Prof. K. VijayRaghavan
The Principal Scientific Adviser, The Government of India
Speaker
Prof. K. VijayRaghavan
Professor K. VijayRaghavan is the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, succeeding Dr. R. Chidambaram on April 3, 2018. He was Secretary, Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India from January 28, 2013 to February 2, 2018.
He works with all arms of the Government, with the States, the citizens, national and international agencies. The goal is that the benefits of science, technology and innovation solutions reach the most needy, for the sustainable development of India and for the well being of our planet.
VijayRaghavan is also a Distinguished Professor at the National Centre of Biological Sciences (NCBS), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Bangalore (TIFR) and was the NCBS Director till 2013.
Gautam Dalmia
Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat Ltd.
Speaker
Gautam Dalmia
Mr Gautam Dalmia holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University. He has more than 20 years of experience in the cement and sugar industries. He was part of the team that led the diversification of the company into the sugar business in 1994. He was personally responsible for implementing a new strategy to turnaround the sugar business. He has led the effort to design and implement the company"s integrated sugar, ethanol and co-generation business. He is directly responsible for managing the sugar business.
Soumitra Bhattacharya
Managing Director, Bosch Limited & Regional President, Bosch Group in India
Speaker
Soumitra Bhattacharya
Soumitra Bhattacharya has been associated with the Bosch Group for more than 25 years. A Chartered Accountant by profession, over the years he has handled roles as varied as Vice President, Commercial Functions for the Nashik and Jaipur plants of Bosch in India and also served as the General Manager of Robert Bosch GmbH’s Feuerbach Plant, the company’s largest diesel systems manufacturing facility and one of its oldest. He was the CFO of Bosch India from 2011 till 2018 and, since 2016 took over the CEO role.
Soumitra continues as the Managing Director of Bosch Limited and the President of Bosch Group in India. As Managing Director of Bosch Limited, he handles a unique role heading the only publicly listed company in the Bosch Group worldwide. A firm believer in collaboration and the importance of teamwork in building innovative, future-ready organizations, Soumitra is currently spearheading a transformative initiative at Bosch India to ensure the organization becomes a leading provider of IoT solutions while leveraging its unrivalled expertise in operational and manufacturing excellence. The ultimate aim of this transformation initiative, named Lakshya, is to make Bosch India a tech agnostic provider of holistic solutions that are affordable and India-specific innovations. Soumitra has a keen interest in start-ups and new businesses – prior to Bosch, he had worked at the TATA group where he was one of the founding members of the Tanishq brand of Jewellery for the Titan Company Ltd. He also worked at INDAL, the core aluminum business of the ALCAN group, and he was also a founding member of its electronics business. Cross-cultural exchange and international relations between Europe and Asia have been areas where Soumitra has an active interest. He has been able to contribute positively to building stronger commercial ties between Europe and India when serving in executive management positions at Bosch’s facilities in Germany and Turkey.
Soumitra has been appointed as chair of the CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) National Committee on MNCs. He is also a member of the Special Investment Promotion Task Force constituted by the Government of Karnataka. During his stints as Chairman (2013-2014) for the Karnataka State Council for CII in India and as Co-Chair (2017-2019) for Skills Committee-CII at the National Level and as a CII National Council Member, Soumitra has been able to further share his passion for business excellence, building agile corporate environments, economics and finance. He has also spoken and given lectures on these and other topics at some of the world’s leading management institutions and business forums.
He is married to Dr. (Mrs.) Chandana Bhattacharya who runs her own NGO. His son Aditya works in the US while his daughter Ayesha has embarked on a legal career. Outside of work, his interests include travelling, sports, photography and social service.
Neerja Birla
Founder & Chairperson, Mpower
Speaker
Neerja Birla
Mental health champion and a passionate educationist, Mrs. Neerja Birla is the Founder & Chairperson of Mpower, a movement that aims to affect a positive change in the attitudes towards mental health. Through Mpower, Mrs. Birla hopes to spread awareness about mental health, alleviate stigma, and provide quality care to individuals from all walks of life and from all sections of the community. She is also the founder and chairperson of Aditya Birla Education Trust that has established Aditya Birla World Academy, The Aditya Birla Integrated School and Aditya Birla Education Academy. An inspiring personality, Mrs. Birla is a progressive, dynamic and versatile woman, driven by her passions and an unwavering resolve to give back to society with a sense of responsibility. She is also a committed fitness and outdoor-sports enthusiast, loves reading and listening to music, and is extremely fond of travelling and trekking.)
Punit Lalbhai
Executive Director, Arvind Ltd.
Speaker
Punit Lalbhai
Punit Lalbhai is the executive director of Arvind Limited and leads Arvind’s Advanced Materials, Engineering and Agribusinesses. He also spearheaded initiatives in sustainability, CSR and Innovation. He has an MBA from INSEAD and a masters of Environmental Sciences from Yale University.
Vimala Ramesh
IAS, The Mission Director- Jal Jeevan Mission, Govt. of Maharashtra
Speaker
Vimala Ramesh
Born in Bhusaval, Maharashtra, Smt. Vimala has completed B.A., M.A. and M.Phil in History and has many academic accolades to her name, topping B.A. programme from Pune University in 1986. She began her career as a lecturer in Department of History at University of Pune, later on to join the public service in 1993. Having an interesting mix of management and administration, she has over 28 years of experience and has served in various capacities, contributing significantly to public welfare schemes. She has served as the Managing Director of Small Scale Industries Development Corporation and Deputy Commissioner for Entertainment Duty and Rehabilitation. As a Deputy Secretary to Govt. of Maharashtra, she has enabled transformation in implementation of MGNREGA/ EGS in the state. She has specialised expertise in elections and land acquisition. Smt. Vimala is currently positioned as the CEO, Maharashtra Rural State Livelihoods Mission, under Department of Rural Development, and is working for the empowerment of women through self-help groups and community based organisations. She is a propagator of the ‘Dasha Sutra’ – 10 cardinal principles for social and economic inclusion and development, and has been instrumental in creating more than 4.5 lakh SHGs and associating over 48 lakh families in 34 rural districts of Maharashtra. In addition, she has contributed to the areas of nutri-livelihoods, menstrual hygiene, skilling and capacity building. An avid blogger, a poet and a TedX speaker, Smt. Vimala also mentors social entrepreneurs and motivational speakers.
Dr. Heera Lal
IAS, Additional Mission Director, National Health Mission, UP
Speaker
Dr. Heera Lal
Dr Heera Lal, an IAS officer having rich experience of 26 years as a civil servant, is currently posted as Additional Mission Director, National Health Mission, Uttar Pradesh and Additional Project Director in UP State Aids Control Society. He has served in various departments in different capacities. His last posting was District Magistrate, Banda where he had undertaken an array of initiatives and introduced many low cost Innovations.
Mahendra Singhi
MD & CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.
Speaker
Mahendra Singhi
Mr Mahendra Singhi has been associated with the growth and development of the cement sector in India for the last 41 years. Since 2013, he is the Managing Director and CEO of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, a major group in India, globally recognised for its low carbon footprint in cement production, water positive operations and bold ambitions and achievements on sustainability. Mr Singhi is also serving as President of Cement Manufacturing Association (CMA), a leading body representing about 450 million tonnes of installed cement capacity in India.
A visionary and advocate of sustainability, Mr Singhi has been the driving-force in inculcating this concept in the objectives and operations of the cement companies he has worked with. Mr Singhi is a frequent speaker at various national and international events on climate protection and sustainability to highlight the business actions and ambitions. Mr Singhi represented the business and cement sector during COP and High-Level Government-Business Dialogues of French Presidency, Governments and United Nations.
A positive thinker and strong supporter of happiness culture in the organisation, Mr Singhi promotes innovative ideas and research. He deeply believes research has the potential to eradicate climate change impacts and create future opportunities unknown to businesses. Mr Singhi is a science & law graduate and a Chartered Accountant. He is very spiritual and an avid reader of behavioural psychology.
Nand Kishore Chaudhary
Founder and CMD, Jaipur Rugs
Speaker
Nand Kishore Chaudhary
Nand Kishore Chaudhary, a globally acclaimed social entrepreneur, is the founder of Jaipur Rugs, one of India"s largest manufacturers of hand knotted rugs and is often referred to as ?‘Gandhi of the Carpet Industry’.
With just two looms and nine artisans in 1978, his journey four decades later stands at Jaipur Rugs becoming a global social enterprise exporting to over 60 countries while providing sustainable livelihood to 40,000 artisans in 600 remote villages across five states in India, out of which 80% of them are women.
Management guru, C.K. Prahalad featured his revolutionary business philosophy in his globally acclaimed book -The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Mr Chaudhary has also been termed as ?‘father of modern social enterprises’ by Prof.
Jagdish N. Sheth from Emory University, USA. Sheth ?said, “Jaipur Rugs has become a role model, that business can serve society and at the same time … can be a capitalistic institution”.
In 2019, Raj Sisodia featured Jaipur Rugs and NK Chaudhary in his book, ‘The Healing Organization’ for ?‘The Power of innocence’. The book highly celebrated NK Chaudhary’s steps towards healing the customers and transforming the society with love.
He has won awards including E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year Award, CNBC TV18 Emerging India Award, Social Impact Award conferred by former president Pranav Mukherjee among others.
As a simple man, he is devoted to the Indian hand-knotted rug industry with an aim to position it rightly in the world and to empower its real owner and creator - the Indian weaver.
His philosophy of totality, inclusion and for-profit solutions to society are widely discussed.
Venkatesh Sarvasiddhi
Senior Head - Digital Skills, Innovation, Industry Partnership & CSR, National Skill Development Corporation, India
Speaker
Venkatesh Sarvasiddhi
Venkatesh Sarvasiddhi works with National Skills Development Corporation heading the Digital Skills, Innovation, Industry Partnerships & CSR engagements in building the policy & framework for Skilling motion in India.
He also heads the eSkill India under the Digital India initiatives to empower youth, leads the Innovation Practice in engaging with Startup Ecosystem, partnering with Industry to foster growth by building scalable & sustainable technology skilling platforms to support nation’s largest Skill India program- Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) which are set up across various states & districts of India.
Prior to NSDC, he was working with Deloitte as Director Innovation leading the Deloitte Skill Academy which focused in bridging the gap between Industry & Academia.
He also worked with Microsoft for 10 years leading various roles centric around Developer Ecosystem, Academic Programs, Startup Ecosystem & Microsoft Innovation Centers.
He holds Electrical Engineering from the Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Master of Science holder from BITS Pilani, Management holder from IIM Calcutta, Executive Marketing Program holder from Kellogg School of Management (USA) & Chevening Gurukul fellow of Kings College London, prestigious commonwealth fellowship in the area of Education & Technology.
He was also featured as one of the Frontrunners and the Youngest AVP of Corporate India at the age of 27, by Business India 23rd March 2008 edition. He was also featured as CNBC Young Turk in 2017 for his contribution in Academic Ecosystem & Setting up Innovation Centers to foster latest skills & driving entrepreneurship in India.
He is also recipient of several National & International awards like Yuva Unstoppable award for the year 2015, World Education Award for the year 2012, Mobby Award for the year 2010, Xavier’s Business Leaders Award for the year 2009, Young Gun Award by IIT Kanpur for the year 2008, e-Governance award for 2005 by IIT Delhi, INDIRA Award for the year 2000 by Govt of India in the area of Disaster management and Young Parliamentarian Award by Govt of India for the year 2001.
Urvashi Prasad
Senior Policy Specialist, NITI Aayog
Speaker
Urvashi Prasad
Urvashi Prasad has extensive experience in health, nutrition, sanitation, gender and public policy. Over the last four years, Urvashi has been working as a Public Policy Specialist in the Office of the Vice Chairman at NITI Aayog which is the premier policy think tank of the Indian Government. She is currently part of the core team supporting the work of Government of India"s Empowered Group 1 for managing the Covid-19 Pandemic in the country. Urvashi is a member of the task force for overseeing the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals in India and co-authored India’s first Voluntary National Review presented at the United Nation’s High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2017. Thus far, Urvashi has over 100 publications in leading national and international newspapers, journals and digital platforms to her credit. She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network and an alumnus of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. Urvashi completed her Bachelors from University of Birmingham, UK, followed by an MPhil from University of Cambridge and an MSc from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Prof. O. R. S. Rao
Vice-Chancellor, ICFAI University, Jharkhand
Speaker
Prof. O. R. S. Rao
Prof O R S Rao has over 45 years of experience in Industry , Academia and Applied Research. He has been associated with setting up and growing a number of Institutions in India and abroad. Prof Rao worked in senior roles in reputed organisations, which include BHEL, HCL Technologies, NIIT and GMR Group. He has been working with the ICFAI Group for the last 18 years and has been actively involved in various initiatives like setting up Business Schools, Applied Research and Consulting Unit .
Prof Rao was invited to address a number of seminars / conferences in India and abroad. He published over 55 research papers in reputed journals.
Prof Rao is a member on the Board of Governors of a number of Universities . He is a member on the Governing Council of Association of Indian Universities.
Under his leadership , the ICFAI University , Jharkhand grew multi-fold into a multi-discipline University , known for its Quality of Education and Ethics . It was ranked among the top three Private Universities in Jharkhand , top ten in Eastern Zone and top 50 in India during 2019-20, by independent ranking agencies.
Prof Rao was honoured by Rama Krishna Mission Ashram , Ranchi for his efforts in inculcating Values among the students. He is recipient of a number of Awards of Excellence for Educational Leadership, which include “Visionary Vice-Chancellor Award” .
Suresh B R
Sr. Vice President, Country Head -HR Bosch Limited
Speaker
Suresh B R
Suresh is an Engineer from the Mysore University and is a home grown product of Bosch, with 34 years of experience. Starting as a Technical Management Trainee, he has worked in different functional roles in R&D, Manufacturing, Head of Quality for Bosch Ltd. and Plant Manager of Bangalore Plant and Head of Operations, prior to his current role. 30% of his roles have also been in Germany and in the US.
He moved to HR function from Aug 2014. He is currently the CHRO for Bosch India with 10 different legal entities. His interests are Mentoring and Coaching for Leadership development, Promoting Business Excellence in a practical manner, Lean Manufacturing. He is currently Convenor of Skilling panel and has previously served as convenor of People Excellence Panel in
the CII Karnataka State Council.
On the personal front he enjoys travelling, books and music – when he can manage it.
Rishikesh Patankar
Chief Operating Officer - Education, Skill & CSC Academy, CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology
Speaker
Rishikesh Patankar
Rishikesh Patankar has more than 20 years of experience including stints at National R & D lab, top universities abroad, and Indian Navy. He holds three master degrees in Computer Science/IT and NET qualified. He manages large scale multiple projects in ICT domain. He is a trained Drone Pilot & his area of interest are in the 4 th Industrial Revolution technologies for benefit of common man.
He is an avid cyclist, swimmer & runner. He is working as Chief Operating Officer in CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a SPV under Ministry of Electronics & IT looking after education, Skill Development and CSC Academy.
Mamta Carroll
Vice President & Regional Director, Asia, Smile Train
Speaker
Mamta Carroll
Mamta joined Smile Train in 2006 managing the largest program area in India. Currently she manages South Asia, Southeast Asia and MENA, comprising 19 countries. These are intricate, dissimilar and complex geographies with diverse socio-economic and cultural dynamics. Mamta has led Smile Train’s Asia team in extending both reach and impact besides creating sustainable programs, strategic partnerships and a deeper, broader integration of Smile Train’s engagements with multiple stakeholders.
Her earlier appointments have been with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Africa, and tenure at New Delhi with the Centre for Science & Environment (CSE). Her corporate experience has been with Amway India and Motorola Inc. For more than 25 years, she has worked at the intersection of community development, public diplomacy, CSR, corporate and brand communications, besides government affairs.
Mamta Carroll was educated at Loreto Convent, Lucknow. She studied Economics at the Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow University, National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), New Delhi, besides training in Reputation Management and Media with the Stern School of Business, New York and Shandwick Inc.
Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti
Director East and Northeast India, British Council
Speaker
Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti
Dr Debanjan Chakrabarti is Director British Council East and Northeast India. He has over 18 years of experience in leading education, development and cultural collaboration programmes in India and internationally for the British Council. In his present role he leads on all of British Council’s work in education and cultural relations in East and Northeast India, covering 13 states, and Bhutan.
A triple gold medallist in English literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Debanjan was awarded a Felix Scholarship for his PhD from the University of Reading, UK. He was schooled in Ramakrishna Mission in Purulia and Narendrapur.
Debanjan started his career as a journalist with the ABP Group, and taught English literature and films at Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan and at the University of Reading. He is a trustee of the International Language and Development Conference and sits on one of the education advisory boards of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Dr. Shilpi Karmakar
Project Officer - Technical, Plastic Waste Management Project, UNDP
Speaker
Dr. Shilpi Karmakar
Dr Shilpi is Associate Environmental Consultant with 7 years of project design and development experience in integrated water resources management and SLWM. Well proven skills in planning, designing, technology selection and evaluating sustainable development plans, water resources management proposals, Solid & Liquid waste management plans, including waste disposal and conservation practices and deciding action plans in line with the applicable regulatory programs and guidelines. Strong research professional with well demonstrated history of working in the research industry. Skilled in Applied Chemistry, Materiel Science, Environmental Technologies, Sustainable Development, Solid & liquid Waste Management and Clean & Hybrid Energy Harnessing Infrastructure.
Dr Satender Arya
Chief Executive officer, Agriculture Skill Council of India
Speaker
Dr Satender Arya
Dr. Satender Arya is the Chief Executive Officer of Agriculture Skill Council of India (ASCI). He is responsible for providing a strategic vision to ASCI in ensuring that the team moves cohesively towards the achievement of Skill India Mission.
He is a senior management professional of proven capability with 30 years of Corporate and Development Sector experience in Skill Development Category Management, Food and Agri Supply Chain, International Business, New Business Development and Vendor Management functional areas. He has handled multifarious responsibilities with leading MNCs and Indian Corporates viz. SINOCHEM, Grasim Industries, Reliance Retail and NDDB.
Dr Satender Arya holds degrees in International and Rural Management and is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and Institute of rural Management Anand (IRMA).
Agriculture Skill Council of India is working towards creating a sustainable industry-aligned eco system for robust skill & entrepreneurship development in Agriculture & Allied sector viz. Dairy, Poultry and Fisheries.
He is a firm believer that Skill needs to be tailor-made to suit the requirements of communities and that value and ethics need to form the core of the Skilling system.
Under his leadership Agriculture Skill Council of India has been ranking amongst the Best Sector Skill Councils for last 4 consecutive years.
Dipan Sahu
Assistant Innovation Director, Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell AICTE, New Delhi
Speaker
Dipan Sahu
Shri Dipan Sahu started his career as a social entrepreneur and then turned to a policy-entrepreneur having more than 10 years of experience in policy design, implementation in the domain of innovation, and startup ecosystem development in Higher Educational Institutions. He is working on a mission to make Indian higher educational institutions innovative and entrepreneurial through conducive policy interventions. He is currently serving as Asst. Innovation Director at Innovation Cell of Ministry of Education (MoE) housed at All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi.
He manages a portfolio of policy programs related to innovation, pre-incubation, and entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Education"s Innovation Cell and AICTE. He is the core team member for the implementation of the National Innovation and Startup Policy (NISP) for Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs). He is also playing the lead role in designing and implementing numbers of other major national policy initiatives such as Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievement (ARIIA), Institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) for making Indian Higher Education innovative and Entrepreneurial.
He holds an undergraduate degree in Fishery Science from Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, his first master"s degree is an MBA in Rural Management from KIIT University, and the second master’s degree is on Development Policy from Korea Development Institute (KDI), a South Korean government policy think tank.
Kumar Anurag Pratap
Vice President and Head CSR/ Digital Inclusion Leader, Capgemini
Speaker
Kumar Anurag Pratap
Anurag brings with him more than 24+ years of diversified experience in CSR, community development, project management / implementation, grant management, capacity planning, and resource Management. At present he anchors CSR at Capgemini India. Over the past two decades, he has worked with grassroot agencies, donor agencies, UN Agency and Corporates.
His core competency lies in long term strategic planning & vision building among diverse stakeholder groups. He specializes in leading organisation towards change and transition management in social development space. Author of various articles on development issues and challenges, Anurag is also recipient of various awards and recognitions. He speaks frequently at various academic institutes, seminars and workshop on social development issues and strategies to address them.
Dr. O. P. Goel
Senior General Manager Head � Bosch India Foundation, CSR & Skill Development, Bosch Ltd.
Speaker
Dr. O. P. Goel
Dr. O P Goel Heads – Bosch India Foundation, CSR and Skill Development. He did his PhD in the area of Training and Development. During his 30 years of career in the Corporate, he worked in different business management roles, set up and headed Bosch Sales Force training Academy for Asia pacific region before taking up current role to manage the non –profit organization of Bosch India.
Dr Goel also heads Bosch Vocational Centre at Bangalore, which runs German apprenticeship model for last 6 decades. The Centre has been awarded as Best apprenticeship center by the President of India 54 times and has produced 245 gold medalist apprentices.
BRIDGE, a short-term skilling program for school drop-out youth is brainchild of Dr Goel. Under this program, 26,000 youth have been trained and employed through 272 BRIDGE centers across the country. His vision is to set up one BRIDGE center in each district of the country by Dec 2020.
Govt of India has nominated Dr Goel as a member in its apex steering committee of Prime Minister Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), where he is only skilling expert chosen from Corporate India. He and his team, work towards a single mission – Eliminate youth unemployment from India.
Parthasarathi Changdar
Lead CSR, AkzoNobel
Speaker
Parthasarathi Changdar
Parthasarathi likes to describe himself as a CSR professional with a passion for development and human excellence. A post graduate in social work from Delhi University and a diploma holder in CSR from University of Geneva he has rich experience of 15 years from both developmental and corporate sector.
In his professional career in CSR sector he has worked in more than 12 states of India with GMR Foundation, Cairn India and at AkzoNobel India, where he is currently heading CSR. His passion for excellence and innovation has driven him to work in difficult geographic conditions of the country to help people lead a better and improved life. His work in community based potable water project in Rajasthan was covered by many national and international newspapers of India and Middle East.
A firm believer in boons of sharing knowledge he has contributed to various articles published in leading global CSR magazines like Ethical Corp and is also a guest speaker in the area of CSR at IIT Delhi and Delhi University.
Chetan Kapoor
COO, Tech Mahindra Foundation
Speaker
Chetan Kapoor
Mr. Chetan Kapoor is an accomplished development professional, with a deep understanding and experience in the Education and Skill Development sectors. He joined the Foundation in October 2016 and has conceptualized the Foundation"s flagship Skill Development program (SMART), which is now one among the largest CSR-led urban skill development programs in India.
A public speaker, Chetan served as the jury of the FICCI Excellent in Higher Education Awards for 2019. He is now a part of the Senior Education Committee of FICCI and also served as a Consultant for the Tata Trusts from 2010 to 2012, in a project related to livelihoods and social security of migrant workers in rural India. Chetan is currently serving as a member of the Curriculum Reform Committee constituted by the Govt of Delhi for transforming education in Delhi Govt schools.
Prior to joining TMF, Chetan led his consulting company Edulever founded in 2009. Edulever created a name for itself as a premier support organization for the social development sector and has worked with organizations such as ITC, Ernst & Young, Aditya Birla Skills Foundation, Plan India, Pratham, American India Foundation, and many others.
Chetan is also the co-founder of Agrasar, a developmental organization working for Skills, Social Security, and Education in Gurgaon. An early-childhood and primary education program that he has started and is closely associated with is Sahpathi – an experiment in improving the quality in low cost private schools in urban India. Prior experience includes his work with the American India Foundation (AIF), RAN Research, and with the Pratham NGO.
Chetan has an MBA in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and a Bachelor"s degree in Commerce from Delhi University.
Saurabh Singh
President, ICICI Foundation
Speaker
Saurabh Singh
Mr. Saurabh Singh is the President of ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth. In his capacity as the President, Mr. Singh is responsible for ensuring that the activities of the Foundation are executed as per the directions of the Governing Council.
ICICI Group has a long history of partnering with the Country’s growth and development. We have engaged in or catalysed specific activities of social or developmental nature through dedicated teams within the Group. ICICI Group has been allocating considerable resources for social development activities, much before the requirements under Companies Act, 2013 came into being. Over the past few years, ICICI Foundation has been primarily focussing on skill development & sustainable livelihood as its key initiative with an objective of creating direct impact in the lives of the beneficiaries.
Mr. Singh continues to implement the vision of ICICI Group through steering the activities of ICICI Foundation and driving integration with ICICI Bank. He has been instrumental in developing an integrated model for rural livelihood, exploring new markets as well as fostering key Partnerships for market development for the beneficiaries in rural India.
Apart from his role at ICICI Foundation, Mr. Singh is the Business Head Trusts, Associations, Societies & Clubs (TASC) and the Institutional Banking Group at ICICI Bank. He has driven key HR and customer service practices at ICICI Bank in previous assignments. He has been instrumental in various industry firsts and award-winning initiatives like ‘Smart Vault’.
Chetna Kaura
Head Corporate Social Responsibility, India, Publicis Sapient
Speaker
Chetna Kaura
Chetna leads corporate social responsibility for Publicis Sapient pan-India, primarily focussing on the requirements under Indian law but also facilitating linkages of CSR to multiple stakeholders across the business within India and globally.
She brings to her present role the expertise she gained as Chief Programme Executive of the National Foundation for CSR at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs. She was closely associated with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for five years relating to CSR and business responsibility policy making and advocacy.
She was one of twenty professionals selected from across India, for the CSR and sustainability focused Swedish Institute Management Programme 2013, undertaken and fully funded by the Government of Sweden.
She holds a MSc. in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science, where her dissertation focused on the status of CSR in India.
In the last twenty four years Chetna has lived and worked in India, the UK and Australia.
Rama A. Iyer
Director General and Board Member, WPP India CSR Foundation
Speaker
Rama A. Iyer
Rama A Iyer, Director General and Board Member, WPP India CSR Foundation, is a true product of WPP. Having started out as a Management Trainee at Ogilvy, India, she returned years later to set up the WPP Foundation. Since the last three years of Rama being at the helm of WPP Foundation, there have been key successes globally that have been recognized for the Foundation at industry and government forums like International CSR Excellence Awards, Asia’s Excellence Awards and Golden Peacock Awards.
Individually Rama has also won the Women CSR Leader of the year award at the ET Now CSR Awards in 2019. She also won the CSR Leader Award at a regional forum of Asia’s Excellence Awards, 2019 and Golden Globe Tigers Awards, 2020. With all experience, knowledge and success, Rama looks to share it all with upcoming generations of social entrepreneurs, actively mentoring them in their CSR strategies at an individual level, and as an Advisory Panel Member.
Kanika Pal
Lead � Sustainable Community Development (Prabhat), South Asia, Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
Speaker
Kanika Pal
Kanika Pal is an award-winning CSR and sustainability professional with 15 years of experience. Holding a master"s degree in CSR from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, she is presently leading the sustainable community development programme across South Asia – called “Prabhat” – at Hindustan Unilever Ltd. A TEDx speaker, she quit the corporate sector from 2015–17 and founded Solutions for Clean and Healthy Environment or SoCHE Foundation, to influence behaviour change for a cleaner planet. Through her work, she has been exploring the inter-connectedness between conserving the environment, developing sustainable handicrafts and enhancing livelihoods and health of communities. Awarded the ‘Most Influential Sustainability Leader’ and ‘Wommenovator’ citations in 2018, among others; she is a LEAD Fellow, an alumnus of South Asia Leaders programme by Common Purpose, UK, a part of EY Women Business Leaders Network and Al Gore"s Climate Reality Leadership Corp. She is also a member of USAID"s SAWIE - South Asia Women in Energy and an advisory committee member of South Asian Institute of Sustainable Development (SAISD).
Manisha Singh
General Manager & Head- CSR South Asia, Schneider Electric
Speaker
Manisha Singh
Manisha Singh has 14 years of diverse professional experience in the CSR, Social enterprises, strategy consulting in the development sector.
At Schneider Electric, she heads CSR for South Asia, wherein the focus is on improving the lives of people through Energy Access and skilling in space of energy.
In her past roles she has managed incubation and funding to social enterprises, strategy consulting, Impact Investment and has lead India operations of an international social enterprise. She holds an MBA degree from IIM Indore & engineering from NSIT, India. She also attended an Executive Leadership program in JM Katz Business School, USA.
Sangeeta Sharma Thakral
Head CSR & Sustainability, Diageo India
Speaker
Sangeeta Sharma Thakral
Sangeeta is a seasoned and agile professional with over 17 years of multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional global experience in managing Communication, Marketing and Sustainability portfolios in Corporate Sector, Bilateral Agency, and Community based organization. Sangeeta has been instrumental in augmenting brand equity & orchestrating change using systems thinking.
In her current role, Sangeeta heads CSR & Sustainability at Diageo India, a global leader in beverage alcohol sector. Prior to Diageo, Sangeeta worked with CAF India, British High Commission, IBM, Fidelity, GE & NIIT.
Sangeeta has been instrumental in conceptualising and executing many award-winning program and campaigns such as CAF Right to Sanitation, Click2Clean, CSR Colloquium for Indian Communicators (CCIC), DHFL Behtar India and many others. She has been awarded as an influential marketing professional by World Marketing Congress. Sangeeta was conferred with ABCD award by British Foreign Office while she anchored their digital diplomacy projects in Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa.
Sangeeta is a blend of practitioner and researcher with a rich and diverse experience in corporate CSR strategy, sustainability, policy advocacy and stakeholder management.
A software engineer with a strong management acumen and international communication expertise, Sangeeta has a passion to grow organizational sustainability through progressive business management, communication & sustainability.
Sangeeta is an active member of United Nationals Global Compact Network India (UNGCNI), CII CSR Committee & FICCI Water Mission. She has been a speaker in a number of events and forums.
Ashwini Saxena
CEO, JSW Foundation
Speaker
Ashwini Saxena
CEO JSW Foundation who also serves as a Director of JSW Shakti, a Section 8 company focusing on women livelihoods. Prior to JSW, he led CSR programs of Essar Group in Africa and India. During his tenure in Africa, he contributed as an Executive Committee
Member of Zimbabwe India Chamber of Commerce (ZICC) & Advisor to Regional Centre of Social Responsibility and other institutions. Mr. Saxena served IFC (World Bank) where he led some strategic CSR advisory programs, besides working on the introduction of IFC’s CSR/ Sustainability Tools & WBI programs in South Asia. During his stint with UNIDO, he was behind India’s first few Geographical Indication (GI) registries (Community Owned IPRs) for artisan products and he also served as a key expert for UNCTAD for awareness on these issues.
His 30 years‘ career spans MSME development across a range of sectors, PPPs, skill development etc. across India and Africa. He also contributed to pro-poor industrial development policies of 3 states and has nurtured a number of community-led institutions across the country. He has served on advisory boards for grant making, policy reform and is a recipient of “Global CSR Leader Award”. He holds masters degrees in Geology and Business Management and CSR Leadership from the University of Geneva.
Vishal Bhardwaj
Group Head, Corporate Social Responsibility- Dalmia Bharat Group and Chief Executive Officer- Dalmia Bharat Foundation
Speaker
Vishal Bhardwaj
Winner of 3 CSR Leadership Awards, Vishal leads the CSR function at Dalmia Bharat Group and is also the CEO of Dalmia Bharat Foundation. He started his career with MoRD of Government of India and later worked in the Not-for-profit sector before getting in to the private sector. He has spent a large part of his career spanning around two-and-a-half decades in the Cement sector. He is a certified sustainability assessor of the CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development and has been on several committees of the Business Associations like FICCI and CII from time to time.
Vishal holds a Master’s degree in Social Work and a diploma in CSR from the Swedish Institute of Management, Stockholm. He has also attended several Management Development Programmes at various prestigious Management Institutes like SPJIMR, ISB et al.
