Mr. Mehta is the Director for Innovative Finance at Indus Blue Consulting, which advises on raising financing from non-traditional and new sources of funding, particularly capital markets. He brings with him international experience in the field of Innovative Financing Mechanisms in Healthcare and Green & Smart Cities, having worked with GAVI (a Gates Foundation, UNICEF, WHO and World Bank PPP) and several investment banks such as Deutsche Bank London and development banks over a 20 year period. As one of the few “cross-over” individuals from the investment banking world in the United Nations advisory arena, he has been developing structures and models for innovative finance including in the areas of blended finance, Islamic financing, R&D Financing, social impact and performance instruments, securitization and structured finance for various international organisations(UNIDO, GIZ, AUC, UNECE, UNITAID, WHO). His focus remains on leveraging public sector funding to build a portfolio based and life-cycle aligned product pipeline, in order to make projects bankable and attract cheaper funding.

Dr. Anand has a unique expertise of nearly four decades working in Central and West Asia, South and Southeast Asian countries as well as in the USA. His expertise is in developing projects through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) across multiple sectors and he also has significant working experience in Integrated Urban Development, Water Supply and Sanitation, Environmental Management and Infrastructure Development. He retired in 2016 after a decade working in the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila, last as Director, Urban Development and Water Division in the Central and West Asia Department. He was the Chair, ADB Urban Community of Practice and Chair, Committee of Directors, ADB Urban Sector Group. He was a core member of the ADB PPP Thematic Group including a lead member in the preparation of the ADB PPP Operational Plan 2020, and has worked jointly with the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and UNECE in organizing series of ‘PPP Days’ Conferences.Earlier he worked in IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation, New Delhi as Senior Vice President. While in IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corporation and in ADB, he has led teams in developing PPP projects in partnership with government agencies in urban, transport, industrial area development and tourism sectors. He has also guided initiatives in the ADB that focused on Inclusive, Competitive and Green Cities development with climate change and resilience perspectives for projects in water, wastewater and solid waste management, urban transport and other urban subsectors. He is an expert in Water Supply and Sanitation having worked on projects aided by multi-lateral agencies such as the ADB, KfW, SIDA, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID etc.. Earlier, he also has conducted numerous Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies for infrastructure sectors and industries. His experience covers country sector policy development in the context of millennium development goals (MDGs) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a review of their achievement for ADB member countries under the Community of Practice; strategic planning, project development and implementation of municipal projects; development of innovative approaches; knowledge management including peer reviews and publications; and have proven managerial skills at senior level in handling multicultural teams with ability to multitask across different needs mentioned above. Currently, he provides senior advisory services to UN Economic Commission for Europe in People’s First Public Private Partnerships. He serves as a Member, Steering Committee on City Resilient Strategy for Pune, India, supported by 100 Resilient Cities, Rockefeller Foundation. He also is serving as an Economic and Financial Expert to Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Jammu and Kashmir, India, for Preparation of Zonal Plans of Srinagar Metropolitan Region. As a Strategic Adviser, he also is associated with Ernst and Young, India and other organizations.

Ashok Baran Chakraborty, Senior Adviser CIRC: Sustainability, CSR, HSE, Climate resilience.

Ashok Baran Chakraborty; An industry veteran with over 4 decades varied experience, professionally qualified in Sustainability, CSR, ESG, HSE & Climate resilience is member of CIRC. He is the key mentor and guide. He was Professor at the Institute of Management technology, Nagpur, ‘Chief Sustainability Officer’ & Head “Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD)” at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and had a long stint at ONGC where he was the Executive Director & held key positions of Chief Carbon Management & Sustainability, Chief CSR, and Chief HSE. He specialises in policy making, strategy formulation, setting procedures, guidelines, developing standards and Program / Project development in the area of Sustainable development, CSR, Climate Change and HSE. As programme director he has led a team of professionals, designed & conducted over 34 National, International MDP’s & In-Company programmes in the area of Strategic CSR for Sustainable Development.

