Sam Pitroda

Chairman, Prime Minister’s National Innovation Council

Credited with laying the foundation of India´s technology and telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, Pitroda has been a leading campaigner to help bridge the global digital divide. He was the founder and first chairman of India´s Telecom Commission and the chairman of India´s National Knowledge Commission, an advisory body to the Prime Minister of India, set up to provide a blueprint for reform of the knowledge related institutions and infrastructure in the country.

Currently Adviser to the Prime Minister of India on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, he is the Chairman of the National Innovation Council (NInC) which is working on several initiatives to boost innovation performance in the country. Pitroda heads the Expert Committee on the use of ICT in Railways. He is the Chairman of the Smart Grid Task Force set up under the aegis of the Ministry of Power, Government of India. He has recently been appointed the founding Commissioner of the United Nations Broadband Commission for Digital Development.

He holds close to 100 worldwide patents and has published and lectured widely in the US, Europe, Latin America and Asia.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited

Shaw qualified as a Master Brewer from Ballarat University, Australia. Along with many other universities, her alma mater awarded her an honorary doctorate degree in 2004 in recognition of her pre-eminent contributions to the field of Biotechnology. Shaw heads India’s leading Biotechnology enterprise, Biocon. From its inception in 1978 as an industrial enzymes company Biocon has evolved to a fully integrated Biopharmaceutical enterprise encompassing a well balanced business portfolio of products and services with a research focus on diabetes, oncology and auto-immune disease. It has two subsidiaries: Syngene (1994) to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to services in clinical development.  

Shaw chairs and serves as a member to various government committees at the state and central level. A founder member of the Society for the formation of Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Ms. Shaw has been nominated as Member of the Board of Trade, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. In addition to several prestigious awards, both national and international, she is a recipient of the Padma Shri and the Padma Bhushan Awards.

Professor Johan Roos

Former President, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

Dr Roos has worked as advisor and consultant to a wide range of industries on five continents and has held board positions in both listed and private companies. He holds a PhD in international business from Stockholm School of Economics. After a stint as a faculty member at the Norwegian School of Management and IMD in Lausanne, he became the Managing Director of Imagination Lab Foundation, Switzerland, for six years. For part of this time he was visiting professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). He has held the Bo Rydin and SCA Chair in Strategy and he was Dean of MBA Programs at the Stockholm School of Economics. His research, teaching and consulting has focused on strategic alliances, knowledge management and (innovative) strategy processes. He is co-inventor of the patented LEGO Serious PlayÔ tool used by management consultants worldwide as a software tool for intellectual capital flow assessments.

Professor Ambuj D Sagar

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi

Professor Ambuj D Sagar is a Professor of Public Policy and Chairperson in the area of Policy Studies at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Prior to joining IIT, he was at the Kennedy School of Government and the School for Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard.

Dr. Ambuj has been associated with Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University as Research Fellow, Energy Technology Innovation Policy Research Group, 1996-2002; Senior Research Associate, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, 2007-2008; Lead Researcher for the India component of STPP and the Environment and Natural Resources Program/ETIP; Visting Scholar, ETIP, June 2009. He has been widely published in national and international journals. His research interests are in the area of energy, environment and technology policies.

Ananth Krishnan

Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, TCS

M.Tech Computer Science and M.Sc. Physics from IIT, Delhi, Sri Krishnan joined TCS in 1988. A Principal Architect and Lead Consultant in the Architecture and Technology Consulting Practice, he has been the head of the TCS Systems Management and the Systems Software Group. Currently the CTO of TCS, he chairs the TCS Corporate Technology Board. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, serves on the ACM India Council and is a member of: the Computer Society of India and the Association of Computing Machinery. He has been an invited faculty in the Department of Management Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Named in Computerworld’s Premier 100 IT Leaders and in Infoworld’s Top 25 CTOs in 2007, he was also named a Distinguished Alumnus of IIT, Delhi in 2009.

Arun Saxena

Microsoft India (R&D) Pvt. Ltd.

Arun works at Microsoft India Development Center as a knowledge engineer and L&D program manager. His current areas of interest include culture, design thinking, new product development and enhancing workforce creativity and workforce. He has over ten years’ experience in education at all levels from a teacher, curriculum designer, administrator, and policy setter. Before his academic avatar, Arun ran a system integration and software development company for 17 years and spent 6 years working in IT industry across India and Europe. Arun spends his spare time igniting young minds and coaching & mentoring people to realize their potential.  

Professor B K Chakravarthy

Industrial Design Center, IIT Bombay

Dr B K Chakravarthy is a Professor at the Industrial Design Centre (IDC), IIT Bombay. After his Post Graduate Degree in Design from IIT Bombay, he obtained a PhD from IIT Delhi. He specializes in the area of innovation by design including new product innovation process and methodology. He actively researches in the field of Design Strategy, Humanizing Technology, Disruptive New Product Innovation and Collaborative Innovation Methodologies. He aims to develop a new breed of designers specializing in innovative products focusing on humanizing technology. He has been instrumental in bringing Industry projects to classroom. His consultancy assignments span companies like Whirlpool, Electrolux, L&T, Godrej, Hero Motors, Jindal, Onida, Modi‐Xerox, MIDCO Ltd., Bajaj, etc. Some of his most notable products like Z‐Line petrol pump for L &T, and Post Box for India Post have been design success stories. To facilitate dissemination of innovation expertise, he has setup Shenoy Innovation Studio at IDC, IIT Bombay with the aim of “Humanizing Technology”.