Shilpashree M
Director � Corporate Communications & CSR, Alstom India & South Asia
Speaker
Shilpashree M
Shilpashree is perceptive leader, successful communications strategist with proven track record in directing organizations in the visioning of Brand Strategies, CSR and Public Affairs advocacy. She is an astute professional with almost 2 decades of expertise and currently leads the mandate of Corporate Communications & CSR for Alstom India & South Asia. Under her leadership, the company has touched the lives of many for which the brand has won several industry-acclaimed awards.
An alumnus of IIM Bangalore, she is also an Electronics Engineer and has the rich experience of working on Community Assistance programs, Mergers & Acquisitions and various international projects. Her track record demonstrates creativity and initiative and ability to execute impactful strategic decisions. Her result-oriented approach and media knowledge has enabled her to execute some of the most successful campaigns in the past and develop reputation of brands. She has lead brand and communications programs for brands like Renault-Nissan and Volvo.
She is most passionate about mentoring women entrepreneurs and invests most of her weekends in mutual learning sessions with rural women and NGOs.
Maya Vengurlekar
Chief Operating Officer, CRISIL Foundation, Senior Director, Marketing and Communications
Speaker
Maya Vengurlekar
Maya Vengurlekar leads the CRISIL Foundation. In her current role, role as Chief Operating Officer, Maya oversees CRISIL’s CSR initiatives pertaining to financial inclusion, women’s empowerment environment conservation and education. Maya also leads Marketing and Communications at CRISIL Limited.
She joined CRISIL in 2002, gaining domain expertise in Ratings, culminating in her role as Head – Business Development at CRISIL Ratings.
Maya’s next assignment as Senior Director – Marketing and Investor Outreach saw her driving initiatives to establish CRISIL’s thought leadership with market participants, investors, regulator bodies and policy-making institutions, and to develop India’s corporate bond market. During this time, she conceptualised, developed and launched CRISIL Inclusix, India’s only comprehensive index for measuring progress on financial inclusion. The index is the outcome of working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India and the Reserve Bank of India.
A keen proponent of women’s empowerment, Maya is a member of several committees including `Fempower’ by Bombay Chamber of Commerce. Maya contributes actively to this agenda through her participation in various discussion forums & events.
Maya has a degree in commerce from Mumbai University and an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune.
Niraj K Lal
Head CSR , Arvind Ltd.
Speaker
Niraj K Lal
Niraj heads CSR function of the company, responsible for conceptualisation, formulation of strategies and management of the programmes aimed at addressing the societal issues in Urban India. The present engagement is in an ambitious Educational programme aimed to improve the quality of education for the poor children in Ahmedabad and influence positively their future earning streams with the help of local industry and the government.
Richa Pant
Head- Corporate Social Responsibility & Sustainability, L&T Financial Services
Speaker
Richa Pant
A Sustainability and Shared value proponent and enthusiast with 16 years of work experience in conceptualizing and implementing Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in various industries including Auto Ancillary, Pharmaceuticals, Telecom and Financial Services. Her specialization includes in developing "Profit with Purpose" development initiatives.
Her expertise includes conceptualising CSR programs that deploy management strengths and skill sets to deliver high impact, value driven social programmes. Her work extensively captures shared value in Healthcare, Skill Development and Digital Financial Inclusion.
She strongly believes in power of collaboration both for achieving scale and sustainability.Her assignments have always seen multi-sectoral partnerships covering diverse stakeholders including corporate, suppliers, civil society, employees, social enterprises, chambers of commerce etc.
She has done her Masters in Social Work from University of Delhi and General Management programme from IIM (Lucknow). She holds a Diploma in CSR and Sustainability from Swedish Institute Management Program (SIMP), Stockholm. She is a recipient of prestigious Nuffic Fellowship on Program (NFP) Management for Development sector Professionals by Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In her current profile at L&T Finance she heads the Sustainability and CSR function. She also spearheads the Sustainability Taskforce and is responsible company’s first Sustainability Report that was published last year FY 19.
She has been speaker at various international fora such Financial Inclusion Summit by Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Phillipines, Digitisation and Women Empowerment by UN Women, New Delhi and at various academic institutions such as IIM (Ranchi), XIMB, NITIE, TERI, K J Somaiya etc.
She is also trained Hindustani Classical Singer and is recipient of Indian Cultural Talent Search Scholarship (1993-2000) and often volunteers with not profit organisations for promoting art especially semi-classical music.
Nusrat Pathan
Head-Corporate Social Responsibility, HDFC Bank
Speaker
Nusrat Pathan
An accomplished professional with over two decades of rich experience across the social sector, corporate social responsibility and sustainability. Ms Pathan currently heads the CSR and Sustainability function at HDFC Bank- one of the largest private sector banks in India to bring "Parivartan", by undertaking impactful social projects across India in the focus areas of Education, Sanitation, and Skill Development, among others. Parivartan is the bank’s umbrella brand for all its social initiatives. Prior to joining the Bank in 2006, she worked in the Social sector for over 13 years, thereby earning strong understanding of the sector and its challenges. Ms. Pathan has been pivotal in creating the Bank"s CSR roadmap and driving its implementation. She has also integrated Sustainability in the bank"s CSR journey and released its first sustainability report in 2014 She brings with her a strong understanding of the social sector and the ability to translate management vision at the grassroots and create visible impact for the organization. She is an effective communicator with exceptional relationship management skills and ability to relate to people. Ms Pathan leads the team at HDFC bank to deliver a strong program that reaches over 78 million lives through more than 60 partnerships.
Archana Sahay
CSR Head APJ-Dell Technologies
Speaker
Archana Sahay
Archana Sahay has professional experience of 17 years, working on a range of innovative and scalable programs across education, health, financial inclusion, environment, youth leadership, fellowships, community partnerships, capacity building of civil society and poverty alleviation. She has developed innovative social change programs with a focus on plugging gaps in the development ecosystem by nurturing youth to emerge as change.
She is a spokesperson for social development across national and international platforms, educational forums and mainstream media. She has engaged with Local NGOs, International Voluntary Organizations, funding agencies and leading the social wing of Corporates. Prior to joining Dell Technologies, she has lead the CSR wing of Thomson Reuters, Cisco and SAP
Archana often speak at external CSR events and at several occasions have participated as Key Note speaker or in panel discussions.
She has worked to achieve greater social impact by integrating with the business to support social causes. She has immense expertise in collaborating closely with the Global team and unified global focus to provide a strong link to business core expertise.
She has done her graduation from Miranda House ( Delhi University), M.A and M.Phil ( Sociology) from J.N.U. She was awarded Group study exchange by Rotary International to UK and has done Executive CSR Strategy course from Harvard Business School.
Ranjeeb Sarma
Head of Compliance, CSR, Plan A India & Srilanka Region Marks & Spencer India Pvt Ltd.
Speaker
Ranjeeb Sarma
Ranjeeb Sarma is a supply chain risk mitigation specialist and a CSR generalist who has more than a decade long of experience. Having worked in both corporate and the development sectors, he brings in an unique perspective on resolution / addressing of issues that are prevalent in the garment sector.
Currently working at M&S he is responsible for ethical sourcing, Sustainability and CSR for India and Srilanka.
Anagha Mahajani
General Manager & Head Program Research and Monitoring, Ambuja Cement Foundation
Speaker
Anagha Mahajani
Ms. Anagha Mahajani is the Head Program Research and Monitoring at Ambuja Cement Foundation, a CSR arm of Ambuja Cements Ltd. Anagha is part of an Executive Committee (ExCom), ACF and a member, Corporate Sustainability Steering Committee, Ambuja Cements Ltd. During the last 11 years with ACF she has led New Initiatives, Community Development Programs and currently the Program Research and Monitoring.
With over 25 years in development sector Anagha has passionately engaged in holistic rural development, with a special focus on sustainability and evidence based practice. Ex- faculty at the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, she had the opportunity to bridge the gap between the wealth of field realities and academia focusing master degree in social work.
She is a post graduate from the prestigious Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and qualified management professional from Welingkers Institute, Mumbai. She is trained development research practitioner with certain publications to her credit.
Pankaj Ballabh
Vice President- CSR, Bajaj Auto Ltd.
Speaker
Pankaj Ballabh
Pankaj has spent nearly 25 years working on issues of development, corporate responsibility and sustainability. This period has been evenly divided between grassroots development organisations and large MNCs. He also have worked with extremely disadvantaged rural communities, working with contested resources and under conditions of extreme stresses, as well as with migrants and displaced communities. He believes this has given me an understanding of the "field reality"? that is unique, and also sectoral competence in all core areas of development intervention- Environment, Livelihoods, Education, Health and Community Action. His second decade has been spent in a corporate environment, managing corporate responsibility and sustainable development portfolios for three large multi-nationals. In these roles he have led the transition to an impact and ‘risk’ centric approach– and also led the influencing outreach to impact a much wider stakeholder set. One key area of his work has been development of robust due diligence mechanisms around anti-bribery and corruption.
Atul Singh
Vice President- CSR, Emami Ltd.
Speaker
Atul Singh
Mr. Atul Singh is a senior management professional and a new age CSR thought leader with over 30 years of rich national & international experience working with various organizations in Australia, India and Bangladesh. He is currently the Vice President – CSR at Emami Ltd. heading the CSR and sustainability initiatives of the Emami group.
Mr. Singh in his previous role was the Vice President at Piramal Swasthya (part of Piramal Foundation) managing their PAN India operations for the implementation of Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects working with 12 State Governments in India.
Mr. Singh was formerly working in Australia for Telstra before coming to India in 2008. He has completed his Graduation in Migration Law from Victoria University, Australia, and also holds a M.Com Degree.
In his previous assignments, he has also worked with international organizations like Pitman Qualifications, NEBS Management and City & Guilds International UK in collaboration with the British Deputy High Commission and British Council to manage and administer their International Vocational Qualifications and other International Examinations in India & Bangladesh. He has also got vast expertise & experience managing and implementing innovative and technology driven education and skill development projects working with the Zee Education group.
Mr. Singh is also a mentor of various social sector start-ups and social entrepreneurs helping some of the innovative start-up incubators in India. As a part of his Individual Social Responsibility (ISR), he also works closely with the student community and corporates as a motivational speaker and executive coach.
In recognition of the positive impact on the society through his innovative and sustainable CSR practices, Mr. Singh has been awarded the “CSR Leader Of The Year Award” during the India International CSR & Impact Awards 2020.
Prabhat Kumar Sinha
Head- Communications, Patient Advocacy and Policy Novartis Oncology
Speaker
Prabhat Kumar Sinha
Learning professional with over 20 years of progressive experience of managing large scale program portfolio with Corporate, International non profits and government sectors. Presently associated with Novartis Oncology, innovation driven global pharma group and as part of Leadership member leading the patient advocacy, Policy and communication portfolio for India business unit. In addition to India role also leading the Patient advocacy for Asia Pacific cluster responsible for 11 countries and coordinating with region. Expertise includes extensive experience in the domain of Corporate social responsibility, patient assistance program, market access, engagement with patient advocacy groups, industry associations and government, corporate communication. Experience includes working in Non communicable Diseases domain Diabetes care, Eye Care, Cancer Care, Genetic Blood disorders, Rare Disease.
Rekha Pillai
CSR Head, Castrol India Ltd.
Speaker
Rekha Pillai
Ms. Rekha Pillai heads Corporate responsibility in Castrol India limited. Her focus has been on designing, developing and implementing strategic CSR programmes in Castrol India. Being a chartered accountant with more than 20 years of experience in various finance functions, she brings in expertise in programme management, controls framework, compliance and monitoring mechanism to ensure judicious CSR spend. Her responsibilities include providing leadership and oversight over Castrol’s CSR flagship programmes ‘Castrol Sarathi Mitra’ – programme for holistic development of truck drivers and ‘Castrol Eklavya’ - programme for upskilling of mechanics. These programmes received recognition and CSR awards – 2018 Rajasthan State Government CSR award for Castrol Sarathi Mitra programme and 2017 FICCI CSR award for Castrol Eklavya programme. She is deeply involved in community development programmes and drives employee engagement through volunteering initiatives. She is also the recipient of SABERA 2018 - CSR Leader of the year award.
Madhura Talegaonkar
Head- CSR, Bajaj Electricals Ltd.
Speaker
Madhura Talegaonkar
A Corporate Social Responsibility Expert with 15 years of experience Corporate Social Responsibility and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) and volunteering.
At present she is the Head CSR at Bajaj Electricals Ltd., where Corporate Responsibility encompasses Sustainability, Diversity, Volunteering and Community Investment Initiatives and reports to the CMD. Her previous experiences include working and consulting Investment Bank, Media House and other corporates on CSR.
She started her career by working at the Grassroots with national and international Non Profit Organizations of repute and gained expertise in her domain through the body of work spread over one and a half decade. She is invited as a subject matter expert and is a distinguished speaker.
She has won several accolades and awards such as the most talented CSR leaders and most Impactful leaders at the World CSR Congress 2015 & 2016. Under her leadership Bajaj Electricals Ltd. has won the CSR Leadership Award at the National CSR leadership Congress and recently Bajaj Electricals Ltd. was awarded The Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility 2016. The CSR projects received recognition from the Industry and the Government.
She has a Master’s degree in Political Science, Studied law and Management of Non Profit Organizations. She has travelled extensively in India and outside and has passion to bring about positive change in the Society.
Tushara Shankar
Head- CSR and External Relations, Reckitt Benckiser
Speaker
Tushara Shankar
Tushara Shankar has a master’s in social work from TISS, Mumbai with specialisation in Urban and Rural Community Development. She has 17 years of diverse experience with corporate entities, international non-profit and consulting organisation. She has played a crucial role in a Government- Corporate- Non-profit collaborative Health initiative, which marked the commencement of NRHM in Jharkhand. She has been a resource person for CINI’s 6 month programme on NGO Management and Reproductive Health and a faculty for IGNOU’s rural development graduate programme. She has to her credit a women’s empowerment programme in the Kashmir valley. She has been associated with many bilateral, multilateral, UN and government programmes in a monitoring and evaluation role. She has been instrumental in formulating CSR policy, strategy and leading implementation in the corporates she has been associated with. Her experience of working with multiple partners across varied geographies has culminated in implementation of major Water Conservation projects and safe drinking water projects across different states in the country. At RB Hygiene, Tushara manages different projects in the water, sanitation and hygiene domain and is leading the Mission Paani purpose initiative of the company.
Sakshi Mehta
Head- Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility, Ericsson India Global Services
Speaker
Sakshi Mehta
Ms. Sakshi Mehta is the Head- Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility at Ericsson India Global Services Private Limited.
Her professional experience of 20+years has been a diverse one- starting from training, external and internal communication followed by CSR and sustainability implementation in two technology multinationals.
She has spearheaded sustainability and corporate responsibility for Ericsson in India for over 9 years and previously, supported the Intel CSR team driving their Education initiatives in India. Conceptualized and implemented large Education, Healthcare and Technology projects in marginalized communities across India with various partners. She strongly advocate that technology can drive positive change and the partnerships we make can enable the same.
As said by J.K Rowling “We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better".
Raju Sharma
InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (IndiGo)
Speaker
Raju Sharma
Raju leads the social initiatives of the Company in areas of Children & Education, Women Empowerment, Environment, and Heritage. An alumnus of Tata Institute of Social Sciences, (TISS) Mumbai, he completed his Masters in 1999 and since then has been working in the developmental sector.
He carries a rich experience of 20 years in which he has worked with NGOs, INGOs, Government, and Corporates ranging from grass-root implementation programs to the strategy and planning level.
His strength lies in partnership management, development of sustainable models, project management, CSR, and teamwork.
Mr. Sharma has presented papers on CSR and development forums. He believes in the creation of shared value by networking with professionals from varied fields and experiences and learning and contributing to the growth of all.
Raju is an avid reader and loves to explore new places. His pride lies in having completed the Roopkund trek, at an altitude of 17,000 feet. He is a great yoga enthusiast, traveler, and has an ear for music.
Narendranath Damodaran
Executive Director, PRADAN
Speaker
Narendranath Damodaran
Narendranath has been with PRADAN since 1989. He has served in many senior management positions, including leading the embedded cell with the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM). He was appointed the Executive Director of PRADAN in 2017. He received a degree in mechanical engineering from Kerala University and a PGDRM from the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA). He lives in New Delhi with his spouse and daughter.