Senior adviser CIRC Sh Ashok Baran Chakraborty, leads the team for capacity building to help corporates & delegates in multiple ways to address the current requirements like: BRSR, CSR, ESG, Sustainability index, National & Global commitments and Climate change resilience & mitigation etc. While the climate change is a reality and every section of the society is vulnerable, the preparedness & resilience is the way forward. Low carbon pathway transition is both - an imperative and challenging. Strategy, Technology, Finance, Circularity, Resilience and other interconnected issues are important to address the issues. Socially responsive actions need to be curated & integrated to achieve sustainable solutions, scale & creativity. Past actions need review in order to meet new challenges for a bright future and to stay competitive. Opportunities to develop skill sets of the personnel are immense & the same require to be nurtured in specially structured programme related fields along with an exposure to the on-ground sharing of experience. Priority would be to increase resilience with focus on Environmental & Sustainability for the desired outcomes. Bottom of the pyramid and the livelihoods generation to address inequity is paramount.

Ashok B Chakraborty, is BE (Mech) NIT, M.Tech (IIT Delhi), MAM (Jamnalal Bajaj, Mumbai), MSc (Environmental Science) Kakatiya University & holds PG Diplomas in Environmental Management & Environmental Economics from Central University, Hyderabad. He has done 15 months advance Management Programme at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad with modules in US - Arizona & Rice Universities. A Chevening fellow 2009, University of Cambridge, UK, on the subject “Economics of Climate Change”. He has presented many papers at the national & global level and conferred with prestigious awards in the area of Climate Change, Sustainable development and CSR. He is a fellow of the ‘Institute of Engineers’, Chartered engineer, & Member- Association of British Scholars. He was the member of the expert group and designed PG Diploma in CSR for IGNOU. He is member of the BIS committee for developing standard on ‘Sustainable finance’.

Email: abc@circ.in

Ms Bulbul Sen, has focused on public procurement policy since 2012. Her publications for CUTS International, Jaipur (2012 -2015) supported by the British High Commission include ‘Government Procurement: Domestic Regulation and Trade Prospects’; ‘WTO Plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement – Market Access Opportunities and Challenges for India’; ‘Public Procurement: Need for a National Policy in India.’ She was one of the Indian experts for UN Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODC), Delhi, on Public Procurement at the International Anti-Corruption Academy conclave at Laxenburg, Austria, in 2012 and 2013.During September 2015-March 2017 she was Consultant for a project for UN Global Compact India, producing a Report titled ‘Business Recommendations for Public Procurement Policy in India: White Paper’, released on 28 April, 2017. She been published in The Hindu Business Line, viz. ‘Public procurement rules are a maze’ (30.11.2016) and ‘Issues in Public Procurement’ (19.04.2017). She served as Independent Director, from 2013 -2016 on the Boards of Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited, Ranchi and Hindustan Copper, Kolkata. Currently she is Independent External Monitor for The Garden Reach Engineers & Shipbuilders Ltd., and was Course Director for the All India Services Training Program (December 11-15, 2017) assigned by Department of Personnel & Training, GOI to the CUTS Institute of Regulation & Competition, on public procurement policy. She is an MBA from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, with specialization in International Trade policy.

