Speakers

Aalok Deshmukh

Director: Energy Efficiency, India, Schneider Electric

Mr. Aalok Deshmukh is currently the Director- Energy Efficiency, India at Schneider Electric. He has over 17 years of experience spanning contributions to more than 125 projects in 11 countries, including energy efficiency implementation, consulting and research in the corporate, government and non-profit sectors. In 2016, he was recognized as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Fellow (LEED Fellow), the highest professional credential awarded by Green Business Certification, Inc., USA. He has experience in sustainability strategy, green buildings, building energy benchmarking and energy code implementation assistance, building simulation, energy auditing, building commissioning and retro-commissioning, as well as measurement and verification.

Aanchal Kumar

Environment Officer, Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL)

Ms. Aanchal Kumar is an officer at EESL and a Future Energy Leader at the Word Energy Council. She has over 8 years of experience in the field of sustainability and energy efficiency. She has also worked on research studies in the field of clean energy in collaboration with the World Resource Institute (WRI), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and AEEE.

She is currently working on setting up Public Electric charging infrastructure across India in collaboration with various ministries and stakeholders across the government by developing scalable and impactful business and financial models.

Abhay Bakre

Director General, Bureau of Energy Efficiency

Abhay Bakre is a Post Graduate (M. Tech.) in Elect. Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur. He belongs to the 1988 Batch of Indian Railways Electrical Engineering Services, Ministry of Railways. He has worked in several Railway projects including Delhi Metro & Kolkata Metro extension projects. He is currently the Director-General of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). Before BEE, he has also worked as Joint Development Commissioner in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and was a Nodal officer for National Manufacturing Competitiveness Programme. He also played an instrumental role in the development and implementation of various programs aimed at petroleum & energy conservation in industry, transport, domestic sector, etc. He has also taken up nationwide mass media campaigns through PCRA and other oil companies to generate awareness among consumers on the adoption of simple fuel-saving measures in day-to-day life. He was the nodal officer for developing INDC for the Railway sector along with a roadmap for Green House Gas reduction in Indian Railways. He also participated in the transport sector events of COP 21 held in Paris and COP 22 held in Morocco.

Ajay Kumar Kapur

Former- Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI

Mr. Ajay Kumar Kapur is a finance professional with around 35 years of experience in development finance – most of which with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) from where he retired in November 2019 as Deputy Managing Director. A graduate from IIT, Roorkee, he started his career as Industrial Engineer with Tractors Ltd. Besides 5 years of shop experience in industry, he has gathered diverse experience in the field of finance including large project financing and monitoring across several sectors, MSME advances, receivable finance, factoring, infrastructure finance, venture capital, private equity, sustainable finance and credit guarantee. He has served as CEO of SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd. and has been associated with establishment of MUDRA, Receivable Exchange of India Ltd. He has been active player in the area of finance relating to energy efficiency, cleaner production methods, green finance and sustainability and led successfully several programs in these areas involving concessional funding, grants and guarantees with windows of support from bilateral and multilateral agencies such as KfW, JICA, DFID, The World Bank, etc.

Ajay Mishra

IAS, Special Chief Secretary (Energy), Telangana Government

Ajay Misra, is a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of the 1984 batch and working in the State of Telangana. He is at present holding the post of Special Chief Secretary to Government, Energy Department, Govt. of Telangana. As Special Chief Secretary to Government, Energy Department, he has to play a pivotal role to play to ensure responsible uninterrupted quality power to the people of the State of Telangana.

He has been entrusted with the full additional charge of Scheduled Castes Development Department. He has been entrusted with a full additional charge of Minority Welfare Department. In the combined state of Andhra Pradesh, he has started his career as Sub-Collector, Tirupati, Chittoor District and Sub-Collector, Mulugu and Collector, Warangal District. Besides, he performed the duties as Chief Rationing Officer and Addl. Municipal Commissioner, Hyderabad. He also worked in Transport Department as Commissioner and Secretary to Government, Rural Drinking Water Supply and Information Technology and Infrastructure & Investment, Home Department and as Principal Secretary (Political).

Allabaksh Naikodi

Head – Research and Development, Mahindra Electric Mobility Limited

With over 32 years of experience, Dr. Allabaksh Naikodi is presently heading the Product Engineering Department of Mahindra Electric – the Electric Vehicle Company of Mahindra. He obtained Ph. D in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Chennai) in 1995. Before joining Mahindra Electric, he has worked for ABB, Honeywell, Schneider Electric and Tech Mahindra. He is the member expert committee – Government of India on EV sub-systems and charging infrastructure development. He has filed fourteen patents in EV Technologies.

Andrew Fleming

British Deputy High Commissioner to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

Andrew Fleming became the Deputy High Commissioner to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in July 2017. His role includes promoting business and trade between the UK and India’s Telugu region and connecting with people on local issues. For example, Andrew participated in Swachch Bharat initiatives to clean up Hyderabad, and encouraged others to join. As the head of the Deputy High Commission he has supported projects on community cohesion and interfaith, countering violence against women, human trafficking, child sexual abuse, fake news and youth empowerment.