Shalini Singh
Chief- Corporate Communications & Sustainability, CSR and Skill Development Centres and Chairman & Managing Trustee of TPCDT
Speaker
Shalini Singh
Shalini is an integrated Communication professional with 25 years of experience in the industries such as Power, IT, Telecom, Textile & Garments and has been heading Corporate Communications at Tata Power since October 2004 and has a lead responsibility for External and Internal Communications. Under her leadership the Company has won many national & international awards in Communications, CSR, sustainability and skilling, recent ones being ICSI CSR Award 2018, ACEF Awards 2019 for excellence in Brand & marketing- Club Enerji,(gold), Excellence in CSR - Dhaga (gold), Act for Mahaseer campaign & others, ABCI 2018 Awards in digital & environmental communications and Sabre award 2017 for Act for Mahaseer campaign.
She has represented causes like resource conservation, women empowerment, and business responsibility at various national and international forums such as Global Sustainable Electricity Partnership, United Nations Global Compact, TEDx-IIMA, CSR Summit & NGO box, ESG Matters-Asia Panel Series(Bank of Merrill Lynch) and CSR Live Week. Her efforts have been instrumental in Tata Power strategic partnerships with WBCSD, ICSI, IABC, ABCI, UNDP, NABARD, Government agencies, Civil Society and Corporate in the themes of Sustainability, CSR and Communication. Her engagement with academia has benefited students of many colleges including London School of Economics, Berkeley University, IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Indore.
Shalini is a member of International and national communication organizations- International Association of Business Communications and India Forum of Corporate Communicators & Association of Business Communicators, India. She also represents Tata Power on the "Media Committee" of BMA for the last 5 years. She was recently featured in Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen List of Honour for 2019. Shalini has a Master’s degree in Communications & Extension from M.S. University Baroda.
Dr. Garima Dadhich
Associate Professor & Head, SoBE/National Foundation for CSR, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs CEO, IICA & DoI Government of Haryana PMU
Speaker
Dr. Garima Dadhich
Dr Dadhich has around 13 years of policy advocacy, academic and development sector experience. She is an Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA), a think-tank under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Currently She is heading School of Business Environment (SoBE)- National Foundation for Corporate Social Responsibility (NFCSR) and Centre for Business and Human Rights at IICA.
She leads the Responsible Business and Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives from IICA and a regular faculty for such programmes. She has provided Policy assistance to Government of India, an end-to-end support to organizations to address policy and business issues relating to ‘Responsible Governance’ ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ and ‘Sustainable Business’ through customized research and capacity enabling interventions. She has also provided technical assistance on strategic documents of Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She is a designated Nodal Officer for an apex level Presidential Award in the field of CSR.
Lavanya Shrinagesh
Global CSR and Diversity, equity, and inclusion Leader, Genpact
Speaker
Lavanya Shrinagesh
Lavanya is leading programs that harness the energy and talent of Genpact employees for the economic, social, and environmental betterment of the communities we live and work in. As the diversity, equity, and inclusion leader, she is involved in steering initiatives to create a gender balanced and inclusive organization with 50% representation of women across all levels.
She has more than 18 years of experience across talent management domain - Hiring, HR, and Learning and development.
Nehal Sanghavi
Senior Advisor for Innovation and Partnership, USAID
Speaker
Nehal Sanghavi
Nehal Sanghavi has served with USAID/India as the Senior Advisor for Innovation and Partnership in the Director’s Office since August 2012. He has more than 15 years professional experience in international law, business and development. Prior to joining USAID, Mr. Sanghavi was the Chief Operating Officer of Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, India’s first independent foreign policy think tank. Prior to that, he was with Dasra, a Mumbai- based strategic philanthropy advisory firm for twelve years as Director and General Counsel. Mr. Sanghavi also spent eight years practicing international law at various large international law firms in New York and Texas.
Nehal earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a concentration in Law from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and a Doctorate of Jurisprudence with a concentration in International Law from the University of Texas, School of Law in Austin, Texas. He is certified by the Supreme Courts of Texas and New York to practice law and served on the boards of a variety of non-profit organizations, including as President of the India Cultural Center in Austin, Texas.
Nehal is fluent in English, Spanish, Gujarati and Hindi. In his leisure time, he enjoys spending time traveling, scuba diving, and engaging in other adventure sports. He is an American citizen with an Overseas Citizen of India status and lives in New Delhi with his wife and daughter.
Anil Sharma
Head- Corporate Communications, CSR & Sustainability, Havells India Ltd.
Speaker
Anil Sharma
Anil Sharma is a high energy marketing and communication professional with over 22 years of experience in developing and executing highly effective and result-oriented plans. He is a strategic leader with demonstrated success in recognising and maximising individual, agency and cross-functional team strengths. He has worked at the globally reputed PR agencies and a leading corporate. Today, he is at a unique intersection of Corporate & Marketing Communications, CSR and Sustainability, having set up these departments and leading them.
Anil has conceptualised the 360 degrees approach to CSR and the concept of “Sustainable CSR”, the CSR programs at Havells are currently based on these approaches and addressing some grass-roots problem that Children are facing. In addition to the mid-day meal program, the WaSH project in government schools has positively impacted millions of children and has received the highest award from the government of Rajasthan for the past four years.
In 2012, he introduced and initiated the concept of Sustainability at Havells and in the last eight years he has conceptualised and implemented various initiatives to not only save costs, raw materials, enhance employee productivity & safety but also be gentle on the environment. The hard work has transformed Havells into a ‘Water Positive’ company and will soon be ‘Wood & Paper Negative’ company. The efforts were recognised by ‘Dow Jones Sustainability Index’ where Havells was adjudged the 6th best electrical company in the world and the only Indian Electrical company to enter ‘Emerging Markets Index’.
Pratyush Kumar Panda
Vice President and Head- CSR, ACC Ltd.
Speaker
Pratyush Kumar Panda
Pratyush is a CSR & Impact Investment professional with 25 years of experience out of which most of his time he has worked for CARE India for 10 years and over 12 years in Corporate Social Responsibilities. He has done Masters in Sociology and MBA (Rural Management) from XIM, Bhubaneswar. In 2019 Pratyush has received "Scroll of Honour" award from XIM-Bhubaneswar. In March 2020 Pratyush got certified by WHO as a Covid-19 Operational Manager.
Presently he is working as Vice President & Head Corporate Social Responsibility, ACC Limited and based out at Mumbai and serving about a million lives every year. Some of his published articles are HR-CSR Integration, Human Right Audits beyond compliance, Social Audit in CSR, Community based “Solid Waste Management”, Taking sustainable living to India’s grass root, Drought mitigation in Marathwada, #SaveKidsLives and Biodiversity for Industrial Sustainability have received many accolades and awards. Post Covid Pratyush has extensively worked with Migrants workers by provisioning food, arranging transport, organising study on Migrants and also helping migrants to get job through MNREGA and MSME closer to their home.
Pratyush is a member of multiple committees of CII, Bombay Chambers of Commerce and IMC, Mumbai. He is very innovative and passionately working on Business Sustainability, Monitoring & Impact Evaluation Tools, Anti corruption and Corporate Governance. His project on Solid Waste Management and Smart Cities has accredited globally. He is an vivid Marathon runner as well.
Anjalli Ravikumar
Brand Purpose Consultant, Unilever
Speaker
Anjalli Ravikumar
Anjalli Ravi Kumar works with consumer brands to help them identify social causes aligned with their "purpose" or long term business strategy. As a Brand Purpose consultant with Unilever she"s worked with Fair & Lovely (now Glow & Lovely) Clinic Plus and Ayush. She set up the Glow & Lovely Careers, a platform that has helped 1 million women in Asia discover online career guidance and courses for which Anjalli was recognized as Unilever Global Hero. Previously, Anjalli has worked as a social sustainability and impact consultant with KPMG and Dalberg and spent the early years with Naandi Foundation raising funds for education, organic farming and safe water programmes. Anjalli holds an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from FMS, Delhi.
Anu Mehta
Deputy General Manager & Head- CSR, Honda Cars India
Speaker
Anu Mehta
Anu is a passionate, focused and experienced professional driven by integrity and strong ethical principles. A confident leader with a passion for smart business/community improvement. She is currently working with Honda Cars India Ltd. as Deputy General Manager and Head-CSR. She has spearheaded several CSR projects in the areas of education, road safety, environment and health and has been instrumental in uplifting the lives of people in the society. She has worked extensively with non-profit organizations and donors on strategy design, immaculate execution of projects and purposeful impact assessment. She develops and designs strategies and programs to make positive contributions to the community.
She has more than 24 years of work experience across Human Resources, Industrial relations, Administration, Safety, Security, Legal & CSR. She has worked in several corporate leadership positions in Auto as well as FMCG sector. She is a BSc (Honours) graduate from the University of Delhi, an MBA from Spicer memorial College, Pune.
Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini
General Manager- Sustainability and Community Relations, Aditya Birla Group
Speaker
Dr. Lopamudra Priyadarshini
Dr. Lopamudra is one of the leading and active figures in the field of development, where her belief of co-existing societies enables her to deliver more to masses. She further believes that social responsibilities and sustainability work in tandem, to fuel the engine of a fully functional society.
She is an experienced developmental, sustainability and corporate social responsibility professional; driven by integrity and strong ethical principles. A confident leader with a passion for smart business/community improvement, she is adept in utilizing networks and government liaising to identify opportunities for community/employee outreach efforts.
Dr. Lopamudra has a long track record of success in developing and deploying measurable CSR and employee management practices to strategically engage firm assets – resources (people and money) and technology. She is currently working with Aditya Birla Group as General manager Sustainability and previously with Sonalika Tractors, where she was running various CSR projects focusing on all round development of society affecting more than 3 lakh beneficiaries.
Arindom Datta
Executive Director and Head of Rural & Development Banking / Advisory, Rabo India Securities Pvt. Ltd.
Speaker
Arindom Datta
Arindom Datta has been working for Rabobank for the last 14 years and has over 28 years of experience in Rural Finance, Cooperative, Microfinance and Agribusiness banking. Arindom is responsible for the sustainability banking initiatives on knowledge, risk management and business development. He also oversees the Rabo Foundation projects in blended finance, technology/innovation and access to finance in the agriculture sector. Arindom is further passionate about following the Agtech developments and its significance for small holder farmers. He previously worked with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, IDBI Bank and CARE. Arindom is a Mathematics honors graduate from St. Stephen’s College and has an MBA with a specialization in Finance and Strategy from IIM Kozhikode.
Arindom’s work is recognized and he has been honoured with the ‘India Sustainable Leadership’ award at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit in 2017.
Other affiliations: Independent Director of NABKISAN Finance Limited; Observer on the Board of Agrostar, India’s largest Agtech company; Advisory member of Climate Smart Agri 100 of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Member of the FICCI Task force on Agtech; Member of the National Advisory Committee on the PRODUCE Fund for FPOs set up by NABARD.
Dr. Harish Hande
Founder & CEO, SELCO Foundation
Speaker
Dr. Harish Hande
Harish Hande is recognized as a pioneer of rural energy service across the globe. He wanted to bust the myth that while solar energy is environmentally desirable, it is very expensive and only the rich can afford it. Through SELCO, Harish successfully demonstrated that decentralised energy solutions particularly those powered by solar, can be truly sustainable. Provided it is implemented combining appropriate technological, financial and ownership models suited to the cash flows and local contexts of the poor. For his pioneering efforts, Harish has received many national and international awards including more recently, The Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship (2018) and Asia"s prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award (2011).
Padmini Copparapu
Country Lead- Communications & CSR, NVIDIA India
Speaker
Padmini Copparapu
Padmini Copparapu currently heads Communications and CSR for NVIDIA in India. Prior to this, she has spent the past decade in the corporate, the media and in the social sectors as a thought leader and change maker. She has extensive experience as a journalist writing and reporting for local and national news media, as well as welfare agencies, on critical developmental issues such as women and child rights, public education, urban poverty and more. She has also worked
to dialogue with State governments to provide transformative education in primary schools across the country. Her experience includes working with organizations such as D. E. Shaw India, Times of India, UNICEF, Teach for India among others.
Meera Shenoy
Founder & CEO, Youth4Jobs
Speaker
Meera Shenoy
Meera Shenoy is a pioneer in job-linked skilling of rural, tribal and young people with disabilities from underprivileged families, at scale. She set up and led EGMM, India"s first state government skilling mission , then consulted for the World Bank and UN across South east Asia. She is now Founder-CEO, Youth4Jobs (www.youth4jobs.org), which focusses on mainstreaming youth with disabilities in education and the workplace. In just 8 years, Youth4Jobs has become the largest organisation in this space and is a recognised System Changer .Y4J skills both youth with disabilities with less education from rural areas and educated youth in colleges. And makes the last mile connect to jobs. It has a presence in 28 states of India and works with a network of over 500 companies. The work has won several national and international awards. Like the National award of empowerment of disability from Hon’ble President of India and Asia winner of MITs prestigious Future of work, Inclusion Innovation award. The work was also recently covered in a Harvard Business School publication as a case study. She writes books and runs a portal called Not Just Art which showcases work of artists with disability.
Sagarika Bose
General Manager � Sustainability & Lead CSR, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd.
Speaker
Sagarika Bose
Sagarika is a CSR and social development professional with nearly 20 years" experience. She has worked with leading development sector organizations, government, academia and the corporate sector. She has contributed to a range of thematic areas spanning CSR & Sustainability, Vocational Skills, Information & Communication Technologies for Development, and Special Needs Education. She is currently leading CSR for the Godrej Consumer Products Ltd in Mumbai. Her role includes design and implementation of CSR programmes to drive positive social, economic, and environmental impact, ensure CSR governance to adhere to internal and external compliance, and lead communications for CSR and sustainability for the Godrej Industries Group. Sagarika has a double Masters from the London School of Economics and is a trained Special Needs Educator.
Ekta Kumar
Country Lead- CSR, Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd.
Speaker
Ekta Kumar
Ekta has 20 years of social impact and change management experience spanning across a wide spectrum of industries from Banking, Consulting, Telecom to Energy, having held global, regional and country leadership roles. Apart from being skilled in corporate social responsibility, circular economy & sustainable development, brand & reputation management, community & stakeholder engagement, change and program management, customer experience and business excellence (lean six sigma black belt) - passionate about building a more sustainable world by leveraging current skills and continuously learning new ones!
In her personal time, she advises and supports organizations that work towards making quality education accessible to underprivileged children and mentoring younger women to help them realize their full potential.
Sudarshan Suchi
Chief Executive Officer, Save the Children, India
Speaker
Sudarshan Suchi
Sudarshan Suchi is Save the Children’s Chief Executive Officer. He is a seasoned civil society leader with three decades of local to global experience in academics, development and corporate setting; and, an authority in participatory practices to empower communities to lead transformation.
An alumnus of St. Stephens College, Delhi and Institute of Development Studies (IDS), Sussex, UK, Sudarshan comes with the core competency of conceptualising development programs, development-based business models, efficient resource mobilisation, establishing partnerships, collaboration and coalitions towards issues that impact children’s fair access to basic human rights.
He has worked with leading organisations like Reliance foundation, Reliance Life Sciences, Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Prior to joining Save the Children, Sudarshan was the Secretary General at SOS Children’s Villages of India. He also brings in grass-root experience from his association with small NGOs like Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development (SPWD).
Amit Kumar Singh
Country Representative- India, Tanager
Speaker
Amit Kumar Singh
Amit Kumar Singh is an agribusiness and market development expert with more than 16 years of experience conceptualizing and executing agriculture and livelihoods development programs in a wide range of value chains in agriculture, horticulture and forestry.
As Tanager’s country representative for India, he provides team leadership and direction for Tanager’s portfolio of supply chain strengthening activities, with a focus on women and landless farmers.
