How do we future-proof Indian education?

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Managing Director for boutique economic consulting firm EPG, specialising in economic analysis, strategic communications and market entry assistance with India, with offices in London, Bangalore and East Africa.

He was additionally, until August 2017, UK Director for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the premier and largest industry body in India. He is also the co-founder of a tech start-up in the CSR space. Previously he worked in Economic Consulting at FTI Consulting and Deloitte in London and Abu Dhabi, with a focus on public policy and arbitration. He was Chairman for a not-for-profit membership organisation with several thousand members for three years.

He studied Economics at Warwick University, where he was awarded the Prize for Excellence, and LMU University of Munich. His dissertation won a prize at an international economics conference at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He has published academic research on behavioural economics and social impact and is a regular commentator on public policy and India across print, TV and online media, featured on BBC News, CBC, CNBC, CNN, NDTV, South China Morning Post and Huffington Post.

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Prof. (Dr.) Pankaj Gupta, Ph.D is a Fulbright Fellow, CMA, GCPCL (Harvard), Fellow of ICAI and an alumnus of Lucknow University and IIM Ahmedabad.

He has over 25 years’ professional experience to his credit and a very successful track record as an academic and an exceptional Institution Builder with several top organizations such as IMT Ghaziabad, SIBM (Symbiosis) Bangalore, Educomp Raffles / JRE, IIM Kozhikode, University of Washington (USA), SP Jain (Dubai and Singapore), IIM Raipur, IIM Rohtak, Jaipuria Group, ICSI among others.

Under leadership of Prof. Gupta, both SIBM Bangalore and JRE School of Management became one of the leading B-Schools in India in a short span of time. IIM Ahmedabad is writing a Case Study on Jaipuria Group on its transformation journey.

He has written several books and research papers and has delivered guest talks/ invited presentations in several Top Business Schools in India and abroad. He has been a resource person with British Council, Fulbright Commission, UPSC, Planning Commission, PHD Chamber, UPPSC, AIT, Zensar etc.

He has conducted several Executive Education Programs / Consulting. Some of the organizations which have benefited from training / consulting of Prof. Gupta include Maruti, Dabur, GE Capital, Ericsson, Electrolux, NTPC, LIC, Genpact, Bry Air, Samtel, Elin Electronics, Shriram Pistons, IREDA, NEC Corp, CBI, Indian Navy etc.

He has won several honors including ‘Fulbright Fellowship’, ‘Valuable Contribution to Profession Award’ by ICAI, ‘Most innovative idea in management education award’ etc

Selected Specialties: Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Strategic Cost Management, Management Control Systems, New Business Development, Management Education, Transformational Leadership and Turnaround Management, Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility, Academic Audit, Academic Quality Assurance System, International Collaborations, International Accreditations such as AACSB, AMBA, EQUIS etc.

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Sandeep Mishra is Country Director of STIR in India. He manages STIR’s overall operations in different states of the country with truly committed team of 80+ professionals based in 5 different locations of the country. He has over a decade and half experience working on issues related with Child Protection, Education and Basic Human rights and has been associated with organizations like Save the Children, Azim Premji Foundation, USAID-SDPP, and National Coalition for Education prior to STIR. He holds advance post graduate degrees in Philosophy, Education and Education Financing. He believes that teachers are key agents of change and investing in teachers’ professional capacity could exponentially increase the rate of returns in the form of student learning.

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Vinesh Menon is a seasoned professional with over 25 years of value delivery to diverse industries behind him. He has served organizations like ABN, AMRO Bank, Bajaj Capital and Fullerton India across the spectrum of the consumer finance products in various senior management capacities. He is VIBGYOR group of schools CEO for Education, Skilling & Consulting services with a focus on enhancing vocational training & education services in line with the state and central government initiatives in these domains.

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Mr Ashok Pandey is working in the School sector for the past three decades. He did Masters in Physics from Allahabad University and in Consultancy Management from BITS, Pilani. The Ahlcon International School that Mr Pandey heads for the past 15 years is ranked among the best Schools in the country.  He recently completed a two-year term as Chairman, National Progressive Schools’ Conference (NPSC). He has worked, in the past, with Mayo College, Ajmer, Delhi Public School, Jammu and Indian Embassy School, Saudi Arabia, among others. Author of several articles, research papers and projects, his book, The Pedagogical Life-Essays in Educating india was published alst year. 

Mr Pandey is a recipient of several national and international awards including  ‘National Award for Teacher’ (2012) and ‘CBSE Award’ (2009) for his contribution to education. He has a keen interest in School transformation, professional development of teachers, technology integration, and Sustainable Development Goals. Widely travelled to Germany, Singapore, Sri Lanka, UAE, Thailand, Vietnam and Tanzania, he has led Principals’ delegations to the University of Malta in Europe, the University of Rice in Houston, USA and to the Institute of Leadership, Nottingham, UK. He participated in India-Australia Leadership dialogue in Melbourne Australia. 

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Mr. Arunabh Singh is a committed School Principal, Educationist, Innovator and promotor of Nehru World School, Ghaziabad. An Alumnus of Kings College London and Hindu College, Delhi University, Arunabh has been honoured with a national award for “Exceptional contribution to the field of Education” by Independent School Federation of India in 2010.

He has also been awarded “Innovation in Progress” Fellowships for two consecutive years at World Round Table Conference for Educational Leadership and “Global Teacher Accreditation” award from Cambridge Foundation for his Action Research on Continuing Professional Development of Teachers.

Mr. Singh is Co-chair of FICCI ARISE for UP West and a British Council School Ambassador. Alongside he is associated with other International Organisations such as Goethe Institute, Tony Blair Faith Foundation and CBSE. He frequently participates in TV debates and speaks on various national and international forums across the globe on topics primarily concerning education and progressive learning.

