Anita Bhatia is a seasoned senior executive and leader with experience in gender equality, international development, sustainable finance and organizational transformation. She brings a unique combination of knowledge and experience of both government and the private sector having held senior leadership positions in the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation, in addition to working as a strategy advisor to governments. She has a demonstrated track record of extremely successful fundraising and innovative partnerships with governments and corporates with whom she builds collaborative and trusting relationships. She has extensive experience in stakeholder management including Board relationships, as well as strategic communications and thought leadership to amplify the organization&rsquo;s vision and secure political support for the same. With more than three decades of work in global organizations under her belt, she has worked and lived in many different parts of the world, interacting with Heads of State, Ministers, CEOs, policymakers, civil society, women&rsquo;s rights organizations, refugees, entrepreneurs as well as corporates, banks, asset managers and institutional investors. She has an extremely broad global network which she leverages for the benefit of UN Women.

A sought-after keynote speaker, she has delivered keynote speeches at various international forums including the Oxford Forum on International Development, the Annual Economist Impact Event, and the European Business Angels Network Annual Congress. A frequent commentator and thought leader on gender equality issues, her writing and editorials have appeared in The Washington Post, Project Syndicate, Devex, The Independent, The Daily Trust (Nigeria), Nairobi Report, Bangkok Post, South China Morning Post, The Daily Star, among others.

She has appeared regularly on and/or been featured in CNN, BBC, France 24, Deutsche Welle, Jeune Afrique, Digital Future Society, Channel News Asia, Vogue Arabia, Qazaq TV, The Telegraph, The News Forum, Delano, EFE, RTVE, MO4 Network and ARD German TV &amp; Radio Network. Since August 2019, she has served as the Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women. Her responsibilities in this role encompass expanding and deepening UN Women&rsquo;s resource base and partnerships with governments and corporates, financial sustainability, leading the strategic planning process, change management, and improving the workplace.

Ms. Anita Bhatia

Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao served as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for five years (2008-13). Prior to that, he was Finance Secretary to the Government of India (2007-08) and Secretary to the Prime Minister&rsquo;s Economic Advisory Council (2005-07). As a career civil servant, he worked in various positions in the state government of Andhra Pradesh and in the federal government of India. He was a Lead Economist at the World Bank (1999 &ndash; 2004).In his capacity first as Finance Secretary and later as Governor of RBI, Dr. Subbarao was alternate Governor for India on the Governing Boards of the World Bank and the IMF.

He participated actively in the G 20 meetings, the meetings of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (of the IMF), bi-monthly meetings of Governors at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, and the Asian Consultative Committee of central bank Governors.

Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao

Dr. Rathin Roy was former Director and CEO of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), and Former Director IPC-IG, UNDP, Brazil. He has also served as the Public Resource Management Advisor, and the Acting Cluster Leader, Inclusive Development, in the Poverty Practice, Bureau for Development Policy (BDP), UNDP. On invitation from the Government of India, he also served as the Economic Advisor to the Thirteenth Finance Commission, a Constitutional body of the Government of India.

Dr. Rathin Roy

Before rejoining ICANN in October 2023, Samiran was Senior Director of Global Government Affairs for India and South Asia with Twitter/X Corp. He previously served as ICANN&rsquo;s Head of India, and Head of Stakeholder Engagement, South Asia from September 2014 until February 2022. Samiran rejoined ICANN to be the Vice President, Government and Intergovernmental Organization (IGO) Engagement for the APAC region, and Stakeholder Engagement for South Asia.

 
He has extensive experience in business strategy and public policy consulting in sectors including telecom, entertainment, fintech, e-commerce, social media, and energy and renewables. Before joining ICANN, Samiran served as Senior Director with APCO Worldwide where he was responsible for counseling clients in business and public affairs strategy.

Samiran holds a Master&rsquo;s degree in Business Administration from St Joseph&rsquo;s University in Philadelphia and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Calcutta.

Mr Samiran Gupta

Udaibir S Das is a former central banker and a senior international policy expert on the financial system, systemic stress and crisis, and central banking policies. He has worked in different capacities at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Bank, the Bank for International Settlements, the Bank of Guyana, and the Reserve Bank of India. Mr. Das has been closely associated with the work of the Financial Stability Board and the international standard-setting bodies (including the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision), the Toronto Center, and the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds. Mr Das was on the faculty of the Questrom School of Business at Boston University.