Andrew joined the British Civil Service in 1986 and has held a wide variety of roles in the UK and abroad. He has worked in Uganda, Ghana and most recently Nigeria, but has worked on international policy issues in many parts of the world including South Asia. Aside from many years working on international migration issues, he has also advised ministers on community cohesion and faith-related policy. He observed elections in Ghana (2008) and Nigeria (2015).

Anil Kumar Jain IAS

Secretary, Ministry of Coal, Government of India

Mr. Anil Kumar Jain is currently serving as the secretary in the Ministry of Coal, Government of India. He is a 1986-batch IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre. He has more than three decades of administrative experience at the field and policy formulation levels in various Ministries/Departments in the state and central governments. Before joining, Ministry of Coal, he was the Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change from 2017- 2019. During his posting as Special Secretary to Ministry of Environment and Forest from July 2019 to September 2019, he played a pivotal role in developing and launching of India Cooling Action Plan.

Anil Kumar Jain holds a BA (Honours) in Economics, an MBA, and a Diploma from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade. He has published a number of papers and articles on the energy sector, including a book on natural gas policy framework in India (OUP, Oxford). He has been a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Oxford, UK.

Anjali Jaiswal

Director, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)- India Program

Anjali Jaiswal collaborates with local partners in India to advance energy efficiency, promote solar energy, and protect communities from the impacts of climate change. Previously, she was a member of NRDC’s litigation team, fighting for stronger efficiency standards in appliances and increased protection of wilderness. She also spent six years working with NRDC’s water program in the Los Angeles office. In 2005, Jaiswal was selected to be a fellow in the Nehru-Fulbright Indo-American Environmental Leadership program. She has been profiled by both Marie Claire and the Daily Journal. She holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences from the University of California, Riverside, and a JD from Hastings College of Law. She is based in San Francisco.

Anna Agarwal

Fellow, Centre for Policy Research

Dr. Anna Agarwal is a fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. She works on India’s energy demand transitions and identifying ways to lock-in low-carbon energy consumption patterns for the long-term. Anna’s work currently focuses on examining the cooling-related energy demand particularly the demand for air conditioning in urban households. Before joining CPR, Anna was the Associate Director-Urban Innovation and a Senior Fellow at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC- India). Anna holds a Ph.D. and an SM degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an undergraduate degree from IIT Delhi.

Archana Walia

Director, India Program, CLASP

Dr. Archana Walia brings twenty-five years of experience dealing with policy and development of program strategies in the field of energy and environment. Her experience includes analysis of the economic, institutional, technological and environmental costs and benefits of various regulatory, policy and technological changes especially relating to clean energy and energy efficiency.

Currently, serving as the Director of India program at CLASP, she provides leadership, management, and strategic direction to all program activities to ensure the efficient use of resources and achievement of results. She also oversees strategies for India’s participation in the Global and regional programs. Previously, Archana served as the deputy director of the Office of Clean Energy and Environment at USAID/India and prior to that, she worked with the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) managing India’s first-ever Power Sector Reform She is an environmental scientist and holds a Ph.D. degree.

Arijit Sengupta

Director, Bureau of Energy Efficiency

Mr. Arijit Sengupta is a Director with the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Ministry of Power, Government of India. In this role, he is responsible for International Cooperation, New Initiatives and Planning & Statistics. Apart from this, he is also responsible for coordinating with other Ministries on technical matters.

Arijit Sengupta is an MBA from Delhi University, Certified Energy Auditor and Chemical Engineer having around fifteen years of the overall experience, of which he has worked on various Energy Efficiency projects.

Arunabha Ghosh

Founder-CEO, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)

Dr. Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. He is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), consistently ranked (six years running) as one of South Asia’s leading policy research institutions; and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2016. With experience in 45 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN’s Committee for Development Policy.

Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society and international organisations around the world. He is the co-author/editor of four books and dozens of research papers and reports. His 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) crossed 100,000 views within three weeks of release. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, member of WEF’s Global Future Council on Energy, an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader, and a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow (fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network). His monthly columns in the Business Standard (Inflexion Points) and the Hindustan Times (Over The Horizon) are widely read. He holds a D.Phil. from Oxford and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Ashok Sarkar

Senior Energy Specialist and Task Team Leader -Energy Efficiency
(South Asia, GCC and the Middle East regions), The World Bank, Washington DC

Dr. Ashok Sarkar manages energy efficiency (EE) operations at the World Bank headquarters in Washington DC. In the last 25 years, he has done clean energy operations in 35+ countries, valued cumulatively at $2.5+ billion. In 2006, he had established the Bank’s global EE Community of Practice and managed it for seven years. He is currently working on projects in EE, solar PV, electric mobility and sustainable cooling, in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Yemen, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa, and Sao Tome & Principe. In India, he manages the World Bank’s $300m EE loan operation with EESL and $43m PRSF project with SIDBI. Dr. Sarkar had earlier worked in ADB, USAID, RMA (in Madison, Wisconsin), and BHEL (where was a project design engineer for Vijayawada Thermal Power Station- Units 3&4). A mechanical engineer from the Delhi College of Engineering, India, he has a Masters in Energy Planning and Policy from AIT, Bangkok, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. Dr. Sarkar has been publishing, presents, and teaches extensively, including as regular visiting faculty for the last 15 years at the University of Oslo’s summer energy program. He had earlier served as a Member of the CDM Methodologies Panel at the UNFCCC (2005-07) and as the Chair of UNEP’s Global Experts Task-Force on LED Lighting (2015-17).