Professor B. Gurumoorthy

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore

Dr. B. Gurumoorthy is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Science in the Centre for Product Design and Manufacturing and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests are in the areas of CAD, Product Information modelling, Computational Metrology and, Product design and prototyping.  He did his B.Tech at IIT Madras followed by M.E. and Ph.D at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.  He has 28 Journal publications and 3 patents.  He serves on the editorial board of three journals.  Two technologies (automatic feature recognition and visual interactive solids) developed in his laboratory have been licensed to industry and are in active use.  Currently, he heads a joint venture between IISc and TCS providing new product development services to industry and is a co-founder and chairman of a spin-off from IISc and Stanford.

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra

President and Managing Director, Texas Instruments (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Biswadip (Bobby) Mitra as President and Managing Director of Texas Instruments (TI) India leads R&D as well as Sales and Marketing in India. Previously, he was the Director of the Americas Wireless Communication Product Development activities at TI  in Dallas. At TI Dallas, he led ultra-low power DSP core, the 'Best product of 15 years'. Under his leadership, TI established partnerships with over 700 universities in India.

Dr. Mitra is the Immediate Past Chairman and Executive Council Member of India Semiconductor Association (ISA). He is also the President of the VLSI Society of India (VSI). He received the 'Distinguished Alumni Award' from IIT Kharagpur in 2009. He has also received awards for being one of the top three R&D visionaries of India and for outstanding contributions to VLSI Design & Embedded Systems in India. In 2010, he was elected to IEEE Fellow and Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) Fellow. He holds B.Tech (E&C) and Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He also holds an Executive MBA degree from the University of Texas, Austin, where he was a recipient of the 'Dean's Award for Excellence'.

Dr R David Koilpillai

Professor, IIT Madras

R. David Koilpillai holds a B.Tech from IIT Madras, and MS, PhD in Electrical Engineering from California Institute of Technology, USA. He joined IIT Madras as a Professor of Electrical Engineering, and is the Head of the Central Electronics Centre. He was the Co-Chair of the IITM special Task Force for setting up the IIT, Hyderabad. His expertise include cellular and broadband wireless systems, and DSP techniques for wireless communications. Previosly, he has also served as the Chief Scientist, Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT), a public-private R&D initiative where he launched the national project – Broadband Wireless Consortium of India (BWCI). Prior to joining IITM, David worked at Ericsson USA and was appointed as Director of the Ericsson’s Advanced Technologies and Research Department, US. He holds 32 US patents 3 Indian Patent applications, 13 journal papers and over 45 conference publications. He is the recipient of the “Ericsson Inventor of the Year” award and was elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Professor MB Sarkar

Temple University

MB Sarkar (Ph.D. Michigan State University) is Professor of Strategy & Innovation and the Stauffer Research Fellow at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. His research interests including strategic issues in innovation, technology entrepreneurship, and emerging economies, has been published in several top-tier journals such as the Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Management Science, Organization Science, and Journal of International Business Studies among others. He serves on the editorial review board of the Academy of Management Journal, and is a charter member of The Indus Entrepreneur (TiE), Hyderabad Chapter. MB is visiting professor at IIM Calcutta and ISB, Hyderabad. Prior to joining academia, he had founded a media company in India which produced television programs, corporate films and commercials.

Dr. G. Sundararajan

Director, Intl Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI)

Dr.G.Sundararajan holds B.Tech (Metallurgy) from IIT, Madras and M.S and Ph.D from Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. He began his career at Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) as a scientist. Later, he was appointed as Director of International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials (ARCI). He is also responsible for establishing the Center for Laser Processing of Materials, the Surface Engineering Division at ARCI, the Center for Fuel Cell Technology at Chennai, and the Centre for Sol-Gel Nanocomposite Coatings at ARCI, and Advanced Materials Technology Incubator (AMT). At ARCI, as its Director, he contributed to commercialization of materials-based technologies wherein over 30 technologies have been transferred to private industries.

Dr. Sundararajan has received numerous awards including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for Engineering Science (1994), Best Metallurgist award (1995), FICCI award for Materials Science (2004) etc. He is also a Fellow of the Indian Academy of  Sciences (1992), Indian National Science Academy (1996), Indian National Academy of Engineering (1999), National Academy of Science (2002), Indian Institute of Metals (2002), and the American Society for Materials (2005). He is also a recipient of the J.C Bose Fellowship for 5 years (2006-2011). He has published more than 170 papers in refereed international journals and conference proceedings.  He is the President of the Materials Research Society of India (2011-13).

Gopichand Katragadda

Senior General Manager, India Enggineering Operations, GE Energy

Gopi is a certified GE Six-Sigma Master Black Belt. Earlier as the Operations Manager for GE Global Research, Bangalore. Gopi and his technology team of 400 researchers filed over 225 US patents in just three years. He holds a B.S. Degree in Electronics Engineering from Bangalore University; M.S. and Ph.D. from Iowa State University. Prior to GE, Gopi was in San Antonio, Texas, where he was Vice President of Research and Development with Karta Technologies, adjunct professor at the University of Texas and on the board of directors for Texas Public Radio. Author of over 30 publications and a book on innovation (published by Wiley), he holds five patents and is on the Innovation Task Force for the Confederation of Indian Industries. 

Kesav Nori

Professor, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Hyderabad

Professor Kesav V Nori is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at IIIT Hyderabad.  He is also a visiting Professor at IIT Hyderabad.