Amit has dedicated his career to strengthening communities and has been responsible for projects that organized more than 100,000 smallholder farmers into self-help and producer groups. He also brings expertise in conducting large-scale research studies, including baseline and end-term assessments for USAID, DFID, the Ford Foundation, and UNIDO, among others, and is passionate about developing new tools using Participatory Rapid Appraisals (PRA). With a master’s in agricultural economics from National Dairy Research Institute, Amit has co-authored two books on value chains and has eleven publications in national and international journals of repute.
Tanager is an international non-profit that brings people together to co-create economic and social opportunities that change lives. Originally established as Agribusiness Systems International (ASI) in 1993 as an affiliate of ACDI/VOCA, it has been making agriculture work better for people.
Kaushik Sinha
Group Head - Corporate Communications, CSR & Corporate Services, Magma Fincorp Ltd.
Speaker
Kaushik Sinha
Kaushik Sinha is Group Head - CorpComm, CSR and Corporate Services of Magma Fincorp Limited. He leads Magma’s brand marketing, public relations and media outreach, Magma’s award-winning CSR programs, also spearheads Corporate Services and Infra Development functions.
Magma works with the rural poor on Education, Health and Environment. Magma’s CSR programs such as–Highway Heroes, M Scholar, M-Care and Magma Swayam, have helped transform lives of a few hundred thousand people over the years.
A PG in Mass-Communication, Kaushik is a former Journalist. He has attended management development programme at IIM Indore and workshops of Stanford University Business School in India also. He follows Current Affairs and Indian History closely.
Kaushik’s work has been awarded at various forums, Indian and International. He has been recognized as one of the 100 most Impactful CSR Leaders in India. He presents his thoughts regularly at industry forums.
Bharat Kakade
Executive Vice President, BAIF
Speaker
Bharat Kakade
Association: Executive Vice President of BAIF, an Indian NGO working for rural livelihood through sustainable management of natural resources for last 52 years with a spread of its work in 15 Indian states, 90000 villages covering over 4.5 million rural poor families. Member, Planning and Review Committee, National Institute of Hydrology, Govt. of India; Member of Working Group on Water Mission, Dept of Water Resources, Govt. of India.
Significant Contributions: Contribution for innovative and replicable programmes include conjunctive use of water resources in the Deccan Trap; Ravine land reclamation with equitable ground water utilization in Kanpur (Rural) district of Uttar Pradesh; Innovative decentralized water resource development using farm pond network in Karnataka; drought proofing approach in semi-arid region of Rajasthan; Integrating Drinking Water in Watershed Development, a trilateral project between India, South Africa and UK. Instrumental in developing “Sustainable Rural Livelihood in Backward districts of Maharashtra” under World Bank supported National Agricultural Innovation Programme (NAIP) of ICAR.
Provided consultancy and advisory services to domestic and bilateral programmes/organizations. Major ones included – India-Canada Environment Facility (ICEF), Plan International, Concern World Wide, TATA Trusts, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), USAID. Also played Advisory role to the organizations including Malanadu Development Society, Kerala; ‘Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra (KGVK), Jharkhand’ of the corporate Usha Martin Group; Admin. of Andaman and Nicobar’; Govt of Jammu and Kashmir.
Faculty: Civil Engineering at Government College of Engineering, Pune (1991-92); Bharati Vidyapith Institute of Environment Education and Research (2000-05) and National Training Session of Cohort 12 – LEAD India (2007).
Awards/Recognitions: Received prestigious Tejwani National Award for excellence in Research, Training and Development of Natural Resource for biennial 1996-97. The project “Conjunctive Use of Water Resources in Deccan Trap India “implemented during 1993 to 1997 was recognized by United Nations and awarded by Government of Maharashtra. Project was assessed by UNEP as one of the top 10 successful environment protection projects in the world. NAIP project in Maharashtra (where I was Principal Investigator) received TOI Social Impact Award in 2011.
Publications: 2 watershed development manuals, 4 case study booklets, 2 research reports and 15 research papers. 15 papers presented in the workshops at national and international level.
Dr Dhanalaksmi Ramchandra
CSR Business Partner � Strategic Projects and Stakeholder Engagement, Bayer Prayas Association
Speaker
Dr Dhanalaksmi Ramchandra
Dr. Dhanalakshmi Ramachandra is a Plant Physiologist by training and comes with 15 years of rich experience in the corporate world. After twelve years of active research in Biotechnology and data sciences, she shifted her domain to carve out a niche in the field of CSR. With her passion for the community, she brings with her a deep understanding of issues related to smallholder farmers, women empowerment and livelihood challenges amongst others.
Through her collaborative spirit, she has nurtured successful partnerships with multiple stakeholders in the industry and other organizations. She has effectively executed projects on Early Childhood Development, Science Education, Sustainable Agriculture, Integrated Community Development and WASH initiatives in diverse geographies across the country. She is living her dream while working with the farming community, women and students.
Sanjaya Mariwala
Executive Chairman and Managing Director, OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd, Chair for the nutraceutical sub-committee of FICCI, Founder President of the Association of Herbal and Nutraceuticals Manufacturers of India (AHNM)
Speaker
Sanjaya Mariwala
Known for his astute vision and thought leadership, Sanjaya Mariwala has been instrumental in positioning India’s nutraceutical industry on the global map along with developing the domestic market. He is the Executive Chairman and Managing Director of OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd, a company founded by him in the year 2005. OmniActive specializes in branded Natural APIs and PFIs for nutrition, health, and wellness products. Sanjaya is currently the chair for the nutraceutical sub-committee of FICCI and is also the Founder President of the Association of Herbal and Nutraceuticals Manufacturers of India (AHNM). Additionally, he serves as an Independent Director on the board of Cravatex brands, a platform for lifestyle, sports & wellness products. He is also a director on the Boards of Auto Hangar, the largest Mercedes dealership in India, and VKL Spices, India’s largest seasonings & flavors Solutions.
Sanjaya is a seasoned industrialist with over 30 years of experience in multiple industries while nutraceuticals space being his favorite. He has built sustainable & superior brands across sectors, unlocked multi-million dollars in value, and exited after accomplishing them to greater heights. Before setting up OmniActive he was the Managing Director of Kancor Ingredients, a company that he successfully ran and grew for two decades before selling his stake in 2014.
While voicing the industry opinion, he has presented several papers at different forums and institutions, also served as an active member of the organizing committee for the Nutraceuticals Summit held in India, annually. His other key industry affiliations include the India Pepper & Spice Trade Association, All India Spices Exporters Forum, Confederation of Indian Industry, Indian Merchant’s Chamber, and TIE-The Indus Entrepreneurs.
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad and Stanford University, he is a connoisseur of food and wine. He has an eye for art and enjoys playing golf when not building business strategies. He loves traveling and capturing his experience through majestic pictures.
Alka Talwar
Chief- CSR & Sustainability, Tata Chemical
Speaker
Alka Talwar
Ms. Alka Talwar currently holds the position of Chief - CSR and Sustainability Officer at Tata Chemicals Limited. She oversees all sustainability initiatives and disclosures for the company, promoting “Responsible Manufacturing” across geographies and the value chain. She also leads the diversity & inclusion and social development programs that include projects on natural resource management, environment conservation, rural energy, sustainable livelihoods and empowerment.
Ms. Talwar has been associated with Tata Chemicals for more than 30 years and has worked in various functions which include heading the community development functions at Mithapur, Gujarat and at Babrala, Uttar Pradesh. An architect by education and a certified achievement motivation trainer, she is also the Hon. Trustee & Hon. Secretary of Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development, Okhai – Centre for Empowerment and Uday Foundation (only Hon. Trustee). While she has worked extensively on both environment and social aspects, there are some programs that require a special mention;
o Nature conservation programs - Whale Shark & Turtle conservation, and Eco restoration of coral reefs
o Women empowerment initiatives through Okhai – a centre for empowerment which provides sustainable livelihood to women artisans.
Furthermore, Ms. Talwar played a pivotal role in setting up a centre of excellence for coastal and marine bio-diversity conservation and Ncourage Social Enterprise Foundation (NSEF) that aims to build and promote social businesses to address various development challenges and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She is also a Director on the Board of NSEF. Recognising her efforts, she was the conferred with the ‘Leading Women Award 2019’ in the Excellence category by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from CEPT University and has also co-authored two papers on The New Corporate Citizenship & Development and Linking Social enterprise with Social change: the mediating role of Empowerment. Practicing the perfect work-life balance, Ms Talwar also dabbles in photography and is a keen naturalist who enjoys both nature and the outdoors.
Priya Kapadia
Head-Marico Innovation Foundation, Marico Ltd.
Speaker
Priya Kapadia
Priya Kapadia, Heads Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF), an initiative by Marico Ltd. with a mission is to nurture innovation in India. Over the past 7 years Priya has conceptualized multiple programs that support innovations in their journey towards creating real, measurable impact. Her repertoire includes sector and challenge specific programs in the form of #Innovate2Cultivate, to support innovation in agriculture and more recently the #Innovate2Beat Covid Challenge, in response to the pandemic crisis. She has also played a crucial role in transforming the foundation’s flagship programs, Innovation for India Awards, a benchmark awards platform and the Scale-Up Program, that has helped 60+ innovators scale over the last 5 years. Priya harnesses her expertise and experience to bring together experts and thought leaders across fields to come together for the unified purpose of creating an innovation ecosystem that can empower innovators and help them to make a difference.
Joyeeta Das
Lead, Education and Skilling Initiatives, SkillsBuild, India/South Asia, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility
Speaker
Joyeeta Das
Ms. Joyeeta Das, Lead education and skilling initiatives at CSR, IBM India Pvt Ltd, is a corporate citizenship professional with a unique experience of over 20 years of working with Government and Non -Governmental organisations, multilateral funding agencies and corporates. Her foucs has been on primarily improving the quality of education in both K-12 and Higher Education leading large scale public private partnerships. She is deeply passionate about improving individual lives and whole communities of practice through education and nurturing talent through focused and innovative collaborations with experts in nonprofits, school and university systems and industry partners.
Being entrepreneurial in her outlook, Joyeeta is a problem solver, with emphasis on producing significant results and measurable impact. At her current role at IBM, she leads education and skilling initiatives driving digital citizenship and integration with multiple education stakeholders, to improve 21st century learning and professional development skills to build a talented workforce pipeline in India and across the world.
Nidhi Pundhir
Director, HCL Foundation
Speaker
Nidhi Pundhir
Ms. Nidhi Pundhir is Director, HCL Foundation, which is the CSR arm of HCL Technologies. In this role she also provides direction to the global CSR agenda of the company. She has set up unique and scalable institutional mechanisms that maximise the utilisation of Corporate Social Responsibility provisions towards achieving sustainable development, thus positively transforming lives of many.
Nidhi is an international social development and management practitioner, with specialization in Health Management. She has spent more than 22 years of her professional life in executing Human Rights of communities, their right to health, education, livelihoods and protection from violence. She has a deep understanding of poverty issues and brings on board realistic approaches towards poverty alleviation. During more thank 2 decades of her developmental career, she has worked extensively on actualisation of child rights, including policy and implementation work on child protection. Nidhi has managed grants of significant size, for institutional partners, foundations and corporates.
Some of the key portfolios she has held have been Global Advisor on Child Protection in Development with Plan International’s International Headquarters – UK, with Director Programme Development with SOS Children’s Villages Asia, with Plan International India as National Advisor on Child Rights and Protection, and with Save the Children UK as Programme Coordinator. In her pursuit and passion towards her commitment towards social development, Nidhi has travelled almost 40 countries and most of her home country, India.
Nidhi holds a Masters in Hospital & Health Administration from IIHMR University, Jaipur and an M. Phil. (Health Systems Management) from Birla Institute of Technology & Sciences, Pilani.
Jhalak Jain
Senior Manager-CSR, Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation
Speaker
Jhalak Jain
Jhalak Jain is currently associated with Honeywell Hometown Solutions India Foundation as Senior Manager, CSR.
Honeywell is committed to improving the world we live in by creating, supporting, and nurturing programs and initiatives that serve a global community. Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s global corporate citizenship initiative, offers programming, provides resources and financial support, and encourages employee volunteerism where we can make a real, lasting impact in four critical areas: Science and math education, child safety, inclusion and diversity, and humanitarian relief.
Over the years, Honeywell Hometown Solutions has brought many of its iconic, and highly-recognized global CSR programs to India, including 11 Nobel laureate visits to partner colleges, sponsoring hundreds of employees’ children and teachers to space camps and green boot camps in the U.S.
In 2014, Honeywell India took the lead in re-anchoring our CSR approach guided by the Indian government’s new Companies Act 2013. We are among the first companies to comply with the government’s CSR schedule, maintaining the legal, financial, and process rigor that Honeywell is known for globally. Working within our global CSR framework and the government’s guidelines, Honeywell is already working with six NGO partners of considerable global repute.
Jhalak Jain is a qualified Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI) with eight years of post-qualification work experience. She has been certified for ‘Creating Value through CSR’ by Indian School of Business. Prior to Honeywell, she has worked with two other organizations in the finance, taxation and audit roles. With these skill sets, she entered the corporate social responsibility sector and has been assisting partner and program management for more than five years.
Bajrang Bagra
President, Ekal Abhiyan
Speaker
Bajrang Bagra
Bajrang Bagra, a Chartered Accountant, has a cherished career of Corporate Manager from middle to Board level, for 36 years in various fields of economy- Power, Seeds, Mining and Metal, Railways and Consultancy.
He worked as CFO of Botswana Railways, Director (Finance) of RITES and of NALCO, and when bidding bye to corporate career was CMD, NALCO.
Bajrang Bagra has been active with CII, as Chairman, C I I, Odisha, Member, Development Council for Affirmative Action, Member, National Committee on CSR and Sustainable Development and Chairman, Nation Committee on CPSUs.
After leaving corporate career prematurely, he has been pursuing community service since 2013, as President, Ekal Abhiyan, in empowering tribal and rural communities through primary education with values, health, skills, organic farming, digital literacy and empowerment. The movement has reach to 1,02,400 villages. Students enrolled in its free primary schools as of October 2020 was above 28.7 lakh.
Rinika Grover
Head, Sustainability and CSR, Apollo Tyres Ltd.
Speaker
Rinika Grover
Rinika has over 20 years of experience in the development sector. She started her career as a volunteer and later pursued a post-graduation programme in special education for differently-abled children. She holds a Masters degree in Management and Information Systems from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She specialised in Change and strategic Programme Management. She also completed a programme in Climate Change Policy and Public Health from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
She worked over a decade in the UK with one of the biggest Children’s Charity, NSPCC. She moved back to India in a Sustainability role with Apollo Tyres in 2014. She works with her team to drive the Sustainability Management Framework. In the last six years, she has concentrated the work in the area of Healthcare for Trucking Community, Solid Waste Management and Sanitation, Livelihood for underprivileged women and Biodiversity.
She is a member of multiple committees CII National CSR Council, CII Gujarat Chapter, and FICCI Environment Committee.
Rohan Das
VP � Sustainability/CSR, DBS Bank
Speaker
Rohan Das
As Vice President–Sustainability & CSR, Rohan Das is responsible for spearheading the Sustainability & CSR function of DBS Bank in India. Rohan comes with a strong sustainable development perspective having worked with both corporate and non-profit development organizations. In his career spanning more than a decade and a half, he has worked on large scale projects in domains including Public Health, Youth Social Leadership, Media for Social Change and Social Impact Incubation & Acceleration. Over the years, he has built a track record of building differentiated, sustainable and scalable program models. Prior to joining DBS, Rohan was heading Yes Foundation.
Anurag Saxena
Chief Operating Officer, EasyGov (Reliance Jio Platforms) and Co-Founder, Digital Economy Foundation
Speaker
Anurag Saxena
Anurag is Chief Operating Officer of EasyGov, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Platforms. EasyGov is a GovTech startup focussed on technology-led citizen empowerment and a complete transformation of the social welfare delivery model. EasyGov platform also leverages Artificial Intelligence to design a progressive, relevant, and effective, family-centric welfare model based on preferences, needs, and socio-economic status.
Anurag is an alumnus of NIT Trichy, IBM, PwC Consulting, Accenture Strategy, and MicroSave Consulting. He also founded Digital Economy Foundation, a not for profit organization focussed on acceleration support to social entrepreneurs. He has worked with several clients in the Government and corporate sectors across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the US.