Along with his passion in the field of PK-12 education space he also a visiting faculty at the CBI Academy where he has trained officers from Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency, Narcotics Control Bureau and Police forces to name a few.

Passionate about innovation, technology, entrepreneurship and igniting young minds, he is a proponent of distributed leadership model and firmly believes “Technology may not replace teachers, but teachers who use technology effectively will replace those, who don’t.”

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Manish is responsible for providing a strategic vision to NSDC in ensuring that the team moves cohesively in one direction towards achievement of the Prime Minister’s Skill India Mission. Manish also represents NSDC at domestic and international fora. He is also the official spokesperson for NSDC.

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Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao is currently the Director, IIT Delhi. Before joining IIT Delhi as the Director in April 2016, Dr. Rao served as a P. K. Kelkar Chair Professor for Nanotechnology in the Department of Electrical Engineering and as the Chief Investigator for the Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics project at IIT Bombay.

Dr. Rao has over 450 research publications in the area of nano-scale devices & Nanoelectronics and is an inventor on 40 patents and patent applications, which include 15 issued US patents. Eleven of his patents have been licensed to industries for commercialization.

Prof. Rao is a co-founder of two deep technology startups at IIT Bombay (Nanosniff & Soilsens) which are developing products of relevance to the society. Dr. Rao is a Fellow of IEEE, a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Science Academy.

Prof. Rao’s work is recognized with many awards and honors in the country and abroad. He is a recipient of the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Engineering Sciences in 2005 and the Infosys Prize in 2013. Dr. Rao also received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship award from the Department of Science & Technology, IBM Faculty award, Best Research award from the Intel Asia Academic Forum, TechnoMentor award from the Indian Semiconductor Association, DAE-SRC Outstanding Research Investigator award, NASI-Reliance Platinum Jubilee award, J.C.Bose National Fellowship, Prof. C.N.R.Rao National Nanoscience award, VASVIK Award and the Excellence in Research Award from IIT Bombay. Prof. Rao was an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices during 2003-2012 for the CMOS Devices and Technology area and currently serves on the Editorial boards of other journals.

He is a Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Electron Devices Society and interacts closely with many semiconductor industries both in India and abroad. Dr. Rao served as the Chairman, IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter and as a Vice-Chairman, IEEE Asia Pacific Regions/Chapters sub-committee for two terms. He was the first elected Chairman for the India section, American Nano Society during 2013-2015.

For more information about Prof. Rao’s current research interests and a list of publications
visit: http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~rrao/.

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Arijit has been associated with the K-12 education domain for over 16 years now. Having a rich experience in the fields of policy advocacy, academic research, teacher training, teacher audits, curriculum design on 21st century skills and digital innovation in work space, his strengths lie in mentoring action researchers to bring change in the classrooms and guiding leaders to bring about systemic changes in the schools. He has successfully managed several capacity-building programmes, mainly in the area of 21st-century skills involving organisations like DfID, MacArthur Foundation, UNICEF and state governments.

A M.Sc. in Marine Science and a MBA in Human Resources, Arijit has also been a professional quizmaster and has conducted various quizzes at school and corporate levels. He was awarded with the global teacher accreditation award by Cambridge Foundation in 2014 for his work on quizzing. 

Having started his career as a teacher, he has held senior positions at Macmillan Publishers India Limited, Pearson Education and British Council India. He is currently the Vice President at Education Quality Foundation of India, where he works towards helping institutions improve their quality of teaching-learning.

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Dr. Raj Singh is the Vice Chancellor of Ansal University and Hony. Vice Chairman of Education India Foundation at New Delhi. Till recently, he was Vice Chancellor of Rayat-Bahra University (RBU) Mohali. Prior to RBU, he was the first Vice Chancellor of the G D Goenka University, Gurgaon, first Vice-Chancellor of Ansal University, Gurgaon and first Vice Chancellor of Amity University Madhya Pradesh at Gwalior.

He has been the Vice Chancellor at Amity University, Jaipur and Pro-Vice Chancellor at Amity University Uttar Pradesh, NOIDA. He was also the Director General of Amity Business School, NOIDA, Director of ICFAI Business School (IBS) New Delhi from inception in 1995. He joined Indian Air Force in 1981 at the age of 16 ½ and served there for about 14 years prior to entering the field of education in 1994.

A Postgraduate in Economics and Doctorate in Strategic Cost Management, he was topper of the coveted Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) and has had an exemplary career spanning 36 years. A strong proponent of Flexible, Inter-disciplinary and Trans-disciplinary learning, he has a unique leadership style that has significantly contributed towards the establishment and growth of some of the finest Universities in the country. 

A rare blend of academics and administration, he is highly regarded for his oratory skills. Dr. Singh is known for designing innovative programs in collaboration with foreign Universities from the US, UK, Australia, Italy and France and industry.

An avid researcher, acclaimed teacher, astute administrator and Institution builder, he has been a trainer and consultant in areas of Corporate Governance and Change Management. His clients include both Indian and Multinational companies like TATA, Air India, Telecom Consultants of India Ltd., Denso India, ANZ Grindlays, NTPC, GAIL, SAIL and others. He has trained over 4000 teachers in school as well as higher education. 

Dr. Singh has published and presented many research papers and delivered keynote addresses in over 80 national and international conferences and has been a panelist in many TV shows, featured as one of the movers and shakers on the Daily World Post and “My Icon” on FM channel in 2016 and 2017. He represented India at the International Design Summit held in Milan, Italy in 2013 and is a TEDx speaker.