Prof. Nori began his career as a Senior Research Assistant at Computer Centre at IIT Kanpur. Later, he moved to TIFR as Research Associate, Computer Group and NCSDCT. He has been an Assistant Professor at Dept. of CSE, IIT Kanpur.  He was a Visiting Scientist at Dept. of CS in Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh.
With rich experience in academics, Prof. Nori ventured into industrial R&D. He joined the R&D Division of TCS as Vice President. With time, he transitioned into leadership roles at TCS where he was EVP and CIO.  Later, Nori was promoted to EVP and ED, BSCC, TCS R&D Hyderabad.

Prof. Nori holds a BTech in Electrical Engineer from IIT Bombay and M.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

Karthikeyan Iyer

Founder Director, Crafitti Consulting Private Limited

Karthikeyan (Karthik) Iyer is a Founder Director of Crafitti Consulting, an innovation research and consulting think tank. In a career spanning more than a decade, he has facilitated innovation in diverse contexts including processes, product strategy, technology, intellectual property and organizational innovation capability. Karthik also teaches courses on Innovation, Technology Management and Strategy as Visiting Faculty at leading Indian B-schools.

Some of his published writings include Implement a Holistic Patent Strategy for Maximum Value, The Vedic Inventive Principles, Fuelling Innovation Through New Organizational Forms and Designing Ultra Large Scale Systems – Can Lean Inventive Systems Thinking Help. His current areas of interest include innovation culture and chaos theory, open innovation, inventive principles and technology evolution trends.

Karthik holds a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, India
and a Post Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights Law from the National Law School
India University.

Kumar Sachidanandam

Director, Innovation Group, Cognizant

Kumar is the Director of Innovation Group at Cognizant Technology solutions. He directly responsible for Innovation Strategy, Change Management and Evangelizing thereby creating a Culture of Innovation within Cognizant’s 100,000 associates enabling them to deliver Service Innovation. In addition, he is also focused on driving Managed Innovation efforts within Cognizant’s corporate functions.

With a Masters in Software Engineering, Bachelors’ Engineering in Instrumentation Engineering and a Diploma in Electronics and Communication Engineering, he is a technologist by heart, but his passion for business creativity drew him to his current role of being an Innovation Catalyst.  Microsoft, Satyam, Eurotherm (part of Invensys) and Annamalai University are few other notable organizations he worked in his long list of 13 past employers.

L R Natarajan

Chief manufacturing Officer, Tanishq

L R Natarajan, Chief manufacturing orfficer at Tanishq has been with Titan Industries since 2003. He has around 25 years of experience in various capacities in automobile and agricultural manufacturing industries. Last 8 years, he is working for TITAN – Jewellery Division with dual responsibility of managing Integrated Supply Chain Management for both Tanishq and Gold plus brand, in addition to heading the mass market jewellery brand Gold plus. He was primarily responsible for conceiving and commencing the BRAND “GOLD PLUS”. He is presently heading the Innovation Council at Titan. He is an automobile engineer from the Madras Institute of Technology. He is the Chairman of the Hosur Chapter of Madras Management Association, and T&D of Hosur Industries Association.

Professor M S Ananth

Director, IIT Madras

A gold medalist in chemical engineering, Dr. Ananth obtained his PhD in Molecular Thermodynamics from the University of Florida, USA. He joined the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras as a faculty in 1972 and went on to be Head of the Department, Dean of Academic Courses and Dean of Academic Research before becoming Director of the institute in 2001. He has been one of key persons associated with The Strategic Plan of IITM – Vision 2010. He has been a visiting professor, a visiting scientist and a visiting thermodynamics expert in several renowned institutes and Universities in USA and Europe. With several publications in international journals and several awards to his name he is a Fellow of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and the Indian National Academy of Engineering, and member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet (SAC-C) and the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC). 

Dr. Mohan Rao

Director, Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology (CCMB)

Dr. Mohan Rao, Director at CCMB, obtained PhD from University of Hyderabad. Post PhD, he joined CCMB and initiated intact lens spectroscopic investigation. During 1990-92, he visited National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA.  He was a visiting Professor at the Tokyo Science University, Visiting Scientist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, USA, Institute for Protein Research, Japan.

Mohan Rao is a member of Program Advisory Committees and Task Force Committees of major government funding agencies; member of editorial boards of scientific journals; Section Editor for BBA-Proteins and Proteomics. He is Honorary President of Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV), a “science for the people” movement which was awarded National Award for outstanding efforts in science and technology communication (2005).

He is an elected J C Bose National Fellow, Fellow of the Third World Academy of Science, Trieste, Italy; Indian National Science Academy, National Academy of Sciences, India; Indian Academy of Science and Andhra Pradesh Akademi of Sciences. He is the President of the Indian Biophysical Society. He is recipient of Ranbaxy Award for Basic Medical Sciences (2000) and the Shanthi Swarup Bhatnagar Prize (1999). 

Dr Murali Sastry

Chief Scientist, Tata Chemicals Innovation Centre, Pune

Dr Murali Sastry, Chief Scientist at Tata Chemicals Innovation Centre, has an MSc in Physics and a PhD from IIT, Chennai. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics at Trieste, Italy; visiting faculty at CNRS in Orsay, France and at the University of Maryland at College Park, USA; as well as a federation fellow at RMIT, Melbourne and DAE Professor at Central University, Hyderabad.

Noted among world's top 15 nanobiotechnologists, Dr Sastry has created a centre for nanotechnology at the renowned National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune. Having authored over 300 international publications, 10 chapters in books and 15 Indian and US patents, he has a number of national and international awards to his credit including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Chemistry (2003).