As a member of Singapore Government’s Competition Appeal Board, and with a career that has included being a C-level executive at a Billion-dollar revenue company, a startup entrepreneur, an inventor with award-winning patents and inventions, a VC, a public policy advisor, an adjunct professor, Carlos Fernandes is a recognized thought leader on technology and innovation, whose ideas have been published internationally by the Financial Times, the Guardian, the Business Times, among others.As the Chief Digital Officer of ECU Worldwide, a company with a billion in revenue, 4000 employees and a presence in over 150 countries, Fernandes advised on digital transformation in the logistics space. Prior to that, Fernandes invented and patented the world’s first legal Internet-based Digital Video Recorder and the company, RecordTV, was named as one of the Top 100 startups in the World by Red Herring Magazine. There, Fernandes led product development through to commercialization and led the company to victory in complex litigation against Singapore’s National broadcaster. With its InstantTV app, RecordTV rose to become the fastest growing Over-the-Top (OTT) service in Singapore, hitting #1 in the Apple App Store as well as the Google Play Store in Entertainment. Fernandes has served on the “Future of Media” Global Agenda Council at the World Economic Forum. With a deep, multi-dimensional understanding of the media industry, its trends and consumer interests, Fernandes has advised numerous media companies in the areas of digital disruption and transformation as it relates to their strategy in video, music, radio and the news. Fernandes also sits on the AI and Blockchain Expert Networks at the World Economic Forum. In the area of public policy, Fernandes has served the Commonwealth Nations, ASEAN Nations and the Government of Singapore as an advisor on matters related to youth development, technology and entrepreneurship.Previously, he served on the Entrepreneurship Review Committee for the Singapore Government and the Pro- Enterprise Panel (PEP), a board chaired by the Head of Civil Service and recognized by the United Nations for its review of the regulatory framework around new innovations. Fernandes has been a Board Member for TiE Singapore, an adjunct professor at NUS and guest lecturer at INSEAD and SMU where he has lectured on Disruptive Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Fernandes has been widely covered by the media and frequently writes op-eds in various publications.The Singapore Computer Society named him its youngest-ever “Young Professional of the Year” for his contributions to the IT industry. The World Economic Forum subsequently named him a Young Global Leader. BusinessWeek has also identified him as among Asia’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs. Fernandes has an MBA (High Honors) from the University of Chicago, a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronic Engineering from Bombay University, a Masters in Information Technology. He is also an alumnus of Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Yale University Global Leadership programs.

He comes with over three decades of experience of working in Govt, Public Sector Undertakings and Special Purpose Organizations. Have dealt with thousands of procurement cases during the career spanning over three decades, in the Govt of India and Public Sector organizations, as a member of the tender committee and/or the executive in charge of the project. Have also worked as a Financial Adviser to the department dealing with Public Procurement in Railways. A number of these cases dealt with externally funded projects. Had designed Shusha System in late 90s and offered as freeware to facilitate computerization in Indian languages (Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Gurmukhi and Bangla) and had championed computerization in Indian Languages. Has written a number of articles and papers and organized training in the domains of Public Procurement, Financial Management and Information Technology. Was conferred Lifetime Achievement Award by St. Stephen’s College, Delhi (2013) and Railway Minister’s Medal by the Railway Board, Ministry of Railways (1999).

Manoj Sethu is a management professional with nearly three decades of corporate experience. He has helped International companies launch operations and has multi-functional exposure with specialization in business operations, market development and service excellence. A strong believer of `beyond textbooks’ and instead follow principles of logical approach to providing solutions for business problems, has made him successful at troubleshooting. He applies open management system and organizational empowerment, which has earned him credibility for people management skills leading to high employee retention in his previous leadership roles. His experience spans Education sector in product launch, market development, elearning product development and personal certification, but the open approach makes him adaptable to multiple businesses or industries. Having experience in launching products, researching and market development, he has designed and implemented organisational systems for excellence in operations and quality of service. He has led multi-geography teams and has contributed to business growth in South Asia and Middle East. He has over the years developed strong interests in public policy and PPPs, with focus on areas such as healthcare, disaster management and environment.Manoj has been a guest lecturer in International Business for MBA batches and involved with top Management Institutes & private Universities in various capacities. He has been a speaker and panelist at various forums on leadership, change management and organizational development. He believes that successful enterprises and professionals must use their knowledge, indigenous technology and highest quality of service, to make normal living affordable to common man.One of his favourite quotes is one from American successful football coach Vince Lombardi “Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can attain excellence” Manoj is a graduate in Electronics with qualifications in Lean Management, Six Sigma, Foreign Trade and Certified L&D Manager, and an alumnus of Institute of Directors with the certification Masterclass of Directors.