Widely travelled, he has been a visiting Professor at IIT-Delhi and Delhi School of Economics. He has been on advisory boards of many Institutions and University Departments, Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI) and was the Vice Chairman of Quality Committee on Education of QCI, Govt. of India. He regularly chairs the expert committees of National Board of Accreditation (NBA) and was member of the first Governing Council of the Rajasthan Science Congress. He has been conferred Awards for exemplary Education Leadership in 2012, 2016 and 2017.

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Aditya Vinod Malkani is the South Asia Representative for The Association of Commonwealth Universities – the world’s first international university network established in 1913, with 500+ members across more than 50 Commonwealth countries. The ACU supports the development of higher education as a power for good across the Commonwealth and beyond. Aditya is responsible for the development of new initiatives in the region and to further engage with the membership to increase the ACU’s impact in South Asia.

Aditya is also Managing Partner at Think Education Advisory Services and has developed the Corporate Education and Student Mobility Business for the firm, having worked closely with leading international universities and corporations to develop immersion programmes for their students and executives to experience India through its ‘Go India Initiative’.

He has robust international links and a thorough understanding of both schooling and higher education systems in the following countries: United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, UAE, and Japan.

Aditya had worked as “The India Country Head” at “King’s College London” for more than three years with the overall responsibility of developing and delivering the university’s strategy in India. Representing King’s College London as the India Country Head, he promoted the King’s brand in India through the delivery of large-scale programmes such as summer schools, development of multilevel partnerships, fostering research partnerships, engagement with industry, strengthening of links with alumni and more.

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R Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) – a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Prime Minister and the Government of India of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). AIM’s goals are to establish and promote a vibrant culture of innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide.

As the Mission Director of AIM, Ramanan has been instrumental to date in the launch and execution of several nationwide innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives resulting in:

– 5441 Atal Tinkering Labs being established in schools nationwide with 2000+ operational in 650+ districts and over 2 million students having access to innovative tools and technologies like 3d printers, robotics, miniaturised electronics do it yourself kits

– 101 Atal Incubation Centers being established in Univ / industry fostering Startups

– 24 Atal New India Challenges to stimulate product innovations along with Ministries of India

– one of the largest mentorship networks with over 10000+ registrations nationwide AIM iNNONET to mentor young school students and Startups in the Tinkering Labs and the Incubators

R Ramanan was previously Managing Director & CEO of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Ramanan led CMC’s rapid transformation from a domestic government organization to a global IT private sector organization. Under his leadership CMC share price grew over 2100% between October 2001 to 2014, its operating profits over 1338%, 72% of its business coming from the overseas markets and leading to its successful amalgamation into TCS in 2015.

Ramanan’s joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Mumbai in Electrical Engg and played an instrumental role in the growth of TCS with a variety of responsibilities ranging from product development, technical marketing, global business development, and general management of large centers of TCS.

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Prof. Anil Dattatraya Sahasrabudhe, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati joined All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) as Chairman on 17th July 2015. Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe graduated from BVB College of Engineering and Technology, Hubli affiliated to Karnataka University, Dharwad, Karnataka in Mechanical Engineering with First Rank and Gold medal in 1980. Subsequently, he obtained Master’s and Doctoral (with UGC Fellowship) degrees from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore in 1982 and 1989 respectively.

Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe in his illustrious career of 31 years held several important Academic, Research and Administrative positions. He started his career as Scientific Officer, at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in 1983 and moved to Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) as Engineer in the same year. He served as Lecturer and Assistant Professor at North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh) from 1987-1988 & again from 1989-1995, before joining IIT Guwahati as Associate Professor in 1995 and has been serving as Professor since 1999. Also, he served as Director, College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP) since 2006 on deputation from IIT, Guwahati prior to joining as AICTE Chairman. As an Academician and Researcher in NERIST and IIT Guwahati, and as an Administrator in the capacity of Director, CoEP, he has taken up several new initiatives for Academic, Curricular & Co-curricular activities, Entrepreneurship, Research and Good Governance.

Prof. Anil D. Sahasrabudhe is presently working as Chairman & Expert Member on various National Level Committees. Some of these include; Chairman, Basic Scientific Research (BSR), Empowered Committee of UGC, SWAYAM Board and Chairman BOG of NIT Itanagar. As a Member/Fellow he is actively involved in the activities of many Professional Bodies/Societies, such as ISTE, ASME, ASEE, ASI, IET, Institution of Engineers (IE).

He was awarded with “Maha-Intrapreneur Award-2011” of Praj Industries, Pune for his Leadership and Innovative abilities in the area of Technology Development and Entrepreneurship initiatives.

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Havovi Wadia is Director, Impact at Magic Bus India Foundation. She has 18 years of experience across diverse sectors including academics, banking and finance and development. She is committed to the rights of children and to an understanding of childhoods. In recent years, her work has focused on research and measurement and she focuses on finding ways to make these relevant to programmes.

Havovi Wadia is a leader, researcher, and writer committed to the rights of children and young people. Her particular interests include childhoods, gender, and education. Her academic qualifications are varied – an MPhil in English Literature, a Diploma in Women’s Studies and three papers completed towards an abandoned Business Diploma from the University of Auckland. She has over 18 years of work experience in the development, finance and academic sectors.

Her work includes evaluating programmes, designing outcome and log frameworks, developing programmes and interrogating mainstream ideas of childhood and gender. Prior to Magic Bus, she has worked with rights-based organisations including CRY (Child Rights and You) and Praxis – Institute for Participatory Practices.

At Magic Bus, she is Director, Impact responsible primarily for the gathering and presentation of evidence that provides proof of concept for the Magic Bus programme. In this role, she has established and built a separate function for measurement in the organisation and has co-anchored key projects including the first ever Magic Bus Youth Barometer. She is also the Child Protection Officer for the organisation, building ways to make the organisation more aware of and responsive to safeguarding requirements for its primary stakeholders.