Ashok B Lall

Principal, Ashok B Lall Architects

Dr. Ashok Lall graduated from the University of Cambridge U.K. in Architecture & Fine Arts and obtained the Architectural Association Diploma in 1970. His architectural firm (estd. 1981) is committed to an architectural practice based on the principles of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The firm has won several awards and its work has been published widely. Engaged in architectural education since 1990, he has developed curricula and teaching methods to address environmental issues. He has published many articles and presented papers on environmentally sustainable design and has been an active member of institutions and groups promoting awareness and building competence in the sustainable design of buildings. He has been invited to present his work on sustainable design for a developing world at various fora in India and internationally, including UK, Australia, Switzerland, Egypt, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Uganda, Iran, Philippines, and Mexico. He was chair of the Jury for the Holcim Awards for Sustainable Construction, Asia Pacific Region. He is presently Design & Technology Chair at Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture (KRVIA), Mumbai. His current interest is in developing strategies for sustainable urban development in the context of rapid urbanization.

Ayaz Kamil

Head – Energy & Performance Services, Siemens

Mr. Ayaz Kamil is an entrepreneurial leader driving strategy and business growth for Energy & Performance Services in Siemens. He takes pride in being a sustainability enthusiast and aspires to be a digitalization expert. He is a mechanical engineer with a Masters in Marketing Management. A LEED accredited professional who has worked on various green building projects having 17+ years of experience in diverse functions such as sales, business development, operations, and project management in HVAC and Energy Services Sector.

Bhaskar Natarajan

Advisor, AEEE

Dr. Bhaskar Natarajan has over twenty-five years’ experience in the field of energy policy and sustainable development, working with funding agencies, managing grants, and working with grassroots agencies to implement renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. He has worked on projects, supported by World Bank, USAID, ADB, UNDP, CIDA and DFID among others, and has been a part of several official government and industry committees of energy and environment. He has also written and published in national and international journals and other publications apart from contributing to a book on Renewable Energy Policy. He has worked with the USAID PACE-D project as Deputy Chief of Party (Energy Efficiency) prior to which he was the Managing Director of C-Quest Capital Green Ventures (the Indian arm of C-Quest Capital, US). He is presently a Senior Advisor with AEEE.

Benjamin Hickman

Regional Technical Advisor, Asia and Europe, UNEP

Benjamin is the regional advisor for Asia and Europe at the UN Environment-led District Energy in Cities Initiative and is directly advising Indian cities and government on best-practice technology, policy and business models to scale-up district cooling. Benjamin joined UN Environment in 2014 from an energy consulting background and was initially based in the Initiative’s secretariat in Paris helping the Initiative grow to support 14 countries worldwide today. Benjamin has recently transitioned to UN Environment’s Delhi office to expand the Initiative’s efforts in one of the fastest-growing cooling markets in the world. Benjamin has a background in renewable energy policy, financing, and market modeling and a BA in Physics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Environmental Technology and Energy Policy from Imperial College London.

Bharath Jairaj

Director, Energy Program, WRI India

Bharath Jairaj leads WRI India’s Energy program, which seeks to inform and catalyze India’s transition to clean energy through increased use of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The program also seeks to enhance access to reliable and affordable energy such that it leads to socio-economic development in the country. He is also a Senior Associate with WRI’s Governance Centre and co-leads the global Electricity Governance Initiative (EGI) that seeks to strengthen governance of the electricity sector.

Bharath is also involved with WRI projects focused on social inclusion, reducing poverty, improving governance and making cities more equal and sustainable. Prior to WRI, he was part of civil society efforts and public interest campaigns in India, south, and southeast Asia to strengthen and enforce environmental laws, improve urban governance, and protect the rights of citizens and consumers. Bharath has a law degree from the National Law School of India (Bengaluru), a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore and a Master in Law from the National University of Singapore.

Chaitali Basu

Assistant Professor, SPA, Delhi

Dr. Chaitali Basu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Building Engineering and Management, School of Planning and Architecture (SPA-D) since 2016. She received her Ph.D. in Building Engineering and Management from SPA-D in 2018. She also holds Master’s degrees in Construction Management (SPA-Delhi), and Business Management (UK). Dr. Basu was a BHAVAN Fellow in 2017-18 and completed her research in ‘Building Performance Evaluation for Energy Efficient Retrofitting Planning of Multi-family Residential Buildings’ from School of Planning, Design, and Construction at Michigan State University, USA. She is an ECBC Master Trainer, LEED AP, and IGBC AP, and has worked as Project Manager (Sustainability) for achieving LEED & GRIHA ratings for prestigious public projects across New Delhi. Her research interest spans from the functional performance of buildings, project scheduling to disaster-resilient project planning and reconstruction management.