Mr. Das has managed the global Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP) and participated in developing internationally accepted strategies, policies, and tools for systemic risk analysis, financial stability monitoring, stress testing, debt and reserves management, and sovereign wealth funds. He has led macro-financial surveillance and capacity-building missions to over 40 advanced, emerging, and developing markets such as China, France, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Tanzania, The Philippines, and the United Kingdom.

Until recently, Mr. Das oversaw financial and monetary sector developments in Asia, the Pacific, and Europe for the IMF. He is widely published, and his current areas of study and research focus on how the ongoing demographic, climatic, and technological transformation is altering the macro-financial policies landscape and what are its implications for the future of emerging markets, developing economies, and global cross-border financial flows.

Mr. Udaibir Saran Das

Dr. Amrendra Pandey is an economist and researcher with expertise in monetary economics, macroeconomic policy regulation, econometrics, text mining, and machine learning. He has a doctoral degree from the Birla Institute of Management and Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida. He has been a faculty member at BIMTECH, Greater Noida. He was also the Assistant Project Officer of the Organizing Committee of the Commonwealth Games- 2010.

Dr. Amrendra Pandey

Dr. Kanica Rakhra is a former Fellow at Middlebury Institute for International Studies (2019), the Swedish South Asian Studies Network (2016), and the Harvard led-Arms Control Negotiation Academy (ACONA-2021), she holds a Ph.D. from the Center for International Politics, Organization, and Disarmament (CIPOD) in Jawaharlal Nehru University where she was an ICSSR Doctoral Fellow (2014-16). She has also participated in a number of Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogues, written chapters for books, and published articles in various journals.

Dr. Kanica Rakhra

Sach specializes in insights from North-Atlantic economic history for policy pedagogy and analysis. He remains affiliated with the United Nations University, with a PhD from Maastricht University, preceded by an MSc in Environmental Policy, an MBA and BTech in Chemical Engineering. He served as Policy Analyst at the federal Environment Ministry in New Delhi working for a former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Since then, he has given talks on disparate aspects of Public Policy on four continents. Besides MPP and undergrad students from over 70 countries at UNU and Maastricht University, he has taught in a Public Policy program attended by IAS officers at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and Mohali. He writes the Substack newsletter&nbsp;<a href="https://scotoma.substack.com/">Elite Scotoma</a>, a critique of top global journalism with a wonkish Indian perspective.

Dr. Sach Wry

Dr. Sharique Hassan Manazir specializes in Digital Democracy, Exclusion, and Policy Analysis. Renowned for his pioneering theoretical framework in policy formulation, he earned his PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, focusing on e-participation&rsquo;s role in Digital Democracy for policy making.

Dr. Sharique Hassan Manazir

A gold medalist in Sociology from the University of Hyderabad, she holds a doctorate in Sociology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and has taught courses in Gender Studies like &lsquo;Sexualities,&rsquo; and &lsquo; Masculinities&rsquo; at Ambedkar University, New Delhi. Dr. Vasudha Katju is a specialist in the field of gender studies.

Her interest also lies in academic writing and communications. Her core areas are academic writing and writing for research where she is committed to making the field more enjoyable and less punishable.

Dr. Vasudha Katju

Dr. Vishnu S Pillai received his Ph.D. in Public Policy from The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in June 2022. His primary research focuses on risk analysis and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology regulation. The initial findings of his Ph.D. research are published in the journal Science and Public Policy, a leading international journal on Public Policies for Science, Technology, and Innovation. He also presented his work on the Asia Pacific Public Policy Network, Australasia Public Policy Network, and India Public Policy Network conferences.

Dr. Vishnu S. Pillai

Aditi is a seasoned sustainability practitioner and ESG advisor. She has worked with the World Bank, the UN, and the private sector on integrating ESG concerns into high-impact investments across transportation, energy, agriculture, and manufacturing. Her expertise covers a wide range of areas, including public policy, biodiversity, and climate tech, and spans an array of geographical contexts including multiple states within India, and countries across Asia, Europe, Africa, and the USA.