His priorities include applications of Deep Tech, realizing the full potential of GovTech, FinTech, EdTech, and Innovative Financing. Anurag is keen to leverage strong partnerships across Government, Private Sector, Philanthropy, CSR, and Startups to create sustainable impact at scale for underserved or unserved citizens.
Sushama Oza
Advisor, CDMC-MICA
Speaker
Sushama Oza
Ms. Sushama Oza just retired on December 31, 2019 as a Director, Strategy & Sustainability at Adani Foundation, Ahmedabad. She was also the CEO of Adani Foundation from May 2007 to October 2014 and has been playing pivotal role in shaping the CSR for Adani conglomerate for more than thirteen
years. She has represented the organization at many national and international forums. Ms. Oza has over 37 years of experience in the development field, out of which 21 years have been as head of the organization in India and USA. She has strategized and spearheaded projects in sectors of education, primary health care, sustainable livelihood development and rural sports. She has led several capacity building programs all over India in the field of CSR. Before retirement she was spearheading two centre of excellence projects Swachhagraha and SuPoshan which were being implemented nationwide. She continues to support Sustainability efforts and reporting as part of Sustainability leadership committees and as advisor for Adani Group of companies.
Dr Ruchi Tewari
Associate Professor, CDMC-MICA
Speaker
Dr Ruchi Tewari
Dr. Tewari specializes in CSR and Communication. With a PhD in CSR Communication, Prof. Tewari has been engaged in teaching, training and consulting since 1997, in both the online and the offline format. She has been invited as a speaker, moderator and chair for sessions on CSR as a tool for development and social well-being by organizations like Telecom Authority of India (TRAI); Lodha Developers; Society of Business Ethics etc. Her writing is published in various journals of national and international repute. Apart from her involvement in academics, she has been engaged as a consultant and trainer with companies like Navneet Publishers; Task Staffing and Elitecore technologies. Her research, training and consulting areas deal with CSR and Communication.
Pallavi Madhok
Senior Solutions Specialist, Women�s World Banking
Speaker
Pallavi Madhok
Pallavi leads Women’s World Banking’s solutions development practice in India – focusing on promoting access to finance for low income women by building capacity at leading financial institutions like Bank of Baroda, Ujjivan and FINO payments. She has 20+ years of experience in financial services and works with consumer and Channel (Business Correspondent, Call Centre, Digital) insights, research, analytics, marketing and project specialists to deliver sustainable & scalable products. She is a tenured product manager and consultant with experience launching new businesses and product solutions across industries like Banking, Education, and FMCG. Pallavi has worked for large multinational companies like Nestle India, AT Kearney, and Citibank India across roles in Business & Product Strategy, Product Development, Sales & Marketing, and Internet Banking & Sales. In Citi Bank she developed a marketing strategy for the Institutional Client Group (wholesale banking). She has also worked in smaller domestic start-ups launching businesses and products from concept to MVP to national launch.
Pallavi holds a Masters of Business Administration from IIM Bangalore and a Bachelor of Economics from Delhi University.
Marina Dimova
Managing Director of Design and Innovation, Women�s World Banking
Speaker
Marina Dimova
Marina Dimova is the Managing Director of Design and Innovation at Women’s World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving more low-income women access to the financial tools and resources they require to achieve security and prosperity. In this position, she focuses on transforming the strategic ideation and solution design processes of financial service providers and identifying and designing innovative financial solutions for women and girls.
Marina is a designer with 15 years of experience developing, implementing and scaling innovative solutions to social problems. She uses insights from behavioral science and new technologies to build effective customer-centric products and services and embed innovation into teams and organizations.
Previously, Marina was a Vice President at ideas42, where she designed, tested and scaled products, processes and programs in consumer finance, international development and financial inclusion. Her designs have focused on increasing the take-up and usage of financial products and improving the financial management behaviors of low-income clients. Before that, Marina led strategy for a social enterprise developing a youth employment program in West Africa. She has also worked on agricultural value chains and private sector development at the World Bank, and in finance and healthcare consulting.
Marina holds an MPA in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. in Economics and Government from Franklin & Marshall College.
Uttara Bharath Kumar
Senior SBC & Capacity Strengthening Advisor, Johns Hopkins University CCP
Speaker
Uttara Bharath Kumar
Uttara Bharath Kumar has over 27 years of experience in the field of health communication and behavior change.
Currently the Senior Social and Behavior Change (SBC) and Capacity Strengthening Advisor on the USAID Global SBC flagship program, Breakthrough ACTION, she has been with the Johns Hopkins University/Center for Communication Programs (CCP) since 1997, based in Baltimore, Zambia (11 years) and India. She is currently based in Chennai, providing regional technical expertise and support to programmes in Asia and Africa.
She is an experienced trainer and has led as well as co-facilitated a number of Leadership in Strategic Communication (LSC) workshops globally on behalf of Johns Hopkins University’s Training and Capacity Strengthening Division. She has numerous conference presentations and publications to her credit, and has supported programmes in over 20 countries.
She co-founded Nalamdana (Are You Well?), a Chennai-based health communication NGO, in 1993 with a seed grant from the Echoing Green Foundation and was its executive director until 1996. She continues to actively serve on Nalamdana"s Board of Trustees in an honorary capacity and provides technical guidance and fundraising support to Nalamdana’s projects.
Ms. Bharath Kumar has a Masters degree in Public Health from the John"s Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (Baltimore, USA) and a BA from Wellesley College. (Massachusetts, USA). She is fluent in English, Tamil and Hindi.
Chhavi Sachdev
Podcast Producer, Consultant, and Coach, Sonologue
Speaker
Chhavi Sachdev
Chhavi Sachdev is a radio and podcast producer, consultant, and coach. She is also the most experienced podcaster in India -- she has been making podcasts since 2008 – and is one of few radio reporters and producers in the country. Her features have been broadcast on the BBC World Service, National Public Radio, Deutsche Welle, Radio Netherlands, and Public Radio International. She has produced podcasts for Sonologue, Tall Tales, Tata Sons, Bound, The Canadian Consulate General and others.
Since 2011, Chhavi has been conducting regular workshops (www.sonologue.com/workshops) for individuals, corporates, as well as NGOs.
Over the years, she has done hands-on workshops for media organizations like The Quint, specialized day-long workshops on making audio features and narrative podcasts for cultural organization like the Goethe Zentrum, full day workshops on writing for the ear (since podcast scripting is vastly different from web or video copy) as well as the basics of editing and even feature and documentary podcast creation for working journalists and activists through organizations like Malayala Manorama and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
Chhavi has a master’s degree in journalism from Northeastern University, and is a lifetime member of the South Asian Journalists Association and the Podcast Academy.
Shalini Goyal Bhalla
Managing Director, International Council for Circular Economy
Speaker
Shalini Goyal Bhalla
A post graduate environmentalist, Shalini is a Climate Change visionary. She has been actively working in sustainability and developed a Zero Waste program which helps entities to reduce their Carbon-Footprint. Her ‘Project Zero’ made headlines when it was awarded by the Uttarakhand State govt. An active social worker, she has several awards that add to her laurels. She has been recognized and awarded by Social Founder; London, Global Goodwill Ambassador; the US, ICUNR; India. Currently, working as an advisor in Sustainability and Circular Economy, she is chairing the International Council for Circular Economy. An active speaker, she takes up initiatives in promoting educational opportunities, leadership development, entrepreneurship and empowerment of youth and women. She is associated with MSME as Influencer 2019 in the Circular Economy sector and with Delhi Govt on their Entrepreneurship Mindset program. She is a mentor to 7 woman-led enterprises. Her first book happens to be the first book on ‘Circular Economy’ in India.
Sanaa Shaikh
Director � Investor Relations, United Way Mumbai
Speaker
Sanaa Shaikh
Sanaa leads Investor Relations at United Way Mumbai (UWM) – a premier non profit organization with a vast footprint in urban and rural communities across the country. UWM has invested INR 480+ crore in the areas of Education, Health, Income, Environment, Public Safety & Social Inclusion and Sanaa works closely with companies on designing their CSR portfolio and philanthropy initiatives. Her expertise lies in the area of education for children from marginalized communities. Prior to joining UWM, Sanaa was Chief Operating Officer of Aseema – a leading education focused NGO. She has designed and led projects in school adoption, public private partnership, remedial education, counselling, early childhood education and teacher training. Her experience includes grassroot level work in municipal schools of Mumbai and tribal communities in Maharashtra. She has a keen interest in child rights and has co-authored a book on Understanding Children’s Rights through the lens of the UN Convention on Rights of the Child.
Dr Bhavna Sharma
Head � Nutrition Science, ITC Foods
Speaker
Dr Bhavna Sharma
Dr. Bhavna Sharma (PhD) is the Head of Nutrition Science at ITC Foods.
She is responsible for developing and executing the Nutritional Product & Policies pipeline, public-health based CSR & sustainability initiatives and R&D-Product strategies across all categories under/for the ITC-FBD division. She is also responsible for managing the internal employees and external stakeholder ecosystem related to nutrition, health & public-health.
She is a member of many national & international (industry) nutrition & regulatory groups and works very closely with both the external scientific & regulatory groups.
Before this she was working in GSK as Senior Scientist- Innovation India Lead (Family Nutrition portfolio). She was responsible for researching on newer science avenues to support the company’s vision on leading innovation through science in the areas of Growth in children, bone health, Cognition and energy metabolism.
Before this role she was working as Applied Nutrition Specialist at Nestlé, India, where she contributed in developing & generating knowledge in the research areas of vitamin D (estimation in foods, supplementation trials etc.), dietary intake & food consumption behaviour among Indians (with a focus on children below 12 and pregnant & lactating mothers) and developing micronutrient fortification initiatives for various age groups, where she was also awarded for ‘excellence in NHW leadership role’. Before Nestlé she has also worked with General Mills Pvt ltd, as a Health Scientist.
She is a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Delhi in collaboration with Institute of Nuclear Medicine & Allied Sciences (Defence Research Development Organization) and has been working in the field of Nutrition and Public Health since the last 15 years in various roles primarily in driving innovation strategies, clinical research, product development, nutrition
education, developing dietary intake research methodologies (primary & secondary) in capacity of a subject matter expert. and is well recognized by her organization(s) for her work like- “Grow2Win - Simplify to Energize” reward, “Nutrition leadership award”, the “Global Business Services Award” amongst others. She has published many papers in peer-reviewed journals and presented work in many academic forums
Sandeep Patel
Founder and CEO, NEPRA
Speaker
Sandeep Patel
Sandeep Patel is an entrepreneur who is the founder and CEO of NEPRA. NEPRA is a technology-driven City based Waste Management Business Model, integrating all the stakeholders of the waste management system, bringing in transparency, structure, traceability and playing a significant role in take-back programs under EPR- Extended Producer Responsibility. The model is formed on the basis of circular economy, aiming at Zero Waste to Landfill. NEPRA has created a value chain for both, recyclables and non-recyclables benefiting the bottom of pyramid. To get a gist on NEPRA’s working, please view the video: https://youtu.be/eqQ_uxIMUuY.Sandeep has spent over 10 years and has built a suitable model in waste management for the Indian context. He has represented NEPRA at several eminent Indian and International forums.
With several awards and recognition to his merit, the most recent achievements are the CII 3R award 2020 for Excellence in Managing Plastic Waste, The Forbes Social Entrepreneur of the Year award 2019, and the title of Garbage Guru - Safaigiri Awards 2019, India Today
Rahul Ranjan Sinha
Associate Director - Client Insights for Impact, Grameen Foundation India
Speaker
Rahul Ranjan Sinha
Rahul is an international research professional with 9 years of experience in planning and conducting social research. His main practice area within development advisory has been financial inclusion, WASH, digital financial services, gender issues, women economic empowerment, education and poverty measurement. His main area of expertise lies in finalising research design, research instruments, evaluation design, data analysis, report writing and developing knowledge products. Most of his development advisory work has been concentrated in the regions of South Asia and Pacific Island Countries. He has worked with clients such as United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), Department for International Development (DFID) - UK, The World Bank. He has completed his post-graduation from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. Currently, he works as Associate Director – Client Insights for Impact at Grameen Foundation India.
Kavita Anand
Executive Director and Co-Founder, Adhyayan Quality Education Services
Speaker
Kavita Anand
Kavita Anand is the founder director of both, Adhyayan Quality Education Services and Adhyayan Foundation. She was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2015 for her social entrepreneurship and single minded focus on bringing quality to schools through leadership development. Over her career spanning 30 years, she has worked in organizations such as Aga Khan Education Services and the Sir Ratan Tata Trust. In 2001, she set up and led Shishuvan School, Mumbai, for 12 years. Kavita serves on the board of organisations such as the India School Leadership Institute, Somaiya Vidyavihar, Kapila Khandvala B.Ed College, Educate for Life and Apni Shala. She has provided long-term consultancy services programmes of the Open University, UK and the National College of Teaching and Leadership, UK.
Samar Verma
Program Officer, The Ford Foundation
Speaker
Samar Verma
Samar has over 25 years of multi-sector, multi-cultural, and multi-national work experience in leading, undertaking, managing and representing policy research and analysis with policymakers, organisational leadership, advocacy and program management in diverse sectors including higher education and social science research, catalysing and managing regional collaborative learning networks of intellectuals and leaders, technical capacity-building and peer-mentoring of think tank leaders, organisational assessment and strengthening of think tanks in their pursuit of research excellence, policy engagement and strategic communications along with strategic grantmaking experience with international donors. He is an empathetic leader and systems thinker with mature judgement.
Dr Purvi Mehta
Head of Asia for Agriculture, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Speaker
Dr Purvi Mehta
Dr. Purvi Mehta is the Head of Asia for Agriculture at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
She has her formal education, upto PhD, from M.S. University, India, Tokyo University, Japan and North Carolina State University- USA. Dr. Mehta has worked with the CGIAR, as head of Asia for the International Livestock Research Institute and also as head of South Asia Biosafety program (IFPRI, USAID), and brings a blend of Asia and Africa experience. She is on board of several organizations, including, International Alliance for Ecology and Health-Canada, International Centre for Rural Agriculture-Netherlands, Independent Director on Board of National Commodity Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX), Global Advisory Council- World Food Prize etc. She is honorary professor at Amity University-India and visiting Scientist at Cornell University. She has been closely associated with several agriculture and nutrition policy platforms in India, South East Asia and Africa and serves on several committees and advisory panels. She was the recipient of Agriculture Today Award-2014, for her contributions to agriculture policies in South Asia. Dr. Mehta has two books and over 50 publications to her credit.
Pratima Harite
Head, Asia Pacific CSR & Philanthropy, Lenovo Foundation (APAC)
Speaker
Pratima Harite
Pratima Harite heads the Asia Pacific CSR & Philanthropy, at Lenovo Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Lenovo.
She is responsible in building strong charitable partnerships across Asia Pacific’s diverse markets, increase employee engagement in alignment with the new global volunteer benefit and evaluate the impact of Lenovo’s strategic charitable investments in Asia Pacific underscoring Lenovo’s global philanthropy and Foundation’s mission of smarter technology for all.
Pratima brings a gamut of experience to Lenovo. Having worked for two major Indian conglomerates (Reliance Anil Ambani Group and Wadia Group), she led the CSR wing with various lines of businesses ranging from financial, power and FMCG to name a few. Prior to that Pratima worked for over 15 years at a senior level in varied global financial institutions one of which was Standard Chartered India where she responsible in building the CSR function from the ground up leading to several of her initiatives being integrated at a corporate level.
She is a subject matter expert in the areas of Women Empowerment, education, financial literacy, vocational training, and healthcare. During her spare time, she works pro bono with non-profit organizations supporting them in developing communication strategies and fundraising. Pratima is based in Mumbai where she lives with her husband and 17-year old daughter.
Abhishek Ranjan
Director and Global Head - Sustainability, Brillio
Speaker
Abhishek Ranjan
Abhishek Ranjan heads the CSR, Sustainability, D&I and Employee Outreach at Brillio. He also serves as the Managing Trustee of the Brillio Foundation. He was named as one of the “100 Most Impactful CSR Leaders (Global Listing)” at the World CSR Congress in 2016.