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Presently a co-founder at SkillSanta – a startup functional in NCR and Lucknow that upskills software engineering grads through a combination of optimized content delivery and pre-screened tutors, Nishant is an alumnus of NIT Prayagraj B.tech Computer Science and Engineering 2014 batch. Prior to SkillSanta, Nishant worked as a Software Engineer for Redmart – an online grocery based out of Singapore which was later acquired by Alibaba backed Lazada, where he was a key member of the Supply Chain Team. Nishant’s experience as a fairly recent graduate, software engineer and now as an edupreneur gives him a unique view of the higher education system. Nishant will be talking about how competency mapping fares into the future of higher education and how college education can be aligned with industry requirements.

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The Group Director and Principal of Indirapuram Group Of Institutions of,  Rita Singh is known for her hands-on approach to the management of the institutions. With her finger constantly on the pulse of the organization and her availability to provide support at any given time, she remains the soul of the Indirapuram Group. Holding dual Master’s degrees in Education and Mathematics apart from an M.B.A, she supervises the running of all the institutions under the Indirapuram banner.

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Gaurav leads strategy for special initiatives at Jio and with education as key part of his portfolio. His mandate at Jio includes developing shared vision with public agencies for transforming educational landscape in India across the value chain. He is also a technology enthusiast and is currently leading product development for a mobile based edtech solution. In his previous avatar, Gaurav worked with PwC and KPMG in India in leadership roles advising private and public stakeholders in education on policy, investments, partnerships, market intelligence, large scale program design & rollout among other priority areas.

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Prof. HP Singh is currently the Dean, International Relations (S&T), University of Delhi and the Director of Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi. He has a long and illustrious research carrier behind him. Prof. Singh has a particular expertise in stellar physics, automated data analysis and astronomy instrumentation. 

Previous Positions

• 1984-1990     Lecturer, Dept. of Physics, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi
• 1990-1992     DAAD Fellow, University of Kiel, Germany
• 1992-1994     Research Associate, Queen Mary University of London
• 1994-1997     Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Physics, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi
• 1997-2003     Reader,  Dept. of Physics, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi
• 2003-2005     Reader, Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi
• 2005-             Professor, Department of Physics & Astrophysics, University of Delhi

Affiliations

• Dean, International Relations (S&T), University of Delhi
• Director, Cluster Innovation Centre, University of Delhi
• Fellow, Royal Astronomical Society, London since 1999
• Member, International Astronomical Union, Paris since 1985
• Member, Astronomical Society of India since 2005
• Member, India-Japan Science Council, Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India since Feb. 2016
• Chair, IIA-TAC (Indian Institute of Astrophysics -Time Allocation Committee) 2018-2021
• Visiting Associate, IUCAA, Pune since 1995

Former Affiliations

• Director, Centre for Science Education & Communication, University of Delhi (2010-2012)
• Proctor, University of Delhi (2010-2012)
• Dean (Examinations) University of Delhi (2012)
• Member, Governing Council, IUCAA (2012-14)
• Vice President, Astronomical Society of India (2013-16)
• Member, Editorial Board, Bulletin of Astronomical Society of India (2010-2016)
• Member, Planning & Programming Committee, National Science Centre, New Delhi (2012-14)
• Visiting Faculty, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology 1995, 1997, 2001, 2015
• Visiting Faculty, Queen Mary University of London, 1999, 2000
• Visiting Faculty, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA  2000, 2002; Aspen Center for Physics, 2015
• Visiting Faculty, State University of New York at Oswego 2014, 2015, 2016
• JSPS Visiting Fellow, Kinki University, Osaka, Japan, 2005 ; Tokyo University 2015, 2016, 2017
• Visiting Professor, University of Stuttgart and MPI for Astrophysics Heidelberg, Germany  2007, Uni.-Marburg 2015, 2017
• Invited Professor, Lyon Observatory, Claude Bernard University, France  2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2018
• Visiting Professor, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea  2009-10
• Guest Observer, Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, Arizona, 2000-2003
• Guest Observer, Loiano Observatory, Italy 2000
• Guest Observer, INAOE observatory, Hermisillo, Mexico, 2000
• Guest Observer, Mt. Wilson Observatory (Caltech), Califiornia, USA 2000
• Councilor, Astronomical Society of India, 2007-2009
• Member, Users Committee, IUCAA, Pune, 2007-2009

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Alumnus of Harvard University and Co-chair of FICCI’s School Education Committee – FICCI Arise. 

Manit championed the cause of experiential learning launching it successfully in the mainstream environment in the country. Co-founder and Director of The Heritage Group of Schools which has consistently ranked amongst the top 10 schools in India for the past 3 years, Manit also features amongst the 22 Extraordinary Education Innovators (EW April 2015 issue) for transforming schools into activity hubs where students and teachers learn-teach through hands-on experiences and real-life projects.

An empathetic change-maker with a robust investment of practice and perfection in education, Manit continues to found new ventures like ‘I am a Teacher’, a Post graduate diploma in learning and teaching that is changing the paradigm of Teaching in India.

Manit Jain has been actively involved with Heritage Xperiential Learning School in an advisory capacity on several strategic issues including infrastructure development, talent attraction, curriculum design, teacher capability development, parent engagement, systems, processes and standard operational procedures. He has personally championed and led several change initiatives to transform the school into an experiential learning school. He is also the co-founder of I am a Teacher, an initiative that is developing a model for practice-based teacher education in collaboration with Boston Teacher Residency.

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Noora joined “The Heritage Schools” from “The University of Pennsylvania” where she holds an M.S.Ed in Learning Sciences and Technology.