While at the World Bank, she made significant contributions to developing some of South Asia&rsquo;s largest forestry and natural capital investments. At MIT she served as the Managing Director of the MIT Climate and Energy Prize, the world&rsquo;s largest and longest-running competition for student-run climate-tech start-ups. Aditi has also worked with IUCN on the governance of transboundary ecosystems, with UNESCO on the World Heritage Biodiversity Programme, and with Development Alternatives (DA), India&rsquo;s first Social Enterprise, on areas spanning clean technology, climate adaptation, and conservation-linked-livelihoods. She holds a BA in English from St. Stephen&rsquo;s College, New Delhi, an MPhil in Conservation from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Ms. Aditi Jha 

Aman Srivastava is a Fellow with the Initiative on Climate, Energy, and the Environment at the Centre for Policy Research. Aman&rsquo;s research interests are in the areas of climate and energy policy, specifically the interlinkages between emissions and development pathways, socioeconomic impacts of climate actions, climate finance, and energy consumption behaviours. He is also serving as visiting faculty at the School of Public Policy, Indian Institute of Technology: Delhi.

Aman has previously spent over six years at the World Resources Institute, as a Research Associate (Climate Finance) and subsequently Lead Economist (Climate). He served as a chapter author for the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance&rsquo;s 2016 Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows report. He has also worked with Indicus Analytics and Kotak Mahindra Bank, and served as a consultant to Vivid Economics, the World Trade Organization, and Ergo.

Aman holds a PhD in energy and behavioural economics from the University of Antwerp, an MSc in finance and development from the University of London, an MBA in finance from the Indian Institute of Management: Lucknow, and a BA (Honours) in economics from the University of Delhi.

Dr. Aman Srivastava 

Mr. Ankur Kulshrestha has over 15 years of experience which includes both corporate and academic experience. He has taught at postgraduate management programs of leading B-schools, fellowships, and super-specialized programs in Transportation, Entrepreneur, Built Environment, and Social Development. He is a member of the Approved Prep Provider Program of CFA Institute, USA. He is associated as a mentor in Nexus, the startup incubator program by the US Embassy in India. Before joining academia, his industry experience of 10 years spans across firms like Maruti Suzuki and EY.

He co-founded an ed-tech company for CFA training, his online sessions being wired in more than 15 countries. His research interest and contribution include topics covering valuation, mergers and acquisitions, value relevance, and trends in financial reporting. He is a chartered accountant, CFA charter holder, Certified Financial Risk Manager, and Certified Finance Planner.

Mr. Ankur Kulshrestha 

Dr. Mohan&rsquo;s research and professional practice over the last 27 years straddles development, institutional and policy frameworks, urban planning and management, and information and communication technologies and development. She has successfully completed several planning assignments in her individual capacity and as part of multi-disciplinary teams. Dr. Mohan has also designed and delivered several training and capacity-building programs, both for state and non-state actors, primarily focusing on planning, heritage-led planning, and attendant (e)Governance arrangements.

Dr. Anjali Karol Mohan  

Air Vice Marshal (Dr) Arjun Subramaniam is the President&rsquo;s Chair of Excellence in National Security Affairs at National Defence College, New Delhi. He is a retired fighter pilot from the Indian Air Force who has flown MiG-21s and Mirage-2000s. He has commanded a MiG-21 Squadron and a large flying base and held several operational, staff, and instructional assignments in the IAF. He is an air power doctrinal expert having crafted the current IAF doctrine in 2012. He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service by the President of India in 2011. A PhD in Defence and Strategic Studies from the Univ of Madras, he has been a Visiting Fellow at The Harvard Asia Center and Oxford University, and a Visiting Faculty at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Ashoka, and Jindal Universities.

He has lectured extensively at a wide range of Universities, think tanks, and war colleges in India and abroad, and his current areas of focus are international and regional security, contemporary Indian military history, air power in joint operations, and the India-China security relationship. He is the author of five books including &lsquo;India&rsquo;s Wars: A Military History: 1947-1971&rsquo; and its newly-released sequel Full Spectrum: India&rsquo;s Wars 1972-2020,&rsquo; and the international edition titled &lsquo;A Military History of India since 1972: Full Spectrum Conflict and the Changing Contours of Modern Conflict.&rsquo; He is also the editor of an anthology of essays titled &lsquo;Force in Statecraft: An Indian Perspective. He is on the review editorial board of several journals and writes extensively for leading newspapers and magazines on military and strategic issues.

