Speakers

Uday Kotak is the Founder and MD & CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd (KMBL). The net worth of Kotak Mahindra Group (Group) is Rs 89,127 crore as on 30th September, 2021 and the Group has ~83,000 employees. Uday believes that the true measure of performance is sustainable value creation. Investors who kept faith with the enterprise over the past 35 years have seen 40% CAGR on their investments.
Uday’s vision for equitable prosperity extends beyond financial services. The Kotak Education Foundation (KEF) works with some of India’s most economically underprivileged communities, attempting to alleviate poverty through education and livelihood programmes. It’s the constant endeavour of KMBL to enhance its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) capabilities by adopting a purpose driven approach, focusing on sustainable and scalable programmes, in line with the country’s social imperatives and the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
In September 2020, Uday was reappointed as co-Chairman of the Indo-UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP) constituted by Ministry of Finance, Government of India and UK Treasury. Also, in September 2021, the Government of India extended Uday’s appointment as the non-executive Chairman of the new IL&FS board with a mandate to steer one of India’s largest NBFCs out of the crisis that it is caught up in, which Uday took up as national duty in October 2018. He is a member of the Insolvency Law Committee, which has been constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. Uday has served as President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in FY 2020-21 and as Chairman of the SEBI constituted Corporate Governance Committee. In October 2017, the Uday-led panel submitted the report on corporate governance to SEBI recommending sweeping changes to create a more robust and transparent corporate governance framework.
Uday is recipient of the ‘Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ in 2014, ‘Economic Times Business Leader of the Year Award’ in 2015, ‘Businessman of the Year 2016’ by Business India, ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ at Financial Express’ Best Banks’ Awards 2016, ‘USIBC Global Leadership Award’ at the 2018 India Ideas Summit organised by the U.S.-India Business Council, ‘Life Time Achievement Award’ at Magna Awards 2019 by Businessworld, ‘Best CEO in Banking Sector’ by the Business Today Best CEO Awards 2019 and ‘India Business Leader of the Year’ by CNBC-TV18 at the India Business Leader Awards 2021.
Uday holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Mumbai University and a Master’s in Management Studies degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Arvind Krishna is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM. As a business leader and technologist, he has led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain. He has also played a significant role in the development of innovative IBM products and solutions based on these emerging technologies.
Over his 30-year career at IBM, Arvind led a series of bold transformations and delivered proven business results. He most recently drove the successful $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat – the largest software acquisition – that has defined the hybrid cloud market. Together, IBM and Red Hat give clients the unique ability to build mission-critical applications once and run them anywhere.
Arvind previously was senior vice president of Cloud and Cognitive Software, where he pioneered the company’s hybrid cloud business, transformed IBM’s entire software and services portfolio and offerings for cloud, and grew the business. He also headed IBM Research, where he drove innovation in core and emerging technologies including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain, cloud platform services, data-driven solutions, and nanotechnology. In 2016, Wired Magazine selected Arvind as “one of 25 geniuses who are creating the future of business” for his foundational work on blockchain.
As general manager of IBM Systems and Technology Group’s development and manufacturing organization, Arvind led the strategy for data-centric systems and the widespread industry adoption of open and collaborative technology standards. He also grew the IBM Information Management business by 50 percent.
At IBM, Arvind has been an outspoken advocate for learning at every stage of one’s career. He has made scientific contributions in a number of technical fields, including wireless networking, security, systems, and databases. In addition, he founded IBM’s security software business and helped create the world’s first commercial wireless system.
Arvind has an undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is the recipient of distinguished alumni awards from both institutions.