Editor (Nanomaterials) for the Materials Research Bulletin (Elsevier), Dr Sastry serves on the international advisory boards of seven leading chemistry journals, having earlier served on advisory boards for the Department of Biotechnology, the Department of Science and Technology, the Presidential Nanotechnology Committee and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Dr. Narendra Jadhav

Member, Planning Commission & Member, National Advisory Council

Dr. Narendra Jadhav, is a leading educationist, eminent economist & policy maker, well-known social scientist and best-selling author. Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has called Dr. Jadhav, “a role-model for the disempowered millions in our country.”

As Member, Planning Commission, Dr. Jadhav’s sectoral responsibilities include Education, Labour-Employment-Skill Development, Sports & Youth Affairs, and Social Justice and Empowerment. He looks after the States of Bihar, Tamil Nadu, and Goa, besides the Union Territories of Diu-Daman and Dadra-Nagar Haveli. He also serves as a Member, National Advisory Council (NAC). He has been Vice Chancellor of University of Pune, Chief Economic Counsellor Government of Da Afghanistan Bank; and Principal Adviser and Chief Economist at RBI, India.

Dr. Jadhav has authored 14 books, around 30 major official reports, over 100 research papers/articles. He received Sahitya Academy Award for his biographical novel "Outcaste - A Memoir, Life and triumphs of an Untouchable Family In India". He holds a Ph.D. in Economics (Indiana University, USA), M.A. in Economics (Bombay University) and B.Sc. in Statistics (Bombay University).

Professor Pankaj Jalote

Director Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi

Prior to his present appointment, Dr Jalote was the Microsoft Chair Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi. He has also worked and taught in Infosys Technologies Ltd., University of Maryland and IIT, Kanpur. Author of several acclaimed publications such as CMM in Practice (Addison Wesley, 1999), Software Project Management in Practice (Addison Wesley, 2002) and An Integrated Approach to Software Engineering (Springer 1991), he is a Technical Advisory Board member for Microsoft Research, India, and has served on the Editorial Board of IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, and the International Journal of Empirical Software Engineering. A Fellow of the IEEE, he is on the Steering Committees of India Software Engg. Conference (ISEC), International Symposium of Software Reliability (ISSRE), and the Asia Pacific Software Engineering Conference (APSEC).

Pavan Soni

Innovation Evangelist, WIPRO

Pavan Soni is the Innovation Evangelist at WIPRO. He holds Bachelor of Engineering- Gold Medal and MBA from NITIE Mumbai. He has been trained at a 3-Day Blue Ocean Strategy Workshop conducted by INSEAD, France.

Pavan has conducted Innovation workshops for Tata Steel, Titan, Tanishq, Future Group, Glaxo SmithKline, TotalGaz, TVS Motor Company, Cyro Save, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Ericsson. He is the Recipient of ‘On-the-Job Achiever Award’-Lakshya-CII Mumbai for the work on Innovation. He pioneered the concept of WiCampand Let Sparks Fly Sessions in India, Innovation Bazaar, and Story Book on Innovation at Wipro.

Pavan has published 21 articles and paper in National & International Journals. He is the Mentor for Power of Ideas (An Economic Times Initiative) and Advisor to Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He has been a Guest lecturer at over 25 MBA and Engineering institutes and a Speaker at TEDxBITS Goa.

Porus Munshi

Founder, Making Breakthroughs Happen

Porus Munshi is the founder of Making Breakthroughs Happen and is a sought after speaker, consultant and best-selling author of the book ‘Making Breakthrough Innovation Happen – How 11 Indians Pulled Off The Impossible’. 

Writer, innovation practitioner and breakthrough creator, Porus actively triggers and facilitates innovation leapfrogs in organizations across the world by enabling individuals and organizations to break free from limiting paradigms. Some organizations he has worked with include SAP Labs, Groupe Auchan, Unilever, Heavy Water Board, Momentive, Whirlpool, Sabic, and Unilever to name a few.

Porus is currently working on his next book, ‘Redesigning Life’ that will be published by Harper Collins. While his earlier book was on organizational innovation, his new book is on personal innovations since, as he says, organizations don’t innovate, people innovate. His new book distils the key Performance Principles that are required to innovate and perform at very high levels in all 3 key areas of life – Work, Relationships and Leisure without compromising in any of these areas. 

Dr. Prabodh Chobe

General Manager, BASF India Limited

Dr.  Prabodh Chobe holds a bachelor’s degree from IIT, Mumbai and Doctoral degree in Organometallic Chemistry from State University of New York. He had a short stint as group leader R&D at Sudarshan Chemicals, Pune before joining as Group leader R&D at Glaxo. 

Dr. Chobe has provided leadership to BASF R&D centre for over two decades. He has been responsible for  “Innovation Exchange” between various business divisions of BASF in India. He deftly straddles between industry and academia. He has been persistently trying to spread innovation culture within BASF and to improve the quality of education in colleges. He is a regular speaker at colleges on subjects like innovation, cutting edge technologies, career guidance, safety etc. His endeavor is to popularize science at common man`s level.  He has published over 500 articles science related articles in well known Marathi periodicals. He has authored four books including the best-seller “Campus” in Marathi about students’ life in USA.

Dr V Premnath

Head, NCL Innovations, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune

Dr V Premnath is currently the Head, NCL Innovations – the group within NCL charged with the responsibility of championing the cause of technology innovation within NCL. Dr Premnath is also the Founding Director of the Venture Center – a technology business incubator on NCL campus. Dr Premnath is also a Scientist, Polymer Science & Engineering Division at NCL with an interest in technology development for biomedical products.