AVM (Dr.) Arjun Subramaniam (Retd)  

Arvind Mayaram was formerly Vice Chairman of Rajasthan Economic Transformation Advisory Council. He was former Finance Secretary in the Government of India. He is also Chairman of CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition, an independent think tank. A 1978 batch IAS officer, he holds a PhD in Finance. Dr. Mayaram was the Alternate Governor for India on the Boards of the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and the African Development Bank. He has represented India as the Finance Deputy in G20 and BRICS where he was India&rsquo;s chief negotiator for BRICS&rsquo; New Development Bank and also the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank. He is an expert in the field of Public Private Partnerships and has been recognized as a &ldquo;Certified Public Private Partnership Specialist&rdquo; by the Institute of Public Private Partnerships and the Water, Engineering and Development Centre of Loughborough University, UK.

Dr. Arvind Mayaram

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh is a social technologist, urbanist, and entrepreneur based in Bangalore, India. After a 15-year career as a polar climate scientist and astronomer, he switched to social enterprise, focused on urban development and governance. He is the Founder &amp; CEO of Mapunity, which builds urban social networking platforms and tools for development initiatives.

He is also a Co-founder of Lithium, which launched the first fleet of electric cars in India. He is the Co-founder and Editor of the national public affairs magazine, India Together. He has been an advisor to many initiatives of state &amp; national governments in India. He was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship for Social Entrepreneurs in 2009.

Dr. Ashwin Mahesh  

Dr. Chandrasekhar Commuri is a professor in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at California State University, Bakersfield. He teaches courses in public policy, nonprofit management, and qualitative research methods. His research interests include exploring how narratives shape policy outcomes. and understanding the identity work carried out by public employees in high-stress situations.

At CSU Bakersfield, he served as Department Chair, Director of the Faculty Teaching and Learning Center, and Chair of the Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research. He also served on the governing boards of the Kern Community Foundation and the Kern County Network for Children. He has a PhD from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Chandrasekhar Commuri 

Prof. (Dr) Faizan Mustafa is the former Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. He was the founder and Vice-Chancellor of the National Law University, Orissa. He has also served as Dean, of the Faculty of Law, at Aligarh Muslim University, and Registrar of AMU. He is an eminent jurist and legal scholar known for his inclusive leadership ensuring a democratic space on campuses. Prof. Mustafa has completed his Ph.D. in Copyright Law and also has a diploma in International and Comparative Human Rights from the International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France.

Prof. Mustafa has been the vice president and President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and President of the Consortium of National Law Universities. He received the SAARC&rsquo;s prestigious Best Law Teacher Award in 2014. He has contributed extensively to previously unexplored areas such as Copyright Law, HIV Law, Art.356, Strict Liability Law, Freedom of Information Law, Religious Conversion Laws, etc.

Dr. Faizan Mustafa

Gary Dexter is an experienced American psychologist, management consultant, executive coach, and writer who has dedicated over four decades to leadership development and organizational dynamics. During his tenure at Stanford University Graduate School of Business from 2010 to 2022, Gary taught Interpersonal Dynamics. This course, which is consistently voted as the most popular, focuses on equipping students with essential skills for building solid relationships, a valuable asset for leaders in today&rsquo;s global, complex, and highly interdependent organizations.

Gary works with senior executives in his coaching practice, helping them develop as leaders and individuals. He has provided consulting services to various corporate, non-profit, and government organizations. Additionally, Gary has worked as a trusted advisor and facilitator for globally important governing families. Gary holds a Ph.D. in counseling psychology and an AB (Honors) in psychology from Stanford University.

Dr. Gary Dexter

Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh is Chairman, IKDHVAJ Advisers LLP, a consulting firm working on trade policy, industrial policy and regulatory issues. He has been a Member/Chair of High-Level Expert Groups in India and abroad to address inter alia policy concerns relating to international trade, industrial policy, competition and regulatory policy. He has worked at the GATT/WTO Secretariat for a total of 20 years over two stints (1985 to 1997 and 2005 to 2013), with the last eight years as Deputy Director General, WTO. Between 1997 and 2005, he was initially the Economic Adviser and then Secretary of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). After completing his second term as Deputy Director General of WTO in September 2013, Dr. Singh has been Executive Director of BrookingsIndia, Senior Fellow at Think Tanks in Switzerland and Canada, taught at Universities in the US and China, and Chairperson of GATT/WTO Dispute Settlement Panels. Dr. Singh has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oxford, where he went as a Rhodes Scholar from India in 1979.

Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh 

Indermit Gill is Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics. He is a Non-resident Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution, where he co-edits the blog &lsquo;Future Development&rsquo;. Until 2021, he was a Professor of the Practice of Public Policy at Duke University, where he was Director of the Duke Center for International Development between 2016 and 2018. Gill worked at the World Bank from 1993 to 2016, where he held several leadership positions, including Director for Development Policy in the Office of the Chief Economist, Chief Economist for Europe and Central Asia, Acting Chief Economist for East Asia and the Pacific, and Staff Director for the 2009 World Development Report on Economic Geography. He has taught at Georgetown University and the State University of New York at Buffalo.

He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago, an MA from the Delhi School of Economics, and a BA (Honours) in Economics from St. Stephen&rsquo;s College. He teaches the elective course Big Debates in Development at Kautilya School of Public Policy.

&nbsp;

Dr. Indermit Singh Gill

Jandhyala B G Tilak, former Professor and vice-chancellor, of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration and ICSSR National Fellow, is currently a Distinguished Professor at, the Council for Social Development, New Delhi. Dr. Tilak, an economist of education, holds an M.A. Degree in Economics with a gold medal from Andhra University, and a Ph.D. Degree in Economics (of Education) from the Delhi School of Economics. Dr. Tilak served on the research/teaching faculty of the National University of Educational Planning and Administration, University of Delhi, Indian Institute of Education, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Virginia, Hiroshima University, and Sri Sathya Sai Institute of Higher Learning. He was also on the research staff of the World Bank.

Prof Tilak, a recipient of the Swami Pranavananda Saraswati award of the UGC in education, Dr. Malcolm Adiseshiah award for contributions to development studies, Inspirational Teacher of the Year award, and Devang Mehta award for excellence in research in education, has more than twenty books (authored/edited) and 300 research papers in the area of economics of education and development studies, published in reputed journals. Dr Tilak served as the President of the Comparative Education Society of India (2010-2012), and is currently on the Board of Directors of the Comparative Education Society of Asia. He also served as the Editor, of the Journal of Educational Planning &amp; Administration (1990-2017) and is on the editorial board of several professional journals. Among several honors, Dr Tilak had the rare privilege of delivering a keynote address at a meeting of the Nobel laureates in Barcelona in 2005.

Dr. Jandhyala B G Tilak

Judith Spiegel (Netherlands) is an assistant professor of law at Kuwait International Law School. She started her teaching career in 2000 at Amsterdam University, while simultaneously practicing trade law at a firm in Rotterdam. Having a broad interest, she earned a doctorate in newspaper journalism in 2008. She has been working and living in the Middle East since 2009. In her teaching and writing, she focuses on the crossroads between law and other disciplines.

She sees law as an instrument rather than a goal in itself and is therefore an avid supporter of multidisciplinary academic programs. She also believes that teaching is two-way rather than one-way activity and that she learns as much from her students as they do from her. Hence her rather nomadic (work) life. Her current focus is on human rights and trade, climate change and trade, and &ndash; corollary to these subjects &ndash; transparency and the right to know. She&rsquo;s the author of numerous articles and three books.

Dr. Judith Spiegel

Dr. Kajari Kamal is an Associate Professor at Takshashila Institution, Bangalore. She has designed the course curriculum and teaches Kautilya&rsquo;sArthashastra through webinars and contact workshops. Her research focuses on the concept of &lsquo;strategic culture&rsquo; in the Indian context.

She is a graduate in History from Lady Sri Ram College (1995-1998) and a post graduate in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (1998-2000). She has received her doctoral degree from University of Hyderabad. Her PhD thesis titled, &ldquo;Kautilya&rsquo;sArthashastra and Indian Strategic Culture: A Comparative Study of Two Phases of India&rsquo;s Foreign Policy, 1947-1964 and 1998-2014&rdquo;, reflects the convergence of her interest in ancient Indian historical text and contemporary strategic studies. Her dissertation assesses the salience of Kautilyan ideas to better understand India&rsquo;s foreign policy.

Dr. Kamal is a regular guest speaker at premier defence institutions like the National Defence College (New Delhi), Naval War College (Goa), Defence Services Staff College (Wellington) and College of Defence Management (Secunderabad). She is a resource person for the Institute of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies. She also writes regularly for several online platforms like The Wire, The Print, Observer Research Foundation, MP-IDSA, USI and the Chanakya Forum. Her book on Kautilya&rsquo;sArthashastra and India&rsquo;s contemporary statecraftwaspublished globallyin August 2022 by Routledge.