At Heritage Xperiential Learning School, she pioneers Design Thinking and Maker Mindset as part of the curriculum, further driving the school’s experiential and project-based pedagogy. She is a published learning scientist who has led multiple initiatives on imparting mobile computing skills to middle school students across public and private schools in the United States of America. She has led research on the Milken-funded project, Code for Philadelphia, a curriculum that focused on building students’ engagement in STEM through the creation of mobile apps. Her work has been presented at Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference in London and published in the International Journal of Learning Sciences.

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Prof. A.K.Bakhshi is the Founder Vice-Chancellor of PDM University. He was Executive Director of Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Mauritius (a post equivalent to that of Chairman, UGC in India) during October 2013 – February 2015. He was selected for this prestigious position through an international selection in 2013. Prior to joining TEC, he has been Vice-Chancellor of U.P. Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU), Allahabad for more than two years (2011–13). Prof. Bakhshi held the prestigious  Sir Shankar Lal Chair of Chemistry in the  University of Delhi for more than two decades and was also Head, Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi during May 2010– August 2011.

Prof Bakhshi is also Chairman of Centre for e-Learning as well as Chairman of Guru Angad Dev Teaching – Learning Centre (a Centre of the MHRD Govt. of India) both located at SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi. These centres are based on two national projects in the field of e-Learning worth more than Rs. 10 crores. Prof. Bakhshi is also the  Chairman of the National Resource Centre of Chemistry of the MHRD. He was also Chairman of the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) project in Chemistry of the CSIR. Prof. Bakhshi has also been a Member of the Standing Committee of the National Mission on Education through ICT (NMEICT). He was also the Chairman of the Content Advisory Committee for Chemistry for SAKSHAT portal of the MHRD, Govt. of India which was launched on 30^th October 2006 by the then President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

A double gold medalist of Delhi University, Dr. Bakhshi did his post-doctoral training at the University of Erlangen-Nurnberg, Germany with Prof. J. Ladik and at the Kyoto University and the Institute of Fundamental Chemistry, Kyoto, Japan with Professor K. Fukui, the Nobel Laureate and Prof. T.Yamabe. He has also been a Visiting Scientist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangaluru.

Prof. Bakhshi’s research interests include theoretical polymer chemistry with special reference to electrically conducting polymers and biopolymers. He is the author/coauthor of about 170 research and education articles etc., and one patent. He has to his credit eleven books as author/co-author and many as editor/chairman/ convener of the working group. Many students have obtained their Ph.D / M.Phil under his guidance. His other interests include innovation in science education, ICT in higher education, e-Learning and MOOCs.

Prof.Bakhshi  has been the recipient of several awards and academic honours. These include amongst others : World Education Award, Haryana Ratan Award, Bharat Jyoti Award, Fellowship of the IUPAC; Lifetime Achievement Award by IAEWP, Guest of Honour at the 26th IGNOU Convocation at Varanasi, Felicitation at the Centenary Celebration of Vigyan Parishad Prayag, Distinguished Teacher Award; National Education Award by Headlines Today News Channel; Bioved Honorary Fellowship, Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Medal; Fellowship of the National Academy of Sciences (FNASc); JSPS Fellowship; DAAD Fellowship; INSA Research Fellowship; UGC Career Award; Prof. P.K.Bose Memorial Award of the Indian Chemical Society, Best Paper Award in the field of Chemical Sciences from DAAD; Young Chemist Award; Dr. Krishan Rao Gold Medal, Dr. R. D. Desai Award of the Indian Chemical Society, Prof. R.P. Mitra Gold Medal, ISCA Best Poster Awards of the Indian Science Congress Association for the years 2012 and 2015. India Didactics Association (IDA) 2014 Special Award for excellence in Digital Content in Education for our template etc. Prof Bakhshi was awarded Capital Foundation National Award for distinctive and outstanding contribution to Education by former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam (December 2011).

Prof. Bakhshi has also been elected as the President of the section of the Chemical Sciences of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) for the year 2011-12. Prof. Bakhshi has been the member of the editorial board of the Indian Journal of Chemistry (Section A). He has also been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research published by the CSIR and also the Chief-Editor of the UGC-sponsored journal Chemistry Education Review. He was also a co-guest editor of the special issue of the Indian Journal of Chemistry on Conducting Polymers. Prof. Bakhshi is recognised as one of the best teachers of Chemistry in the country.

Prof. Bakhshi has delivered many Talks / Plenary Lectures / Keynote Addresses at various conferences and seminars both in India and abroad. He has also Chaired Technical Sessions at various national/international conferences. He has also been very actively involved in the organization of many conferences, workshops and seminars at the national/international level.

Prof. Bakhshi has also been the Director of the Institute of Lifelong Learning (ILLL), University of Delhi and the Centre for Professional Development in Higher Education (CPDHE), a UGC Academic Staff College of the University of Delhi for about three years (2008 – 2010). In his capacity as Director ILLL, he spearheaded the process of e-transformation of the University of Delhi.

Prof. Bakhshi was felicitated (September 2009) by the Former President of India Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam for his contributions in the e-transformation of the University of Delhi, as Director ILLL. Prof. Bakhshi is presently very actively engaged at the national level in the development of e-content and MOOCs under Digital India initiative of the Govt. of India. He is one of the leading e-Learning experts of India.

Last but not the least, Prof. Bakhshi has also the distinction of being one of the first persons from the Universities in India to have been selected as the Member Scientist of the “Third Indian Research Expedition to Antarctica” in 1984.

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Dr(Mrs) Pankaj Mittal, Additional Secretary, UGC is a Fulbright Scholar and has been a topper in MSc and PhD in Agricultural Statistics from IARI, New Delhi. She has a wide-ranging experience of more than three decades in Higher Education in the fields of Policy Planning and Management of Higher Education including Promotion of Access,  Equity, Relevance, Quality   and   Human Resource Management.   

