Arun Maira is a former Member of the Planning Commission which was chaired by the then Prime Minister of India. In this Ministerial level position, he was responsible for facilitating the shaping of policies and programs related to industrialization, urbanization and tourism. Prior to his appointment to the Planning Commission, Mr Maira was the Chairman of Boston Consulting Group in India and has served on the boards of several large Indian companies. He has authored several books, which include “Shaping The Future: Aspirational Leadership in India and Beyond”, “Remaking India: One Country, One Destiny”, “Discordant Democrats: Five Steps to Consensus” and “Transforming Capitalism: Business Leadership to Improve the World for Everyone”.

Dr M Ramachandran has had a distinguished career of 38 years in the Indian Administrative Service during which period he has held various important assignments such as Chief Secretary, Government of Uttarakhand and Secretary to Government of India in the Ministry of Urban Development. During his tenure as India’s Urban Development Secretary, various new initiatives such as the National Urban Transport Policy, National Urban Sanitation Policy, credit rating of major cities, introduction of Bus Rapid Transit system in ten cities, sanitation rating of cities and introduction of Service Level Benchmarks for six urban services were undertaken. He was member of the committees which structured India’s urban strategy for the current Twelfth Five Year Plan and the next phase of the Urban renewal mission. He has authored six books, mostly on urban and infrastructure issues. He writes regularly on urban matters in national economic dailies.

Adi Godrej is Chairman of the Godrej Group, one of India’s oldest, largest and most respected business houses. Over the last five decades, Mr Godrej has played an important role in the development of a variety of industries in India by leading key organizations of trade and commerce. He is the past president of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Mr Godrej has participated actively in the field of management education as Chairman of the Board of Indian School of Business and as a former member of the Dean’s Advisory Council of the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Wharton Asian Executive Board. He is also an active philanthropist.

Baijayant “Jay” Panda is a Member of Parliament from Kendrapara Lok Sabha Constituency in Odisha. Mr Panda was Chairman of the India-USA Forum of Parliamentarians and has been associated with the Citizens’ Alliance Against Malnutrition, an advocacy group. In 2008, he received the award for best parliamentary practices from the Chief Justice of India. He has been a member of the Parliamentary Committees on Energy, Urban Development, Home, Commerce and Human Resource Development. Mr Panda graduated from the Michigan Technological University and with a background in Engineering and Management worked in the corporate sector before joining politics.

Ireena Vittal was Partner, McKinsey & Co. where she worked for more than fifteen years and is currently an independent director on the boards of some of India’s best known companies. She co-authored McKinsey Global Institute’s report titled ‘‘India’s Urban Awakening: Building Inclusive Cities; Sustaining Economic Growth”. Ms Vittal is among India’s premier experts on the Retail business. She received her Masters in Business Administration from Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.