Dr.  Kajari Kamal

Leela Raina is an Environmental Economist with over 12 years of experience specializing in climate policy, green finance, and investments that improve environmental and social outcomes. Testament to her leadership and commitment to climate action, she was chosen as part of the prestigious World Bank Young Professional Programme (YPP) in 2019. She has managed multimillion-dollar trust-funded projects, designed and delivered over $1 billion in climate project investments, and mainstreamed climate considerations in the World Bank&rsquo;s portfolio. Her career spans a global footprint, encompassing climate adaptation initiatives in vulnerable nations such as Burundi, India, and Cambodia, and mitigation endeavors in major emitter countries, including Indonesia, Qatar, UK, Turkiye, and Uzbekistan, across sectors- agriculture, forestry, transportation, energy, wildfires, and carbon markets. Leela supported the Ministry of Finance in Indonesia as an Analyst with the Climate Policy Initiative, worked as an economist at the UK Department for Energy and Climate Change on the first International Climate Fund (ICF), and helped the Punjab government with renewable energy projects.

Leela was the youth constituency&rsquo;s lead climate finance negotiator at UNFCCC meetings in Copenhagen (2009) and Cancun (2010), part of the founding team of the Indian Youth Climate Tracker, and the first India fellow of the &lsquo;Climate Tracker project and has been covered by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/leela-raina" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121380405" target="_blank">NPR</a>.

Leela graduated with Distinction as part of the founding batch of MSc in Environmental Economics and Climate Change from the London School of Economics &amp; Political Science. Her thesis was selected for supervision by the Grantham Institute of Climate Change and focused on the implications of climate change on financial markets. Leela also holds a Green Finance Specialist certification from the Green Banking Institute, RENAC, Berlin, and was awarded the KPMG scholarship for her undergraduate degree in Economics from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi. She has recently acquired the SCR -Sustainability and Climate Risk certification&nbsp;and looks forward to introducing the fundamentals of sustainability through a practitioner&rsquo;s lens to cultivate India&rsquo;s future ESG leaders.

Ms. Leela Raina  

Navtej Sarna was India&rsquo;s Ambassador to the United States till Dec 2018. As a professional diplomat since 1980, Sarna also served as India&rsquo;s High Commissioner to the UK, Ambassador to the State of Israel, and Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs. He has the distinction of being India&rsquo;s longest-serving foreign office spokesperson, having held that post for six years. In the earlier years of his service, he served in various diplomatic posts in Moscow, Poland, Bhutan, Iran, Washington, and Geneva.

Navtej Sarna is also an established author of fiction and non-fiction. His work includes the novels &lsquo;The Exile&rsquo; and &lsquo;We Weren&rsquo;t Lovers Like That&rsquo;, the short story collection &lsquo;Winter Evenings&rsquo;, non-fiction works &lsquo;The Book of Nanak&rsquo;, &lsquo;Second Thoughts&rsquo; and &lsquo;Indians at Herod&rsquo;s Gate&rsquo;, as well as two translations, &lsquo;Zafarnama&rsquo; and &lsquo;Savage Harvest&rsquo;. He contributes columns and comments regularly to several Indian newspapers and journals. His reviews and short stories have also appeared in the Times Literary Supplement, Financial Times, London Magazine, and the BBC.

Amb. Navtej Sarna

Dr. Pavan Mamidi is an empirically informed senior advisor in the policy space and a social scientist. Substantively, he pursues two streams of professional work and scholarship &ndash; law/policy and applied behaviour science. He currently serves as the Director of the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University and also works closely with the NITI Aayog. He has led the initiative to set up India&rsquo;s first Nudge Unit, the Behavioural Insights Unit of India.

He has also helped set up Behavioural Insights Units for the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. His main work focuses on development-related issues in education, health, nutrition, and gender. He has a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from the University of Oxford and a Master&rsquo;s (LL.M.) from Harvard Law School.

