Padma Shri Dr Bibek Debroy, Chairperson, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Government of India. He has worked in Presidency College, Kolkata, Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune; Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi; as the Director of a Ministry of Finance/UNDP project on legal reforms; Department of Economic Affairs: National Council of Applied Economic Research; Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies; PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and Centre for Policy Research. He was also Member, NITI Aayog up to 5th June 2019. He has authored/edited several books, papers and popular articles and has also been a consulting/Contributing Editor with several newspapers.
Dr (Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary General of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) is the second women Secretary General of the Association. Prior to joining AIU, she has been serving the higher education sector especially university education for more than 03 decades at the apex regulator of higher education, the University Grants Commission of India. She also served as the first regular Vice Chancellor of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Khanpur, the first rural women university of North India, in 2008
Professor Sachin Chaturvedi is currently Director General at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a New Delhi-based Think-Tank. He works on issues related to development economics, involving development finance, SDGs and South-South Cooperation, apart from trade, investment and innovation linkages with special focus on WTO. Currently, he is also Vice Chairman, Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Good Governance and Policy Analysis; and ex-officio Vice Chairman of Madhya Pradesh State Policy and Planning Commission. He is also Member, Board of Governors, Reserve Bank of India.
Sri S. V. Ranganath, IAS (Ret’d) is the former Chief Secretary, Government of Karnataka (2009-13). He was Chairman Indian Coffee Board; Resident Director, Indian Investment Centre, Abu Dhabi; Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister of Karnataka; Additional Secretary & Financial Adviser in the Department of Space; and Member (Finance), Space and Atomic Energy Commissions among other key roles.
Prof. Sunaina Singh is the Former Vice-Chancellor of Nalanda University and has received numerous awards, including the ‘Ambassador for Peace’ by the Universal Peace Federation in 2022, Honorary Professorship by Oxford Union in 2020, and the Leadership for Net Zero Endeavour Award 2022 by Indo-American Green University Network, among others. She has also been recognized with the International Education Award-2018 by the British Parliament, House of Lords, and the Bharat Ratna Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Excellence Award 2018, Education Leadership Award, by the World Education Congress in 2016, 2017, and 2018 among others.
Padma Bhushan Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an accelerator for early-stage start-ups. He was formerly the CEO of Infosys and currently serves on the Board of Governors for multiple organizations, including the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and IIIT Bangalore. He also chairs the Vision Group on Information Technology for the Karnataka Government and the CII Centre of Excellence in Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Start-ups.
Padma Shri Prof Subbanna Ayyappan is an aquaculture scientist who is playing a key role in powering India’s Blue revolution. He is a former Director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the Chancellor of the Central Agricultural University in Imphal and Chairman of the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy (KSTA).
Prof Bhushan Patwardhan, a Distinguished Professor of Health Sciences and biomedical scientist, chairs the Interdisciplinary AYUSH R&D Task Force on COVID-19 and is India Lead for the WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine Task Force. He’s a member of the Lancet Citizens’ Commission on Reimagining India’s Health System. He previously held positions such as Vice Chairman of the University Grants Commission and Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research.