Dr Mittal was appointed by the Government of Haryana as the first regular Vice-Chancellor of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, the first rural women university of North India, in 2008,  at a young age of 44 years, to undertake an onerous task of building up a tiny Gurukul into an institution of repute. Dr Mittal introduced a series of innovative practices and reforms as the Vice Chancellor of the only rural, residential, multi-faculty, women state university of the country which imparts education to 7000 girls from KG till PhD level in a holistic manner.      

Within a short span of about six years, spanning over two terms as the Vice-Chancellor, Dr Mittal transformed the Gurukul into a university which is now on the international map with collaborations with universities like University of Baltimore, USA, St Catherine University, USA, Nottingham Trent University, UK and University of Cambridge ESOL, UK and is frequented by many international experts, teachers and students. Her contributions in Institution Building coupled with the blending of traditional and modern education is an exemplary contribution towards the promotion of rural women folk in a unique manner.   The Social Impact of the Kanya Gurukul and the BPS Women University on the surroundings is evident from the Census 2011 figures of  Sex Ratio of Khanpur Village, which stands at  1378 females per 1000 males in the state like Haryana which is known for adverse sex ratio (879 for Haryana and 940 for India). Similarly, the Female Literacy for Khanpur village is 76%, 10% higher than the national and state average (65.46% in India and 65.94% in Haryana). 

Dr Mittal has visited a number of countries like USA, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, South Korea, Spain, Germany, South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Mauritius and Philippines to name a few, for academic purposes for presenting papers in international conferences and for academic exchanges on behalf of UGC and the university. Dr Mittal had led a delegation of 15 Vice Chancellors to UK for academic collaborations. 

Dr Mittal is  also the proud recipient of following Awards and Honours: 

 Fulbright Nehru Scholarship grant for Educational administrators 

 President of India Award in 2017 for Digital Initiatives in Higher education 

Honorary Doctorate-D. Litt. (Honoris Causa) from Karnataka State Women’s  University, Bijapur, Karnataka  

First Padam Shri  Subhashini Devi Award 2018 for contributions in Societal     Development and Community Engagement from the Chief Minister of Haryana.

Qimpro  Gold Standard Award  for leadership in Education for the year  2018 

Dr. Mittal has been a member of various High Powered Committees and Professional Bodies including Programme Advisory Board and HRM Network Steering Committee on Human Resource Management of  Association of Common Wealth Universities, London,   Pay Committee for teachers in the State of Haryana, Search Committee for selection of Vice Chancellor, CDLU, Sirsa, Haryana, Board of Governors, Kerala State Council for Higher Education, Visitor’s nominee on Board of Management of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow,  Central Counseling Board, All India Engineering Entrance Examination,  Rehabilitation Council of India,  Indian Institute of Public Administration,  Board of Governors, Vellalar College for Women, Coimbatore,  Programme Advisory Committee of Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, Haryana State Council for Higher Education, Haryana Innovation Council, Steering Committee of Planning Commission for formulation of XII Plan for Higher Education, Sub-Committee of Planning Commission on Leadership and Institutional Governance and Member-Convenor of Sub Committee of Planning Commission on Community Engagement of Higher Education Institutions etc.  

She has published a number of papers, articles, occasional papers and reports on issues relating to higher education and women empowerment in national and international journals. 

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Dr. Vimal Rarh, is a Senior Chemistry Faculty at Department of Chemistry,  SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi and has around 15 years of teaching experience in Chemistry. She has experience of mentoring and guiding UG, PG as well as research scholars. She has done her doctorate from the University of Delhi and submitted thesis entitled: “Synthetic studies on chalcones and dihydrochalcones”.  She has done her post-doctorate at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi in the project entitled “Studies towards the enantioselective synthesis of prenylated quinolinone alkaloids”.

She has her research interest in Organic Chemistry, e-Learning and Forensic Science. She has to her credit many research papers, a patent, books, presentations and invited talks at National and International platforms. She has guided one M.Phil student and currently guiding a Ph.D student.

Presently, she is the Principal Investigator for Chemistry project worth Rs 1.12 crore and is guiding the technical team at the Centre of e-Learning as Technical coordinator for 6 subjects. She is also the Principal Investigator for a project worth Rs 4.81 crores under the Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya National Mission on Teachers and Training (PMMMNMTT) of the MHRD, Govt. of India at SGTB Khalsa College.

Apart from her teaching responsibilities, she is guiding a full-time team of around 40 academic, technical and office staff along with overall coordination with around 800 academicians across the country as Deputy Director of the Centre for e-Learning and the Joint Director of Guru Angad Dev Teaching Learning Centre both located at the SGTB Khalsa College.

Dr Vimal Rarh has authored the following multimedia enriched e-content as Author/co-Author

1. Around 120 modules (e-Text, Self-Learn, Self –assessment, Learn More) and Video lectures in Chemistry and Forensic Science for ePG Pathshala project
2. Two e-Books, National Science Digital Library, NISCARE, a division of CSIR, with the active collaboration of UGC and Ministry of HRD, 2008.
3. ILLL, DU Portal:  Chapter “Stereochemistry”, 200 e-Quizzes, 5 Organic Chemistry e-Labs and One e-Lecture.

She has to her name various awards and honors. She is a Member of

e-Governance Committee for the development of software for automation of UGC’s schemes at National level for Universities, Colleges and individuals; and also of the Task Force  Committee for development of MOOCs for ePGPathshala programme at National

Level (for all 77 subjects) by UGC .

She has been a recipient of Best Innovation award at Antardhwani-2015 under the DU Innovation projects, entitled“Identification of weapon holders in crime cases” as co-Investigator and IDA-2014 special award for the category“Digital content in education” at the International conference cum exhibition “WORLD DIDAC- 2014”.