Chinmaya Acharya

Interim CEO, Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SHAKTI)

Chinmaya Acharya is the Interim CEO at the Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (Shakti). In this role, he leads the organisation’s efforts to support design and implementation of largescale clean energy and environment solutions. He works with his team to identify priority intervention areas, design and manage meaningful activities, and forge partnerships with sponsor agencies and implementing partners for smooth implementation.

Chirag Baijal

Managing Director- Commercial HVAC, India Region

Chirag Baijal is the Managing Director of Commercial HVAC, India Region & Chairman of the Board for Carrier Airconditioning & Refrigeration Limited. In this role at Carrier Corporation, Chirag is responsible for managing Air conditioning business with brands like Carrier, Toshiba Air conditioning for India region including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh & Nepal. Chirag was the Director for Channel Business managing Light Commercial & VRF Businesses across sales & aftermarket & Commercial Sales Businesses Director managing Carrier Chillers & Toshiba brand Airconditioning business prior to his current role. He carries over 19 years of diverse experience in the Refrigeration, Tools & Automotive Equipment, Financial Services & Building industries.

He has worked with Carrier for over 14 years and has worked in leadership roles over a while across the country. Chirag is considered as a thought leader in the field of Sustainability & Business Management and is actively involved with CII – Indian Green Building Council in promoting Green Building Movement in India. He is currently a member of the IGBC Executive Board in India. Chirag is also a member of the Executive Council of the Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) & supports them in creating a self-reliant energy-efficient economy through policy, research & Industry partnerships. Chirag is also involved in supporting the thought leadership on regulations in the field of energy efficiency with RAMA & BEE.

Clotilde Rossi di Schio

Specialist, Energy, Transport and Cooling, SEforALL

Clotilde Rossi di Schio is part of the SEforALL policy team, where she works as Specialist in the Energy and Transport and Cooling for All initiatives. Before joining SEforALL, Clotilde had been working in the energy field in the private sector for more than 12 years, part of McKinsey’s German office and Mitsubishi Heavy Industry’s Turboden spa. Until recently, she has been collaborating as a research assistant with the SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, where she researched about decarbonization strategies through electrification. Clotilde has an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and a Master of Science in Mechanical/Industrial Engineering from Vienna University of Technology.

Ekta Mehra

Senior Finance Specialist, KFW

Ms. Ekta has over twelve years of experience in Project Finance, first as an Investor Banker with SBI Capital Markets Ltd then in Development Finance as Senior Sector Specialist with KfW, the German Development Bank. In KfW, she has worked on the € 100 mn Solar Line of Credit with Bank of Baroda and € 250 mn Line of Credit with SBI for Energy Efficient Residential Housing.

Jagabanta Ningthoujam

Senior Associate, Rocky Mountain Institute (India)

Mr. Jagabanta is a Senior Associate with RMI (India). He focuses on mobility and electricity issues in the country. He is currently involved with the National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage specifically advising on battery manufacturing in the country.

Jagabanta comes from a background of energy consultancy and development. Prior to RMI, he worked with the World Bank Group and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in the energy and climate sectors in areas including material and mining, power systems planning, and urban transportation. Previously, he was with IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates (IHS CERA) in its Singapore office as a research associate. At IHS CERA he worked extensively on nuclear, power, gas, and renewable projects in various geographies across Asia.

Jarnail Singh

Deputy Director (India), MacArthur Foundation

Jarnail Singh recently joined the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as their Deputy Director (India). He co-leads the Foundation’s climate initiatives in India. Most recently, Jarnail led the India team of ‘The Climate Group’, a UK-based international non-profit and was the youngest member of their executive leadership team. He specializes in business-led climate action, international climate policy and using strategic communications as a lever for change. Previously, he has worked with ‘The Energy and Resources Institute’ (TERI). He also advises various boards and start-up incubators in his personal capacity. He was selected as a Feldman Fellow to pursue an MA from the Heller School, Brandeis University (USA) and holds an MS in Environmental Studies from TERI School, Delhi.

Jayant Prasad

Executive Director, cKers Finance

Mr. Jayant is a Banker with over 22 years of experience, including 18 years in a large private bank. He is presently co-Founder and Director at cKers Finance a sustainability NBFC. cKers was set up in 2016 as a market maker debt venture focused on catalysing mainstream debt into Sustainable Energy (distributed renewable energy and energy efficiency). It has financed execution of over 40 MW of clean energy projects across distributed renewable energy generation, eMobility, and energy efficiency.

Prior to this, Jayant was heading the Micro Finance (loans to MFIs and direct lending to Self Help Groups) and Financial Inclusion vertical of ICICI Bank. Previously, he was a Senior Client Banker in the Corporate Banking group handling multiple client relationships and helping arrange term debt, project finance and structured debt for clients. Prior work experience with the bank includes 5 years in Product Head positions for online retail banking products for overseas geographies. He had headed the team which had started country operations in a major European country, setup treasury systems, and an enterprise-wide middleware system. He has an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and an Electrical Engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering.

