Hardeep Singh Puri is a 1974 batch Indian Foreign Service officer who served as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations from 2009 to 2013. Mr Puri currently serves as the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs in the Government of India. He holds the record as the longest serving Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs in history.

B. V. R. Subramanyam serves as the CEO of NITI Aayog, the policy think-tank of the Government of India. In his role, he has been instrumental in shaping various initiatives and policies to drive India's growth and development. One significant program he unveiled is the "Growth Hub" initiative, aimed at tapping the economic potential of 20 Indian cities to drive urban growth. Mr Subramaniyam is a 1988 batch Indian Administrative Service officer, and has served in the Prime Minister’s Office under both PM Manmohan Singh and PM Narendra Modi.

Nithin co-founded Rainmatter Foundation at Zerodha and constantly pushes the industry to think about climate and environment. He dreams of seeing a better distribution of wealth and a much greener planet. He loves cycling, trekking, and swimming in nature.

Vidya Shah’s name has been synonymous with the field of Finance and has a career spanning over 20 years to mark her merit. She serves as one of the board members of Janaagraha where she offers her valuable understanding of grants and management to better the organisation’s operating system.

Vidya earned an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and spent the first 11 years of her career in investment banking with companies like ICICI, Peregrine and NM Rothschild. She subsequently was Chief Financial Officer of Edelweiss for 7 years and now serves as the Executive Chairperson at EdelGive Foundation.

Her contribution has caught the eye of several people and organisations. She is the recipient of the ‘She The People 40-over-40 Award’ celebrating women achievers in 2022 and the Woman Achiever of the Year Award by ABP BFSI Awards in 2017. She was recognised as India’s Top 100 Women in Finance by the Association of International Wealth Management of India, in 2019.

Vidya continues her stride to make a difference and believes that mid-sized, grassroots NGOs have great potential to address India’s development concerns.

Ramesh Ramanathan is a social entrepreneur who works on urban issues in India. Prior to his social initiatives, Ramesh held leadership positions with Citibank in New York and London, in the bank’s capital markets business. Ramesh has an MS in Physics from BITS Pilani, an MBA from Yale University and a CFA from AIMR. In 2007, he was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

Swati Ramanathan is a Co-founder of Janaagraha, as well as the Founder of Jana Urban Space. Both institutions are founded with the aspiration for positive transformation in India’s cities and towns. A passionate believer that all change begins locally in neighbourhoods where people live, Janaagraha’s grassroots community work was strengthened multi-fold with the early adoption of technology for civic change, with platforms like “I Paid a Bribe” and “I Change my City” that resulted in a host of other online initiatives. Ms Ramanathan has been relentless in promoting the need for better urban design and urban planning in India. She has worked closely with governments – both national and state, on urban policy reforms such as integrated master planning, heritage conservation, and guaranteed land title. Her pioneering advocacy and work on progressive master planning – detailed in the “Smart City Spatial Planning and Development Guidelines”, has catalysed centrally supported schemes for city planning, and multiple states undertaking the revision of their plan documents. She has also worked with local governments for the design and delivery of projects with multi-agency complexities. Her brainchild, Tender S.U.R.E. (Specifications for Urban Roads Execution), is revolutionising the way urban roads are designed for all users, and laying clear standards for procurement. Ms Ramanathan has been recognised at several forums: named a Young Asian Leader by the Asia Society; received the Rajyotsava Puraskar from Rajasthan State Government; presented the Democracy and Civic Innovator Award by Madeline Albright for the National Democratic Institution in Washington, DC; honoured (along with Ramesh Ramanathan) by Forbes India as the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2013.

As Chief Executive Officer, Srikanth steers the strategy of Janaagraha while also overseeing its operations. He is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has previously worked with Standard Chartered Bank and KPMG.

