Dr. K. Kasturirangan
Dr K Kasturirangan is a famous scientist of modern India. He is a member of several important scientific academics within India as well as abroad. He was former Director of ISRO. He received his Doctoral Degree in Experimental High Energy Astronomy from Physical research laboratory, Ahmedabad. He is a former member of the Rajya Sabha (2003–09) and a former member of the now defunct Planning Commission of India. He was also the director of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore. He is a recipient of the three major civilian awards from the Government of India: the Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000). He was also the Project Director for India’s first two experimental earth observation satellites, Bhaskara-I and II. Defining India’s most ambitious space based High Energy Astronomy observatory and initiating a related activities was also an important milestone under his leadership. He has made extensive and significant contributions to studies of Cosmic x-ray and gamma ray sources and effect of cosmic x-rays in the lower atmosphere.
Dr Kasturirangan is head of a committee tasked with creating the National Education Policy 2020 for India. Later in September 2021, he was appointed as the head of a 12-member steering committee which would be responsible for developing a new National Curriculum Framework (NCF). Dr Kasturirangan is the recipient of Honorary Doctorate from 27 universities.
Dr. Sitaram Jindal
Dr. Sitaram Jindal is the Chairman and Managing Director of Jindal Aluminium Ltd. He also holds a doctorate in Naturopathy and established the famous Jindal Nature Institute in Bengaluru. Jindal Aluminium Limited is India’s largest aluminium extrusion company with a legacy spanning 50 years.
Jindal Aluminium Ltd is also a pioneer in renewable energy working in the areas of wind energy and solar energy. Apart from the industrial and naturopathy journey, he has been a giver all his life. His philanthropic initiatives are manifold through the Sitaram Jindal Foundation. It is a charitable organization in Bangalore and was started with the sole objective of helping with the moral and social upliftment of the weaker sections of society. The Foundation was envisioned by Dr. Sitaram Jindal and was instituted in 1969. This charitable trust in Bangalore has worked at setting up several educational institutions, NGOs, and hospitals,
For all his accomplishments, he was recently conferred with the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award by the Government of India.
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Dr. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is the Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bengaluru, India. She was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal, for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry. She is on the Financial Times’ top 50 Women in Business list. She was listed as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. She was voted Global Indian of the year by Pharma Leaders Magazine in 2012.
Her work in the biotechnology sector has earned her numerous national awards, including the Padma Shri (1989) and the Padma Bhushan (2005) from the Government of India. She was also awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize (2009) for regional growth, the ‘Veuve Clicquot Initiative for Economic Development for Asia’ Award (2007), Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare (2002), and ‘Technology Pioneer’ recognition by the World Economic Forum (2002). At the Pharma Leaders’ Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit, she was named ‘Global Indian Woman of the Year’ (2012).
At Biocon, she started a CSR wing, which focuses on the areas of health, education and infrastructure. Her “The Mazumdar-Shaw Medical Foundation” supports Translational Research and the Mazumdar-Shaw Cancer outreach program. She is also the Chairperson of IIM, Bangalore.
She studied Biology and Zoology, graduating from Bangalore University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology and has a Master Brewer certification from Federation University.
Prof. S. Sadagopan
Prof. S Sadagopan, former director of IIITB, is a graduate of Madras University, India and Purdue University, USA. He has 25+ years of teaching experience at various premier institutes (IIT, IIM etc,) across the country. His research interests include Multi-criteria optimization, Decision theory, Simulation, Operations research, Multimedia and e-Governance. He has authored 7 books, various chapters of the books. He is also a fellow of IEE(UK) and Computer society of India. He serves on boards of Bharat electronics, Neyveli Lignite corporation and various other committee.
Prof Sadgopan consults widely across different industry segments and lectures extensively at Corporations, industry events and various International Universities.
Prof. Manjul Bhargava
Prof. Manjul Bhargava is a Canadian-American mathematician of Indian origin known for his contributions to number theory. He currently serves as the R. Brandon Fradd Professor of Mathematics at Princeton University and the Stieltjes Professor of Number Theory at Leiden University. He has made several contributions to mathematics, especially to the number theory. He developed several new techniques of counting objects in algebraic number theory which revolutionized the ways in which fundamental arithmetic objects in algebraic number theory are understood. His research has given rise to several exciting applications. Along with number theory he also made important contributions to the representation theory of quadratic forms, to interpolation problems and p-adic analysis, and to the study of ideal class groups of algebraic number fields.
He was given the Clay Research Award in 2005. The same year he also won the Leonard M. and Eleanor B. Blumenthal Award for the Advancement of Research in Pure Mathematics In 2012, Bhargava became the inaugural recipient of the Simons Investigator Award.
In 2014, he was awarded the prestigious Fields Medal “for developing powerful new methods in the geometry of numbers, which he applied to count rings of small rank and to bound the average rank of elliptic curves.” He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award of India, in 2015.
Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan
Prof. Bhushan Patwardhan has over 40-year experience in higher education, scientific research and institutional governance. He is one of the top cited biomedical scientists who is Fellow of National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medical Sciences India. Until March 2021, he was Vice Chairman, University Grants Commission, and Chairman additional charge Indian Council of Social Science Research, Government of India. Currently, he is Chairman of the Interdisciplinary R&D Taskforce on Covid-19, and member, advisory committee constituted by the Ministry of AYUSH. He has worked as academic head of Manipal Education Group; Director, Institute of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine, Bengaluru; Vice Chancellor, Deemed University in Pune, and visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. He has worked on Boards of several Universities and member of important national committees of Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Education, University Grants Commission, Council for Scientific & Industrial Research, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research Central and Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences. He has worked on several policy making committees and Taskforces of National Knowledge Commission, Planning Commission, NITI Aayog, Lancet Citizen’s Commission on Reimagining Indian Health System. He was temporary consultant to the WHO Geneva. He is recipient of many orations and awards including Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Award 2021, Dr. R.P.Devadas Oration 2020, V K Joag Best Teacher Award 2017, Waldemar Haffkine Oration 2014, Harihar Mukherjee Award 2015, Gopaldas Parikh Award 2015, Sir Ram Nath Chopra Oration 2013, Dr P.K. Devi Oration 2011, Dr C. Dwarkanath Oration 2008 just to mention a few. He has extensively travelled worldwide and delivered invited lectures at many national and international platforms including the United Nations, World Health Organization etc He has authored many books and chapters with reputed publishers. He has received several research grants, has guided 20 PhD students and holds 8 Indian Patents, 2 US Patents with over 9800 citations.
Smt. Sonal Mansingh
Smt Sonal Mansingh is a renowned dancer of Odissi, a classical Indian dance form that originated in Orissa and the Member of Rajya Sabha. She began her professional dance career in the early 1960s. Smt Mansingh is trained in Hindustani and Carnatic classical vocal music and is proficient in the Sanskrit and German languages. In 1977 she founded the Centre for Indian Classical Dances in Delhi. Her choreography was often rooted in Indian mythology. For her work, she is also a fine orator and through her determined participation in seminars, discussions, workshops and lectures she is able to influence a lot of people of her community. Lately, her work has shifted towards issues concerning women, environment, prison reforms and re-interpretation of ancient myths.
Smt Mansingh is the recipient of many awards, including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1987) and the Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2003), two of India’s highest civilian honours.
Sri Prakash Belawadi
Sri. Prakash Belawadi is an Indian theatre, film, television and media personality, teacher, activist and journalist. He obtained a degree in mechanical engineering from University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1983. He has participated in many seminars, conferences and festivals in India and abroad. He has been a motivational speaker at events and TEDx conferences. Prakash Belawadi’s debut film Stumble, which he wrote and directed, won the National Award for Best Film in the English language, 2003. For his tremendous achievements, he is conferred with ‘Pratibha Bhushan’ by Government of Karnataka. He is recipient of Karnataka Nataka Academy, Pride of Karnataka by Bangalore Round Table, Helpmann Award, Australia for his excellent acting skills in “counting and cracking”. He has been faculty for film courses in Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey. Belawadi is one of the founding members of Citizens for Bengaluru, an active platform for people to engage with the city government to make it accountable to citizens and co-founder of Centre for film and drama.
Sri Ricky Kej
Three time Grammy® Award Winner, US Billboard #1 artist, United Nations Ambassador & “GQ Hero 2020”, Ricky Kej is an internationally renowned Indian Music Composer and Environmentalist. Ricky has dedicated his life and Music to creating awareness on the Environment, and positive social impact. He has performed at prestigious venues in over 35 countries, including at the United Nations Headquarters in New York and Geneva.
Sri Hari Kiran Vadlamani
Sri Hari Kiran Vadlamani is an entrepreneur, seeker, activist and an aspiring artist. Deeply passionate about art, philosophy, and Indology, he has set up two more foundations apart from Advaita Academy, for pursuing these passions:
Indic academy is a not- for-profit think tank that aims to nurture and nourish scholarship in Indology, arm and groom public intellectuals in developing a Dharmic narrative.
Creative India promotes art & culture, as well acts as an advocacy platform for making India a global soft superpower through various institutional and individual initiatives.
Over the last decade, he has produced, mentored and acted as a facilitator to several creative and intellectual initiatives by likeminded artists, scholars & public intellectuals.
Prof. Sunaina Singh
Prof. Sunaina Singh is the Vice Chancellor of Nalanda University, an internationally acclaimed historical university with the Ministry of External Affairs, located in Rajgir, Bihar. Prof. Singh is currently engaged with the naissance task of rebuilding the renowned ancient Nalanda University. Prof. Singh is among the most prominent leaders in higher education in the South Asian region. A distinguished academician and administrator, she is also the Vice President, Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR); Member, Governing Council, Association of Indian Universities (AIU); Member, Comprehensive Language Policy of India; Member, Bihar State Audit Advisory Board Bihar
As a Visiting Professor at reputed Universities abroad, she has played a crucial role in drawing the attention of the West towards Indian culture and literature, pedagogical systems, epistemological concerns, and university administration. She has the distinction of being the first Indian woman to head, as President of Shastri Indo Canadian Institute, a bi-national research institution with headquarters in New Delhi and Calgary under the MHRD and Canadian Government.