J.B.V.Reddy

Scientist-E, Department of Science & Technology (DST) Government Of India, Ministry of Science & Technology

Dr. J.B.V.Reddy is a graduate in Electronics & Communication Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and MS (Research) from IIT Delhi. He has done his doctoral thesis on “Advanced Signal Processing and Machine Intelligence Techniques for Power Quality Assessment” from SOA University, Bhubaneswar.

He has a professional career of more than two decades in the promotion of science & technology through policy framework as well as direct intervention through various national and international R&D promotional programmes.

At present, he is implementing clean energy research scheme supporting projects in the area of Smart Grids, Building Energy Efficiency, Methanol & DME and Clean Coal involving academic institutions, national R&D labs, and industry.

Jennifer Layke

Global Director, Energy, World Resources Institute

Jennifer Layke is the Global Director, Energy Program at the World Resources Institute. Jennifer leads a team of over 40 energy specialists around the world demonstrating approaches to deploying energy efficiency, renewable energy, and energy access solutions. Her work has focused on innovative energy procurement paths for corporate and city use of clean energy.

Jennifer co-founded the Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA), a public-private collaboration of over 35 partners supporting 30 cities implementing efficiency policies and projects in support of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SEforALL). Her pioneering U.S. Green Power Market Development Group created in 2000 was an early foundation for nearly two decades of corporate renewable energy procurement efforts. She led WRI’s work on U.S. cap and trade design from 2006-2009 in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership.

From 2010-2014, Jennifer created and directed Johnson Controls’ Institute for Building Efficiency, a global initiative to provide information and analyses on the technologies, policies, and practices to deliver high-performance buildings. Jennifer’s international experience includes consulting for the World Bank and the U.S. EPA on technology transfer for ozone layer protection under the Montreal Protocol. In 1990, she was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Foundation fellowship for a year of sociology research in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.

She has an A.B. in Asian Studies/Political Studies from Pitzer College in Claremont, CA, and was a student at Nanjing University, China during her undergraduate years. She also has an M.S. and MBA from the University of Michigan’s Erb Institute for Sustainability.

Jyotirmay Mathur

MNIT Jaipur

Jyotirmay Mathur is Professor and Head of the Incubation Centre at Malaviya National Institute of Technology, Jaipur (India). He has supervised 16 Ph.D. thesis, published more than 80 research papers in referred international journals and has presented more than 150 papers/talks, international seminars/conferences, besides authoring/editing 5 books in the field of energy. He works in the field of energy planning and modeling, building energy simulation, energy conservation in buildings, and life cycle assessment of renewable energy systems. Current activities of Dr. Mathur include studies on adaptive thermal comfort, modeling of passive cooling systems, and long-term energy system modeling penetration of renewable energy.

Karthik Gogula

Assistant Manager, Bounce

Mr. Karthik Gogula is presently working as Assistant Manager with Bounce in policy and Government alliances team. In the past, he has worked with KPMG and as a consultant for Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh state government departments (Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Skill Development). He was actively involved in research analysis of diverse policy issues that range from urban mobility, Renewable energy, EV promotions, Rural development, Waste Management to Climate change, etc. He has also worked as Deputy Manager in EID Parry part of Murugappa group on various energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. He has done his masters in Development Studies from TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences), Mumbai and bachelors from Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT).

Ken Haig

Senior Director, Market Development & Regulatory Affairs, Oracle Utilities

Dr. Ken Haig is Senior Director of Market Development and Regulatory Affairs for Oracle Utilities, covering the Indo-Pacific region. He is based in Japan and is also a Research Associate at Hokkaido University’s Graduate School of Public Policy as well as Chair of the Energy Committee at the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Ken joined Oracle from Opower, and prior to this, he was an academic teaching political science and policy studies in the United States. Ken holds a B.A. from Harvard University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kiran Ananth

Principal Counsellor, Confederation of Indian Industry

Kiran Ananth heads the Energy and Projects team of CII- Godrej GBC, Hyderabad. He is an Accredited Energy Auditor and holds an M Tech Degree in Energy Conservation & Management. He leads a team of over 30 professionals. He has been involved in conducting over 200 detailed energy audits and over 75 training programs on energy management across various industrial sectors. He has been associated with CII for over 18 years and is partnering with various stakeholders in promoting CII’s initiative titled- ‘World Class Energy Efficiency in Indian Cement Sector’. Apart from assisting Indian cement companies to enhance their energy efficiency levels, Kiran works with the Indian cement sector in other initiatives including- promoting alternative fuel usage, co-processing of waste in cement kilns, adoption of waste heat recovery in cement industry.