Nandan Nilekani is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Infosys Technologies Limited. He was the Founding Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the rank of a Cabinet Minister from 2009- 2014. Most recently, Nandan has co-founded and is the Chairman of EkStep, a not-for-profit effort to create a learner centric, technology based platform to improve basic literacy and numeracy for millions of children.
Born in Bengaluru, Nilekani received his Bachelor’s degree from IIT, Bombay. Fortune Magazine conferred him with “Asia’s Businessman of the year 2003”. In 2005 he received the prestigious Joseph Schumpeter prize for innovative services in economy, economic sciences and politics .In 2006, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan. He was also named Businessman of the year by Forbes Asia. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 & 2009. Foreign Policy magazine listed him as one of the Top 100 Global thinkers in 2010. He won The Economist Social & Economic Innovation Award for his leadership of India’s Unique Identification initiative (Aadhaar). In 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from E & Y. CNBC- TV 18 conferred India Business leader award for outstanding contributor to the Indian Economy-2017 and he also received the 22nd Nikkei Asia Prize for Economic & Business Innovation 2017. He has been inducted as International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.
Nandan Nilekani is the author of “Imagining India” and co- authored his second book with Viral Shah, “Rebooting India: Realizing a Billion Aspirations”.

Shri Abhishek Singh is an officer of the 1995 batch of IAS with diverse experience of governance and policy formulation with regard to use of Technology for improving Governance.
He is presently posted as CEO MyGov with additional charge of President & CEO NeGD and MD&CEO, Digital India Corporation. MyGov is the Citizen engagement platform of Government of India and enables participative governance. In his role at National e Governance Division, he coordinates projects relating to Digital India, specially Digilocker, UMANG, Geo-Informatics. He has also been leading the efforts on Communications on COVID19.
He has done Masters in Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Mason fellow in May 2013. He is a B Tech and M.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur.
He has worked in diverse Indian States of Nagaland and Uttar Pradesh.

Deepak Bagla has a professional career of over three decades, with the World Bank, Citibank, and Private Equity having responsibilities across Europe, Africa and Asia.
He is currently the Managing Director and CEO of Invest India, the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency promoted by the Government of India. Invest India is also the execution agency for Start-up India and the Prime Minister’s Science and Technology initiative.
He is a member of several High-level Government committees including Fintech and Innovation. Mr. Bagla was on the Investment Committee for the Government US $ 1.5 billion “Fund of Funds for Start-ups” and is on the Advisory Board of the Government $7 billion “Fund of Funds for MSMEs”. He is the President of the Geneva based World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies with membership of 105 countries.
Mr Bagla has a bachelor’s degree with Honors in Economics from St Stephens College, New Delhi and a dual Masters in International Diplomacy and International Trade and Finance from The School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

Debjani Ghosh is the President of the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) since April 2018. A veteran of the technology industry, she is the fifth president of NASSCOM and the first women at the helm in three-decade history.
She is a firm believer in the power of technology in enhancing lives and livelihoods, leveraging it for societal good. She was instrumental in developing ‘Think Digital, Think India’ strategy aimed at establishing India as a hub for digital talent and innovation. Debjani strongly believes technology will have the most impact on humankind when it’s used as an enabler of inclusive growth and that India must lead in the digital era with focus on the responsible build and use of tech as an accelerator and equalizer.
As the NASSCOM President, she actively works with the industry and Government to accelerate the growth of the Industry and strengthen India’s position as hub for Innovation and Digital Talent. Her approach has been focused on a three-point agenda - talent development and re-skilling, strengthening the innovation culture in the country and collaborating with governments across the world to open new opportunities for the Indian IT industry.
The pandemic has created a tremendous opportunity for the tech industry to reinvent itself. The NASSCOM playbook for reimagining the industry focuses on Trust, Digital Talent, People-first Innovation, Agility & Resilience as the core differentiators. Debjani believes that by leveraging these differentiators to the fullest, we can create a future that’s better than the past.
In January 2018, she was felicitated by the President of India under the auspices of the ‘First Ladies’ program, which honors exceptional women pioneers in their respective fields. In 2020, she has been honored by Vogue as the Tech Leader of the year 2020. She has also been listed among the India’s most powerful women in tech by Business Today.
With multiple feathers in her cap, before joining NASSCOM, she was the first woman to lead Intel India and the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), she was also a member of the executive council at NASSCOM. She believes that learning never stops and a trainable mindset is the biggest strength one can have.
Debjani holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, and an MBA degree in marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, India.