Latha began her career in CNBC-TV18 as chief of the Mumbai News Bureau, and now serves as the Executive Editor. Over the years, she has come to be recognized as one of the keenest watchers of the Reserve Bank of India and a respected commentator on banking sector issues, money markets and macroeconomic trends. She has been a business journalist for years and has specialized in covering all markets - stocks, currency debt and commodities. She has also had stints in all major streams of media having worked in Economic Times and Dow Jones newswires for five years each.

Jayant Sinha is the Chairperson of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Finance and a BJP MP from Hazaribagh, Jharkhand. In the past, he has served as Minister of State for Finance and Civil Aviation. Before his career in public service, Mr. Sinha was a Partner at Omidyar Network (ON) and a Partner at McKinsey & Company. He is the Founding Chairperson of the India Impact Investors Council. Mr. Sinha is a well-known expert on India’s IT/BPO and Telecom sectors and has authored two influential NASSCOM-McKinsey reports in 2000 and 2005. He has advised the Indian government on entrepreneurship and served on Advisory Committees for the Finance and Telecom Ministries and the Planning Commission.

A 1995 batch, IAS officer, from Gujarat cadre, Ms. D Thara is presently appointed as an Additional Secretary at MoHUA. She has served in various capacities as Joint Secretary (AMRUT), MoHUA, as Managing Director of Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation and, as CEO of Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority, Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. She also served as Collector of Ahmedabad and Kheda districts in Gujarat. She has been championing municipal finance reforms in MoHUA through her extensive policy efforts in managing two major grant schemes, the 15th Finance Commission and AMRUT. She has also been a staunch supporter of improving the municipal debt market in India.

A 1995 batch, IAS officer, from the Uttar Pradesh cadre, he is presently appointed as Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh. With more than 18 years of experience in public service, he has donned many hats. He has served as Secretary, Culture and Tourism, Home, Information and Public Relations and Technical and Vocational Education. His areas of expertise range from urban development to poverty alleviation and sanitation, giving him a bird’s eye view of functioning of Indian cities. He is also the Chairman of the Governing Council of Regional Centre for Urban and Environmental Studies, Lucknow.

Prasad Gadkari is currently the Executive Director and Chief Strategy Officer at NIIF and is responsible for the Strategic Initiatives & Policy Advisory function. He has over two decades infrastructure investing experience across private equity, principal investments, joint ventures, project finance & advisory. Earlier, Mr. Gadkari used to be a Partner with IDFC Private Equity where he led the firm’s deals across transportation, urban infra, healthcare and education sectors. In a previous role, he was with General Electric (GE), where he focussed on infrastructure investing and joint ventures in the MENASA region. Prior to GE, he was with IDFC Ltd where he handled some of the earliest project financing transactions in the country. He was also a key member of the team that provided policy level inputs to the Govt. of India for the initial privatisation transactions.

Ashok Kumar Lahiri is an Indian economist currently serving as a member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly from Balurghat. He was a full-time member of the 15th Central Finance Commission. Dr Lahiri previously served as 12th Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India, reader at the Delhi School of Economics (DSE), non-executive, part-time chairman of Chairman of Bandhan Bank, Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank, and Director of the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP). He has had stints with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as a Consultant and Senior Economist, respectively. He has published in academic journals as well as popular media on both economic and electoral politics issues.

A 1981-batch IAS officer, Mr. S. M. Vijayanand has been Chairperson of the 6th Finance Commission of Kerala and Chief secretary of Kerala. During his 11 years as Secretary, Local Self-Government, Government of Kerala, Mr. Vijayanand pioneered the People’s Plan movement. Subsequently, he has held many important positions in the Government of Kerala, including as the Director, Institute of Management in Government, and as Chairman, KILA. He also conceptualised and operationalised ‘Kudumbashree’, the women’s self-help group movement in Kerala. Post retirement, he has also been active in the academic field as Visiting Professor in Gandhigram Rural University and Expert Faculty of National Institute of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj (NIRD&PR), Hyderabad. A passionate crusader on the matter of democratic decentralisation and local self-governance, Mr Vijayanand is constantly pursuing the cause of Panchayats and Panchayati Raj in the country.

