The theme for INK2014 is ‘Beyond Boundaries.’ We are inspired by the human capacity to defy labels, limitations and status quo, build rockets to the Moon, take on global challenges, and imagine a new reality for the world.
See Program DetailsWorld’s visionaries – CEOs, entrepreneurs, artists, technologists, scientists & more – gather under one roof for a cross-pollination of ideas and chance encounters for the next big breakthrough.
The annual INK Conference is where a part of this community gathers together for 3 days to celebrate successful milestones of the community’s journey. Here, change-makers from every walk of life also share their stories, ideas and perspectives in between 3-18 minutes – an ‘intellectual Mardi Gras’ if you please.
Immersive experience where thrilling ideas are brewing. This is where life changing connections and intense conversations occur – a scientist meets an artist; an archaeologist dines with a mountain climbers and from discovering the depths of the ocean to exploring outer space to understanding our inner selves, INK takes you on a fascinating journey that expands your horizons.
The theme for INK2014 is ‘Beyond Boundaries.’ Join us for INK2014, October 31 – November 2, 2014 in Mumbai.
Anjney is a partner at the American venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he focuses on consumer digital investments and ProductWorks, the firm’s newly launched platform to help entrepreneurs develop transformative products through Engineering, Design, and Product Management. Anjney joined KPCB from First Round Capital’s Dorm Room Fund (DRF), where he was a founding Managing Partner. While at DRF, Anjney focused on the fund’s investments in early stage internet technologies.
In 2012, Anjney was named the youngest Google Policy Fellow, and in 2014, organized the first Stanford Cryptofolks summit for applied cryptography. Anjney pursued undergraduate and graduate coursework at Stanford University.
WEBSITE: anjneymidha.com
Daniel is a PhD candidate for the Tangible Media Group at the MIT Media Lab, where his work focuses on human computer interaction. He believes that computers could be much more powerful if their interactions would engage with human bodies more fully. Daniel’s goal is to build a new generation of human computer interfaces, one that can render dynamic, physical shapes that we can touch and transform to express ourselves and collaborate with others. Already, Daniel has built a number of tangible prototypes based on his vision.
Daniel’s projects have been presented at Ars Electronica, Siggraph and the Science Center Singapore and published at ACM ITS, TEI, CHI and UIST conference. He has received the Austrian State Prize for Multimedia, Europrix Top Talent Award, Laval Virtual ReVolution Award, RTT Emerging Technology Award, Siggraph Research Challenge, UIST Student Innovation Contest and best paper awards at UIST and CHI.
Gazal did a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from NIT, Jaipur, and went on to work as a software engineer with Infosys Technologies for 2 years, before she decided to pursue one of the two biggest dreams of her life. She moved to Mumbai in 2005 to work in the movies. Today, she writes films for some remarkable people in the Hindi film industry, namely Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Govind Nihalani, Prakash Jha and Tanuja Chandra. In 2007, she took another life changing decision. She went through a medical process to fix a disorder she was born with. Her journey to being who she is, has been two-fold – the external path to find a place for herself in the daunting business of the movies… and the internal path of combat with her own identity and destiny.
Harshvardhan is an independent visual artist who makes street art across India. He has been running his travel studio, Inkbrushnme since 2007 which has been producing children’s illustrated books, graphic novels and character designs for animation and gaming projects.
Making a work of art for Harshvardhan is a ritualistic performance. Born in India and exposed to its rich cultural and literary heritage, he has dedicated his time in discovering mythologies and reinterpreting its essence through street art and digital paintings.
Neeraj is co-founder and CEO of Hector Beverages, the makers of Paper Boat drinks, traditional Indian beverages. Their other brand is Tzinga Energy Drink, the second largest selling energy drink in India. Prior to starting with Hector Beverages, Neeraj had an impressive career with The Coca-Cola Company for 8 years.
Neeraj is a graduate from Wharton Business School and was awarded the highest academic honour, the palmer scholar, in the University of Pennsylvania business program
Shashwat co-founded Robo Shack Microtronics with the aim of making learning about technology fun and engaging. Electro Bricks, the low-cost electronics kits designed for children by Robo Shack do not need any prior skills in programming or soldering. The bricks are pluggable with each other and one can create complex circuits using a number of different combinations of the bricks.
Shashwat has also worked in fostering the makers movement in the small town of Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He is passionate about bringing elements of the maker culture into primary and secondary education in India.
WEBSITE: electrobricks.in
Shravani Hagargi is a young social entrepreneur from Dharwar, India with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. Sharavani co-founded Safe Hands 24×7, an innovative venture employing women security guards so as to help promote the ideas of gender equality, provide women with the ability to become financially dependent and also provide top-notch services.
Internationally acclaimed American conductor, Viswa Subbaraman, is currently the Artistic Director/Music Director of The Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee. In his inaugural season at the Skylight, highlights include a number of critically acclaimed and audience acclaimed productions such as a Bollywood production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, which he both stage directed and conducted, a production of Hans Werner Henze’s El Cimarrón, and Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox.
Previous to his time with the Skylight, Subbaraman was the Artistic Director/Founder of Opera Vista, Houston’s innovative contemporary opera company. In his time with Opera Vista, he was selected by the HoustonPress as a 100 Creatives 2012: one of the one hundred most creative people in Houston. Opera Vista and Subbaraman were also honored with the 2010 Mastermind Award from the HoustonPress for artistic creativity and innovative outreach.
