Advisory Council

DR. HK PRADHAN
PROFESSOR OF FINANCE AND ECONOMICS AT XLRI JAMSHEDPUR (INDIA)

Dr. HK Pradhan has been Professor of Finance and Economics at XLRI, Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, with 35 years of experience in teaching, research and consulting. Dr. Pradhan is presently Director on Boards of Organizations such the Clearing Corporation of India Ltd., the State Bank of India-DFHI Limited and Trustee Board of the YES ASSET Management (India) Limited, Mumbai. He also served as the Chairman, the Indian Commodity Exchange (ICEX), Mumbai, member of the RBI Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) on Financial Markets, Independent Director of the SBI Mutual Fund, member of the Board of Micro Credit Rating International Ltd (MCril), member of the Index & Option Committee of the National Commodity and Derivative Exchange (NCDEX), and also served as member of the Board of XLRI. Dr.Pradhan completed his education at Columbia University in the City of New York. He has specialized skill in Finance, Risk Management, Capital Management.

Kanwal Singh Chauhan
HE WAS AWARDED INDIA'S FOURTH HIGHEST CIVILIAN AWARD PADMA SHRI IN 2019.

PadamshriKanwal Singh Chauhan was raised in Aterna, a village in Sonipat district of Haryana. He began farming at the age of 15. In 1997, he began farming baby corn at a time when the main source of the vegetable was imports from Thailand at the price of ₹4000 per kg. He introduced baby corn to the region and began selling it at a price of ₹70 per kg. By 2009, he had expanded into the production of canned baby corn as well as exports. His business, which started as a one-man enterprise, grew to employ over 200 employees by 2019. He also established a fair price system for farmers growing Mushroom, Baby Corn, Sweet Corn and Tomato.

DR. KAMAKHYA NR. SINGH
IEPF RESEARCH CHAIR, THE INDIAN INSTITUTE OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS, MINISTRY OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

Dr. Kamakhya Nr. Singh is currently the IEPF Chair Professor at IICA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Prior to his current role, Dr. Singh was working as the CEO of National Centre for Financial Education (NCFE). He has gained rich experience of Development Sector and Corporate Finance, while working in Asia, Europe and Africa for about 25 years. He had returned to India to set up a start-up for facilitating development of health, education and sustainable development for the underserved sections of Indian society. In the past, he had served as the Technical Expert with UNDP (AMSCO) and Chief Financial Officer of LAPO Microfinance Bank in Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to moving to Africa, Dr. Singh had worked as Technical Expert with Asian Development Bank. Within India, Dr Singh has worked with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in different roles and in different states for about 14 years. He has done MBA from University of Oxford, UK and holds PhD (Development Economics) degree and CFA charter from India. He is a member of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF) and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN).

DR. PIYUSH KR. SINHA
DIRECTOR AT CRI ADVISORY AND RESEARCH AND PROFESSOR AT IIMA

Dr. Piyush Kumar Sinha is the Director of CRI Advisory and Research, Ahmedabad. Prior to this he was professor at IIMA. He has more than three decades of academic and industry experience. He has been the Chairperson of the Centre for Retailing at IIMA. He has taught at leading management schools of India and specialization in the areas of marketing and retailing. Before joining IIMA, he was the Dean at MICA. He has more than 60 publications to his credit, including a book on Managing Retailing. Dr. Sinha has also conducted training programs for senior managers in the areas of Retailing, Marketing and Sales. During his corporate tenure, Dr. Sinha has headed the marketing function of some of the leading companies. As the Marketing Manager of an FMCG company, he was involved in new product launches, media planning and buying, communication planning and production and packaging.He completed his Ph.D. at Sardar Patel University.

DR. RATNESHWAR LAL
PROFESSOR OF BIOENGINEERING, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, MATERIAL SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

Ratneshwar Lal is a professor in the Engineering department at University of California San Diego. Professor Ratneshwar Lal received his MS and Masters of Philosophy in Physics and Biophysics from JNU in New Delhi and his Ph.D. in Neurobiology from the University of Alabama. After postdoctoral training at Caltech, he was a faculty member at the University of Chicago and the University of California at Santa Barbara. Before assuming his current position at UCSD, he was a Professor and the Director of the newly established Center of Nano-medicine at the University of Chicago. His current working Institution is University of California, San Diego in the department of Engineering

Smita Purshottam
FOUNDER OF SCIENCE, INDIGENOUS TECHNOLOGY & ADVANCED RESEARCH ACCELERATOR

Smita Purushottam is the founder of the non-profit Do Tank “SITARA”, a Science, Indigenous Technology and Advanced Research Accelerator, to bring increased vigour to the indigenisation of high-tech production and building a Science Nation in India.An Ex- Ambassador to Switzerland, she loves Bihar and guide BEA in Skill Development, Environment and Clean technology. She has been an expert in Defence Technology. She is a Fellow from Harvard University and part of Global. Think Tank on Innovation and New Products.