Substantively, Dr Sharma’s interest lies where business strategy, economics, law, and policy converge. He assists Governments and Corporates address policy and business issues relating to "business responsibility", "market structure" and "business conduct" through designing customized advisory and capacity-enabling solutions.
Prior to CIRC, Dr Sharma held VB Padode Chair Professor in Business Responsibility and the responsibility of Registrar at Vijaybhoomi University. From 2009 to 2012, he steered CIRC as Director. In his professional career, he has taken up various leadership roles with the IICA under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, and Economic Laws Practice (ELP), to name some.
His key policy engagements include Planning Commission Working Group on Competition Policy; MCA’s High-Level Committee for Framing India’s National Competition Policy and MCA’s High-Level Committee for Reforming Business Environment in India.
He has a Ph.D. in International Trade Law and Economics and an MBA.
At CIRC, he leads a team of specialist lawyers, regulatory economists, financial analysts, experts in AI and ML, and sector experts to deliver solutions to clients in the private sector and governments.

Pradeep S Mehta is the Chairman of the CUTS Institute for Regulation & Competition (CIRC). Mr. Mehta is the founder Secretary-General of the Jaipur-based Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS International), leading economic policy research, advocacy, and networking, a non-governmental group in India, with offices in Nairobi, Lusaka, Accra, Hanoi, and Geneva. CUTS was established in 1983 and has completed 30 glorious years. He has studied commerce at the Calcutta University and law at the Rajasthan University, Jaipur. In April 2012, Mehta has been nominated to the High-Level Stakeholders Panel of WTO on Defining the Future of Trade. He has been an Honorary Adviser to the Commerce & Industry Minister of India and NGO Adviser to the WTO Director-General from 2002 to 2005. Recently he has been a Member of the Planning Commission’s Steering Committee on Industry and Chairman of its Task Force on National Competition Policy. Further, he has also Chaired the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’s Working Group on Road Safety Education. He serves on several policy-making bodies of the Government of India and Inter-Governmental Organisations related to trade, investment, competition, environment, and consumer affairs. He chairs the advisory committee of the South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics, and Environment(SAWTEE), Kathmandu. In the past, he has served on the governing boards of the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ITCSD); Geneva, Consumer Coordination Council, New Delhi and on the Global Policy and Campaigns Committee on Economic Issues of Consumer International, London. A prolific writer, gifted speaker, skilled trainer and organizer in the social science field, Mehta has been named as one of the 30 most famous columnists in India by a leading newspaper in India. He has published/edited several books and papers on trade, investment, competition, and development.
Web Address: www.PradeepSMehta.com

Mr. Prasanna Venkatesh Srinivasan is a management consultant. He has expertise in multiple sectors; having multi-functional exposure built around a core in project finance and business planning, in India. His work includes integrated regional development that is commercially sustainable. He has hands on exposure in enterprise development and innovatively structured Public Private Partnerships. Previously, he has worked in projects including PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), a national programme being implemented by the Ministry of Rural Development, and The Integrated Tourism Development Programme (supported by the Asian Development Bank), both PPP programmes that converges business goals with national economic priorities. He had also worked for international corporations, Indian business, not-for-profits and think tanks in areas of strategy, planning, operations, finance and policy/regulation. He is a MBA graduate from IIM, Ahmedabad and previously served as senior vice president of IL&FS and head of consulting of EIU India.

Sonali A. David, is a development professional who has practiced inclusion and development through government programs in India and neighboring nations in South Asia and over the past decade she has worked with the United Nations, Government of India and World Bank with a primary focus on inclusion and gender through policy interventions and technical assistance. Sonali has lived in many cities in India and developed her interest in sustainable development through her analytical view of service delivery experiences as a citizen. This curiosity was further refined during her Sustainable Development Master’s program in Sweden. She is also a post graduate in Environmental Science from Mumbai University and Environmental Law from National Law School, Bengaluru. She views cultural patriarchy as a serious cross cutting challenge for progress and advancement.She works on the invisible filters of privilege and patriarchy that distort and alter results of public programs and policy. Her works have been published by scientific resources and academia.

Tushar Pandey, is a Advisor–Financial Services and Policy at DeHaat, Gurugram. Setting up DeHaat financial services and policy and program unit.He has twenty-five years of experience in infrastructure privatisation with leading financial Institutions focusing on government and international relations, project finance, policy advisory, public private partnerships (PPP,) global collaboration, agricultural research, and sustainable development.