Equally comfortable in the orchestral realm as with opera, Mr. Subbaraman served as Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre National de France where he assisted Kurt Masur and visiting guest conductors. Subbaraman has conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center as a Debut Conductor in the National Conducting Institute.
WEBSITE: www.viswasubbaraman.com
Steve, a conservation biologist featured by National Geographic, is the Scientific Director of the Wild Bird Trust in South Africa, an organization that works to preserve wildlife and advance the research and education on the conservation of all birds in Africa. The organization’s work has been instrumental in getting the Okavango Delta wilderness in northern Botswana listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and its annual expeditions across the wilderness represent the most comprehensive biodiversity survey ever undertaken in this remote area. Steve recently completed a major National Geographic-sponsored expedition across the Okavango Delta to promote broader protection for the watershed and its wildlife
Abhijit Bhaduri is the Chief Learning Officer of Wipro. He has worked in India, South East Asia and the US where he led teams for Microsoft, PepsiCo, Colgate and Tata Steel. He is on the Advisory Board for the CLO program run by University of Pennsylvania. SHRM lists him as a top influencer on social media.
Abhijit’s writings have appeared in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, ORMS magazine and The Conference Board. He writes regularly for The Economic Times, People Matters Magazine and blogs for the Times of India. He is the author of two bestselling works of fiction and a much acclaimed book on how to hire for the right fit.
Dharavi Rocks is part of an educational project of Acorn Foundation, working for the welfare of slum children and waste collectors/rag-pickers. The band started a few years ago with children in the age group of 7-17 years. With a mission to give slum kids a voice by initiating them into music, Dharavi Rocks create music out of all the waste material like drum barrels, coffee shakers, paint cans, plastic boxes and all other type of junk stuff that we can find in the areas of Dharavi Slums emphasizing on the concept of Recycle, Reuse & Respect.
Abhijit Jejurikar a musician at heart is an active volunteer at Dharavi Rocks. His little dream called ‘Dharavi Rocks’ is a culmination of a golden heart meeting his insatiable thirst to spread the healing, transformative magic of music with the thought giving back to the society. His knowledge imparting methods are exemplary, wherein he teaches music, in a way that it helps all the children towards recognizing their talent quotient. He is of the belief, that this learning tool will inculcate discipline and help kids in finding livelihood opportunities in future.
Abhijit does duty in the corporate world but his heart is deeply entrenched in melodic, musical strains – somewhere far removed from the humdrum of manic Mumbai. He has been taking his music classes after work hours twice a week in Dharavi with managing perfect blend of Work life balance. After 3 years of selfless efforts, Dharavi Rocks is now become his identity and it has become a strong brand across India and few international markets too.
Ani Choying Drolma is an internationally reputed singer. Having been educated in a Buddhist nunnery, she studied Buddhist meditation, chants, rituals and ceremonies, and soon advanced to chanting master. Ani recently performed on MTV’s Coke Studio for a composition by A.R. Rahman that is said to have put a whole new spin to the term ‘world music’. The proceeds from her concert tours, CD sales and donations goes toward running a school started by her in the year 2000 called Arya Tara School.
Her school is committed to promote the advancement of nuns, not only for their own benefit but also prepares them to serve and benefit others. This desire developed in Ani, upon the passing of her master Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, a renowned meditation master. Watching him hold the nuns in the same regard as monks, Ani believed that creating more opportunities for nuns to study and to develop their own capacities for skillful and compassionate action is the best way she can dedicate herself to her teacher’s vision throughout her life.
Anshu Gupta is the founder of Goonj, a primarily volunteer run organization based in New Delhi that provides clothes and other basic amenities to millions across India by turning one person’s waste into a resource for another. In 1998, Anshu left his job as a manager of corporate communications in a large Indian company to found Goonj and travel across India in order to understand the needs of the people of his country. From collecting clothes from his own house, relatives and friends, and distributing them on the roads in the chilly winter nights of Delhi, his dream has come a long way.
Recently Anshu has been awarded the ‘Social entrepreneur of the year award’ by the Schwab foundation, sister concern of the World Economic Forum.
Anshu’s efforts to bring wider attention to the most ignored basic need of human i.e., clothing, and its various aspects right from dignity, deaths in winters to the most taboo subject of sanitary pads are getting wider acceptance across the world and many organizations have started replicating GOONJ’s various initiatives.
Anupama Chopra is a film critic and book author. She has written about the Hindi film industry since 1993. Film Companion, a YouTube channel, is her latest love letter to the movies. She is the film critic for Hindustan Times and NDTV 24/7 and a contributing editor to Vogue (India). She has anchored ‘The Front Row’ on Star World and ‘Star Verdict’ on Star Plus. Anupama also presented and scripted a weekly film review show called Picture This on NDTV 24/7. Her work has been published extensively in India Today, India’s largest English language magazine. She has also written about Bollywood for various international publications such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Variety and Sight & Sound.
Ben Nelson’s goal in life is overthrow Harvard. That’s right – Ben is revolutionizing the world of education, starting with his affordable, relevant, and elite online educational scheme. In 2011, Ben founded the Minerva Project, a four-year undergraduate educational platform that is reinventing the university experience for the brightest, most motivated students in the world. After working at Snapfish since 1999 and leaving as CEO a decade later, Ben decided to build a 21st-century school from scratch, designed to offer the ideal education for our tech-saavy and converging world. Ben is poised to press the reset button on the college experience – in his curriculum, all incoming students will be taught how to think and to use practical skills in the professional world, not just the classroom.
