ANSHUL TEWARI

Anshul is a social entrepreneur and the Founder of Youth Ki Awaaz, India’s largest media platform for young people to speak up and create an impact. He has worked across media, technology and citizen advocacy to build and scale community driven models of social change. Anshul is an Ashoka Fellow for social entrepreneurship and was named a Young Innovator by the United Nations ITU in 2012. He was also named a Forbes 30 Under 30 media influencer in 2018. He is also a founding trustee of the Misinformation Combat Alliance, a cross industry collaborative effort set up with the objective of combatting and limiting the spread of misinformation through targeted interventions and activities. He previously also served on the UN Women Civil Society Advisory Board for South and South East Asia.

ARUN MAIRA

Arun Maira, an alumna of St. Stephens’ College, is a Management Consultant and Former Member of the Planning Commission of India. He is also the former India Chairman of Boston Consulting Group. Maira was a part of the Tata Administrative Services for 25 years, and has authored several books, including Redesigning the Aeroplane While Flying: Reforming Institutions and An Upstart in Government: Journeys of Change and Learning. Maira has formally held the position of Chairman at Save the Children – India and Axis Bank Foundation, and served at various capacities in educational and management-based institutes, including Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Public Interest Foundation, WWF – India, the World Food Program India Trust, and Aspen India.

ASHHAR FARHAN

Ashhar Farhan is an engineer, entrepreneur, investor with involvement in many startups as well social sectors. He is an angel investor. He has served as director and CXO of many startups and listed enterprises. In his professional career he has had many pioneering breakthroughs including the development of world’s first Urdu Fonts,  Internet telephony, electronic trading systems and open source low cost wireless technologies. He cofounded India’s space startup and where he built and launched India’s first private satellites. He contributed to developing Internet protocols while working with the Internet Engineering Task Force workgroups,  For his contributions to Radio Electronics, he was the 2018 inductee into the CQ Hall of Fame as well as the ARCI Hall of Fame. He has been a regular presenter and keynote speaker at radio electronics conferences. He has contributed to many open source projects.

As a social entrepreneur, he co-founded the TiE Hyderabad chapter to promote entrepreneurship, he was also the events chair of first TiE-ISB Connect. He co-founded Lamakaan, Hyderabad’s Open Cultural Center. He is also cofounder of Daana Farmers Network. He is on the board of Amateur Radio and Digital Communications Foundation, a non-profit that funds research and promoting of radio and digital communications.

He stays in Hyderabad with his life-partner, three children in a neighborhood with his close friends. His other interests include music, Urdu literature, cycling and amateur radio and teaching electronics and programming. He contributes to progressive causes.

DR. AMIR ULLAH KHAN

Amir Ullah Khan is a Development economist and Professor at the MCRHRDI of the Government of Telangana. He is Research Director at the Centre for Development Policy and Practice. Amir is a Visiting Professor at the Indian School of Business, TISS and NALSAR in Hyderabad. He is an economic policy columnist for the LiveMint. Dr. Khan joined the Indian Civil Service in 1993, worked for the Ministry of Finance and the UNDP at Project LARGE, was Executive Director at Encyclopaedia Britannica after which he worked as Director at the India Development Foundation. He served as an Adjunct Professor of Law and Economics at the Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. He was founder Vice Chancellor at the Glocal University in Saharanpur. He subsequently served as Deputy Director and Senior Advisor at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

DR. HEMANT ADARKAR (Senior Fellow and Director Artha Centre for Technology and Innovation)

Dr. Hemant Adarkar is the Technology Advisor and a Resident Senior Fellow at Artha Global. He also serves as a Public Interest Director of NCDEX. Prior to this, he was a Resident Senior Fellow at the IDFC Institute in Mumbai. Hemant is the chief architect for the core banking solution for the largest co-operative bank in Asia, and was a member of the system and technology committees of NSDL and NERL. He conceptualized a digital-only bank within the Bank of Baroda group, headed a team to link more than a dozen ERP systems for a large European food conglomerate, and created the enterprise architecture blueprint for the largest humanitarian organization in the world. He has a PhD in nuclear physics from TIFR, India.

MATHEW CHERIAN

Mathew Cherian holds an engineering degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani and post graduate in rural management from IRMA, Anand, Gujarat. Also a fellow from the Advocacy Institute, Washington DC.