Madhusudhan Rao

Managing Director, Oorja Energy Engineering Services

Madhusudhan Rao is the Founder of Oorja Energy Engineering Services which focuses on Renewable and Energy Efficient Cooling & Heating solutions for industrial and commercial requirements. His expertise lies in renewables and energy efficiency-based solutions for large industrial, commercial and military requirements. His experiences include implementing various innovative solutions like Radiant Cooling, Geothermal heating & cooling, Solar & Waste Heat based Cooling, Solar heating & drying for industrial process heat. He holds a Bachelors in Mechanical Eng’g and a Masters in International Business. He also has professional degrees from TERI University and Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Malcolm Cook

School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University

Professor Malcolm Cook is Professor of Building Performance Analysis in the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering and leads work on indoor air quality and thermal comfort modelling. For the past 20 years, he has worked on the design and performance of natural and mixed-mode ventilation systems and is one of the world’s leading experts on Computational Fluid Dynamics modelling of natural ventilation. Output from research projects have included: a new coupled airflow/thermal comfort simulation tool, design guidance for the use of computational fluid dynamics for modelling natural ventilation and a new sensor and control device for monitoring and controlling naturally ventilated environments. He regularly collaborates with researchers around the world, including UC Berkeley, Karlsruhe University (Germany) and CEPT University in Ahmedabad. He has published over 60 refereed journal papers and his work has been used in several CIBSE and ASHRAE publications.

Markus Wypior

Deputy Director, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)

Markus Wypior has over 20 years of experience in project management, bilateral and multilateral development co-operation, policy advisory and strategic planning in telecommunications, energy, environment and climate change. Presently, he is responsible for the implementation of the Green Energy Corridor module within the Indo-German Energy Programme. He leads a multi-disciplinary team of experts in the field of large-scale grid integration of renewable energy and provides advisory services to various stakeholders on forecasting, scheduling, balancing and ancillary services.

Mr. Wypior graduated as an economist (Master’s degree equivalent) from Bonn University in 1997. Before joining GIZ he worked mainly in telecommunications and other infrastructure projects in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, South and Southeast Asia.

Namrata Dhamankar

Director, Sprout, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Architecture, BNCA, Pune Founder Member, Sustainability Initiatives, Pune

Namrata has a degree in Architecture from the University of Pune and a Master’s degree in Environmental Design from Cardiff University, U.K. Namrata brings with her more than 12 years of academic as well as professional knowledge in Environmental design and planning. She has worked with a leading organization like ARUP, U.K. and Design Concepts, Dubai in the past. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Environmental Architecture, BNCA. She is also the Director of Sprout, green building design and consultancy firm based out of Pune. She has also been a visiting faculty at the Symbiosis Institute of International Business. Her core areas of expertise are climate responsive design, building physics and building performance analysis and simulation. Currently, Namrata is also a core committee member of the IGBC, Pune Chapter and the convener of the Students Chapter at IGBC. She is also an IGBC AP and GRIHA Trainer.

N. Janaiah

VC & Managing Director, TSREDCO, Hyderabad

Er. Neelam Janaiah is Vice Chairman & Managing Director for Telangana State Renewable Energy Development Corporation Ltd. (TSREDCO). He is having a Master degree in Business Administration with Human Resource Management as specialization and also

holds Bachelors of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from NIT – Warangal (formerly REC- Warangal). Prior to TSREDCO, he has served for Telangana State Electricity departments at various

positions and contributed valuable services in the fields of Generation, Transmission, and Distribution with an overall experience of 30 years. In recognizing his services in the state, government has appointed him as VC & MD to TSREDCO from September 2018.

During his carrier in the electricity departments, he played a key role in promoting the renewable energy power generation and its efficient distribution in the state. His interests are also in promoting other renewable energy programmes in the state in an innovative manner. He is presently working towards increasing the RE share in total

power generation through solar PV rooftop, floating solar, wind-solar hybrid systems etc, promoting the energy conservation activities in various sectors such as Buildings, Industries, DISCOMs, ULBs through Demand Side Management and implementation of EV Policy in the state of Telangana.

Pawanexh Kohli

former CEO, NCCD & Chief Advisor DAC&FW

Professor Pawanexh Kohli was the former CEO of NCCD, an autonomous PPP advisory body of the Government of India. His over 3 decades of professional expertise spans domains, from international shipping, free trade zones, multi-modal logistics, and public policy. The existing incentive schemes, guidelines and the minimum system standards for India’s cold-chain development programs were authored under his tutelage. He was a core member and knowledge partner to the inter-ministerial Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income and is on the Steering Committee on implementation of Montreal Protocol. Prof. Kohli features in various publications as a thought leader and as an expert on many global platforms. His opinions stem from hands-on experience in processes, policy development, and food logistics systems. An ardent believer in innovation, he always seeks those that are pragmatic and lead to environment friendly solutions.

Peter DuPont

Managing Partner, Asia Clean Energy, Partners

Dr. Peter du Pont is Co-Founder and Managing Partner in Asia Clean Energy Partners, an international consultancy that provides services and solutions for clients in the development and business sectors. His area of expertise is in climate and clean energy. He has more than 30 years’ experience developing sustainable energy and climate programs in the U.S. and Asia. He has a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in Energy and Environmental Policy from the University of Delaware.