Bhavesh Chandubhai Bhatia is the founder of Sunrise Candle Industries, a Maharahstra-based company that makes and distributes over 9000 different types of candles. What makes his success so inspirational is the fact that Bhavesh cannot see. After losing his eyesight in 2003, he took a rehabilitation course for blind people, learning things like incense and candle-making. Since then, this visually challenged entrepreneur has been bringing light into other peoples’ lives.
Today Sunrise Candle Industries employs over 200 people, many of them visually-impaired or disabled themselves. Regarded as a hero in his community, Bhavesh has won a number of awards for his work as an entrepreneur as well as for his involvement in charitable causes aiming to improve the lives of differently-abled people.
Aside from his work, Bhavesh is also a keen athlete, having won numerous medals in various events at the National Paralymic Games over the last couple of years. He is currently involved in a project to build the largest candle in the world, and plans to compete in The Paralympics Games in Brazil, 2016.
World famous percussionist and new age percussion star, Bickram Ghosh is ranked amongst the great tabla players from India. Equally brilliant within traditional as well as experimental genres, Bickram has carved out a unique niche for himself in his diverse avatars as classical musician, new age artiste and composer. With over 50 recordings as soloist, composer and collaborator, Bickram has performed in almost every top venue in the world, and his performances have met with accolades in international circuits.
Bickram is the son of the great tabla maestro-Pandit Shankar Ghosh. Having learnt the nuances of carnatic percussion from Pandit S. Sekhar, he has performed for over a decade with the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar on his Grammy award winning album ’Full Circle.
Regarded as one of the country’s leading experts on healthcare systems and delivery, C Balagopal is the founder of Terumo Penpol Limited(TPL), which operates the largest blood bag manufacturing facility in the world. Now retired from TPL, he divides his time between mentoring and investing in startup ventures, especially those engaged in healthcare, community development activities, and writing.
A graduate of Loyola College, Madras University, Balagopal is also a published author, penning the book ‘On A Clear Day You Can See India’ which chronicles his past experiences working as an IAS officer in Manipur.
Craig Johnson is the Superintendent of the American School of Bombay. Craig has returned to India (where he spent 12 years of his childhood) after 15 years in Brazil. While in Brazil, Craig served as the High School Principal, at Graded School in Sao Paulo; and more recently as the Headmaster of the American School of Brasilia, Brazil. Craig’s roots, as a classroom teacher, are in Middle and High School English and Social Studies. Craig continues to stay engaged in student life, by coaching soccer, and trying to teach or co-teaching an English class as often as possible. A regular presenter and workshop facilitator on a variety of Leadership and School Improvement topics, Craig has also published a novel (Wave Watcher), and has a second novel on the way
Daniel Kraft could have a sci-fi show based on his life and his research. Daniel is a Stanford and Harvard-trained physician-scientist with over 20 years of experience in clinical practice, biomedical research and innovation. Daniel is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics from Massachusetts General Hospital, and has completed fellowships and extensive research in hematology/oncology, bone marrow transplantation, stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.
Daniel is deeply involved with highly innovative programs and projects such as Singularity University, FutureMed, IntelliMedicine, MarrowMiner and RegenMed Systems. As well as being a pioneer in medicine, Daniel is an avid pilot and serves as a flight surgeon with an F-16 Squadron in California, and has been a finalist for astronaut selection at NASA.
Dave McClure is a venture capitalist and founding partner at 500 Startups, an internet startup seed fund and incubator program in Mountain View, CA. He has been an investor in over 250 companies including Mint.com, Twilio, Wildfire Interactive, SendGrid, TaskRabbit, SlideShare, Mashery, CreditKarma, KISSmetrics, and MakerBot, among others.
Dave has been in Silicon Valley for over twenty years, and has worked with companies such as PayPal, Founders Fund, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twilio, Mint.com, Simply Hired, O’Reilly Media, Intel, and Microsoft.
David Rowan is editor-in-chief of WIRED’s UK edition. He’s taken 120 flights in the past year to investigate the companies and entrepreneurs changing our world, recently spending time with the founders of WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Google, Spotify, Xiaomi, Nest, Twitter and countless other disruptive startups from Tel Aviv to Shenzhen. His recent keynote talks have included events for banks, governments and Fortune 100 companies, and recent stage interviews have ranged from will.i.am to James Murdoch and David Cameron. David has been a columnist for The Times, GQ, Condé Nast Traveller and The Guardian. At WIRED he has extended the brand into conferences, apps, and a consulting business. He is co-founder of FlowJourneys.com, taking amazing people for weekend adventures in the world’s most extraordinary locations. And he is still searching for the future.
Deb Roy is an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and is Chief Media Scientist of Twitter. He conducts research at the intersection of human and machine communication. In 2008 he co-founded and was the founding CEO of Bluefin Labs, a social TV analytics company, which MIT Technology Review named as one of the 50 most innovative companies of 2012. Bluefin was acquired by Twitter in 2013. He has authored over 100 academic papers in machine learning, cognitive modeling, and human-machine interaction.