Abhishek brings with him 14+ years of experience in Marketing, HR and CSR, and has been instrumental in leading Bringing Smiles, Brillio’s CSR program, and driving an impact in the society. Under his guidance, Brillio’s CSR programs have been able to ignite 40,000 young minds globally. The Employee Outreach program, under Abhishek’s leadership has been awarded as India’s best Employee Volunteering Program in the year 2018. He also leads the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) project at Brillio which has seen a Carbon footprint reduction by 25% since inception.
He started his career with IBM as a Business Analyst and later worked for Oracle, where he is credited with setting up the Customer Centres and Industry Relations function in India. Today, he is also an active advocate on Sustainability and Responsible Business and lectures B-Schools globally, and is an Adjunct Professor at Christ University, Bangalore. He is an alumnus of IMT Ghaziabad and has studied CSR and Sustainability from several leading institutes such as IIM Bangalore, ISB and GRI
Heer Chokshi
Development Sector Lead, Edelman India
Speaker
Heer Chokshi
Heer leads the Development Sector work at Edelman and oversees communications planning and implementation for development sector organizations and corporates that are interested in sustainability and purpose-driven campaigns. She brings over 20 years of communication experience in the not-for-profit sector and has been with Edelman for over 5 years.
She has worked with bilateral agencies and donor organizations such as WHO-PMNCH, UNICEF, UN Women, European Union and USAID/India; International and National foundations and consulting firms such as Tata Trusts, Plan India, IPE Global, ASMAN Alliance, Population Foundation of India, Ford Foundation, Development Alternatives Incorporated, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Plan India, Xynteo, ASMAN Alliance, The India Nutrition Initiative, FREND Foundation, RTI International India, World Vision India, Vision Impact Institute, Centre for Digital Financial Inclusion, Ashoka Changemakers, Magic Bus, Aurora Prize for Humanity, amongst others.
Within the development sector she has worked on issues that include public health and nutrition, education, gender equity, financial inclusion, sustainable agriculture, social justice, leadership, and many more for the above clients.
She has also provided public health, nutrition, education and sustainability related expertise to Edelman’s corporate clients including Hindustan Unilever, Tata Chemicals, PepsiCo, PuBG, CBRE, Boston Scientific, Cloudnine Hospitals, Canola Council of Canada, Find Diagnostics, Eli Lilly, Sanofi, Astrazeneca, Mylan, Janssen, HUL, and Kimberly Clark.
Heer joined Edelman after being employed with Palladium (formerly Futures Group), where her profile included creating and managing large and small-scale strategic behavior change communication campaigns and projects in public private partnership. She has worked with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India; State Health Departments of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh; Ministry of Health & Population, Government of Nepal; USAID and other national level NGOs and academic institutes.
Prior to that Heer has worked for Johns Hopkins University- Centre for Communication Programs; Sesame Workshop India’s educational television show Galli Galli Sim Sim and its education outreach projects; and Urban Child Survival Program for Counterpart International.
Sharda Gautam
Head of Crafts, Tata Trusts
Speaker
Sharda Gautam
Mr Gautam is currently Head of Crafts at the Tata Trusts. Sharda’s area of expertise lies in rural livelihoods - he is passionate about skill development of rural youth and strongly believes that rural producer collectives are the key to solving rural poverty and rural to urban migration. Prior to his role at the Tata Trusts, he was Executive Director of The Handloom School from 2015 to 2017. He has been working in the domain of non-agrarian livelihoods, renewable energy and crafts for over 10 years. Sharda is a Gold Medalist from IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand), has studied Mechanical Engineering from NIT- Surat, as well as being a recipient of the Amul-TATA Scholarship.’ He is also 2017 Acumen Regional Fellow.
Garima Babbar
Head Education Initiatives, Adobe South Asia, Adobe
Speaker
Garima Babbar
Garima Babbar heads education and skill development programs for Adobe India and South Asia region. She has rich experience of 20 years in this field and works with the Govt and think tanks.
She leads the India flagship initiative Adobe Digital Disha to build Digital Creativity skills of students across K-12, Higher Education. She is passionate about education and works extensively on Policies and Programs to help develop new age skills of students in latest technologies.
Prior to joining Adobe, Garima was working with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) under Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. She was responsible for development of guidelines and implementation of Community colleges, B.Voc program, skilling initiatives in schools and universities. She also represented India in a global conference organized by Community Colleges for International Development (CCID) to promote international education and global citizenship. She is a part of the skill advisory committee of NASSCOM for new job roles.
She has worked closely with UGC, MHRD and AICTE for various projects related to skill development.
She is on Board of studies for various engineering and vocational institutes.
Rajashree Nataranjan
Chief Executive officer, Cognizant Foundation
Speaker
Rajashree Nataranjan
Rajashree is an IT industry veteran and a social impact leader with nearly 30 years of global experience.
She is currently the Chief Executive Officer for Cognizant Foundation and plays a key role in evolving an overarching charter for the Foundation, defining CSR strategy & goals, managing operations, communication and relationship with a broad set of diverse stakeholders.
In her two dozen years of service in the IT Industry, she has played diverse leadership roles driving strategic and transformational initiatives. As global head of Process and Platforms in Cognizant, she was responsible for developing cutting edge technology solutions and incubating new product ventures that support global delivery.
She is a passionate learner, trainer & speaker in industry forums. She mentors several startups and has facilitated many interactive workshops for designing lean process and creative technology solutions for complex business and social needs. She is passionate about spending time with non-profit organizations and social enterprises, actively contributing to the field of education. She is the managing trustee of a charitable trust and co-founder for a bilingual reading and learning program that caters to the underprivileged children.
Rajashree obtained her master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. She is a Six Sigma Black Belt and a certified Executive Coach.
Neelima Khetan
Managing Partner, Nous Consultants
Speaker
Neelima Khetan
Neelima Khetan, Managing Partner of Nous Consultants, is a senior CSR and Social Sector expert. She has over 3 decades of experience in this space, having worked with leading for-profit and non-profit organizations in the country. Her current affiliations include Visiting Fellow with Centre for Social and Economic Progress (earlier called Brookings India) and Visiting Faculty with Chandragupta Institute of Management, Patna.
Earlier, Neelima has been the Group CSR Head for Vedanta Group, where she provided oversight and guidance to the CSR efforts of 11 business units of the Group, located across India and Africa. She was also (concurrently) Vice President, CSR at Hindustan Zinc (part of Vedanta Group).
Prior to joining Vedanta, Neelima was the Director, CSR and Sustainability for Coca Cola India and South West Asia – where she led the company’s CSR/Sustainability programs across 6 countries in South Asia.
Neelima has long experience of the social sector, having held leadership positions like – India Country Director of the American India Foundation and Chief Executive of Seva Mandir in Udaipur. In between, she was also the Acting Director of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). Neelima has served on the Boards of many NGOs and Academic Institutions. She has also served on many Central and State Government Committees, including the Land Reforms Committee of the Government of India and the Task Force to suggest Decentralized Funding Mechanisms to the Planning Commission.
Neelima holds a Master’s in Rural Management from IRMA and a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University
Rishi Aggarwal
Director, Mumbai Sustainability Centre
Speaker
Rishi Aggarwal
Rishi has had a passionate engagement with environmental and sustainability issues over two decades, beginning as a vocal grassroots activist and moving on to work with and founding a number of NGOs. His work centres around advocacy for incorporating sustainability best practices in all aspects of urban functioning. He is Director of Mumbai Sustainability Centre.
Aman Pannu
Head-Corporate Communications & CSR, DCM Shriram Ltd.
Speaker
Aman Pannu
Aman Pannu is Head of Communications and CSR at DCM Shriram Ltd. with 21 years of experience working across various sectors: Retail, Agriculture, and Chemicals & Liquor. She started her career in Public Relations with TBWA Anthem in 1999 handling clients across sectors, followed with a move to the Corporate Communications role at Ebony Retail Holding Ltd and Radico Khaitan Ltd. looking after marketing communications. She has been with DCM Shriram Ltd. for the past 11 years in the role of Head -Corporate Communications & also handles the CSR function. The company set up an Archives, in which Aman played a pivotal role in building the company"s Archives and Heritage Gallery in Kota, Rajasthan to preserve the 136 years history of the DCM group. She is a mass communication postgraduate from Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication, Pune and has undertaken a Leadership program at IIM, Bangalore. A strong believer in the concept of storytelling she uses it across her various roles in Communications, CSR & Archives.
Arvind Kumar
Senior Advisor - Strategic Partnerships, USAID
Speaker
Arvind Kumar
Mr. Arvind Kumar is the Senior Advisor Strategic Partnerships with USAID. He has over 25 years of experience in the development sector and has managed over $100 million dollars, worth of development projects. In his role as the Strategic Partnerships Advisor he works closely with policy makers, private sector decision makers, and leads the efforts for transfer of promising Indian healthcare solutions to other countries. Mr. Kumar has the facilitated several private companies, business associations and start-up firms to get involved and support India’s health and development programs. He has a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a master’s in business administration.
Deepak Prabhu
Head � Outreach Volunteering, Cognizant
Speaker
Deepak Prabhu
Deepak is the Global Head of Cognizant’s Employee Volunteering Program Outreach and leads the core committee of Cognizant Foundation in Karnataka. The Outreach program provides an integrated platform to enable employees of Cognizant to dedicate their time, skills and passion for making a difference in the focus areas of ‘Supporting Inclusion in Tech’ and ‘Increasing Community Impact’. These focus areas are aligned to Cognizant’s social purpose of ‘improving everyday life’. Since its inception 13 years ago, 200,000 Outreach volunteers across 30 countries have clocked over 3.4 million hours of volunteering to impact 700,000 lives.
Anupam Biswal
Specialist Social Sector
Speaker
Anupam Biswal
Anupam is a senior development sector professional with over 12 years of dedicated service in social sector and large part of his experience has been in the field of vocational training/ skill development, entrepreneurship and rural development (women empowerment, livelihoods, health, nutrition and sanitation) in India and other countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, Thailand and Malaysia. He has led the strategies for designing the national level programs like DDU-GKY, PMKK and PMKVY, has anchored and led some of the complex large scale assignments in livelihoods in states of Rajasthan, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand. He has led the policy level interventions by supporting the government through IFIs like WB and ADB. Currently, he facilitates the discussion around sandbox, fintech related eco-systems and start up for health and livelihoods. He has been part of organisations like CHAI, EY, Accenture, DRF, BRLPS.
Nirmallya Mandal
Director, Social Business
Speaker
Nirmallya Mandal
Nirmallya Mandal, with a background in Economics and Post Graduate in Rural Management (Rural Marketing and Rural Development) has more than 17 years of experience in enterprise promotion for FPOs and MSMEs, Social Research especially Value Chain Analyses, CSR, Strategy Formulation and Implementation of Agriculture and NTFP based Livelihoods Promotion programmes, Project Management and Capacity Building. With a previous background of implementing Microfinance systems and later providing management consultancy to various state governments, bilateral projects, funding agencies like World Bank, NABARD, GIZ, IFAD, UNDP, Worldfish etc. CSR and International NGOs, Nirmallya has emerged as an expert in the field of Agricultural Value chains, Market based Livelihoods Promotion and business process establishment and re-engineering in areas of Marketing for start-ups and producer organizations operational in the rural domain. Enlisted as a CII Sustainability Assessor for corporates, Nirmallya is also a certified Master Trainer by Pearson, UK. He is a co-founder of Ecociate Consultants Pvt Ltd and currently is a Director, leading the domain of Social Business in the organization.
Sanjeev Kumar
Founder Adviser, The Goat Trust
Speaker
Sanjeev Kumar
23 years of experiences in the development sector on Grass root Livelihoods and Rural financial services /Rural Entrepreneurship & micro-enterprise promotion. Founded organisation: The Goat trust – in 2008 – Working in 16 Indian States as technical Resource organisation with over 85 partners including 6 large projects with State governments. NN Breeds & Seeds India Pvt Ltd – A social enterprise working on Livestock E-commerce in the name of PashuBajaar, launched Goat milk and goat milk cosmetics. Mobilised equity of Rs 120 lakh. Co-founded TGT Global Development services Pvt Ltd in 2016 to build a large training platform /regional centres network to ensure quality training for small livestock at an affordable cost. Founded International Institute of Goat Management (IIGMA) to launch First Course in Livestock Business Management for low formally educated Rural youths and launching PG Diploma in Livestock Business Management at Deoghar campus by 2022. Presently building Livestock product market through an E-commerce platform and goat milk products. Academically Post Graduate in Dairying from National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI)
Shri Raj Nehru
Vice Chancellor Shri Vishwakarma Skill University India's First Skill University, Government of Haryana, Mission Director Haryana Skill Development Mission, Panchkula
Speaker
Shri Raj Nehru
Raj Nehru is the youngest, founding Vice Chancellor in the country, who left his lucrative corporate career to serve the dream of transforming National Skill Ecosystem, that is on high priority in the State and the Country.
A veteran in Human Capital Management, has spent more than two decades in various roles and different organisations. Started his career with Indian Army and then moved to Corporate Sector (Pharmaceutical, IT&ITES, Manufacturing, Automobile and Engineering and Energy Sector). He has worked for more than a decade with IBM and managed the global portfolio as Director Leadership Development. Prior to joining the Skill University, he was Director – HR at Schneider
Electric. He has a wide global & cross cultural experience and has worked in Philippines, China, Europe & United States for his projects.
Under his leadership, SVSU has pioneered the Dual Education Industry Integrated Model, that is becoming highly popular now as "Earn While Learn" scheme. He has also led SVSU to win various awards by National and International bodies for its exemplary work in the area of dual vocational education.
He is associated with various board and committees and is awarded at various forums. He is also keen on philanthropic work.
Kartik Desai
Executive Director, Asha Impact
Speaker
Kartik Desai
Kartik Desai is the Executive Director of Asha Impact, an impact investing and policy advocacy platform which runs a capital-on-call ‘virtual fund’ (multi-family office) for Indian business leaders, UHNIs and philanthropists to invest in scalable, for-profit social enterprises. Asha Impact also works with the Indian government on sector-specific advocacy based on the experience of its investees and building the market for blended instruments like impact bonds through its non-profit trust. Prior to setting up Asha in 2014, Kartik worked with two pioneering impact funds in India – Lok Capital and Aavishkaar – was an investment banker with DSP Merrill Lynch, and consulted with the Rockefeller Foundation and the UNDP in the US and Africa. He has led several pioneering initiatives in building the social enterprise and impact financing ecosystem in India such as being a judge on the world’s first reality TV show on impact investing, setting up a coworking-events space and polling platform for underprivileged youth in Delhi, and authoring multiple op-eds and white papers on different development issues; he was chosen as a ‘Champion of Change’ by the Prime Ministers office in 2017. Kartik has led investments into and served on the boards of a dozen early-growth enterprises and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Impact Investors Council representing 40+ fund as well as the India Steering Committee of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. He completed his education at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and School of International & Pulic Affairs at Columbia University. Raised in Geneva and New York, he shifted to India full time in 2005.
Sumeer Mathur
National Head- Strategy and Planning, Edelman India
Speaker
Sumeer Mathur
A graduate in economics with Post Graduation in communication, Sumeer has over 19 years of experience. He has worked in both Mumbai Delhi, for leading agencies including Lowe Lintas, JWT, DDB and Y&R. He has led Regional and Global strategic responsibilities for Unilever brands (Fair & Lovely, Lifebuoy Shampoo, Clinic All Clear) for South Asia South East Asian markets. This entailed understanding different cultures from a consumer perspective and market perspective, and understanding communication works in different geographies.
He has also worked across categories that range from telecom (Airtel Aircel), automobiles (Tata Motors, Royal Enfield), FMCG (Unilever, Colgate Palmolive, Mcvities Marico and Unicharm), household appliances and home electronics (Microsoft, Midea), social sector campaigns (USAID, CHAI, UNICEF), airlines (Kingfisher airlines, Spice jet), hospitality (Taj Hotels resorts), and sports (Adidas) and beverages (Bira Beer).