Dr. V. Premnath holds a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. He has also been a Chevening Technology Enterprise Fellow with the Centre for Scientific Enterprises, London Business School and Cambridge University, UK. He brings with him considerable experience in technology development and commercialization (two successfully commercialized families of biomedical products), working with start-up companies (in Cambridge-UK and India) and engaging with large corporations on research and consulting projects as project leader.

Professor Rajeev S

Adjunct Faculty, IIM Bangalore

Rajeev S is a visiting/adjunct faculty in strategy and innovation at IIM Bangalore and also teaches at IIM Ahmedabad and Kozhikode. He has worked in the computer industry for around 28 years, mostly in Silicon Valley, focusing on product and market innovation. He headed Solaris product management at Sun Microsystems, worked on Unix internals at Bell Labs, and marketed massively parallel computers for Siemens.

On returning to India, he was in charge of Java and Strategic Alliances for Sun Microsystems. Later he worked as COO/center head for a mid-sized IT services firm, as head of development for a wireless software startup, and as head of sales for a software startup in risk management and fraud detection. Recently, he advised India Post on its new micro-insurance product. He has also consulted with several venture capital firms and continues to be involved with several early stage startups.

Professor Rajeev holds a B Tech from IIT Madras, an MS in Computer Science from Syracuse, and an MBA from the Stanford Business School. He was a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminars in 2008.

Ranjan Malik

Director & Partner Consultant, Erehwon Innovation Consulting

Ranjan is an innovation consultant and facilitator based in Bangalore, India. He has led and facilitated innovation initiatives in a large number of organizations across the world including Apple, Bausch & Lomb, Glaxo SmithKline, Honeywell, Mahindra, Microsoft, Novartis, Pepsico, Perfetti, Tata, Unilever and Whirlpool. He has created some path breaking methodologies, frameworks and tools that help organizations innovate by design. Some of them include the innovation evaluation architecture used in the Forbes Global Applied Innovation Awards, and the 3C Spot-Fund-Nurture model used by NABARD. He has chaired various sessions like Front End of Innovation at Amsterdam, European conference on Creativity and Innovation at Warsaw, Copenhagen, and Strategic Innovation Forum at Barcelona, and TIE World Summit, Mumbai.

Prior to his work in innovation, Ranjan spent a decade in advertising and marketing with organizations like J Walter Thompson (JWT), Lintas and Bharti.

Ranjit Shahani

President, Novartis Group of Companies in India

Ranjit Shahani is Country President Novartis India responsible for the overall operations of the Novartis AG Companies in India. A Mechanical Engineer from IIT Kanpur and MBA from JBIMS, Bombay, Ranjit began his career with ICI in India in Fibres & Speciality chemicals. Later, he rose to the position of General Manager with ICI/ZENECA in the U.K., overseeing their Asia Pacific and LatAm operations for Petrochemicals and Plastics division. Ranjit was CEO at Roche Products Limited, after which he moved to Novartis, India in 1997.

Shahani is President, Organisation of Pharmaceuticals Producers of India (OPPI), is Past President of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, President, Swiss Indian Chamber of Commerce, and was on the Council of the International Federation of Pharmaceuticals Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA, Geneva).  As a thought leader in pharmaceutical industry, he has been actively involved in lobbying for a strong Product Patent law in India and Data Protection and liberalization of the price control mechanism.  He has also strongly canvassed for deterrent legislation against counterfeit drugs.

Ravi Shankar Saripalle

Founder, Srujana and Dukeship Consulting

Ravi Shankar Saripalle has founded Themes called “Srujana and Dukeship” and a consulting firm named Srujana and Dukeship Consulting - A pursuit to build ‘Glocal’ Innovative Leaders. He is founding director of "Actions for India", a NGO promoting Innovation in India, chaired by Dr. Sam Partoda – PM’s Advisor & Chairman NIC. Ravi is a member of techpedia.in (NGO promoting innovation & MSME industry-Institution bridging in India). He is a Mentor for “The Power of Ideas”, an initiative by IIMA, ET, Dept of Science & Technology, India.

Ravi as a professional trainer specializes in Instigating Innovation & Leadership culture. He has trained more than 3000+ students/faculty/employees. He has worked with Wipro Technologies for 12+ years as IT Practice Manager & Program Manager. With rich experience in Consulting, Presales, Technology, Training and Program Management, he has published IT trends and articles in leading dailies like The Economic Times, The Times of India, The Kaledizine etc.

Ravi holds MCA from Andhra University, GMP from IIMB, and MBA from Nagarjuna University. He is PM Elite certified. His passion is to develop Innovative Leaders by bridging Industry-Institution-Culture who can grow and sustain the knowledge economy.

Dr Rekha Shetty

Managing Director of Farstar Distribution Network

Author of four books, an entrepreneur and an original thinker with a Ph.D from Madras University, Dr. Shetty’s career began with two university ranks. Under the brand name Mindspower, Dr. Shetty’s long term Innovation Initiative using 47 thinking tools helps increase profits, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction and employee participation levels. She is an Innovation consultant to blue chip companies. She has conducted Mindspower programmes in different global cities introducing a new tool for Managers to develop the competitive edge: Innovation and Creativity through Mindspower. She is a faculty of leading business schools for the MBA course like Madras University and Great Lakes Institute of Management and she is on the board of studies of the Psychology Department at Madras University.

Rishikesha T. Krishnan

Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB)

Rishikesha T. Krishnan Professor at IIM, Bangalore holds M.Sc. in Physics from IIT Kanpur; and an M.S. from Stanford University, and PhD from IIM, Ahmedabad. He is the celebrated author of From Jugaad to Systematic Innovation: The Challenge for India.