Dr. Pavan Mamidi  

Rajeev Gowda is an Indian politician and academician. He represented Karnataka in the Rajya Sabha from 2014-20. He is Chairman of the Indian National Congress party&rsquo;s Research Department and one of its national spokespersons. He has served as Professor of Economics and Social Sciences and Chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He has been an Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma, and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. He obtained his PhD from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He was a Director of the Central Board, Reserve Bank of India from 2011-14. He co-founded the Resurgent India Trust, MentorTogether and the Karnataka Quiz Association.

Dr. M. V. Rajeev Gowda

Rakesh Dubbudu is the founder of &lsquo;FACTLY&rsquo;, &amp; &lsquo;DATAFUL&rsquo;, well-known media-tech, fact-checking, and public data initiatives. Among other things, Factly works with public policy, public data, Fact-Checking &amp; policy explainers. The work is primarily centered around the intersection of data/information consumption &amp; technology. Rakesh Dubbudu is also a well-known transparency campaigner in India and has been working on data-related issues for more than 17 years. He played an instrumental role in the launch of the &lsquo;Open Data Policy&rsquo; by the Government of Telangana and has been helping them with opening data and with other e-governance and good governance initiatives.

Mr. Rakesh Dubbudu  

Lt. General Sanjiv Langer(Retd), PVSM, AVSM, is a distinguished military veteran with a service span of 39 years, where he held several operational and logistic appointments. During his work, he dealt with strategic and operational issues with the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of External Affairs. Sanjiv Langer was the first Indian to be selected to serve at the UN Headquarters as an International Civil Servant under the Department of Peacekeeping for Africa region.

He also commanded an Operational Infantry Division and Strike Corps during his tenure. Later, he was appointed as Director General of defence Intelligence and Deputy Chief Integrated Defence Staff and also as a Member of the Armed Forces Tribunal.

Lt. General Sanjiv Langer

Dr. Sharon Barnhardt is the Director of research at the Centre for Social and Behaviour Change at Ashoka University. She is an applied development economist and behavioral scientist who uses experiments to study policy-relevant topics in India. Her behavioral research focuses on sanitation and malnutrition. Dr Sharon is also active in Executive Education for the policy sector, having taught Behavioral Economics at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration and program evaluation with J-PAL South Asia and CLEAR.

She is a Faculty Affiliate at the Jameel Abdul Latif Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn). Her experience includes positions at the Centre for Experimental Social Sciences (Nuffield College&rsquo;s lab in India), the Indian Institute of Management &ndash; Ahmedabad, IFMR Business School (at Krea University), the World Bank, and J.P. Morgan. Dr. Sharon&rsquo;s academic record comprises a Ph.D. from Harvard University, an M.P.A. from Princeton University, and a Bachelor&rsquo;s from NYU.

Dr. Sharon Barnhardt 

Smita Sharma is a senior &nbsp;award winning Independent multimedia Journalist who has reported on a host of diplomatic, political and social issues, natural calamities and conflicts over the years in Hindi and English.&nbsp;In her 22 years of journalism career she has been the Foreign Policy Incharge , Contributing Editor and Anchor with newsrooms including DD News, &nbsp;Network 18, India Today TV, TV9 Bharatvarsh and India Ahead. She was the Deputy Editor for The Tribune.&nbsp;Her articles have been published in Deccan Herald, The Hindu, TOI Plus, Hindustan Times, Huffington Post, Quint ,Dainik Bhaskar among others.&nbsp;She contributes regularly to international outlets including DW News, TRT World, VOA India and BBC World Service.&nbsp;

She is an IVLP fellow to the US, John Doherty Fellow to Australia and an alumni of the Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies (DKI-APCSS) in Hawaii. &nbsp;

She has contributed chapters on Reporting on International Affairs (Mastering Beats in Journalism published by Pearson Education) and Risks and Challenges of Digital Journalism (Handbook of Digital Journalism by Springer Professional).

Ms. Smita Sharma  

Dr Yanamandra is a compliance expert by profession, a regulatory researcher by qualification, and a fintech enthusiast by passion. He specializes in fintech policy and regulation, sanctions compliance, risk-based supervision, financial crime compliance, integrity, and anti-corruption as well as code of conduct.

He is a research scholar in areas at the intersection of fintech, law, and economics focusing on metaverse, digital currencies, distributed ledger, and deep learning. He is also a keen observer of each of these areas of finance, tech, and regulation from a philosophical perspective.