Mr S Krishnan is a 1989 batch Indian Administrative Services officer currently serving as the secretary for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) of Government of India. He has, over the last 32 years, held various roles, including the finance secretary for the state of Tamil Nadu, and the chief executive officer of the Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Board, Chairperson of Fifth State Finance Commission of Tamil Nadu. He has also worked in Government of India as Secretary to Finance Minister and Senior Advisor, Office of the Executive Director for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan, International Monetary Fund, Washington DC.

Dr T K Sreedevi, IAS is currently Secretary in Finance Department of Government of Telangana. Sreedevi is doctorate in Agricultural Development from the International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). She has been Commissioner and Director of Municipal Administration of Telangana in past. During her tenure as CDMA, he digitised 28 municipal services and provided online grievance redressal through the Citizen Buddy app and Citizen Services Centres. During her tenure as SDMA, she also oversaw property mapping of 14 lakh urban properties in 73 Urban Local Bodies, and revenue improvement, which earned her a place at the Prime Minister’s Coffee Table meet in 2018.

Dr Amar Patnaik is an academic, an author and a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) from Odisha representing the Biju Janata Dal. He is also the party’s national spokesperson and head of the party’s IT wing. Before becoming a Member of Parliament, Dr Patnaik had a long career in Civil Services and is a former CAG official. He was associated with the United Nations and the World Bank for global external audit assignments. He was also the Team Leader of India’s External Audit Mission to many countries. Dr Patnaik was a British Chevening Gurukul Scholar in 2013 to pursue studies at the London School of Economics. He completed his PhD from XIMB, Bhubaneswar and his dissertation has been published as a scholarly work on public policy titled “Institutional Change and Power Asymmetry in the Context of Rural India”.

Prof. Amita Bhide is a professor at TISS- Mumbai, with teaching experience of over 20 years. Her research spans across urban development, governance, housing rights, and water and sanitation issues, primarily centred on Mumbai. Prof. Bhide's commitment to inclusive and sustainable urban development is exemplified through her leadership in the Transforming M Ward Project, aimed at addressing urban poverty and marginalised communities in Mumbai's poorest municipal ward. The geographic focus of her work is Mumbai while more recent engagement is with small and medium towns.

Arvind Bellad is a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka from the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2013. He has been instrumental in bringing about transformation in his constituency, Hubli-Dharwad West, where he initiated projects to start preschool in government schools, worked on developing and implementing clean energy in rural regions, and advocated for the establishment of IIT-Dharwad. Arvind holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from INSEAD, France.

Babu Jacob, IAS (retd.), a Hubert H. Humphrey fellow, has a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and joined the IAS in the year 1968. He has served as a former Chief Secretary to the Government of Kerala. He has 35 years of experience in the policy domain. He has also served at the Agricultural Ministry and Personnel Ministry, Government of India. Post retirement, he was affiliated with the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, where he researched urban governance. He has co-authored a book with Dr Suraj Jacob titled, ‘Governing Locally: Institutions, Policies and Implementation in Indian Cities.

Devashish Dhar is a Public Policy specialist and a renowned author. He has a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Lee Kuan Yew school of Public Policy and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. He has nine years of experience in policy research, political and social consulting. He has served as a Public Policy Specialist at NITI Aayog and was a part of the core team that formed India’s first three-year Action Agenda. He was also a Raisina Young Fellow-elect for Asian Forum for Global Governance 2019, which includes his participation in Raisina Dialogue. He has recently written a book called “India’s Blind Spot: Understanding and Managing Our Cities”.

Member of Legislative Assembly, Tamil Nadu and part-time Member of the State Planning Commission, Govt. of Tamil Nadu Dr Ezhilan Naganathan is a distinguished medical practitioner and a Member of Legislative Assembly in Tamil Nadu from Thousand Lights constituency representing the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He is the founder of Max Medical Foundation, an NGO, which caters to instil scientific temperament and eradicate superstitious practice in the health domain. He also serves as a part-time member of the State Planning Commission of Tamil Nadu.

National Spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata Party and Assistant Professor (Law), Patna University Dr Guru Prakash Paswan is an eminent Dalit scholar, and academic, who serves as a National spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party. He is also the party’s State Secretary for Bihar. He teaches law at Patna University and has a keen interest in constitutional law. He has also co-authored “Makers of Modern Dalit History”. He has worked and written extensively on Dalit issues.

Jagan is an architect and urbanist with over 20 years of experience in urban policy and practice. As Senior Infrastructure Adviser for the UK AID previously, he guided the technical assistance for India’s National Infrastructure Pipeline and was instrumental in establishing a Technical Facility for the Small Island Developing States for Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

As former Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), he co-conceived the Smart Cities Mission and expanded its impact. He also guided the preparation of the Master Plan for Delhi 2041.

He is currently a trustee of Clean Air Asia, an international NGO; and serves on the technical advisory board for Tuned, an Italy-based initiative for using advanced research on the intersections of neuroscience and architecture.

Dr Joy Elamon, is a medical practitioner with a Master’s in Public Health. He has a keen interest and expertise in local governance, climate change, capacity development and participatory planning. Dr Elamon was part of the core team of the People’s Plan Campaign in Kerala when it was launched in 1996. Later, he served as the Chief Programme Coordinator of SDC-CapDecK Programme (Capacity Development for Decentralisation in Kerala) at the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). Subsequently, he served as the moderator of the Decentralisation Community of the UN Solution Exchange for the UN Country Team, India. Dr Elamon was included in the UNDP Democratic Governance Roster of Experts in Local Governance and Local Development. He is also a recipient of the Outstanding Community Builder award by UNDP India (Solution Exchange) in 2007. Currently, Dr Elamon serves as the Director General of the Kerala Institute of Local Administration

Kalpana Shivannah has served in various capacities in local governance in Karnataka, ranging from being a Zilla Parishad member and councillor to President of the Magadi Town Municipal Council in Ramanagara district representing the Indian National Congress. With over three decades of experience in social service, she has been actively involved in improving the socio-economic conditions of her region. Kalpana Shivannah holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of Mysore and currently is a member of the KPCC.

Manvita Baradi has more than 25 years of experience in local government programes. She's worked on various aspects like city planning, community engagement, and improving the capacities of local government organisations. She also played key roles in the National Urban Livelihood Mission and the HRIDAY mission in Dwarka, Gujarat. She has worked with USAID and as an expert for ADB, DIFID, and World Bank initiatives concentrating on local governance, and urban planning efforts in conflict-affected regions such as Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka. She is the Gujarat State Convener of Indian National Trust of Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Manvita holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning, Urban Planning and Management from CEPT University

A 1994 batch IAS officer, Mathi Vathanan has served in various capacities from being the mission director for the National Rural Health Mission to being Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha. He holds a Postgraduate degree from IIT-Madras. Mathi Vathanan leads the globally acclaimed Jaga Mission that is transforming the slums of Odisha into liveable habitats while politically empowering the slum dwellers with fourth-tier governance. Under his able leadership, Odisha did pioneering work in Faecal Sludge Management, delivered 100% piped water connections to homes, affordable meal scheme (Aahaar), and Garima, a scheme that is designed for the safety and dignity of manual scavengers.

E P Nivedita, IAAS is a 1993-batch Indian Audit and Accounts Services officer. As the former Principal Accountant General (General and Social Sector Audit) of Karnataka, in 2020, she led the seminal performance audit on the implementation of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act in Karnataka. She has been involved in policy efforts such as the National Urban Sanitation Policy, Water and Sanitation (WSS) Service Level Benchmarks, and the Capacity Building Programme for Urban Local Bodies. She is the recipient of CAG’s Award for Excellence and Innovation in Audit for the Performance Audit Report on the Management of Stormwater in Bengaluru. Currently, Nivedita is the Executive Director and Chief Revenue Officer of National E-Governance Services Ltd, Bengaluru.