Prof. Krishnan is a member of High Powered Committee set up by the Government of India for the National Civil Aircraft Development Programme. He was a member of CII Science and Technology Task Force (2008-09), the Advisory Council of CII’s National Innovation Mission, and on the jury of Nasscom’s Innovation awards (2007).

Prof. Krishnan is an independent director on the boards of Smartlink Network Systems Ltd., Sundaram BNP Paribas Asset Management Company Ltd., Halbit Avionics Pvt. Ltd. He is a trustee of the Foundation for Excellence India Trust.  Prof. Krishnan has been a consultant to British Telecom, Daimler Chrysler, Wipro, Siemens, Sasken etc.

Prof. Krishnan is an active member of Globelics and Asialics. He has served on the editorial advisory boards of several journals. Apart from papers published in academic journals, his articles have appeared in the Economic Times, Business Line and the Financial Express.

Professor S. Ramnarayan

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad

S. Ramnarayan is a member of the resident faculty at ISB. He earned his Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. He has been a Professor at IIM, Ahmedabad, visiting faculty at the Case Western Reserve University, and Guest Professor at the University of Bamberg, Germany.

He has carried out research funded by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Ford Foundation, World Bank, Commonwealth Secretariat, Department for International Development and German Science Foundation. He has co-authored books on “Changing Tracks: Reinventing the Spirit of Indian Railways”, “Change Management: Altering Mindsets in a Global Context” and “Managing Organizational Change”, and co-edited books titled “Life After 360 Degree Feedback”, “Strategic Management of Public Enterprises in Developing Countries”, “Managerial Dilemmas: Cases in Organizational Behavior” and “Organization Development: Interventions and Strategies”.

Dr Sanjay Correa

Vice President & Managing Director, GE India Technology Center

Sanjay Correa is Vice President, GE and Managing Director, GE India Technology Center. He leads GE technology development in India with about 5500 engineers and scientists at GE’s first and largest integrated, multidisciplinary research and development center outside the U.S. Over the last decade, the Center has filed almost 1000 patents.

Most recently he was the General Manager for Engineering Technologies at GE Aviation headquartered in Cincinnati, OH. Prior to that, Sanjay was the GM for the Fan, Compressor & Combustor Center of Excellence in GE Aviation's Supply Chain, with plants in the US, Canada and Europe, and engineering teams in Cincinnati and Lynn MA. Previously Sanjay was the Global Technology Leader for Energy & Propulsion Technologies at GE's Global Research Center headquartered in Niskayuna NY, with teams in the US, Bangalore, Shanghai and Munich.

Sanjay holds BS, MS and PhD degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor MI. He is member of several professional societies and co-leader of GE's Asian Pacific
American Forum.

Asokan Pichai

Senior Vice President, Learning and Development

Asokan oversees the L&D and also heads the design and delivery of Software Engineering Programs at TalentSprint. He is a consultant with FOSSEE (Free Open Source Software for Science and Engineering), where he is leading a team in designing and developing courses and teacher's training programs for engineering curriculum.  Asokan has more than 25 years of experience in new product development and in coaching senior level management on leadership and innovation. Asokan held leadership positions such as CEO of MinVesta, CTO of Ma Foi, Chief Trainer at Virtusa, and Director - Technical of Brilliant's Computer Centre. Asokan is passionate about Instructional Design. He headed the Curriculum Development Department at Brilliant's Computer Centre from 1989-1994.

Savita Mahajan

Deputy Dean and Chief Executive, Mohali Campus, ISB

Savita Mahajan is the Deputy Dean and Chief Executive of the ISB Mohali campus. She has been associated with the ISB since its inception in 2001. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Delhi University, and MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. She has worked in several Indian organisations, including Maruti Udyog Limited, Bharat Technologies, Karvy Consultants, and Intergraph India, in diverse industry sectors, including automobiles, engineering, financial services and software. At Karvy and Intergraph, she was Head of Strategy and Organisation Development.

Shalendra Porwal

Co - Chair, FICCI Innovation Committee; CEO & MD, Battelle India

Mr. Porwal in his association with Battelle for over 30 years has led many projects with government as well as industrial clients in US and abroad. As an independent consultant and entrepreneur for 5 years, he started several new businesses, worked with inventors to protect, market, and commercialize their intellectual property.  

Mr. Porwal first conceptualized the establishment of Battelle India in 1989. Eighteen years later, Battelle assigned Mr. Porwal to begin exploring options in India. He established Battelle India in 2008 and now serves as Managing Director and CEO of Battelle India.

Mr. Porwal has authored over twenty major reports and publications and made numerous presentations to large technical audiences and senior management of Fortune 500 companies. He also belongs to several trade associations and has served on several Boards of small non-profit organizations. Mr Porwal holds MBA and MS from Miami University, USA; and B.Tech.from IIT, Kharagpur.

Shankar Venugopal

Innovation Differentiation Leader, Honeywell

Dr. MV Shankar is a technology Innovation leader with strong technical expertise in Cleantech, Energy, Nanotechnology & Advanced Materials. He has over 13 years of experience in translating technical ideas into technology innovations. He is skilled in identifying new technologies for potential business opportunities and ‘Innovative New Product Development.’ He boasts of a successful innovator track record with numerous granted patents, technical publications and presentations and the ability to lead global multi-functional teams with focus on delivery of business strategy.

Shiva Subramaniam

Founder, Paper Clip

Shiva is one of the select few accredited Master Trainers in the world in Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking. Master Trainers are certified after careful consideration of their work in creativity and thinking. Shiva is also a Qualified Buzan Instructor (QBI) in Mind Mapping.