A native of Canada, Roy received a Bachelor of Applied Science (computer engineering) from the University of Waterloo and a PhD in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT.
Serial entrepreneur and a Cardiovascular & Thoracic Surgeon, Dr. Shriram Nene’s life has made a full circle, back to the land of his forefathers. Dr. Nene developed a passion for science and technology at a very young age that led him to medical school. Today, Dr. Nene is combining his passion and his education to spur innovation in healthcare delivery. He is currently developing a medical platform and apps system to scale the reach of medical care to 7 billion people on the planet. Apart from this, he along with his wife, Madhuri Dixit, an accomplished actress and dancer in India, have created RnM Moving Pictures which is a platform agnostic, digital media and content creation company.
An online pioneer and respected business leader, Ellen has worked in Silicon Valley since 1981, driving innovation and growth for Apple, NeXT, Google, and early-stage mobile, social, and B2C technology companies.
In 1985, Ellen catalyzed Apple’s first online community, creating a pre-Internet digital movement that bridged millions of users worldwide to Apple information and resources. Her work won industry acclaim and measurably shifted Apple loyalty and engagement across global markets. Later, she developed one of Facebook’s first apps, led global marcom for Google Enterprise, and founded and sold two “Maker” businesses sparked by her passion for design and art.
Ellen has worked with rural entrepreneurs in Latin America and Africa and advised teams worldwide on building cultures of innovation. She serves on the board of D-Rev, a non-profit innovation incubator that increases global access to life-changing (and life-saving) technologies through affordable design.
Today, Ellen writes and speaks on entrepreneurship, gender, community, and ethics while guiding growth and leadership for a portfolio of technology companies. The mother of three grown sons, Ellen lives and works in San Francisco, California.
If you thought there’s no more original music out there, think again. Guitarist Henry Kaiser is a prolific member of the San Francisco Bay Area music scene, as well as being a globally recognized leader of the “second generation” free improvisers. Kaiser has integrated the subtle string textures of the American blues stylists with traditional music of India, Korea, and Vietnam. Kaiser’s non-stop creativity unearthed many unconventional electric guitar techniques during these years, and he combined these innovations with a strong sense of logic development. Henry also happens to be a diver-photographer and a filmmaker, with over 3500+ dives, 4 feature film collaborations, and 250+ record albums, there’s no telling what this creative genius will do next.
Mumbai artist Jitish Kallat’s work takes form in a wide variety of media including painting, sculpture, site-specific installations, animation videos and photography. Jitish’s work often overlays disparate historical dates, everyday images and events into interconnected palimpsests and portrays themes like time, sustenance and mortality. Kallat’s work has been exhibited widely at museums and institutions including Tate Modern (London), Martin Gorpius Bau (Berlin) and the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern (Spain) to name just a few and has been a part of the Havana Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Asian Art Biennale, Curitiba Biennale, Guangzhou Triennale and the Kiev Biennale amongst many others.
His recent solo exhibitions were held at the the Art Institute of Chicago, Bhau Daji Lad Museum in Mumbai, the Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne, and the San Jose Museum of Art. Jitish Kallat is also the curator of Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2014.
As a Manufacturing Technology Futurist at Autodesk, Inc., Jordan Brandt spends a lot of time in the past talking to people in the present about the future of designing and making things. Brandt was named one of Forbes’ 12 “NextGen Innovators” in 2014. Originally from a small farming community in Kansas, Brandt has a degree in Architecture from the University of Kansas and a doctorate from Harvard. His doctoral dissertation developed the concept of distributed manufacturing systems (mobile factories).
Since Autodesk’s acquisition of Horizontal Systems, where Jordan served as co-founder and CEO, he has been traveling the globe speaking about his experience in the architecture, aerospace engineering, cloud computing and manufacturing industries. Jordan provides expert commentary on high-profile trends such as 3D and 4D printing, reshoring, robotics and high-speed transportation. He has been featured in publications such as Forbes, Financial Times, Fast Company and Business Insider.
Born and raised across different cities in India, Kenneth Sebastian is a musician, filmmaker and one of India’s most popular stand-up comedians. Having performed all over the country with comics such as Vir Das, Phil Nichol (UK), Scott Capurro (UK), Raj Sharma (US, HBO), Imran Yusuf (UK), Tanmay Bhat and many more, today Kenneth has done over 300 solo shows, is soon releasing a solo stand-up special, and working on hosting a TV show on Comedy Central. He also regularly performs at The Canvas Laugh Club and The Comedy Store and is actively involved with Bangalore based comedy group ‘The Polished Bottoms.’ Earlier this year, he started an improvisational comedy ensemble ‘The Improvisers,’ which is one of the highest rated improve groups in the country and now plans to take over the world by spreading laughter
Kumbhthon is a technical hackathon, started in association with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) for promoting social innovations for the upcoming Kumbhmela in Nashik.
SUNIL KHANDBAHALE
Linguistic Enabler
Sunil’s goal is to help Indians bridge the ‘language’ and ‘digital’ divides, due to the dominance of English on the internet and in technical published texts. He has developed digital dictionaries for mobile phones and computers with a repository of 9.6 million audio and textual words in 16 domains, like Legal, Agriculture and Pharmacy, in 22 different Indian languages. Educated in Marathi-medium in a village near Nashik, Sunil believes the root of the rural inferiority complex is the linguistic divide, due to which many abandon their education. He hopes to reverse this with his free platform.