Tushir Malik is a Global Professional who has 28+ years in experience in Business Development, Sales and Delivery working with IT, Telecom, Product and Systems Integrator Orgs across USA, Europe and India.

He has subject matter proficiency in IOT / M2M, Digital, AI and Telecom solutions. Currently utilizing his industry experience to transform education & working towards to empower the next generation with a diverse perspective. To effect this have co-created a Curriculum for Universities called “Intelligent Automation” or “Digital Transformation” which is blend of new age skills IOT, AI and Robotics.

In his prior role, as CEO of iWire communications ltd., VP of VodafoneIdea, Head of Strategy for IOT with Jio & Program Director with TechMahindra plus many other roles with leading IT and Telco’s company in Europe, had made contribution towards Integrated IOT for multiple Enterprises and Industries e.g. Connected Vehicles, Industry IOT 4.0. Smart Utility etc

Incepted Aeris in India which was first IOT Platform in Year’13 for Telcos to augment their offerings on M2M connectivity and applications. It was adopted by leading Telco’s in India for their launch of End to End IOT Solutions.

He has a B.Tech from NIT Kurukshetra in Electronics and Communication, Diploma in Management from ICM, Dublin (Ireland), Management Certification Programs from XLRI Jamshedpur, ISB Hyderabad and IIM Kolkata.

Also active with Bravehearts (Vertical of Rotary International) for various social activities. Has many articles published on LinkedIn with hashtag #iotforgood.

He is proactively mentoring & working closely with Industry bodies and Startup’s to bring awareness at grass root level and scale the employability of work force across Industry and Educational Institutes. Also active with Bravehearts (Vertical of Rotary International).

In Summary, Core strengths are Ability to Simplify & Innovate utilizing New Age Skills of IOT, AI and Robotics.

His book titled “#IOT for Good” will be published soon. Has many articles published on LinkedIn with hashtag #iotforgood.

His LinkedIn URL is https://www.linkedin.com/in/tushir-malik-bba88a7 where he regularly posts articles, to read more on him and his posts.

Kritika Sethi is an Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) leader. She is the Co-founder of WeVaad, an online dispute resolution institution.

WeVaad is at the forefront of the ODR revolution in India and pursuing a mission of making it a mass movement by enabling individuals and businesses with time-bound and cost-efficient dispute resolution for commercial and non-commercial matters. WeVaad is empanelled with Hon'ble Bombay High Court, ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce), and Sahamati.

Ms Sethi is a law graduate from NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad. She has extensively worked in the disputes team of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, leading Tier I law firm, for more than 5 years. During her stint at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, she represented national and international clients before Hon'ble Supreme Court, Hon'ble Bombay High Court, and other courts and quasi-judicial authorities.

Her current research interest includes examining the impact of ODR in leveraging the efficacy of market functioning and widespread adoption of ODR in India.

Meera Nazer is an assistant fellow at CIRC and has a knack for research in interdisciplinary areas of law, economics, and technology.

Meera is a law graduate from NUALS, Kochi, and was an Erasmus Mundus Fellow during her LLM (Economics, Political Science and Law) under the European Master in Law and Economics Programme (EMLE).

Her research focuses on generative AI, banking and finance law, ed-tech laws, and public policy and regulation. She employs tools of economic analysis to investigate questions of fairness in competition regulation and market disruptions. Additionally, she has published papers and essays on regulatory and policy concerns in the real estate market, MSME cartels, national food-aid programmes etc. She has 6 years of experience as a corporate lawyer working in various international organisations and aims to utilise her experience of both worlds to bridge the gap between academia and practice.

Dr Shweta Sharma is a policy researcher and an assistant director at CIRC. She is deeply passionate about bridging the gap between education and employability.

She specialises in education, skill development, and their interaction with economic policies. Her doctoral research enquired about the interaction of education policy and economic policies. She has been a UGC post-doctoral fellow to research on policies towards skill formation.

She has been a university faculty in business schools in India and Ethiopia. Her expertise encompasses teaching, research, and project management.