Shiva is a freelance trainer and facilitator. He runs a venture called ‘the paper clip’. His strength is in helping people think together. He has also coached the Indian national cricket team on creativity using Six Hats and Lateral Thinking. He is an expert on Indian culture. His work is in the area of differences between Indian culture and other cultures.

Shiva worked with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for 18 years. His last assignment was in the Corporate Technology Office of TCS where he was in charge of fostering innovation within TCS. He was a member of the Tata Group Innovation Forum. He is now a retainer/consultant with TCS.

Shiva was also a full-time practicing attorney in the High Court at Chennai, India.

Professor Sougata Ray

Dean (Programme Initiatives), IIM Calcutta

Prof. Sougata Ray is a Professor in the Strategic Management Group and Dean (Programme Initiatives) of IIM-C. He has served as the President and Chairman of the Governing Board of Parivaar Educational Society. As General Manager and Head of Innovation Labs at Infosys, he spearheaded the innovation initiatives and incubated the innovation services practice.

Prof Ray has over two decades of experiences in diverse roles – a frontline executive in a Maharatna PSU, a senior management employee, researcher, teacher, institution builder, a corporate advisor to several companies. He has been an independent director in the Boards of Indian Oil Group Companies, a Global Fortune 500 company, and the Chairman of the Audit Committees thereof, President and Chairman of the Governing Board of an NGO and a Principal Consultant to a leading International Development Agency. He has written over 100 research papers, case studies and monographs and published in leading international journals and presented papers in many international conferences including Academy of Management, and Academy of International Business.

Subraya BM

Associate VP, Infosys E&R

Dr. Subraya BM, Associative Vice President, currently works as the Head of Global Education Center (GEC), Infosys Technologies Limited, Mysore, India. GEC is one of the biggest Corporate Universities in the world, annually training more than 20,000 IT graduates. During his career at Infosys, he has been instrumental in the development of learning strategies using technology and assessment methodologies.

Dr. Subraya’s area of research is Software Testing and in particular Web Performance testing. He has been responsible for starting a Performance Testing Centre (InPTC). He has offered tutorials on Web Performance Testing in many pre-conference Tutorials including QAI, SEPG, Quality Week and PSQT international Conferences. He is widely published internationally in the area of Performance Testing of Web applications. He has authored “Integrated Approach to Web Performance Testing: A Practitioner’s Guide” published by IRM Press, USA.

Prior to Infosys, he worked as a Professor and Head of Computer Centre, at S.J. College of Engineering, University of Mysore. Dr. Subraya holds PhD from IIT, Delhi from Computer Science & Engineering Department, in the area of hardware verification and high level synthesis. 

Sudhir Kumar Jain

Director at IIT, Gandhinagar

Sudhir K Jain is Director at IIT, Gandhinagar. He holds B.E. (Civil) from University of Roorkee, and M.Sc. and PhD from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), US. Prior to joining IIT Gandhinagar, he worked as a Civil Engineering faculty at IIT Kanpur since 1984.

Professor Jain is an active researcher in earthquake engineering and has published more than 150 research papers. He has been instrumental in improving state-of-the-practice in the construction industry through development of Indian seismic codes and commentaries. His consulting assignments include bridges in high seismic regions of India, two concrete gravity dams in Sikkim, a base-isolated hospital in Simla, and a major crude oil pipeline. He consulted the World Bank on seismic safety issues in Srinagar and Istanbul. Along with mentoring several young professionals, he set up the National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering (NICEE) at IIT Kanpur. He is also the key person behind the development of the National Program on Earthquake Engineering Education (NPEEE).

Professor Jain has shouldered many responsibilities at IIT Kanpur including Head of Civil Engineering Department (2001-2003); Chairman, Student Placement Committee (1995-96); Coordinator, Quality Improvement Programme (1997-1999); and Coordinator, Centre for Development of Technical Education (1997-1999); and Dean, Resource Planning and Generation (2005-2008).

Dr. Jain serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association for Earthquake Engineering as Executive Vice President. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2003.

Tarun Agarwal

CEO, ECCO Electronics

Tarun has a Masters Degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a post graduate diploma in management from Indian School of Business. Tarun started his career at Bisquare Technologies and led the development of India’s first indigenous DTH Set Top Box in 1999. Further, he has held various positions with several MNCs including Neomagic Semiconductor and Freescale semiconductor, in roles ranging from Project Management, Product Management to Pre-sales in the Semiconductor segment. Post  ISB, he moved to the retail sector. In his last role, he was the head of a consumer durable retailer, managing annual revenues of  Rs 250 Cr, with cumulative retail floor space of 100,000 sq meters and a 300 people sales team. Beyond work, Tarun has active association with a social welfare and education trust in his native
town of Shivpuri (MP). The trust aims at providing holistic education in the rural areas to the young
and a meaningful post-retirement life to the adults.

V. Kovaichelvan

Senior Vice President – HR of TVS Motor Company Limited

Kovaichelvan has over thirty years of industrial experience in the areas of Production Engineering, New Product development, TQM and HR Development. He holds a bachelor degree in Production Engineering and Masters in Engineering Business Management from University of Warwick, UK. He is currently pursuing doctorate in the area of Competency Management.

Kovaichelvan has played a leading role in organizational transformation by introducing several new products and implementing TQM in the company. He is responsible for setting up the Human Resources function with contemporary practices for TVS Motor Company and associated companies.