As Head of Innovation and Ventures Office, Frank has built the largest Space Entrepreneurship network in the world. His team has initiated over 370 industry transfers, supported over 1.200 start-ups. He supported the exploitation of the ESA IP and promotes the Directorate of Telecommunication and Integrated Application of ESA which has supported additional overt 1000 downstream business cases. His team supports Industry to work with ESA, VC to connect to start ups and help New Space companies into Orbit and on the moon.
Prior to this post he was the Head of Technology Transfer and Business Incubation and before Head of the Commercial Development in the European Astronaut Department of the Directorate of Human Spaceflight Microgravity and Exploration at the European Space Agency.
Before joining ESA, Frank held the position of Founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO and CFO) for an IT start-up, headquartered in Munich, Germany. The company was merged with CANCOM SA.
Frank also spent seven years at Apple Computer as an account and sales manager, responsible for Central Europe. He was positioned in Germany, the US and the Czech Republic.
Being genuinely passionate about the importance of human space flight and the European Space Programme, Frank believes that ‘a society that stops exploring stops progressing’.
Frank is a member of several advisory boards of venture capital funds, international cooperations and start-up companies. He is also a member of the board of EBAN (European Business Angel Network) Space and was a member of the board of directors of the European Business Network (EBN) for over 10 years.
Frank holds a degree in Industrial Engineering, is married, has two sons and lives in the Netherlands and Bavaria.
The Innovation and Ventures office aims to strengthen the European competitiveness, innovation, entrepreneurship, New Space and plays an important role in enhancing the capabilities of the European Industry, while broadening its business horizons and creating jobs, foster growth and investment. It works with all leading industry fields but also with government and start-ups.
The successful framework has been adopted by CERN, Fraunhofer, Airbus Defence and Space, other Space Agencies as well as the government of Singapore.
Space Solutions is present in over 66 locations across Europe and with partners world-wide. His team is bringing Space back to earth and business into orbit.

Rohan Verma, CEO & Executive Director, 17+ years with MapmyIndia. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Stanford University, U.S.A., in 2007, where he was awarded the President’s Award for academic excellence. He received his master’s degree of business administration with distinction from the London Business School, in 2015, where he was awarded the Dean’s List Award. He has significant experience as an entrepreneur in the digital mapping, geospatial technologies and automotive mobility technologies.
As a 19-year-old, he built India’s interactive internet mapping portal, MapmyIndia.com, in 2004, while still an undergraduate at the Stanford University. He currently serves as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry National Committee on Space and represents our Company as a core member in the Indian Space Association. He also serves on the Internet and Mobile Association of India’s (IAMAI) Logistics Committee.
He has also been elected and serves on the CII Delhi State Executive Council. He is an independent director on the board of directors of Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company (listed on BSE and NSE), the financial services arm of Murugappa Group.

Shesha Raghunathan joined IBM in 2011 as part of Electronic Design Automation (EDA) Timing analysis development team. He has worked on various aspect of analysis including noise, timing abstraction and reporting. Currently his focus is primarily on EDA 3.0 (analytics in EDA) and is leading timing triage efforts. Since 2018 he has additional responsibility of being an IBM Quantum Ambassador, now a Distinguished Ambassador + Technical Ambassador, and is Asia-Pacific Geo Lead for the program. Shesha got his PhD in Electrical Engineering (Quantum Computing) from University of Southern California, LA in 2010.