Dr Partha Mukhopadhyay is an economist with interests in the fields of urbanisation, infrastructure, and the development paths of India and China. He was part of the founding team at the Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), focusing on private participation in infrastructure. He was previously associated with the Export Import Bank of India, World Bank, IIM - Ahmedabad and has served as a chair for the Technical Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation. He holds a PhD from New York University and an M.Phil. from the Delhi School of Economics.

Prof. Rajeev Gowda is an accomplished public policy expert and economist. He has served as a Member of Parliament, (Rajya Sabha) from Karnataka and as a director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India. He was also the chairperson of the Centre of Public Policy in IIM Bangalore, where he was part of the CSR initiative, i-WIL Programme, India's first certificate course in political leadership for women. Currently, he leads the Research Department of the Indian National Congress and is the Vice-Chairperson of the State Institute for the Transformation of Karnataka (SITK). In his current position, he plays a crucial role in shaping policies and advancing Karnataka's socio-economic development, including efforts related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Prof. Gowda holds a PhD in Public Policy and Management from The Wharton School.

Sangramjit Nayak – Director of Municipal Admin., HUDD, Govt. of Odisha

Varun Jhaveri serves as the National in-charge, Policy & Research, BJP Youth (BJYM). He has a keen interest in policy research and was associated with various institutions like the Asian Development Bank, NITI Aayog, UNESCO and IIM- Ahmedabad in different capacities. Varun served as the Officer on Special Duty on Ayushman Bharat and was an advisor to Y20 India in 2023. He was also a project lead of the International Innovation Corps, University of Chicago. Currently, he is also partner and MD to a Business Consulting and Services company called Evernile. Varun holds a Master’s in Business Administration from IIM-Ahmedabad.

Kailash co-founded Rainmatter Foundation at Zerodha with Nithin, driven by his angst and despair about human callousness, environmental destruction, and climate change as a result. At the foundation, he helps with whatever is necessary to push its goals and vision forward. His life's trajectory and the biggest decisions in it are driven by his climate angst.

Sameer heads the Rainmatter foundation and does deep dives on building a robust network of climate orgs with strategic application of the funding and grants program. He left his long career in the tech industry a decade ago and partly moved to Coorg to experiment with sustainable farming, farm collectives, and his personal passion, rejuvenating soil and forests. He runs Linger as a hobby, and shares his thoughts regularly on his blog.

Archana is the CEO of Saahas, a not-for-profit organisation which works in the field of solid waste management on the principles of Circular Economy.

Established in 2001, Saahas is an organisation that has a strong implementation focus and works with all stakeholders in the Solid Waste Management eco-system to establish scientific and holistic systems.

Archana Tripathi is an electrical engineering graduate from IIT Kanpur and has more than 20 years’ experience in Telecom System design. She moved to the development sector in 2016 by joining Saahas and has gained expertise in solid waste management through design and execution of several urban and rural projects. Along with on-ground implementation experience, Archana has also worked on policy recommendations and building capacities in several central and state departments.

Having worked in both corporate and the development sector, Archana tries to incorporate the best of both into the work of Saahas to improve efficiency while increasing the impact.

Arvind Balasubramanian is a director at Socratus Foundation for Collective Wisdom and a co-founder at Aline Partners. He has worked in management consulting for over a decade and in the funding & non-profit sector for the last 5 years.

He believes only ‘Ecosystems solve Wicked Problems’ and seeks to support such ecosystems

Arvind is an industrial engineer from Nagpur University and a management graduate from IIM, Lucknow.

Dr. Ashish has over 17 years of experience in the field of of environment, climate change, and circular economy in India. His core expertise is in community-based adaptation, waste management, sustainable consumption and production and environmental policy.

Prior to joining UNDP, he worked as the Director of Climate Change and Circular Economy with the GIZ.