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Sethuraman is currently the Co-Founder of an Ed-tech organization called Jungroo Learning with a vision to leverage technology to cater to the unique learning needs of each and every individual child.

Jungroo is an AI that locates the learner at a very micro level and creates the shortest path to mastery for the learner. Jungroo is a B2B SAAS enterprise. 

Sethu is a Masters in computer science graduate. He was part of a Rotaract club in college days and spent most of his college time organizing events, volunteering, teaching at orphanages, helping special and underprivileged kids with their education. 

After working as a Business Technology Analyst for a year in Deloitte US-India Consulting, he decided to quit corporate to understand education inequity in India. 

He went on to do his Teach for India fellowship in a corporation government school in Chennai where he was leading a bunch of 75 kids towards excellence in academics, values and mindsets and providing them with much-needed access and exposure. Getting Immersed in school system gave him a micro level insight on the problems faced by the community in large and education system in particular. His role as a Fellow at Teach for India, adapting the ‘Teaching as Leadership’ framework, impacted a class of 75 students directly and 300+ other stakeholders – parents, teachers, other students and the school management – indirectly. 

After the fellowship, he has worked under various capacities as a school transformation associate and curriculum developer in education firms to understand the ecosystem and its stakeholders better. 

He has interned with the Directorate of school education, Kashmir and helped them build a monitoring and evaluation tool to be used in government schools across Kashmir.

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Rajesh Khanna is currently Professor of Chemical Engineering and Dean of Student Affairs at Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He has long experience of teaching and interaction with students. He has served as the Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty Incharge for Sports, Faculty Advisor for Student Society and mentor to countless number of students. He is also the National Coordinator for AICTE-MHRD perspective plan for Higher Technical Education and served as Vice-Chairman of Joint Entrance Examination. He has designed many new courses to teach soft materials and technology to chemical engineering students. He has also advised many institutes in developing their chemical engineering curriculum.

Rajesh Khanna has made pioneering contributions in establishing a theoretical, experimental and computational framework to study the breakup of thin films. Specifically, he has con-tributed in establishing a model experimental system, numerical methods to handle three phase contact line, features of rate of dewetting, effect of hydrodynamic slippage, reconciliation of patterns and the intermolecular force field and universality in coarsening dynamics of droplets. He has also shown that particles agglomerating in fluidized beds follow a universal dynamics. Recently, he has shown that the morpho-logical phase separation in thin films is much different from other phase separation processes. He has also initiated a new framework to understand hydrodynamics of trickle bed and nutrient mist reactors. His research has been well received by the scientific community with more than 2000 citations.

Rajesh Khanna did his schooling from Colvin Taluqdar’s College in Lucknow and studied Chemical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He did post doctoral research at Institut de Chimie des Surfaces et Interfaces – CNRS Mulhouse, France and was an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

Rajesh Khanna has been an accomplished Sportsman, Sports Administrator, Pigeon fancier and enjoys photography, nature and music.

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Kakul is an IIM Bangalore alumnus currently working as the COO-India for Arc Skills Academy, A Dubai based Skill and Education Group.

In her 2 decades of experience, she has been an advocate for impact – based skilling across communities of students, job aspirants and professionals. She has worked in both developed and developing economies with the public and private sector to drive this passion.

Kakul has led innovative models to drive behaviour change and skilling for sectors such as Education, Telecom, Aviation, Financial Services and Vocational Skilling.. Her leading projects have impacted key development and business outcomes for the stakeholders, right from concept to delivery stage. She was instrumental in setting up the ecosystem at IGI Airport to drive service excellence making it #1 Airport globally and that academy continues to function till date. In her last tenure with a leading NBFC, she led the skills development for the bank launch which won the prestigious global award of Brandon hall for Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy. She has closely worked with government and international agencies on driving capacity-building engagements in health & family welfare, education and skilling.

She has been the founding team member of large companies such as Centum Learning, Tata Docomo, contributing to their growth and expansion. As an entrepreneur, Kakul set up a skills organization in Allied Healthcare space, getting global skills standards to India.

Her body of work encompasses working with diverse stakeholders across countries and states within India. She has led teams in domains of planning & strategy, business development, program management and operations.

She is a certified assessor from the Australian Institute of Management.

She is an avid reader and enjoys swimming. She lives in Delhi with her two kids and husband.

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Kyle Edwards has been a member of Vega since its inception. He is an expert in Project Based Learning (PBL) and the iLEAD process that Vega embeds within it’s pedagogy. He leads Learning Leader training in understanding and implementing of PBL. With a Bachelors of Science Degree in Excercise Physiology, Kyle also heads the Vega SPEED (Physical Education) program. 

Kyle started his professional career working in civic engagement and Youth Leadership in Korogocho and Mathare slums in Nairobi, as well as the facilitator of the iLEAD program at Ngunyumu Primary School, Korogocho. He was also on the board of Ignitus Worldwide (Youth Leadership NGO), where he networked youth leadership programs across the world, primarily in 19 African nations. His work took him to the UN African Headquarters, UN Safer Cities Programe, as well as USAID Nairobi. After his experiences at UN, he knew that teaching and coaching leadership education was something he wanted to be connected with at a more profound level.  

He then moved on to teach and coach at St. Gilgen International School, one of the top tier boarding IB schools in Europe, in Sankt Gilgen, Austria. Through his growth in learning and coaching, Kyle moved on to Tauranga, New Zealand to live out his dream as an International Rugby player and as  a strength & conditioning coach. He has also worked throughout his professional career as a consultant for Edwards Education Services in teacher training and facilitation of the iLEAD leadership curriculum. This consultancy has taken him to both public and private schools, as well as educational leadership programs around the world. 