PROF. KAMALJIT ANAND
CHIEF SCIENTIST & MANAGING PARTNER | KIE SQUARE CONSULTING

Kamaljit Anand is a professor of IIM Ahmedabad. Hehas done PhD from IIM Ahmedabad, he is a Leader of Data Science in a Growing Organization with interest in Globalizing the Data Analytics footprint. About 15 years of experience in Data Analytics and Consulting across verticals for Fortune 500 Clients as well as in Revenue Linked Classified Areas for Worldwide Governments. He worked as Advisor to several ministries in Govt. of India and abroad and serves as Chief Scientist of KIE Square Consulting mainly based in New York and Gurgaon.He has specialties in Advanced Data Based Marketing and CRM interventions in CPG/Retail, Telecom and BFSI, Marketing Mix Optimization, Risk Management across BFSI and Strategic Government Enforcement Bodies, Macro Economic Estimations across core government areas like Revenue receipts, Gross Domestic Product, Oil & Gas.

Rakesh Ranjan
Director of Engineering, InstanaObservability& Watson AIOps @IBM Automation

Rakesh Ranjan is leading a worldwide product engineering team of Instana (an enterprise observability platform) and Watson AIOps (a domain agnostic platform for Automated problem detection and Resolution). In the era of Hybrid and Multi-cloud IT application infrastructure, Instana is uniquely positioned to take your enterprise observability to the next level. With Watson AIOps, we are bringing top-notch AI-powered automation to detect anomalies, prioritize alerts and help SRE and ITOps remediate problems quickly. He is leading a talented team of engineers, architects, and data scientists across many geographies who solve clients' pressing problems in this space. He is a practitioner and have successfully infused AI-powered automation into IBM products since 2016.Rakesh is leading US Bay area chapter of BEA and setting up a center of excellence for AI in Patna.

Dr. Abhishek Anand Singh
NEURO PHYSICIAN, MENTOR AND INVESTOR, WEST VIRGINIA, USA

Dr. Abhishek Anand Singh is a neurologist.Dr. ANAND studies, evaluates, diagnoses, and treats conditions that affect the nervous system. Neuropathologists are trained to fully understand and treat such conditions as Alzheimers disease and Parkinsons disease. ANAND’s career in medicine began in 2017, when he graduated with his Medical Degree from the Howard university Hospital. He has been passionate about developing Bihar and it's youth with emerging technologies in Health and imbibing modern work processes. He is also bringing New Opportunities to BEA and the state both on Business and Culture domain.

Mr. Bhupati Prasad Pandey
FORMER ADDITIONAL CHIEF SECRETARY, GOVT OF MAHARASHTRA

Mr. Bhupati Prasad Pandey has been former Indian Administrative (IAS), Maharastra Cadre. He is of 1976 batch. He gave 37 years of his life in Public Service. Mr. Bhupati was Member of Fellow of the Indian Council of Arbitration (FICA). He is an alumnus of Patna University. Before joining IAS, He was an Executive Officer in Bokaro Steel Limited. Currently, he is on the Board of Directors for Ekistic Consultancy Ltd. and many more companies. Mr. Pandey carries vast experience in various infrastructure sectors of Environment Protection, Industries, Ports, Power, Steel, Tourism and Water Transportation. He implemented a self-employment policy in Maharashtra which was applauded in the state legislature and gave a platform to youth and women to work for financial freedom. He has been quite keen to work on strength of his experiences to channeling the energy of youth, migrant and women folk.

SARA GROSS
FOUNDER & LEAD. HARVESTING LIVES/COSECHANDO VIDAS/JEEVAN SAMPOSHAN: REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE AND LIVELIHOODS INITIATIVE

Sara R. Gross is the Founder of Harvesting Lives: Regenerative Agriculture and Livelihoods Initiative, Bihar, India & Guanajuato, Mexico dedicated to building dignified, fulfilling & prosperous livelihoods. She is a policy-oriented political economist, researcher & social impact entrepreneur with three decades of experience in Europe, Mexico & the US. She has expertise in the developmental implications of neoliberal reform, trade liberalization, economic integration, technology/telecoms, regenerative agricultural practices to advance developing countries, specifically Mexico & India.She have held advisory roles, such as, to the President of Mexico’s Federal Competition Commission.

DR. SUMEET KUMAR
RESEARCH SCIENTIST AT LYFT, SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Dr. Sumeet Kumar is a Research Scientist at Lyft, San Francicso Bay Area. Dr. S.K. was an Associate at Dean Ventures at Washington D.C. Metro Area since January 2014. He completed his education at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At MIT, he also worked as Research Assistant. There he Designed and fabricated a microfluidic platform for carrying out a biochemical reaction called polymerase chain reaction. He also Investigated implementation of benchtop biochemistry in a micro fluidic environment and developed a 3-dimensional, computationally efficient thermal fluidic model to capture the conjugated heat transport mechanisms in the micro fluidic platform. He works on Big Data Analytics, Machine Learning and working with Facebook.

Dr. Amrendra Kumar Ajay
INSTRUCTOR IN MEDICINE AT HARVARD MEDICAL SCHOOL

Dr. Amrendra Kumar Ajay has been worked on drug development and biomarkers of acute kidney injury using genetic mouse models and cellular signaling. Currently, he is working to find biomarkers and therapeutic targets for chronic kidney diseases. He studied molecular mechanism of chemotherapeutic drug induced tumor regression and cellular signaling in graduation and postgraduate from M.Sc in Biotechnology from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.