He has been involved in drafting policies and guidelines at the sub-national and national levels and supported the implementation of major schemes and programmes of the Government of India. Ashish is an avid action researcher and has published extensively in books, journals, and general interest magazines. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, and his academic training has been in the field of political economy

Atika has over 18 years of experience across sectors such as transportation, infrastructure, finance, energy, urban infrastructure and industry research. She is actively involved in stakeholder engagement, client interaction, overseeing research reports/deliverables, capacity building and training and content management

She has built and developed new business platforms from inception to growth stages and has led custom research verticals. She has also established a solid network and working relationship with key stakeholder groups - government (central, state and local level), developers, investors and financiers, EPC contractors, and consultant.

Bijal has extensive experience in, and broad knowledge of intersectional challenges that are mediated through housing and habitat, governance (lack there-of), informality, and gender for low-income urban communities and migrants in cities.

Her work of over 20 years in cities can be best summed up to be in the areas of formal, informal, and invisible governance for housing and habitat. Bijal is a Fellow (2015) of the Womanity Foundation, Switzerland; a finalist of Schwab Foundation’s Social Entrepreneur of the year, India. She was awarded the Surya Mitra National Award for creating sustainable energy assets for equitable access in Urban Areas by the Selco Foundation. She is a member or InsuResilience Global Partnership and has contributed to the Partnership Declaration on Gender.

With over 15 years of work experience in the fields of ecology, law and policy, Debadityo leads the Climate & Ecosystems initiative at Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. As a co-founder of the Vindhyan Ecology & Natural History Foundation (Vindhya Bachao Abhiyan) and a member of the Bear Specialist Group under the IUCN Species Survival Commission, he actively contributes to conservation efforts of species and habitats.

Additionally, he also hosts 'The Green Mandate,' a discussion platform featuring esteemed environmental professionals, which is currently in its second season. He also provides guidance on research, impact strategy, and public communication to conservation organizations and movements. His main objective is to ensure that laws and policies are effective, responsive, and relevant to address contemporary environmental challenges.

Jagan is an architect and urbanist with over 20 years of experience in urban policy and practice. As Senior Infrastructure Adviser for the UK AID, he guided the technical assistance for India’s National Infrastructure Pipeline and was instrumental in establishing a Technical Facility for the Small Island Developing States for Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure. As former Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), he co-conceived the Smart Cities Mission and expanded its impact. He also guided the preparation of the Master Plan for Delhi 2041. He is currently a trustee of Clean Air Asia, an international NGO; and serves on the technical advisory board for Tuned, an Italy-based initiative for using advanced research on the intersections of neuroscience and architecture.

Jarnail works closely with the India Country Director at MacArthur to deliver the Foundation’s Climate Solutions strategy and grant making in India.

Most recently, he led the India team of The Climate Group, a UK-headquartered international non-profit and was the youngest member of their senior leadership team.

Jarnail spent early part of his career with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) where he co-managed clean energy initiatives across several Indian states. He specialises in business-led climate action, international climate policy and using strategic communications as a lever for change.

Madhav has over 20 years of experience on the issues at the intersection of climate change and urbanisation. He joined WRI India in 2008 to become part of the Institute’s founding team and played a definitive leadership role at WRI India that has helped it reach its present position.

Under his leadership as Executive Director of WRI India Ross Center and Director of EMBARQ India, the team has supported implementation of several pioneering projects. Notable successes include the Indore BRT, the Mumbai Climate Action Plan (MCAP), the Raahgiri campaign for democratizing public streets, and the National Electric Bus Program (NEBP).

His own research and programmatic work have evolved to prefer systems thinking as an approach to negotiate with the myriad complexities of the contemporary city. Madhav is a published author and has written several research papers for renowned journals as well as various articles and books.

Mohit has close to 30 years of experience in advertising and marketing roles across multiple industries before founding the Air Pollution Action Group in 2019.

Some of the brands that he managed include Pepsodent, Maruti Suzuki, LG Electronics and Hindustan Times, He has worked on a mix of leader and challenger brands.

He is now keen to make an impact in a way that can genuinely improve the lives of millions of people.