He has served on the board of governing council of several educational institutions. He is a member of the advisory board of Center for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC) at Indian School of Business (ISB), HR council of Conference Board, Human Capital group of Society of Automobile Manufacturers Association (SIAM), and Industry consortium of School of Inspired Leadership (SoIL), Delhi.

Professor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai

VC, IGNOU & Chairman of Distance Education Council

Prof. V N Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi, is also Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC) which looks after the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance to all the 13 State Open Universities and other Open and Distance Learning institutions in India. He has served as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) in New Delhi, Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore, Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology; Founder-Director of the School of Chemical Sciences, Dean of Faculty of Science, Controller of Examinations, Director of College Development Council, Founder-Director of the School of Professional Distance and Education and Chief, Employment and Information Guidance Bureau of the Mahatma Gandhi University. Prof. Pillai has been a Director of Indraprastha Medical Corp. Ltd. and State Bank of Travancore.

Venkatesh Valluri

President,  Ingersoll Rand, India

Venkatesh Valluri is the President of Ingersoll Rand India. He also represents the India Management board as its Chairman. Ingersoll Rand (NYSE:IR) is a $14.0 billion globally diversified industrial technology company with a large presence in India. Before joining Ingersoll Rand, Valluri was associated with the global measurement technology leader company, Agilent Technologies, as its President & Country Manager for over 5 years. He successfully established a strong footprint for Agilent’s India region business operations.

Prior to Agilent, he held various leadership roles at GE (General Electric) in India and abroad. He led GE’s Specialty Materials business in Europe as the Business Leader. He was also responsible as the Managing Director of GE’s Silicones business in India. Also, in his role as the Vice President (Business Development) of GE, he established multiple joint ventures and subsidiaries for GE’s operations in India.

Valluri serves on the board of United Way India. He is also a member of the Ministry-Industry Consultative Committee (MICC) under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MOFPI), Government of India.

Valluri holds Bachelor’s in Technology in Electronics and a MBA from IIM Ahmedabad.

Professor Vidyanand Jha

Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

Dr. Vidyananad Jha is an Associate Professor in Behavioural Sciences Group at IIM, Calcutta.  He holds Ph. D. (Organization Behaviour) (IIMA), PGDRM (IRMA), Film Appreciation Course (FTII).  He has been teaching a course on Managing Creativity and Innovation since 1997 to post graduate students and working managers at IIM Calcutta. He has also conducted many customized programmes on Managing Creativity and Innovation for many companies. He also taught this course at Escuela de administracion, Pontificia Universidad de Catolica de Chile, Santiago in 2009. He received the Best Case Writer award from Association of Indian Management Schools in 1998. He is also a poet and an award winning translator in Maithili.

Vijay Anand

Vice President and MD, India Development Center, INTUIT

Vijay Anand, Vice President and Managing Director of Intuit’s India Development Center (IDC), is responsible for formulating the vision and strategy to support Intuit's quest to be a premier innovative growth company. Vijay has masters’ degrees from University of Arizona in Computer Science and IIT, Madras in Mechanical Engineering.

Vijay as a leader in the enterprise software industry has successfully led product teams and engineering centers for Oracle and Sun Microsystems in India and US. Vijay was instrumental in delivering major innovations into Oracle's Fusion strategy and development of Sun Microsystems' R&D center. At Sun and Oracle, Vijay pioneered a partnership approach where development center can leverage product and technology expertise of the local organizations and industry partners. He has donned multiple roles in US for over 14 years - Engineering leadership roles for e-commerce product line at iPlanet (Sun-Netscape alliance), Architect for NetDynamics (a leading Java application server product) and technical leader at IBM.

Vijay is a member of several industry and technical organizations including TiE, NASSCOM and the Association of Computing Machinery in the US. He is a featured speaker at conferences including developer events such as Oracle Open World and the Sun Microsystems Tech Days events in India.

Dr. Vijay Chandru

Chairman, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Strand Life Sciences

Vijay Chandru (PhD, MIT 1982) is an academic and an entrepreneur who was named in the 50 Pioneers of Change by India Today in 2008. Vijay’s academic career in mathematical sciences spanned over 25 years as a research scientist and Professor at Purdue University, IBM, Indian Institute of Science, UPenn, and MIT. He is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and Indian National Academy of Engineering and an honorary professor of the National Institute of Advanced Studies in Bangalore.

Vijay is co-founder, Chairman & CEO of Strand Life Sciences, a pioneer in scientific intelligence. He serves as President (2009-2012) of Association of Biotech Led Enterprises (ABLE). HE was also a founder of PicoPeta Simputers that commercialized the Simputer as Amida. As an inventor of the Simputer, he received the Dewang Mehta Award (MCIT), India’s highest award for innovation in IT. He was named a Technology Pioneer of the World Economic Forum in 2006, and the Biospectrum(India) Biotech Entrepreneur of 2007. For contributions to Science, Technology and Society, Vijay received the Hari Om Trust Award from the UGC in 2003, the President’s Medal of INFORMS in 2006, and the Distinguished Alumni award by the MIT India Program in 2007.

Vinay Dabholkar

Founder of Catalign Innovation Consulting

Vinay Dabholkar is the founder of Catalign Innovation Consulting and helps organizations become more innovative systematically. This usually means partnering with innovation program committee and co-executing interventions which improve two pipelines for innovation: idea and leadership. He is paranoid about repeatability and sustainability of innovation efforts. Some of the organizations that he has worked with include: Sun Microsystems, Sasken, ADP and Madura Fashion & Lifestyle to name a few. He is currently writing a book along with Prof. Rishikesha Krishnan on how to lead innovation programs in organizations.