Pierre Jaboyedoff

Swiss BEEP, SDC Consultant leader

Mr. Pierre Jaboyedoff experience ranges from passive simple housing up to large hospitals and watch industries. He has been a consultant for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation organisation like TERI since 1992 in the small-scale industry sector and since 2011 as the leader of the Swiss Project Management Technical Unit of the Project BEEP (Building Energy Efficiency Project). His main field of expertise is in simulation assisted integrated design of buildings (passive design strategies, HVAC and renewable technologies). He has master degree in mechanical engineering from EPFL with a special focus on energy and thermal engineering.

Piyush Sharma

Technical Expert, Indo-German Energy Programme (IGEN), GIZ

Mr. Piyush Sharma is a mechanical engineering graduate from Nagpur University. He has around 12 years of experience, mainly in Industrial energy efficiency. His experience also includes design engineering, commissioning, operation and efficiency of Thermal Power Plants. He joined GIZ, bilateral technical cooperation between Govt. of India and Germany, under the Indo-German Energy Programme (IGEN) in 2013. He initially worked for the efficiency improvement of around 100 thermal power generating units, under the Power Plant optimization component of the IGEN in coordination with CEA. He is presently working on the PAT scheme since 2015 with the BEE.

Prasad Vaidya

Senior Advisor, AEEE & IIHS, Director, Solar Decathlon India

Prasad Vaidya is Senior Advisor, Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) and leads the effort for Solar Decathlon India. Until recently, he was a Professor and Area Chair for Building Energy Performance at CEPT University in India. He has over 25 years of experience in working on energy policy, energy efficiency program development, and net-zero-energy building projects. Mr. Vaidya is a LEED Fellow and volunteers on committees for the US Green Building Council (USGBC). He is a member of the Technical Resources Group for the Clinton Climate Initiative. He holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Sir J J College of Architecture.

Priya Sreedharan

Senior Clean Energy Technical Advisor, USAID

Dr. Priya Sreedharan is the Senior Clean Energy Technical Advisor with USAID/India, where she provides technical and strategic guidance for USAID/India’s ongoing and new activities in grid modernization, clean energy, regional energy cooperation and air quality. Priya has more than 18 years of experience in the domains and intersections of sustainable buildings and power sector, etc. She has worked towards energy transition in both the US and India. She has PhD and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

R. Harikumar

Joint Director, Energy Management Centre – Kerala

Dr. R Harikumar is the Joint Director of Energy Management Centre, the State Designated Agency for EC Act, of Central Ministry of Power and Former Director of Agency for Non-conventional Energy and Rural Technology (ANERT), Department of Power, Govt of Kerala. He is a Graduate in Mechanical Engineering; Post Graduate in Energy Conservation & Management and holds a Ph.D. in Energy Management. He was instrumental in launching the “Soura” – a joint program of KSEB & ANERT, targeting 1000 MW of Solar by 2021. He has more than 25 years of experience in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Trained at the National Productivity Council during 1992, he worked for a national energy consultancy organization in North India.

Harikumar had a brief stint in a chemical processing industry and then worked for more then 2 years in the first ESCO (Energy Services Company) in Asia, at Bangalore, before joining the Energy Management Centre (EMC), Kerala in 1997. From Sept 2006-Sept 2009, he was on deputation to ANERT as its Project Director, leading its district operations in the areas of biogas, biomass gasifier, solar PV/thermal, and improved cooking stoves. A Certified Energy Auditor of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, he is the Honorary Founder General Secretary of the Society of Energy Engineers and Managers (SEEM), the professional body of Certified Energy Managers and Auditors in the country. Harikumar has traveled widely within the country for renewable energy/ energy efficiency capacity-building programs as a faculty member of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

R.K Rai

Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency

Mr. R.K.Rai, a Mechanical Engineer with Post Graduation from IIT Roorkee joined the Ministry of MSME (Earlier known as Small Scale Industries) in 1993. He has vast experience of serving the Indian industries through various assignments at State and Central level under the Ministry of MSME and presently as Secretary, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in the Ministry of Power, Government of India.

He has represented the country in various International Fora, while leading delegations, organizing trade fairs, attending mid-career training, workshops, seminars, etc.

Mr. Rai has vast experience in the areas of Skill Development, International Cooperation and Project Development, Implementation & Management. He has been a Member of the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT) and Boards of Various State & Central Organisations for the past several years.

He has been responsible for the Design and Implementation of various Schemes & Public Policies. Apart from being responsible for the Tool Rooms & Technology Development Centres, he has also conceptualized, designed and coordinated the Technology Centre Systems Programme – TCSP (A World Bank assisted Project) of the Ministry of MSME. This program will cover the entire nation with up-gradation of 18 existing Technology Centers (earlier known as Tool Rooms) and building new-age Tech Centers at 15 more locations. He has also coordinated Micro & Small Enterprise – Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) apart from 18 Technology Centres, both considered to be flagship programmes of the Ministry of MSME. Recently, Mr. Rai has joined Ministry of Power as Secretary, BEE.