GIRISH PAGARE
Social Innovator
Girish is a metallurgical engineer working with Graphite India. With a rich experience of more than 28 years in the industry, espicallly in SQL and systems. He is the chairman of the Nasik chapter of the Computer Society of India.
With a business degree from Wharton, Kunal Bahl is the Co-Founder & CEO of India’s largest online marketplace, Snapdeal.com. With the mission to create life-changing experiences through this platform, Kunal today has the largest online database with over 25 million members and 50,000 sellers. With millions of products from thousands of national, international and regional brands, Snapdeal.com has partnered with several global marquee investors to deliver products across the country to 5000+ cities and towns in India. What else keeps Kunal busy you may ask, he serves on Unilever’s Global Digital Advisory Board and the Board of Governors of The Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs.
Liv Arnesen’s rich life experiences, both on and off the ice, have made her an internationally recognized leader and role model for women and girls. A self-proclaimed “keen” but not fanatical outdoors enthusiast, Arnesen is most interested in the development of adults and children. Through her diverse roles as a polar explorer, educator and motivational leader, Arnesen ignites passion in others to reach beyond their normal boundaries and achieve their dreams by sharing her own stories about exploring some of the most remote places on earth.
She has been named among Glamour magazine’s “Women of the Year” (2001); selected for the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame’s “Trailblazer” award (2001); presented with the Norwegian-American Chamber of Commerce “Achievement Award” (2001); and recognized by the Russian Geographic Society with a “Diploma of Honor” (1999).
Mahesh Samat comes with over 25 years of experience in Marketing, Sales and General Management with some of the biggest companies and had worked across India, Asia-Pacific and Europe. An Alumni of IIM-Calcutta, he worked with Johnson & Johnson as managing director for southern Europe, based out of London. His last assignment was as Managing Director of The Walt Disney Company India, a position he held for 5 years where he was responsible for managing all the lines of business for Disney including television, films, digital and consumer products.
Prior to that, he worked with Kellogg’s, Warner Lambert/Parke-Davis and Boots in India.
Mark Foster Gage is a recognized innovator in the fields of architecture and design. His pioneering designs combining architectural practice with digital technologies, advanced materials, and emerging media platforms have been exhibited in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago, and featured in the press such as Vogue, Wired, Fast Company, The New York Times, USA Today, PBS and MTV.
He is currently holds the positions of Assistant Dean and Professor with tenure at the Yale School of Architecture, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. Gage has written extensively on architecture and design in academic and popular publications including Log, The Journal of Architectural Education, Volume, Fulcrum, Mole, and Perspecta. He has published two books: Aesthetic Theory: Essential Texts for Architecture and Design, and Composites, Surfaces and Software: High Performance Architecture, with Greg Lynn.
Born and raised in Bali, Indonesia, youngsters Melati Wijsen (13) and Isabel Wijsen (11) are working to transform their community and society through their project BBPB (Bye Bye Plastic Bags), which focuses on the issue of waste disposal. Today, BBPB has become a well-known social initiative with a team of 25 volunteers from different local and international schools working to increase awareness around garbage disposal and advocate to change public perception about the use of plastic.
Japanese Mizuna, exotic lettuces, and rare peppers from the Peruvian Andes – all grown locally in Karnataka, India? Yes, this is actually happening, thanks to Nameet MVS, co-founder of First Agro, India’s first commercial grower organization with Zero Pesticide™ fresh produce. After leaving his full-time job as a pilot and flying instructor in 2011, Nameet , his brothers Naveen MV and KN Prasad came together to pursue their passion for healthy fresh produce.
By combining traditional farming values and contemporary technology, they are creating a new wave of growing fresh produce in India. By applying the best global horticultural practices, First Agro has eliminated harmful toxins & pesticides, ensuring fresh, clean, nutritious and affordable produce for families and businesses across India. They’re changing food culture, one delicious and safe bite at a time.
As Founder and CEO, Naveen is responsible for the overall vision, strategy and execution at InMobi. Prior to founding InMobi, he worked at Charles River Ventures and a Silicon Valley startup. He started his journey with McKinsey & Company. Naveen holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor’s degree from IIT Kanpur. He is the founder of the U.S. based non-profit India School Fund that sets up schools in rural India
Neeraj Arora manages “all things business at WhatsApp”. Neeraj is the vice-president of business development for the multi-billion dollar company WhatsApp, now a part of the Facebook family. He studied mechanical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, and received his Masters in Business Administration from the Indian School of Business in 2006. He made the front page of The Economic Times with his technology success story. Neeraj spent four years handling corporate development for Google Inc. before joining WhatsApp when it was still a fledgling startup in 2011
Neil Mehta’s got your back when comes to business and investing. Neil is the co-chairman of Greenoaks Global Holdings Ltd. and the founder of Greenoaks Capital. Prior to Greenoaks Capital, Neil was responsible for real estate and special situations investments in India, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia for Orient Property Group. Neil has previously invested in private businesses at Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors in Los Angeles.