Dr. Srinivas Yanamandra 

Belonging to the Indian Administrative Service 1985 batch, has worked for 37 years covering the entire gamut of the social sector including tribal development, rural development, poverty alleviation, education and social justice. Worked for 41&frasl;2 years as Secretary to Government of India heading Higher Education and the Social Justice departments. Involved in redesign of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGA) by bringing in IT tools for timely delivery, improved outcomes and real-time monitoring of the programme. Promoted instruments for transparency and accountability in programme implementation including social audits. As Education Secretary, Government of India, led the preparation of the National Education Policy 2020 along with academicians and experts.

Areas of expertise include rural development, education, large programme design and innovation. Established several institutions for improved programme delivery such as Higher Education Financing Agency, National Testing Agency.

Graduate in Economics from Madras Christian College, Postgraduate in macroeconomics from University of Bradford and MBA in International Business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.

Mr. R. Subrahmanyam  

Usha Ramachandra; Ph.D. Economics, Hyderabad Central University Professor and Director, Centre for Energy Studies (CES), Administrative Staff College of India (Retired September 2021) and Former Dean of Training Programmes (2015-17),

Dr Usha Ramachandra&nbsp;joined the faculty of the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) in 1998 and became involved in several of ASCI&rsquo;s training programmes and consulting assignments in the power sector. She contributed to programmes, policy advice and consulting on infrastructure regulation with a focus on power sector and energy reforms.

She has worked in the South Asia region particularly in Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan as a resource person on energy and power sector-related issues in several training programmes and regulatory initiatives. She has worked on consulting assignments with power utilities, state and central regulatory commissions and governments in a variety of areas including tariff regulation, private sector participation, restructuring and policy-related issues. She has conducted specially designed programmes for THDC India Ltd., NTPC, PXIL, DVC, IEX, NHPC, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) etc.

Dr Usha Ramachandra served as an Independent Director on the Board of MIDHANI, a defence PSU which develops and manufactures custom-made alloys to suit the specific requirements of customers for their critical applications from 2015-19. She was also an Independent Director on the Board of the Andhra Pradesh Gas Power Corporation (APGPCL) which is the first group captive power plant set up in the country from 2016 to 2021. She is currently a member State Advisory Committee of the Andhra Pradesh Electricity Regulatory Commission (APERC) and a member of the Advisory Council on APIM.

Dr. Usha Ramachandra  

Amb Varma holds a profound understanding of India&rsquo;s Security and Defence policies, including its nuclear, missile, and space programs. He has been India&rsquo;s Ambassador to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, to the Kingdom of Spain, and to the Russian Federation. He has served as Joint Secretary in charge of Disarmament and International Security in the Ministry of External Affairs. His diplomatic tenure also includes him working with the UN First Committee and the United Nations Disarmament Commission.

He was also a key member of the Indian negotiating team involved in the Civil Nuclear Initiative with the US. Amb Varma was the first recipient of the S.K. Singh Award for Excellence in the Indian Foreign Service in 2011 for his contribution to the negotiations of the Civil Nuclear Initiative. He also served as Joint Secretary in charge of Disarmament and International Security in the Ministry of External Affairs. He was also a member of the UN Group of Government Experts on Missiles and on Disarmament and Nuclear Nonproliferation Education. He holds an M.Phil in International Relations from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

Amb D.B. Venkatesh Varma

Shri Vijay Gokhale is a former India Foreign Service officer. His previous diplomatic assignments include postings in Hong Kong, Hanoi, Beijing, New York, and Taipei. He has also served as India&rsquo;s High Commissioner to Malaysia from January 2010 to October 2013, Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany from October 2013 to January 2016, and Ambassador to the People&rsquo;s Republic of China from January 2016 to October 2017. He was also the Foreign Secretary from January 2018 to January 2020.

He is the author of the books &ndash; Tiananmen Square &ndash; The Making of A Protest, A Diplomat Looks Back, HarperCollins, published in May 2021 and The Long Game: How China Negotiates with India, Penguin Random House, published in July 2021.

Amb. Vijay Gokhale

Faculty Members Dr. Duvvuri Subbarao Distinguished Visiting Professor - Kautilya School of Public Policy, and Former RBI Governor Dr. Indermit Singh Gill Visiting Faculty - Kautilya School of Public Policy, and Chief Economist, World Bank Mr. Steve Jarding Visiting Faculty - Kautilya School of Public Policy, and Former Professor - Harvard Kennedy School Dr. Moshik

Distinguished Professor/Fellow