Dr Arun Joshi
Chief Executive officer, JBGVS, Pune
Speaker
Dr Arun Joshi
Dr. Arun R Joshi a development professional with over 36 years professional experience in agribusiness management, development academics, development management, is a Ph D. in Agriculture with MBA in Project Management. He has wide exposure to rural and urban development and worked with many organizations including UNDP. He has over 40 research publication in journals of both national and international. He has been pioneered in Participatory Technology Development, Participatory Plant Breeding, Participatory varietal Selection and Promotion, and developing Farmer Producers’ Companies.
Manoj Kumar
Founder, Social Alpha
Speaker
Manoj Kumar
Manoj is the Founder of Social Alpha, a multistage incubation cum investment platform for high impact start-ups that aim to solve the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges. Social Alpha focuses on “lab to market” enablement and supports mission driven entrepreneurs through a network of innovation labs, venture incubators, accelerator
programmes, seed funds and market access mechanisms. Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has incubated and nurtured more than 150 mission driven start-ups including 40+ seed investments and 3 exits.
Prior to founding Social Alpha, Manoj has been an entrepreneur as well as an early stage venture investor. Manoj has also worked for over two decades in investment banking and financial technology firms, holding global leadership roles in the areas of Corporate Strategy, M&A, Product Management and R&D.
Manoj serves on the advisory and governing boards of a number of companies, non-profits and research institutions. Manoj is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and lives in Bangalore, Indi
Bobbymon George
Principal and Head - Impact Measurement and Advisory, Sattva
Speaker
Bobbymon George
Bobbymon is part of the leadership team and heads Impact Measurement and Advisory at Sattva.
He brings over 15 years of experience in the development sector, across program design, implementation, and Monitoring and Evaluation. He has designed and delivered more than 75 social impact assessment projects across sectors and geographies with large CSRs and Foundations such as Google, JPMorgan, ACC, Philips, L&T Infotech, L&T Financial Services, Dell and Fidelity. He has been instrumental in developing & publishing a Lifeskills assessment tool for youth.
He holds a master’s degree in Social work and is an alumnus of the INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Programme.
Ramnath Vaidyanathan
GM and Head � Environmental Sustainability, Godrej Group
Speaker
Ramnath Vaidyanathan
Ram heads environmental sustainability for Godrej Industries and Associate Companies and is responsible for driving the Group’s green strategy. He has 12 years of experience in the sustainability sector, across a wide range of roles from regulatory/policy, to process engineering, operations, strategy advisory, business development, business strategy, and product development and management.
Prior to Godrej, Ram was CEO of WiSH Energy Solutions, a renewable energy subsidiary of the Enzen Group. He previously worked as a consultant at Enzen’s Clean Energy & Environment Practice, and at PI Industries Ltd as Environmental Manager. Prior to that, he worked on water treatment technologies and developing policy and regulations for drinking water at the National Environment Agency, Singapore.
Ram completed his MBA in Strategy & Marketing from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and his Masters in Environmental Science from the Singapore-Stanford Partnership, a collaboration between Stanford University, USA, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Karanraj Chaudri
Advisor � India/ South Asia, SDG and Innovative Finance, UNDP
Speaker
Karanraj Chaudri
Karanraj is the Advisor – India/ South Asia, on SDG and Innovative Finance for the United Nations Development Programme. He focuses on supporting stakeholders developing blended finance solutions and forging strategic partnerships to direct investment capital in pursuit of improved social and developmental outcomes. At UNDP, Karanraj supports a number of country offices and initiatives including impact venture funds in Indonesia, affordable housing schemes in Bangladesh and early stage accelerators in Sri Lanka. He also leads the work for the SDG Finance Facility platform in India that works to further the sustainable and SDG finance agenda.
Previously, Karanraj worked with the India office of the Acumen Fund, a New York based venture capital fund that leverages entrepreneurial solutions to address poverty and PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he focused on Corporate Finance. He holds degrees in management and business administration from King’s College London and Oxford University.
Akanksha Sharma
Global Head- Social Impact & Sustainability, Sterlite Technologies Ltd.
Speaker
Akanksha Sharma
Shashank Rastogi
Principal, The Bridgespan Group
Speaker
Shashank Rastogi
Shashank Rastogi is a principal in Bridgespan’s Mumbai office. Shashank has more than 15 years of experience in impact investing, social entrepreneurship, and rural markets.
At Bridgespan, he has worked on projects in agriculture technology (Agtech), rural primary health in tribal areas, and scenario planning for NGOs. In his prior experience, Shashank set up and developed the impact investing practice in CIIE.CO, at IIM Ahmedabad, investing in companies in a range of sectors including rural energy access, agriculture and agtech, and health. He was also the co-founder and chief operating officer of Sarvajal.
Shashank holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Ahmedabad and a B.Tech (Electronics & Communications) from IIT Roorkee.
Akshay Gambhir
Consultant, The Bridgespan Group
Speaker
Akshay Gambhir
Akshay Gambhir is a consultant in Bridgespan’s Mumbai office. Akshay has more than six years of experience in consulting, banking, and social impact.
At Bridgespan, he has worked on philanthropic collaboratives in India, impact assessment, development of healthcare CSR strategy, capacity of nonprofits in scenario planning. Before Bridgespan, Akshay has helped build market linkage models for rural livelihood initiatives and led scale up of fisheries-based livelihood interventions at Tata Trusts. Prior to entering social impact, he worked at McKinsey Knowledge Center.
Akshay holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IIM Lucknow and a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from CBS, Delhi University
Rumi Mallick Mitra
Leader, Strategy & New Initiatives, India, IBM Corporate Social Responsibility
Speaker
Rumi Mallick Mitra
In the current role, Rumi is driving strategy and partnership to introduce global program in India, with a focus on digital platforms for learning. In her previous role, as the Head of CSR for IBM India, South Asia, Rumi was leading the CSR function, responsible for designing and executing the India portfolio to align with the Govt of India 2% CSR law, building large scale education and skills development initiatives in collaboration with the central ministries and state government in India. She has designed and initiated IBM flagship programs like STEM for Girls for govt schools running across 10 states, along with large scale impactful programs to build new age technology and professional skills in youth.
Rumi has 18+ years of working on strategic priorities of responsible business and sustainable social impact. She leverages her strong understanding of India development priorities, her experience of the social sector, and business scenarios, to design and impact strong social impact programs. She has helped shape the dialogue in ‘technology for good’, diversity and inclusion and have spearheaded several large-scale impactful development programs focused on low-income and disadvantaged communities. She has functional experience in corporate social responsibility, public policy, education and ed-tech, technology in development, diversity and inclusion at workplace, skills and employability and urban development. Prior to joining IBM, Rumi was Senior Vice President with NASSCOM Foundation. Rumi is based in Bangalore.
Shantanu Ghosh
CEO, Social Finance India
Speaker
Shantanu Ghosh
Shantanu, based in Gurgaon, is currently the CEO of Social Finance India which is a not for profit consulting intermediary focused on designing long term outcome oriented, pay for success developmental programs, syndicating appropriate blended finance for those programs and then proving effective governance for all the stakeholders. After 30 years in corporate world, Shantanu made the shift to the social sector to contribute back to the society by helping catalyse development impact at scale in India. His stint in the corporate world with PwC, Unilever, GE and Genpact was split into two halves of being a financial leader in the first phase which culminated as CFO for GE, India and later as business leader. His last commercial role was that of leading global knowledge services businesses of USD 1.5 Bln for Genpact.
Dr. Prahalathan KK
Co-founder, Bhumi
Speaker
Dr. Prahalathan KK
Dr. Prahalathan is one of the co-founders of Bhumi, one of India"s largest volunteer organisations. Bhumi mobilises citizens to work towards the sustainable development goals, and its volunteers educate over 25,000 under-privileged children and work for causes like environment, disability, and animal welfare.
He strongly believes every child deserves quality education and is passionate about making volunteering a habit among young people. By education, he is a doctor specialised in Ophthalmology. At Bhumi, he leads the corporate & youth volunteering programmes that provides end to end support for volunteer programmes in 100+ corporates and colleges.
Rachana Iyer
Head CSR, IDFC First Bank
Speaker
Rachana Iyer
Rachana Iyer heads Corporate Social Responsibility at IDFC FIRST Bank. An alumna of Tata Institute of Social Sciences Centre for Disability Studies, Rachana has worked both globally and in India across social impact models, with non-profits, social enterprises and incubators. Rachana is also a mentor to Tactopus, an IDFC FIRST Bank funded social enterprise focused on inclusive technology, working extensively with them as a disability and mental health advocate.
Dr Sapna Poti
Programme Director, Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt.of India
Speaker
Dr Sapna Poti
Dr Sapna Poti is deputed to the Principal Scientific Advisor’s Office, Government of India from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras). Her primary role as a Programme Director is to promote Scientific R&D and Innovations for social impact and to address industry problems through Industry, Foundations and Government channels. This includes engaging Science & Technology institutes and the entire start up ecosystem to meet National Missions & National priorities including COVID 19, doubling farmers income, make in India, water mission, waste management mission etc. Dr Poti is a PhD from IIT Madras with a dissertation in Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP)and has around 26 years of experience in Industry, Consulting and Government. Her previous stints were with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, Tata Trusts and National Skill Development Corporation (under the aegis of Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship) in the social development and Government sector. Dr. Poti also has industry and consulting experience with ITC, Hewitt Associates, Deloitte, Toyota Kirloskar, Tatas and Crompton Greaves. Dr Poti is a member of Niti Aayog’s Expert Group on ‘Skill Development for Mountain States’, Member of GIZ MSME committee and MESA’s advisory committees. Further, Dr Poti is a Chevening Awardee 2015. She is also a member on the Board of studies of skill development and educational institutes. She has authored national and international journal papers.
Ravi Deshpande
Chief Programme Manager, LHWRF
Speaker
Ravi Deshpande
Ravi Deshpande is Certified Corporate Social Responsibility Professional from IICA, the institute established by Ministry of Corporate Affairs (GoI). He has done his Masters from University of Mumbai. He has been an activist since his college days and was involved in advocacy work among the tribals of Thane district. He worked as lecturer in a reputed degree college of University of Mumbai for five years.
He has been associated with the CSR sector for more than 5 years and development sector for more than 17 years. Hehas worked on various issues such as migration and trafficking, Panchayati Raj, Watershed Development, and National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) and many others. He has vast experience of carrying out project implementation, project coordination, process documentation, impact assessment and evaluation of developmental projects. He has number of book publications to his credit along with several articles and research papers. He brings to table expertize in strategy and policy formulation, programme management, process improvement and documentation.
Samir Sharma
Sr. General Manager-CSR, Dalmia Bharat Ltd.
Speaker
Samir Sharma
Samir Sharma is working in the social development space from the last 20 years. He has a blend of experience of working with large NGOs like VHAI and Multinational and national manufacturing industries like Lafarge and Ambuja Cements. He is a post graduate in Social Work from HP University and is also a certified CII / ITC sustainability assessor. In his current role as Sr. General Manager with Dalmia Bharat Group, he handles the portfolio of CSR operations for the cement business and also coordinates special programs on skill Development.
Shyam Vembar
Sr. Advisor and Practice Lead (Agriculture), Villgro
Speaker
Shyam Vembar
An MBA from IIM Calcutta and a B.Tech from NIT Trichy, Shyam is an independent Strategy and Management Consultant focussed on the FMCG and Agribusiness Sectors. Allied with his consulting practice, he is also an Executive Coach specialising at the C-level and Function / Business Head levels. Prior to starting his independent consulting practice, he was a globally experienced business leader with diverse commercial operations and strategic management roles across industries, geographies and countries. He has held global leadership roles in Business / Commercial Operations, Strategy and Marketing cutting across the Consumer Goods and Agri Sectors in companies such as Unilever, Monsanto and the Mahindra Group. Experienced in Mergers and Acquisitions. He is an alumnus of Executive/ Leadership Development Programs at Harvard, Yale, Cornell and IMD and is a member of MENSA, the International High IQ Society
Pankaj Anand
Director -Programme & Advocacy, Oxfam India
Speaker
Pankaj Anand
Pankaj Anand is the Director of Programme & Advocacy at Oxfam India.
He is a professional with over two decades of rich, relevant and varied experience in programme management, advocacy and resource mobilisation in India and South Asia. He has worked on a wide canvas of issues including Public Health, Gender, Citizen Action, Governance, Sustainable Development and the issues of Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalised social groups. He understands that engaging with the government, donors, CSOs, academia and media is the key to attaining a discrimination free society based on the ideals of equality, inclusion and justice. In Oxfam India as well in his other roles previously, Pankaj has led the institutional funding work and in the process he has keenly watched the changing institutional donor architecture over the years.
Dr Geeta Bora
Founder & Director, Spherule Foundation
Speaker
Dr Geeta Bora
Dr Geeta Bora has done her PHD in Computer science and have 13 years of IT experience and also awardee of Samaj Sevi Ratan and PAD Hero of India.
She is a Technocrat, Social Activist, Social Entrepreneur and an Author. Recently received BD Sahitiya Akademi award for her Book "Moon Time" on Menstrual Health and hygiene for young girls.
She worked as one of the Core IT team members under Padma Bhushan Dr Vijay Bhatkar also known as Father of Indian super computer for Educational softwares. She also worked in the US for 9 years but in 2016 she moved back to India with a thought to work for social issues and needy people.
She started "Spherule Foundation" which rigorously works for Women Empowerment, Malnourishment , Gender Equality, Education and Livelihood.
Spherule Foundation recently made Guinness World Record and works in 11 states and has 700+ dedicated volunteers with only one mission.“Improving life one breath at a time”.
Sujana Krishnamoorthy
Executive Director, Under The Mango Tree Society
Speaker
Sujana Krishnamoorthy
Sujana has more than two decades of experience in the development sector spanning livelihoods, labour rights in the informal sector and governance. She has had the opportunity to work with communities across the country from Himachal Pradesh to Tamil Nadu and most recently Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra. She is part of the team that has moved Under The Mango Tree Society"s beekeeping with indigenous bees programme from a concept note to one that won the World Bank Development Marketplace award for being among the most innovative programmes in rural development to more recently, the prestigious HCL Grant in the Environment category. Sujana has degrees from two of India"s premier educational institutes, JNU and Gokhale Institute, Pune.
Manisha Patil
Diversity Equity & Inclusion and community Engagement Leader, Amazon India
Speaker
Manisha Patil
Manisha has masters from Tata institute of Social Sciences (TISS) with13 plus years of professional experience. Worked in reputed companies like Hindustan Unilever Limited and Amazon, wherein she have worked on brand social mission, corporate Branding and sustainablity initiatives.
G.N.Balakrishnan
Director-Business Development Asia Pacific Region, MedicalMine Inc
Speaker
G.N.Balakrishnan
Balakrishnan heads Sales & Business Development as Director for MedicalMine Inc, a Healthcare IT organization, and is responsible for driving the company business strategy, business development, and sales operation for Asia Pacific Region. Apart from MedicalMine Inc, he is also heading sales operations for vTItan Corporation, a MedTech Organisation, which Indigenously design, develop and manufacture medical devices in the Infusion & Radiology space
He has 25 years of experience in sales & marketing in the Consumer Health, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Devices & Healthcare IT sector, across a wide range of roles from sales, business development, business strategy, marketing, and product management.
Prior to MedicalMine Inc, Balakrishnan was Business Unit Director with Teleflex Ltd, USA & Board of Director for Truphatek India private Ltd, in charge of India, Srilanka & Nepal. He previously worked as Associate Director, AstraZeneca, a leading pharmaceutical company based out of Bangalore
Balakrishnan completed his MBA in ISBM, Pune & Graduation from Chennai University
Shrabani Ray
Assistant Vice President, Genpact India
Speaker
Shrabani Ray
Sharbani Ray leads strategy, engagement and communications for the Global CSR and Diversity & Inclusion teams at Genpact.
She designs and executes on programs that harness the energy and talent of our employees for the economic, social, and environmental betterment of the communities we live and work in. For Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – she works closely with the leadership team to create an ecosystem of inclusion, promoting an environment where women excel and advance to leadership roles, and championing the cause of racial equity.