Ankiti is the Co-founder and CEO of Zilingo, which she launched in 2015 at the age of 23. Under her leadership, Zilingo has grown to over USD 1.3Bn in Annual Sales Volumes and is one of the largest B2B fashion platforms globally serving top brands, e-commerce companies, and factory conglomerates. Zilingo digitizes and connects over 900 factories and distributors and helps them trade with thousands of merchants and brands globally. Zilingo also runs Z-Factory, one of Asia’s largest Factory-SAAS platforms that digitizes assembly lines and improves manufacturing production efficiency. Ankiti is driven strongly by the goal of using technology to level the playing field for all types of businesses and offering them easy access to digitalization, working capital, and economies of scale so that they can grow fast and go global. She has expanded Zilingo to be a global business with teams in 8 countries with over 500 employees and has raised over USD ~300 Million at a valuation of USD ~1Billion from several investors including Temasek, EDBI, Sequoia Capital, Sofina and SIG.
Ankiti firmly believes in building scalable and purpose-driven businesses that provide for diversity and inclusion. She launched SheWorkz at Zilingo, an initiative that finances and offers skill-based opportunities to women factory workers, allowing them to be financially independent and work as per their convenience, from the comfort of their homes.
Ankiti is a member of the World Economic Forum, The Endeavour Program and was recently named a Bloomberg New Economy Catalyst. 
She is recognized as a thought leader in the business supply chain digitisation and sustainability and has been a headline speaker at industry events like the Milken Institute Asia Summit, World Economic Forum India Economic Summit, World Economic Forum Virtual Briefing, Fortune MPW Next Gen Summit, Harvard Business School, Forbes Asia Next Frontiers and others. She is an active angel investor in early stage tech startups and especially loves backing female founders. 
Her recognitions include, Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 in 2018 , Global Fortune 40 Under 40 list in 2019, Global Bloomberg 50 list in 2019, Singapore 100 Women in Tech in 2020 and the Bloomberg new Economy Catalyst in 2021.

As the AsiaPacific Business Leader within the Aerospace & Satellite Solutions team at Amazon Web Services, Mani works to enable the space industry to achieve its most ambitious goals through the power of cloud. She is passionate about leveraging transformative services like machine learning, artificial intelligence, high performance computing, satellites & data analytics to improve every aspect of the space enterprise and mission. This entails building innovative partnerships and vibrant connections across private enterprises, public agencies, R&D institutions and start-ups both locally and internationally to deliver outcomes in a range of areas from space enabled agriculture, emergency & disaster management through to defence space, space exploration and earth observation research.
Mani is a Stanford University alumni and currently serves on SmartSat CRC’s Artificial Intelligence for Space in Australia, advises the Queensland Government’s Space Industry Reference Group on matters pertaining to the growth of the state’s growth industry and is a member of the American Chamber of Commerce Space Committee. Mani is outspoken on the power of technology innovation as a societal game changer and the significance of space industry to the nation’s social well being and economic prosperity. She is strong advocate of women and minorities in technology, dedicated to empowering and uplifting young women. And can often be found, passing on that sense of adventure to the next generation of students to pursue STEM careers.

Tina Jabeen is currently the founding President of Bangladesh Startup Consortium – a platform founded in 2020, in response to COVID 21 which drives policy level and ecosystem build-up support for the startups. As Managing Director in US Market Access Inc., Tina leads its Asia practice. In Summer 2021, Tina founded BD AIR – a Silicon Valley based network of Bangladeshi tech expats, which mentors Bangladeshi startups.
Since 2018, as the Strategic Advisor Tina has been advising Bangladesh University Startup Accelerator in running the accelerator program.
Tina’s network of access includes numerous foreign government agencies as well as private companies in technology, banking, health care, private equity, venture capital, and accelerators.
Formerly a Senior Director for PwC USA and Director for Horsley Bridge Partners, Silicon Valley, Tina brings 27+ years of executive experience having held senior positions in such prestigious global firms in the areas of financial due diligence, valuations, equity structures, cross border taxations and venture capital governance.
Until Fall 2021, Tina served as the founding Managing Director and CEO of Startup Bangladesh Ltd., a VC fund by owned by the Government of Bangladesh. Tina led the ICT Ministry’s establishment and launch of the fund to support the country’s fledgling start-up sector.
Since 2016, Tina has served as the Investment Advisor to ICT Division, Bangladesh where she spearheaded major strategy and technical initiatives of setting up a pioneering grant platform to develop and foster the startup ecosystem in Bangladesh.
Tina has assisted the ICT Division in policy and investment initiatives with other governments and private industries across Asia, North America, and Europe. She promotes entrepreneurship and start-up ecosystem initiatives at prestigious international forums such as the World Economic Forum (Davos), Singapore FinTech Festival, UNDP: Youth Co:Lab, UN CDF and UN ESCAP Women Empowerment Recovery Fund.
Since 2016, Tina has split her time between her home in Silicon Valley and Dhaka.
Tina is a CPA and an alum of Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley. (1995)
Skills
• Government policy and program development
• Intergovernmental relations & Public-private partnership facilitation
• Building startup ecosystem & companies grounds up
• Technical expertise in financial due diligence, valuations, equity structures, and governance models
• Stakeholder collaboration and consensus building
• Speech writing; public speaking; media (television and print) interviews

