree in design from NIFT. She comes with an experience in multi disciplinary fields of retail, product design and research. Ethnographic research, studying human behavior and lifestyles in order to arrive at design solutions is what she finds most interesting and challenging. At CKS she has mentored projects related to rural healthcare, societal trends mapping and trend forecasting.

Geoff Mulgan

Geoff Mulgan is Chief Executive of Nesta. From 2004-2011 he was the first Chief Executive of the Young Foundation, which became a leading centre for social innovation, combining research, creation of new ventures and practical projects. Between 1997 and 2004 Geoff had various roles in the UK government including director of the Government’s Strategy Unit and head of policy in the Prime Minister’s office. Before that he was the founder and director of the think-tank Demos. He has also been Chief Adviser to Gordon Brown MP; a lecturer in telecommunications; an investment executive; and a reporter on BBC TV and radio. He is a visiting professor at LSE, UCL, Melbourne University and a regular lecturer at the China Executive Leadership Academy. He is an adviser to many governments around the world, and has been a board member of the Work Foundation, the Health Innovation Council, Political Quarterly and the Design Council, and chair of Involve.

P V Sreenath

PV Sreenath leads the area of Smarter Cities at IBM India/South Asia, a role he has been in since the commencement of Smarter Cities business in the region. Prior to this, he lead the Government sector business for High Value Business Development (HVBD) at IBM I/SA. He has been with IBM since Oct, 2006.

Prior to IBM, he served with the ICICI Group, India’s leading financial sector player – initially with ICICI Ltd and then as a Member of the Global Executive Management Team at 3i Infotech. He holds the distinction of securing and directing the implementation of the first Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative related to e-Governance at the national level in India – the National Tax Information Exchange System for the Government of India.

He is a post-graduate in management from the Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and B. Tech. in Electronics & Communications Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Varanasi (earlier IT-BHU)

Atul Mittal

Atul Mittal is Director, Marketing at D.Light Design, which provides solar lamps to rural locations. Atul’s has been a Marketing and Brand Management person and has experience in Brand innovation, Brand activation and Trade marketing – across FMCG and Retail industry. Atul has a BSc in Agriculture and an MBA in Marketing.

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha

Niranjan Rajadhyaksha is managing editor of Mint Newspaper. Rajadhyaksha is also part of the team that started Mint and is a 20-year veteran of business journalism, having moved over from Business World.

Abhay Garg

Abhay Garg is a Portfolio Manager with Acumen Funds, with primary responsibility for the Energy and Water Portfolios. He has worked extensively on other areas of the social infrastructure sector including education, healthcare and logistics. Abhay holds an MSc in Finance and is also a qualified Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary.

Virginia Sharma

Virginia Sharma is the Vice-President of Marketing, Communications and Corporate Citizenship for IBM India/South Asia. She has enjoyed been with IBM over 13 years in various global and regional roles, including Asia Pacific and North America. Her leadership, passion and creativity has resulted in award winning, high impact integrated marketing and communication campaigns, particularly to reach whitespace using digital media. In 2011, she was awarded “Top 25 Outstanding Marketing Leaders of India” at the Brand World Congress and the Indy’s “Marcom professional of the Year” award in the IT and Software Category by CMO Council and CMO Asia.

Anant Shah

Anant Shah is a Program Officer on the Vaccine Delivery team in the Global Health Program at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Anant currently manages an effort in partnership with local organizations and Indian governments to improve maternal, newborn, and child health in India.

Manju George

Manju George is the Head of Corporate Development at Intellecap. As a Head, Manju works closely with the leaders of Intellecap’s Practice Areas and Initiatives to build and manage Intellecap’s strategic client and partner relationships and support its global business expansion. She guides Intellecap’s thought leadership initiatives and represents the firm, its learnings and ideas at global events and published media. Manju has experience in inclusive business and social enterprise development, investment and business strategy design and private sector development in Asia and Africa. Manju holds degrees in rural management and commerce. In 2011, she was acknowledged as a ‘Young Global Shaper’ by the World Economic Forum and was invited to represent the community at the discussions in Davos 2012. She also serves on the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Social Innovation.

Sachindra Rudra

Sachindra Rudra is Director at Acumen Fund. As India Director Sachin is responsible for all India related investments, operations and business development. He brings over 15 years experience, working in private equity, consulting and operations. He has wide-ranging sector exposure in the investing space with a high degree of focus on healthcare, consumer products and processed foods. Sachin holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from St Stephen’s College in Delhi, a Masters Degree in Economics from Cambridge University and an M.Sc from the London School of Economics. He has MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Aparna Piramal Raje

Aparna Piramal Raje is a Director at BP Ergo and a columnist with Mint, India’s second largest business newspaper. She regularly writes for Mint, exploring the value of design to companies, their products and their spaces. She also contributes regularly to UK’s Financial Times Weekend.

Suresh B.

Suresh B. is President & Chief Executive Officer at Mahindra Consulting Engineers Ltd, Infrastructure Development Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.

Arul Shanmugasundram

Arul Shanmugasundram Heads the Solar Business for Tata International. Previously, Arul has been associated with development of new equipment for manufacturing semiconductor chips at Applied Materials in California. He has several patents and publications in equipment automation and process control. Arul has a B. Tech from IIT Madras and a Ph D from Cornell University.

Chandrashekar Hariharan

Chandrashekar Hariharan founded Biodiversity India Conservation Limited (BCIL), the precursor to ZED, in the early 1990s, when ‘green’ was still a word for the colour and words like ‘global warming’ and ‘climate change’ were yet to gain currency. He has relentlessly driven the company’s values to steer and create innovations in the building industry in a scale seldom achieved globally. His consistent success in creating solutions that enhance customer comfort, product reliability, and cost-effectiveness has won the company accolades and respect from customers, architects and building industry professionals. Hariharan is a core committee member of the CII India Green Business Council and co-author of the IGBC Residential Green Guidelines. He is a member of the Advisory council of the S&T Park, Pune. He is also member of the National Advisory Council of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development. Over the last decade, he has served as consultant for governments of Uttaranchal, Kerala and Nagaland on eco-conscious infrastructure and environment policies, apart from serving as consultant for the Asian Development Bank and ADEME, a French institution that promotes energy efficiency in buildings. He has launched many successful sustainable initiatives over the last two decades.

Ranjan Banerjee

Dr. Ranjan Banerjee holds a B Tech from IIT Bombay, an MBA from IIM Calcutta and a PHD in marketing from the Carlson School, University of Minnesota. His areas of interest include innovation, design thinking and behavioral economics. He is a visiting professor in marketing at IIM Calcutta and the Carlson School, University of Minnesota.

He heads Renaissance Consultants, India and is starting a new venture, Anvetion, focussed on innovation and ‘helping to build companies that care’. He is working with Vodafone India on designing and installing an innovation process, and has worked with corporations like Hutchison, Glaxo Smith Kline(Dubai),BASF (China) in the area.