Neil serves as a board member to Greenoaks Global Holdings Ltd, Coupang, Sol Republic, Lolli & Pops, and other Greenoaks portfolio companies. He serves on the Harvard Business School Alumni Advisory Board. Neil holds a BSc in Government and Economics from The London School of Economics
Neil Jacobstein is the Director of Executive Academics and Co-chairs the AI and Robotics Track at Singularity University whose mission is to assemble, educate, and inspire leaders to understand and facilitate the responsible development of exponentially advancing technologies in order to address humanity’s grand challenges. He also served as President of Singularity University from Oct 2010 – Oct 2011.
Jacobstein is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar in Stanford’s Media X Program and was a Senior Research Fellow in the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford University 2006-2007. He has served as a technical consultant on research and development projects for leading business, government, and defense organizations including GM, Ford, FMC, P&G, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NASA, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force to name a few.
Jacobstein has also worked in a wide variety of executive and advisory roles for industry, nonprofit, and government organizations. He continues to give lectures, seminars, and workshops worldwide on the opportunities and risks of artificial intelligence and nanotechnology
Co-Founder of redBus.in, Phanindra Sama is ranked No. #3 amongst India’s Most Promising Entrepreneurs by Business World. Having topped the state in his secondary education and graduating with distinction from BITS-Pilani, Phani worked with Texas Instruments, Bangalore before he co-founded redBus. Being India’s largest bus ticketing company has won him many accolades like Entrepreneur of the year award under IT by ET NOW, the BITSAA 30 under 30 award, Global Shaper 2011 of the World Economic Forum and is also Ranked 4 in ‘Impact digital power 100’ in India in 2013.
Dr. Shroff-Mehta has over 25 years’ leadership, management, and teaching experience in the field of democratic governance, civil society strengthening, and institutional capacity development. She has taught graduate courses in citizen leadership, policy advocacy, and good governance at World Learning’s SIT Graduate Institute and at the School for International and Advanced Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins. She served as the global director for civil society and governance programs at World Learning in Washington, DC and has developed and managed projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.
She specializes in grassroots leadership in civil society and governance sector capacity development, public policy advocacy and reform, multi-stakeholder coalition building, community driven development for local livelihoods and life-skills education, women’s economic and legal rights, and indigenous governance. She has lived and worked with indigenous communities around the world and has received numerous awards from the leading academic institutions in India, England, and the United States of America.
Raghava KK is a renowned Indian artist and a tech entrepreneur, named by CNN as one of 10 most remarkable people in 2010.
He was inducted into the National Geographic Society as an Emerging Explorer for bringing together science, art, and technology in the field of exploration in 2013 and he recently wrote the foreword for Mass General Hospital’s textbook on psychiatry, in which he discusses the importance of cultural sensitivity, perspectives, and empathy in psychiatry
A four time TED speaker, his iPad art book Pop-it, launched at TED, shakes up the concept of the ideal family and presents children with multiple perspectives at the earliest stage. The book won several awards, including a Best of 2011 award from Kirkus.
Currently, he is the CEO and co-founder of Flipsicle, a tech startup out of New York and Sweden, which brings together creativity, technology, and empathy.
UNTOLD STORY: As a school kid, Raghava used to perform magic shows at children’s birthday parties to earn pocket money.
Rajan Anandan began his career with Mckinsey & Co., after which he held top leadership positions in companies such as Dell and Microsoft. Under his leadership Dell has profited from increased revenues of $250million to $800million in just three years. Anandan earned his Bachelors degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his Master’s degree in Engineering from Stanford University.
Rajiv Subba’s sculpture work will make you do a double – no, triple – take. The talented graduate from Chandigarh Art College connected with fellow NID classmate Mamta Gautam to form ‘Dirty Hands’ in 2008, a collective of skilled and specialized architects, designers and artists. Everything really started for Dirty Hands when a Delhi-based designer needed a hyper-realistic silicon mannequin, and thus, work commenced. Two-and-a-half years and several mannequins later, Rajiv and his team created a mind-blowingly realistic sculpture, practically indistinguishable from its human counterpart. Since then, Rajiv has done work for prosthetics in Bollywood films, and hopes to expand into more scientific fields, such as aesthetically superior medical prosthetics. Step aside, Madame Tussaud’s, Dirty Hands is slowly re-sculpting the prosthetics and art industry from all different angles
National Award and Filmfare Awardwinning director, editor and producer Rajkumar Hirani has firmly cemented his place as one of India’s leading contemporary filmmakers. Best known for his hit films ‘Munnabhai: MBBS’ and ‘3 Idiots’, Hirani has a reputation for making films that break all the formulaic conventions associated with Indian cinema, and address some of India’s major social and cultural issues. After completing a 3 year diploma at the Film and Television Institute of India, his first taste of success was in the world of advertising, before making the transition to cinema.
Ramesh Raskar is an Associate Professor at MIT Media Lab. Ramesh Raskar joined the Media Lab from Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories in 2008 as head of the Lab’s Camera Culture research group. His research interests span the fields of computational photography, inverse problems in imaging and human-computer interaction. Recent projects and inventions include transient imaging to look around a corner, a next generation CAT-Scan machine, imperceptible markers for motion capture (Prakash), long distance barcodes (Bokode), touch+hover 3D interaction displays (BiDi screen), low-cost eye care devices (Netra,Catra), new theoretical models to augment light fields (ALF) to represent wave phenomena and algebraic rank constraints for 3D displays(HR3D).