A-PAG works with the centre and state governments as well as municipal bodies to assist their implementation efforts in fighting air pollution. It runs programmes, which if successful, would be scaled rapidly across geographies.

Neha has over fourteen years of experience working on public policy and industry action in India on sustainability and responsible financing. She steered projects that led to a regulation on ESG disclosures by SEBI and the development of financial sector led Responsible Financing Guidelines.

She has served on national and international standard setting bodies like Bureau of Indian Standards and Global Reporting Initiative where she vice-chaired its Stakeholder Council.

At present, she drives policy and partner programmes in the country to scale up the green bonds market. She is also part of a core group of policy advisors and practitioners on future of jobs and green economy hosted by Frederich Ebert Stiftung, India.

Nitin is a Senior Programme Lead for the Sustainable Water Team at the Council. He has more than 17 years of experience undertaking research, consultancy, and training in water resources.

He was part of the delegation of the Government of India for the second Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group Meeting under India’s G20 Presidency. Additionally, he was nominated as a member of the Task Force that developed the White Paper on the U20 priority area 'Ensuring Water Security'.

He was also a member of the thematic sub-group on Water Management for Climate-Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0, set up by the NIUA.

With more than 100 publications to his credit, he has co-edited five books. He has also been engaged as a specialist in projects, research studies, and assignments supported by various national and international organisations including the European Commission, World Bank and GIZ.

Raj Cherubal is the CEO, Chennai Smart City Limited. He is also Director-Projects for Chennai City Connect (CCC). At CCC, he has facilitated various projects on traffic, sustainable transportation and urban planning focused on pedestrians, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and integrated, multi-modal public transportation, sustainable solid waste management, restoration of urban water bodies, sustainable financing of urban infrastructure, redevelopment of business district and regional planning. He has written and worked to promote decentralisation and good urban governance. He has also worked to promote economic freedom for entrepreneurs, especially poor like street vendors and others in the informal sector and for their recognition as profit seeking entrepreneurs.

Rathish comes with 20+ years of experience across the corporate and social sector. As Co-founder and Managing Partner at Sattva, he brings extensive experience in conceptualizing and implementing large-scale solutions that brings together leading foundations, corporations, civil society organizations and the government.

Rathish has contributed at both state and national level policy discussions across education and skill development. Prior to founding Sattva Consulting, he worked at SAP Labs.

Committed to ending poverty, Rathish is a lifelong learner deeply curious about the systems that perpetuate inter-generational poverty. He is a published author and TEDx speaker.

Sanjay has more than 28 years of experience in the power sector. He is presently the CEO of GRIHA Council which administers the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. He is also the Senior Director of the Sustainable Habitat Division with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI).

Prior to this he worked with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) where he headed the vertical on Building Energy Efficiency. He was the interim Secretary of the Bureau and was responsible for the administration and financial management of the organization. In this capacity, he provided oversight to the implementation of policies and programmes of BEE as well as the National Mission on Enhanced Energy Efficiency.

Satyam is the founder of Arthan. He has spent a decade in the education sector, skill development and social entrepreneurship in rural India.

In the last one decade, Satyam has designed, implemented, scaled and impacted lives of more than two million children and youth studying in government schools in India. In the past Satyam has worked with leading education non-profits in India- Pratham. Satyam is a THNK fellow, holds an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from Delhi University and executive degrees in social entrepreneurship and leading successful social programs from Stanford Business School and Harvard Kennedy School.

Shabnam Bassi is Deputy CEO-Cum-Secretary & Treasurer with the GRIHA Council which administers the Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment. She is also the Director of the Sustainable Buildings division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Prior to this, she has worked in various roles in UNDP and Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). She has been engaged to implement strategies to overcome barriers related to energy efficiency in buildings sector in the country by coordinating with the Central, State and Municipal bodies to facilitate Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) integration, developed a framework to strengthen enforcement of ECBC Implementation and compliance.

She has worked in close cooperation with various international agencies / experts in developing programmes related to enhancement of government policies for promoting energy efficiency in buildings.