Kyle knows that the best trait for a teacher is to be a student.  He firmly believes that throughout his experiences he has learned far more from the people he has met and the surrounding environment. One of his favourite experiences has been working as a Alligator ‘relocator’ in South Carolina, USA. He goes on to say that “Working with alligators, is a lot like being with children. They can sense your emotions without even saying a word, so you have to be patient, relaxed, and most importantly respectful.” 

Having lived on four continents and travelled extensively to more than 36 countries around the world. Kyle is now proud to call India his home.  He is fascinated with Indian culture and history, studied Hindi and coaches the Delhi Hurricanes Rugby Men’s senior team.  He aspires to write a book on his life and experiences, as well as continue to pursue his studies in cultural anthropology. Kyle is extremely passionate about Vega, what it stands for, and wants to do his part in making Vega the most innovative school in the World

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Bani Paintal Dhawan heads Google for Education in India. She has been with Google for over 9 years and her focus is to enable a large ecosystem to impact learning outcomes through Google’s products and platforms specifically designed for students and educators. Google’s mission is to provide quality education to everyone in the world by organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.

With over 18 years of experience, Bani has spearheaded many program at Google impacting student learning and teacher professional development. Prior to Google, Bani was heading global communication at Infosys.

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A seasoned leader with over 18 years of experience, Divya Lal has created a special niche for herself in the Education industry. Passionate about creating innovative school solutions, she is perfect at creating harmony between academic support, training & operations. Her abilities in the domain of customer relationship management are exemplary and she nurtures these relationships with dedication. At Ebix Smartclass Educational Services, her role as  Managing Director provides her with the unique opportunity to bring all her skills on board as she leads a team of over 1000 people. In the process, managing 6000 schools and impacting over 3 million students. 

Divya feels strongly about bridging the digital divide that currently exists in the Indian Education system and is happy to work towards creating 21st-century Future-ready schools. For her, the purpose of technology in Education goes far beyond just utilizing existing tools to augment learning. Technology needs to blend in with a comprehensive approach to learning that includes the application of scientific knowledge as also leveraging assistive devices in the classroom.  She looks at Education as an opportunity to not just contribute to but to shape the future of the country.

Awards & Accolades Won – 

Exemplary Contribution in K-12 Digital learning at 13th World Education Summit, Mumbai‘Woman of the Year – Smartclass Education’ at Global Leaders Awards  2018 ‘Innovation In Education Awards’ at  Inspiration Festival 2018 by Mindmingle ​

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Vivek Pathak Leads SRJNA on Strategic and operational activities, focusing on establishing and enhancing an ecosystem of gen-next K-12 education. An experienced dot com boom IT Guy, Has worked with Hp Labs, Wipro technologies, HCL technologies before starting SRJNA with other 3 co-founders in 2015 April at IIT Delhi. Represented SRJNA at many national and International events as a Guest speaker, Participant, and Panelist in India and Abroad. In 2016, received the Fellow from RAE London for the educational initiatives taken by SRJNA, above 10 shortlisted nations. Vast experience gained at IIT and XLRI Jamshedpur helping him to eradicate rote learning through SRJNA pedagogy.

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Padmaja Mashal – has an Engineering Degree . Tech Savy , and has worked on Various Projects on “Social Innovation and Technology” and “Global Immersion in Innovation and Entrepreneurship” at University of Massachusetts, USA . She is a chronic reader and never fails to emphasize on the importance of reading Skills. She tirelessly works to develop and implement products that help teachers and students reach their full potential.

She firmly believes that Teachers are and always will be an integral part of education system and works extensily towards empowering teachers. She is a Curriculum and Instruction specialist. She is involved in many projects connected to public education, and works as a mentor to K-12 Teachers . With a background in evidence-based instructional design and 5+ years of experience serving the K-12 market, she is committed to promoting literacy for all students. Padmaja is also a seasoned Educational Professional dedicated to establishing strong, longlasting relationships with schools and Institutions/Colleges. Her experience in coordinating large-scale implementations and leading productive sales teams is always an added advantage to the team and with Currently Leading the Core Team from Chennai Office, taking care of Operations day to day. Her Contributions is always an Asset to the organization. She believes great products begin with simple ideas and even Simpler people.

Padmaja is also the Managing Director and Operations Head for LAZ DIGITAL LEARNING PVT LTD – INDIA.

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Alok Agarwal heads Marketing at Orient Bell Limited, an Indian leader in the manufacturing of Ceramic and Vitrified tiles. 

His session would focus on redesigning schools for the new generation. Orientbell’s efforts to turn classrooms into learning studios and innovating education experiences that encourage both informal and peer-to-peer learning has brought stupendous results so far. The focus of Orientbell team is to make learning more interactive and fun.
Alok is driving digital transformation in the construction Industry and spearheading award-winning campaigns. 

He is a marketing veteran who has built brands across India and abroad, and was recognized as the “Digital Marketer of the year” by the Internet & Mobile Association of India in 2017. 

An IIT Bombay & IIM Bangalore alumnus with two decades of experience, he has led new product development, evangelized digital marketing, and created shopper marketing solutions for retail outlets. His career has seen him in marketing leadership roles at Unilever, GSK Consumer Healthcare, Saralee, AsiaPac and Ebay India in his early years.

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Rishi is the CEO of Edugild Global EdTech Program and Venture Partner of Global Scaleup Singapore. He is a Stanford LEAD alumni having already authored three books in academia, management and fiction genres. Rishi advises education technology companies all around the world to make relevant solutions, coaches professionals for higher order transitions and advises institutes to develop innovative programs and ecosystems. Prior to his own journey in academia, Rishi has been in leadership roles with Fortune 500s companies like Sony, Qualcomm, Ericsson and BP/Castrol to name a few. He has a dual masters degree in management with a graduation in engineering and law. Now based in Pune, Rishi travels extensively to meet and greet edtech founders, educational institutions and leaders.

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