In 2004, Raskar received the TR100 Award from Technology Review, which recognizes top young innovators under the age of 35, and in 2003, the Global Indus Technovator Award, instituted at MIT to recognize the top 20 Indian technology innovators worldwide. In 2009, he was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship. In 2010, he received the Darpa Young Faculty award. Other awards include Marr Prize honorable mention 2009, LAUNCH Health Innovation Award, presented by NASA, USAID, US State Dept and NIKE, 2010, Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project Award (first place), 2011. He holds over 40 US patents and has received four Mitsubishi Electric Invention Awards. He is currently co-authoring a book on Computational Photography.
Website: raskar.info
Know More: Presentation slides, cornor.info, eyenetra.com, compressivedisplays.info
Named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his leadership in wireless communications, Dr. Ramesh Rao is a faculty member at UC San Diego and Director of the Qualcomm Institute (QI), UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology. Prior to QI (Calit2), Professor Rao was also the Director of UCSD’s Center for Wireless Communications (CWC). Dr. Rao is involved on a day-to-day basis with a wide variety of research initiatives at QI. He leads several major interdisciplinary and collaborative projects and has been a PI on dozens of federal-, state-, foundation- and industry-funded grants. Among his most recent honors and distinctions, he received a 2011 Casa Familiar Abrazo Award for engagement with underprivileged area of San Diego.
Dr. Rao earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1984, after receiving his M.S. from the same institution in 1982. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1980 from the University of Madras.
Indian television and film director, Satyajit Bhatkal is best known as the creator of the Indian talk show Satyamev Jayate featuring actor Aamir Khan. Born and raised in Mumbai, Satyajit first practiced law for over a decade. As a student and as a young lawyer, Satyajit was actively involved in important social and political causes and wrote extensively on these issues. After his experiences as an activist and as a lawyer led him to believe he had a story to tell and in his mid-thirties he quit law to work in film and television. Satyajit also wrote and directed ‘Bombay Lawyers’, a critically acclaimed mini-series broadcast on NDTV India, which dealt with important social issues in the format of fictionalized courtroom drama.
Folk music is rapidly disappearing from mainstream music, but never fear! Shantanu Moitra is a man on a mission to save folk musical traditions. Shantanu is a renowned Indian music composer and restorationist. With a father as an accomplished sarod player and his mother as a talented artist, creativity naturally runs through his veins. He has worked on many landmark Bollywood films, including “Parineeta”, “3 Idiots”, and “Madras Cafe”.
In 2014, he received the National Film Award for Best Music Direction (Background Score) for Na Bangaaru Talli. With his compositions and exploration of lost musical traditions, Shantanu constantly contributes to what he strongly believes is the best way to “see” a country — by experiencing its music
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is an Academy and Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker. She spearheads SOC Films, a documentary house specializing in investigative and socially motivated content. Sharmeen is currently directing two feature films including Peacekeepers, a film about Bangladeshi policewomen who are serving as UN peacekeeping forces in Haiti, and Sounds of Sachal, a documentary based on a jazz ensemble in Lahore. She is also the CEO of Waadi Animations, a company set up to produce animated feature and short films. Its first project is 3 Bahadur, Pakistan’s first animated feature film, which will be released nationwide in the summer of 2015. In 2012, Time Magazine included Sharmeen in their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2014, the Asia Society in New York honored her with an Asia Game Changer Award
As a cutting-edge quantum physicist, 2014 TED Fellow Shohini Ghose loves to identify and analyze patterns. While rules of the quantum realm are bizarre, Shohini noticed an even stranger trend in our macroscopic world– the lack of representation and respect of women in higher-powered STEM fields. It’s time to change that. Currently an associate physics professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Shohini is also the director of the Centre for Women in Science, a program designed to create a community for women in science. Shohini is empowering female scientists by providing grants, and organizing workshops for girls interested in science. Watch out world, there’s a new Einstein in town – and she’s helping the next generation of geniuses break gender barriers and change the face of science.
Susan Peret is a humorist, storyteller. She graduated from NYU’s Stern School of Business and previously worked as a consultant at Pricewaterhouse Coopers. She studied writing under Charles Salzberg and at Upright Citizens’ Brigade, among others. She currently produces, curates and performs at live music, art and comedy culture concept shows throughout NYC.
Team Indus is a non-conformist, unconventional alliance of entrepreneurs and explorers who will not stop short of asking for the moon. Team Indus is India’s only entry to the Google Lunar XPRIZE.
Team Indus’ Advisory Board features some of India’s revered thought leaders from various industries, who truly believe in the ability of this team to succeed.
Over 24 engineers & managers with diverse experience and skills form the core of Team Indus, ably supported by a team of 9 retired ISRO scientists, several academicians and subject matter experts.
The founding team features a former Air Force pilot, a management guru, a branding expert, a serial entrepreneur and an aerospace engineer with a passion for space.
The common thread for all is their passion and determination to deliver technology from India to land a robotic craft on the Moon by 2015.