An IIM-A alumnus and a Chartered Accountant, Anand Kumar Bajaj is the Founder, MD & CEO of PayNearby. With over 21 years of experience in Digital Payments and Mobility, Anand holds six patents in banking technology and has worked earlier with YES Bank, ICICI Bank, and Ernst & Young. Previously, he was the President and Chief Innovation Officer at YES Bank, where he led several high-impact programs in digital payments. At PayNearby, Anand steers the company’s strategic direction and growth, and he, along with his team, is committed to enabling the reach of digital payments and financial services at the first mile by empowering retailers.

Ruchira Shukla is the South Asia Regional Lead for Disruptive Technology Investments at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group. She oversees IFC’s investments in early stage technology businesses as well as VC Funds, and represents IFC on the boards of several startups and LP advisory committees. Ms. Shukla is also the Global Sector Lead for HealthTech at IFC.
Previously, Ruchira ran IFC’s South Asia business in Technology, Media and Telecom. She has over 25 years of experience across venture capital and private equity investing, strategy consulting, and investment banking across Asia, US and Europe. Her sector focus spans consumer internet, enterprise technologies, B2B eCommerce, healthtech, edutech and elogistics, with a keen interest in business models that leverage emerging technologies such as AI, IoT and blockchain to disrupt traditional spaces.
Ruchira studied at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad in India. She also graduated as Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Shinjini Kumar is co-founder of SALT (mysaltapp), a fintech platform for women to buy financial products. Prior to setting up SALT in early 2021, Shinjini has worked for three decades in various senior roles in Indian financial services. Shinjini started her career with the Reserve Bank of India and moved on to Bank of America Merrill Lynch, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Paytm Payments Bank and Citibank, where she was the Country Business Manager for Consumer Bank, India. She is also co-founder of Indian Novels Collective, a platform to popularize translations from Indian languages. She has degrees in English Literature, journalism and Public Policy from DU and University of Texas at Austin, Texas.

Driven by the vision of quantum computing as a revolution in computing technology, Joe quit his tenured faculty position to found Horizon Quantum Computing in 2018. Drawing on over 15 years’ experience in quantum computing and computational complexity theory, today he fully dedicates his time to Horizon with the goal of making quantum computing a general purpose computing technology capable of addressing some of the world’s most challenging computational problems.
Joe received a BSc in Theoretical Physics from University College Dublin and a DPhil from Oxford, where he went on to become a fellow of Merton College. Prior to founding Horizon, he led the Quantum Information and Theory group at Singapore University of Technology and Design, where he was a tenured associate professor, and was a principal investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies. He has published at the highest levels in both theoretical computer science (FOCS, STOC, CCC, ITCS) and physics (Science, Nature Physics, Physical Review Letters, Physical Review X), and has been named as a National Research Foundation Fellow and to the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35 Asia list.