Shishir is the Development Advisor in India for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). He leads the development efforts for EDF in India. EDF’s work in India is centred on playing a catalytic role towards a vision of an Indian pathway to shared, sustainable, prosperity.

Shishir started his career in sales, banking operations and client relationships with ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered and Kotak Mahindra. After having spent close to decade and a half in banking he moved to the development sector and joined Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation working on advancing India’s development goals, particularly related to clean energy and climate change. As head of partnerships, he facilitated the foundation and several other donor organisations commit their philanthropic resources in India. Shishir is deeply familiar with the philanthropic landscape and has worked in partnership with U.S. and European donors.

Shruti has almost 20 years of global work experience specialising in energy efficiency and sustainability.

Previously, she was an Upstream Officer with International Finance Corporation’s (IFC, World Bank Group) Asia Pacific Cities Platform and has also led IFC’s Green Building program in South Asia. She has also been a faculty member in sustainable design with educational institutions globally such as Stanford University, USA, California College of Arts, USA, and the School of Planning and Architecture in India.

She presently works closely with city leadership to sustain and scale up C40’s efforts in the region.

Smarinita is co-founder and CEO at IDR. Prior to IDR, Smarinita worked at Dasra, Monitor Inclusive Markets (now FSG), JP Morgan and The Economic Times. She also co-founded Netscribes–India’s first knowledge process outsourcing firm. Smarinita has a BE in Computer Engineering and an MBA in Finance, both from Mumbai University.

India Development Review (IDR) is Asia’s largest independent media platform that advances knowledge and insights on philanthropy and social impact. IDR focuses on cross-sector solutions to development problems, cutting-edge ideas and research, and real-world practice.

Srinivas Krishnaswamy, an economist by training, has over a decade of experience working on the issues of economic reforms, sustainable development and the environment. He set up Vasudha Foundation in 2010, with an aim to promote environment -friendly, socially just and sustainable models of development by focusing on alternative technologies and lifestyle solutions

Srinivas helped steer Vasudha Foundation in implementing a wide range of projects that include facilitating a few states in the preparation of their State Climate Action Plans and preparation of detailed energy plans for the districts.

Srinivas was also a member of a small consortium of individuals/organisations that successfully initiated the setting up of a multi-stakeholder platform for Renewable Energy in India, the Indian Renewable Energy Federation of which he is presently a part of the Governing Council.

Srinivas is passionate about scaling up SGBs thatHe serves as an Executive Steering Committee Member at Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Additionally, he volunteers as a committee member for Startup Showcase at Startup India and as a Technical Expert for BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council). have the potential to create impact at scale. He brings two decades of experience across multiple sectors and networks to solve ecosystem level issues in the sectors of healthcare, climate action, agriculture and gender inclusion. Srinivas engages closely with the Government of India in nurturing social entrepreneurship and advocating for greater participation by commercial capital providers in this space.

He serves as an Executive Steering Committee Member at Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs. Additionally, he volunteers as a committee member for Startup Showcase at Startup India and as a Technical Expert for BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council).

Dr. Sumita is a water and sanitation professional with over 12 years of experience in water, wastewater, and sanitation. Currently serving as a Programme Manager at the Centre for Science and Environment, she holds a doctorate in Environment and has worked in various capacities at organizations such as the Central Pollution Control Board, Consulting Engineering Services, Tide Technocrats Private Limited, and more. Her expertise spans several areas, including faecal sludge management, Sanitation Service Delivery, Citywide Inclusive Sanitation, Monitoring Learning and Evaluation in WaSH, City Sanitation Planning, Decentralised Wastewater Management, and Shit Flow Diagram. Dr. Singhal is an active member of the International Water Association and the Bureau of Indian Standards, contributing to the formulation of water-related standards. Additionally, she has led a technical and program support team in Uttar Pradesh, focusing on mainstreaming FSSM. Her current responsibilities involve leading research on biosolids' reuse and recycling and supervising the team's endeavors.