Team Indus is on a mission to lead India into the next generation of space exploration, precision engineering and aviation technology. In the process Team Indus will help redraw the boundaries of private initiative possibilities, inspire an entire generation of entrepreneurs and much more
Ugesh Sarcar is India’s first and only contemporary and revered street magician. Ugesh was trained in the art of magic under the stewardship of his father – the “Living Legend” Prof. M. C. Sarcar. Thereafter, “Ugesh Sarcar’s 3rd Degree,” his first national TV appearance, became an instant hit and the highest rated show for the channel in over 3 years. There has been no looking back ever since, and his performances have won him accolades the world over
For over 44 years now, Usha Uthup has spread a message of love and unity, peace and harmony, tolerance and integrity, and happiness – through music. From discotheques to concerts, across India and the World, she has addressed the youth about the values of music that makes us human. She lives as she believes, presenting even the most contemporary songs dressed in traditional attire projecting the fact that India is a true melting pot of cultures, with its own distinctive cultural identity.
Born in 1947, or Didi as she is fondly called, comes from a traditional middle class South Indian family and her career began in 1969 at a Chennai nightclub called Nine Gems and she has recorded more than a hundred albums in sixteen Indian languages, sung un several thousand concerts, performed in all major countries and has been on television since its inception in India. Usha has served as a role model for generations of young Indians and has been an unwavering ambassador for traditional Indian values.
Usha Uthup’s music has charmed generations of Indians, young and old. People smile, tap their feet, clap their hands, and forget their worries when she performs. Usha’s melody speaks a universal language and transcends religion, race, nationality and caste. She has given people in far-flung cultures an unexpected image of an Indian woman: strong, independent, humorous, intelligent and loaded with talent.
“All that matter is honesty, integrity, and courage to face your conviction.”
Vani Kola is a Managing Director at Kalaari Capital, based in Bangalore, India. Her leadership at Kalaari centers around her commitment to the development of entrepreneurs and her conviction that Indian companies are poised to become global players. Vani brings 22 years of Silicon Valley experience as a founder of successful companies to her role as a mentor and enabler of startup companies in India. She serves on several company boards and speaks widely on entrepreneurship and leadership
There are no artistic boundaries for award-winning dancer Vidhya Subramanian. After dazzling audiences the world over with her performances, receiving international acclaim and having taught the dance as well, Vidhya continues to bring tremendous energy and dedication to promoting and preserving the ancient art form of Bharatanatyam. Known for her bold, modern themes and strong choreography, Vidhya has given back to her specialty of the traditional Vazhuvoor style.
Vidhya started her own Bharatanatyam production company and school called Lasya in California. The school has presented 38 disciples in Arangetrams and the company has performed 9 full-length and several short thematic presentations under her direction. Vidhya’s talent does not stop at just dancing – she has already done 3 stage plays and is currently completing her MA in Theatre Arts
While most kids were grappling with the realities of growing up, Vishal took a head start and started his first company – FACT, soon after finishing school at the ripe young age of 16.
In 1999, he founded Indiagames, then a five member team and today a global operation with over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Los Angeles making Indiagames one of the leading mobile game companies globally. He is recognized as being instrumental in starting and growing the Gaming Industry in India. He sold Indiagames to Disney and headed the Digital business for Walt Disney in India before starting his new venture GOQii Inc. that integrates wearable technology with personalized coaching.
Vivek Wadhwa is a Fellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and Distinguished Fellow at Singularity University. He is author of “The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent”—which was named by The Economist as a Book of the Year of 2012, and ” Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology”—which documents the struggles and triumphs of women. He was named by Foreign Policy Magazine as Top 100 Global Thinker in 2012. In 2013, TIME Magazine listed him as one of The 40 Most Influential Minds in Tech.
Wadhwa oversees research at Singularity University, which educates a select group of leaders about the exponentially advancing technologies that are soon going to change our world. These advances—in fields such as robotics, A.I., computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials—are making it possible for small teams to do what was once possible only for governments and large corporations to do: solve the grand challenges in education, water, food, shelter, health, and security.
In his roles at Stanford and Duke, Wadhwa lectures in class on subjects such as entrepreneurship and public policy, helps prepare students for the real world, and leads groundbreaking research projects. He is an advisor to several governments; mentors entrepreneurs; and is a regular columnist for The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal Accelerators, LinkedIn Influencers blog, Forbes, and the American Society of Engineering Education’s Prism magazine. Prior to joining academia in 2005, Wadhwa founded two software companies
William leads Google’s Education Outreach efforts in Emerging Market countries where he and his team are responsible for empowering educators and students with the tools, skills and knowledge to enhance and extend learning. William champions open and equal access to information, the web as a learning platform and the ability for technology to help mankind reach its full potential. Before establishing the Education Outreach function, William led the Education Sales team in EMEA that launched Chromebooks for Education and supported the growth of Google Apps for Education in both schools and universities throughout these regions.
Prior to joining Google, William was Head of International Sales and Marketing for Blackboard Collaborate, a leader in education technologies. At Blackboard Collaborate, William and his team were intimately involved with the growth and widespread use of real-time collaboration solutions around the world with leading institutions such as The Open University in the UK, the National eLearning Centre in Saudi Arabia, and many schools and Universities in Europe, Asia and Latin America.
Zia Mody is considered an authority on corporate merger and acquisition law, securities law, private equity and project finance in India. She is a Senior Partner of the Law Firm of AZB & Partners which has its offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore in India. Zia Mody did her law at Cambridge University and then went on to do an LLM from Harvard University. Zia is also the recipient of the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence as the Businesswoman of the Year, 2010. She was selected as one of the 25 most powerful women in Indian business by Business Today in 2004 and was selected as one of India’s 100 most powerful CEO’s by the Economic Times in 2005.