Mr. TC Meenakshisundaram (TCM) is Founder & Vice Chairman of Chiratae Ventures India Advisors. He has over 37 years of industry experience, including 18 years of venture experience. Serves on the Boards of Lenskart, Agrostar, Vayana, Kristal.ai, Pando and ShopSe.
Earlier as part of Walden International’s team, TCM was involved with investments in Mindtree, Venture Infotek and Jobstreet.
Prior to Chiratae Ventures, TCM served as Chief Financial Officer and President – Corporate Services at Venture Infotek (acquired by Atos Worldline), a leading payment processing company in India. Prior to Walden International, TCM has worked for 14 years at Wipro where he last served as General Manager – eCommerce Division.

Gurjodhpal Singh was appointed CEO for Tide India, in January 2021. He is an experienced leader in the industry, with 13 years in FinTech and financial services.
Most recently, Gurjodhpal led the SME merchant payments and credit businesses at PayU, the leading payment service provider in India; and has extensive experience of providing superior services to MSMEs.
He boasts considerable experience in supporting Indian SMEs over many years, and is now at the helm of Tide in India, to establish the business in India and scale it over the coming years. Gurjodhpal is passionate about helping SMEs across India digitise and use intuitive technology to help them save time (and money) on the running of their businesses.
At PayU, he was key to setting-up and scaling the SME merchant payments business. He was instrumental in acquiring 300,000+ SME merchants over four years through digital & non-digital channels.
With all this experience in the sector behind him, Gurjodhpal looks to create something new for Indian SMEs that will empower them to reach their full potential.
He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and has been recognised as India's 100 Great People Managers by Forbes India in 2019.

As the CEO for niyogin, Tashwinder is responsible for creating and implementing the vision and mission, leading the development and execution of long-term strategies and building shareholder value. Tashwinder comes with more than 27 years of leadership experience in both strategic and operational roles with significant background in General Management, Banking, Wealth Management and Private Capital Investing. He has been associated with Citigroup, KKR and O3 Capital in his previous roles where he held executive leadership positions. Tashwinder is an accomplished team-builder with a passion for setting the corporate vision, defining and implementing future-driven strategy and growing businesses through entrepreneurial innovation and a customer-centric approach. He has proven abilities across all levels of organizational management to build and manage “scale of business” which is the focus for Niyogin’s platforms in business services, wealth and payments. During his long career in the Banking industry, he has built expertise in the areas of Investment Banking, Commercial Lending, Deal Diligence, Underwriting, Principal Investing & Asset Management Businesses in India. He holds a Master in Business Administration degree from the Faculty of Mgmt. Studies (Delhi University) and BE (Electrical) from Delhi College of Engineering (Delhi University).

Ashish Wadhwani is the Founding Director and Managing Partner at IvyCap Ventures. He has over 25 years of experience in Venture Capital, M&A, and Strategy Consulting. IvyCap is a Venture Capital fund build around the alumni of premier institutions of India and manage about 125m USD of Capital.
During his career, Ashish has led and managed investments of over USD 250 m and also a NASDAQ listing. In addition, he has also worked on about 15 M&A transactions. Ashish has worked with companies across the investment lifecycle, from incubation to exit. He advised over 40 companies on business strategy, growth, implementing new business models, mergers and acquisitions across Asia, India and Europe. Ashish sits on the board of several privately held companies in India and Asia.
Ashish has also found and run his own ventures, and is a member of the board in several companies across the APAC region. Ashish is also currently servicing as a board member of TiE Singapore.
Ashish was a strategy consultant with Roland Berger, Monitor Group and Deloitte. Ashish was also part of Tata Industries, the holding company of the Tata group where he build strategy for group companies and was involved in several investment and divestment decisions. Ashish expertise is across Technology, Energy and Manufacturing verticals.
Ashish is a regular speaker and author on thought leadership topics.. He holds a post-graduate diploma in management from the IIM Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech. degree from the IIT Delhi.
Ashish was born in Jamshedpur, India and has been living in Singapore and working across Asia since 2000.