Prof. Vasudha Kamat
Prof. Vasudha Kamat is well known for her significant contribution to the field of Educational Technology/Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Education. She has invested five decades of life in the field of education and has contributed to School Education, Higher Education, Teacher Education, Women’s Education, Open and Distance Learning, Life Long Learning.
- Nominated by the UGC as Chairperson of Governing Body of the CEC (Consortium of Educational Communication), an Inter-University Centre of UGC) from June 2021.
- Nominated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD, now Ministry of Education: MoE), Government of India to the National Education Policy Draft Committee (GoI) under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kasturirangan in June 2017.
- Vice Chancellor of SNDT Women’s University, Mumbai, India during the years 2011-16 and has introduced many innovative practices.
- Recipient of the Best Teacher Award by Maharashtra State Government (2005-06), Fulbright Senior Research Fellowship for conducting research in the Florida State University, USA (2005-06), The Rotary International Fellowship (2004-05) during which she taught at University Technology, MARA (UiTM), Malaysia.
- She intensely advocates integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in higher education (HE). Conducts Professional Development programmes for faculty from HE in the use of learner centred pedagogies and integration of ICTs (Blended, Flipped and Online Learning) in day to day teaching-learning-evaluation process.
- She has conducted several research studies for various National/International organizations such as Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), UNDP, World-Bank, UNICEF, MHRD, etc. She has closely worked with Open Universities and National Institute of Open Schooling in various capacities.
Sri Harish Bijoor
Sri. Harish Bijoor is a Brand-thinker and practitioner operating out of Bengaluru, India. He runs a unique boutique-consulting outfit branded “Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.”, a brand name that has a consulting presence across the markets of Hong Kong, Seattle, London, Istanbul, Dubai and the Indian sub-continent.
- Harish has spent his career across the aggressive realms of FMCG, Telecom and Consumer Durables. He is considered a marketing practitioner and thinker who is ahead of the consumer thinking curve, year on year.
- Harish is a public speaker who speaks to corporate audiences across the globe in the realm of motivation, people-management issues, brands,
marketing and business at large. He has spoken to corporate audiences across the world for 10419 hours to date. - Harish teaches at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad & Mohali, in addition to semesters at overseas Business schools in the US and Europe. He has been teaching at the Indian School of Business for the past 15 years.
- Harish has recently published a book titled, “Marketing Trends – Smart Insights into the world of Indian Business”, a serious book written in a style that is distinctly young and ‘MTV-ish’!
- He is currently involved in his second book on core branding. The book is titled, “Brand Irrationals: a fundamental journey into brand-think”
- Harish has simultaneously been commissioned to write a book on “Customer Service mechanisms” at play in contemporary marketing contexts.
- Harish is actively involved in research relating to Rural Consumer Behavior, Rural Retail Networks and Trade mechanisms at play. The current research exercise he is involved in spans a 6-year period covering 84,850 consumers across India.
- Harish has published papers extensively on the subjects relating to Strategic Marketing, Branding, Consumer Behavior, Retail networks, Rural marketing, Marketing research and Trend-analysis.
- Harish Bijoor contributes regularly to Business publications on Branding, sales, distribution and related topics.
Prof. Kapil Kapoor
Prof Kapil Kapoor, former Professor of English, Centre for Linguistics and English, and Concurrent Professor, Centre for Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He was Dean of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, JNU, from 1996-1999 and Rector (Pro-Vice-Chancellor) of the University from 1999- 2002. He retired from JNU in 2005. He is a nominated Visiting Professor at the Irish Academy of Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster, U.K. and Nominated Member, Advisory Board for India Studies, Trinity College Dublin. He was nominated Birla Foundation Fellow in 2007 and UGC Emeritus Fellow at JNU, his parent university, 2007-2009. He is Adviser to CBSE, New Delhi for English since 2000. He has been nominated by Punjabi University Patiala as a Fellow for the S. S. Noor Fellowship for 2011-2013. His teaching and research interests include literary and linguistic theories, both Indian and Western, philosophy of language, nineteenth century British life, literature and thought and Indian intellectual traditions. He has been lecturing on these themes and has written extensively on them. He has been teaching for fifty years; 41 scholars worked for Ph.D. and 36 for M.Phil. with him. He was honoured in 2003 by MHRD, India, for his contribution to Sanskrit and in 2010 by Shiksha Sanskriti Utthana Nyasa for his contribution to Indian education. On October 2, 2011 he was honoured at Los Angeles by the Uberoi Foundation California USA for his contribution to Linguistics and Indic Civilization Studies. He has been honoured in 2012 as a distinguished scholar by Kunwar Narendra Pratap Singh Kalyankari Trust Gorakhpur. He is at present Adviser and Visiting Professor in BPS Women’s University Khanpur Kalan.