After engineering, he was engaged with oil exploration, with Schlumberger and ONGC. After IRMA, he worked in the area of rural development with cooperatives, in association with the National Dairy Development Board. He was a consultant to voluntary agencies and to the National Wastelands Development Board. His further assignments include the post of National Director, Oxfam, UK and India, Programme Director, South Asia, Plan International, and Executive Director, Charities Aid Foundation. He has founded Charities Aid Foundation in India, Credibility Alliance, a network for accountability and Resource Alliance (to train in fundraising) and founded National Human Rights Network. Former Chair of Mobile Crèches, Chairperson of Credibility Alliance and Resource Alliance. Also serves as Member of the NGO Task force of the Planning Commission, Member of Grants Approval Committee of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Member of the Core Committee of National Human Rights Commission. Is a member of the National Council of Senior Citizens chaired by the Prime Minister.

Mathew currently serves full time as Chief Executive Officer of HelpAge India based in New Delhi, India and serves on the international boards of HelpAge International and GuideStar International. He also serves on the Indian boards of CARE India, Royal Commonwealth Society of the Blind and with the National Foundation of Communal Harmony.

NATASHA BADHWAR

A postgraduate in Mass Communications in MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Natasha started her career as one of India’s first women camerapersons in news television. She worked with NDTV for 13 years and resigned as Vice President, Training and Development. Natasha leads the media team at Karwan e Mohabbat – a people’s campaign devoted to the universal values of the constitution – equality, freedom, justice and compassion. They make short docs that reflect the values of solidarity and inter-faith harmony.

Natasha Badhwar is the author of the memoirs, “My Daughters’ Mum” and “Immortal For A Moment”. Along with Harsh Mander and John Dayal, she has co-edited “Reconciliation – Karwan e Mohabbat’s journey of solidarity through a wounded India”. She has also co-edited “When The Mask Came Off: Lockdown 2020” with Harsh Mander and Anirban Bhattacharya.

As a columnist, Natasha is best known for her 10-year long series of personal-political essays published in Mint Lounge. She currently writes a monthly column for The Morning Context and a fortnightly column titled “Immortal For A Moment” for The Tribune.

SONIA JORGE

Sonia is the Founder and Executive Director of the Global Digital Inclusion Partnership (GDIP). Sonia is an experienced leader and international digital policy expert. She had successfully led global coalitions bringing together private sector, governments, and civil society actors from across the globe to deliver the policies needed to reduce the cost to connect and make universal meaningful connectivity a reality for everyone in global majority countries. As a policy advisor and gender equality advocate with experience in over 45 countries, she has led numerous digital policy and development projects in several regions and with international organizations, such as the World Bank, UNDP, UN Women, ITU, and for private sector companies and associations.

Sonia was recognized by apolitical as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People in Digital Government in 2019. She serves or has served as a member and expert in a number of Committees, including CGAP’s Data Project, DFID’s Digital Access Panel for Africa, the ITU-UN Women EQUALS Partnership, The World Economic Forum’s Future of the Internet Initiative, the Broadband Commission Working Group on the Gender Digital Divide, the Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP) Subcommittee of the U.S. State Department on ICT4D, and the EU-AU Digital Economy Task Force. She is an Advisory Council member for the Digital Empowerment Foundation, an Advisory Board member of UNESCO’s Cetic.br Regional Center, former Board Director with KaiOS Technologies, and a frequent speaker at international, regional and national forums.

SWARAJ SHETTY (Co-founder / Lead – Strategy – Khaanachahiye / Amplifive)

Over 15 years, as a digital marketer and growth hacker Swaraj has played a key role in shaping the growth of social media in India, consistently disrupting the status quo.

At Gupshup, the world’s largest conversational messaging platform he helped build a cutting edge messaging platform, creating powerful communication strategies, and mobilizing communities, powering their growth to over 60 million users in their early growth stage.

With extensive experience in content, marketing, growth, partnerships, and digital strategy, Swaraj has significantly contributed to social impact and civic engagement initiatives. As the co-founder of Khaana Chahiye and the Litmus Test Project, Swaraj drives digital and community-building efforts, focusing on sustainability, active citizenship, and gender equality. He mobilized Mumbai to achieve the highest voter turnout ever recorded (2017) and spearheaded the crowdsourcing of over 7 million meals during the pandemic.

His work has earned him accolades such as the Mumbai Mirror – Mumbai Heroes Award in 2017, the DEF Social Media Empowerment Award in 2017 and 2021, and the WSA Global Champion Award in 2022 for his use of digital tools to support the UN SDGs. As part of the US State Department’s IVLP fellowship, Swaraj had the opportunity to study the US 2020 presidential election campaign from various perspectives.