Rahul Tongia

Fellow – Brookings India

Dr. Rahul Tongia is a Fellow with Brookings India in New Delhi. His work focuses on technology and policy, especially for sustainable development. He leads the energy and sustainability group at Brookings India and is also active in broader issues of technology. Tongia’s work spans the entire gamut of electricity, with focuses on supply options including renewable energy (covering finance, grid integration, etc.); smart grids, which use innovative information and communications technology to improve management of the electric utility grid; issues of access and quality; and broader issues of reforms and regulations, including electricity pricing. He is also an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University and was the founding Technical Advisor for the Government of India’s Smart Grid Task Force.

Rajan Rawal

Executive Director, CEPT University

Professor Rajan Rawal is a faculty member at CEPT University and Executive Director of “Centre for Advanced Studies in Building Science and Energy” (CARBSE) at the CEPT Research and Development Foundation. He teaches energy-efficient built habitat, energy modeling, energy policy at the postgraduate level. His work emphasis is on the ‘energy performance of human habitat’ and ‘architectural science education’.

Rajat Gupta

Oxford Brookes University, UK

Dr. Rajat Gupta is Director of the multi-disciplinary Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development and Low Carbon Building Research Group at Oxford Brookes University (Oxford, UK), where he also holds a senior professorial chair in sustainable architecture and climate change. He is currently PI of £1.5 million UK-India EPSRC-DST project on residential building energy reduction in India (RESIDE), and co-leader of a RAEng/Newton Fund project on building performance evaluation for improved design and engineering. Rajat is also Co-I of £8 million EPSRC EnergyREV Consortium on smart local energy systems (SLES) and lead academic in the Innovate UK funded £13.8 million smart local energy demonstrator – Local Energy Oxfordshire. Rajat has produced over 200 publications.

Rajiv Kumar

Managing Director, Microsoft IDC and Corporate Vice President, E+D India

Mr. Rajiv Kumar is the Managing Director, Microsoft India Development Center (IDC) and Corporate Vice President of Microsoft’s Experiences and Devices (E+D) India Group.

Rajiv started his career at Microsoft as a Software Development Engineer 27 years ago. He moved to IDC 15 years back to start the Dynamics CRM and Office product development team. A 10-member team in 2004, supporting Dynamics CRM, it has grown to 2500+ today and is now called the E+D India team, delivering innovation across productivity solutions for desktop, mobile and web. Rajiv’s team also led the incubation and launch of Kaizala from India and today, the enterprise chat-app is globally available in 40 languages across 180 countries.

Rajiv holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee and a Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Texas, Austin. He was awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award (DAA) for Excellence in Engineering Innovation by IIT Roorkee.

Rajnath Ram

Adviser (Energy), NITI Aayog, Government of India

Rajnath Ram is currently the Adviser (Energy) at NITI Aayog, Government of India. He has been working on Government policy and program formulation related to Oil and Natural Gas, Renewable Energy, Power, and Coal. He is also leading the initiative of Energy Data Management to create a robust energy data management system of international repute and is in charge of the initiative to set up an Energy Modelling Unit within the NITI Aayog. He has published various articles on the Shale gas, PMUY, and Energy Data Management.

Mr. Ram has also worked as Joint Adviser (Infrastructure) in the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, heading the technical standard division wherein he was associated with the formulation of technical standards and specification including safety standards pipelines of petroleum and natural gas, city gas distribution networks and of Emergency Response and Disaster Management Plans (ERDMP) of Indian Oil & Gas Sectors and Onsite verification of ERDMP. Also, he looked after the overseas engagements – India-US Energy Dialogue, India-China Strategic Economic Dialogue, NITI Aayog – DRC, PRC Dialogue, and the Twinning program with Australia.

Mr. Ram is a B.Tech in Petroleum Engineering from IIT (ISM) Dhanbad and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi.

Ranganath N.K

Managing Director, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd

Mr. Ranganath N K is the Managing Director of Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd. from its inception in 1998.He is from the 1980 batch of XLRI (Business Management) post a degree in Mechanical Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy and has worked in manufacturing and projects both in India and abroad. He has been the Past President of the Madras Management Association (MMA), past Chairman of the Tamilnadu Council of CII and past Chairman of AEEE (Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy). He has been on the national committees of CII for skill development, manufacturing, CSR and water etc. and has also been on the FICCI water committee. Currently he is co-chairing the CII National Committee on Water and the Southern region CII committee on Job creation. He is an Independent Director on some listed and non-listed companies and on the advisory boards of a couple of NGOs.

Ravichandran Purushothaman

President, Danfoss India

Ravi Purushothaman has been closely involved with the industry and active in developing technology road maps, building networks for cold chain alliances and driving skill development in the HVAC & R industry. A strong believer in Industry-University interaction, he has crafted several successful university interaction programs pan India. He is a thought leader in promoting Energy Efficiency, Sustainable technologies, and Green buildings to Engineer Tomorrow’s India.

He also currently heads the CII National Taskforce for Cold Chain Development in India, where he emphasizes the development of the cold chain sector to support the agriculture and horticulture growth in India.

He has more than three decades of experience in building businesses in India, Asia Pacific, and Europe, with more than half of it in Danfoss and before that, at Siemens, in various leadership capacities. He became the President of the Danfoss India Region in 2013 and instrumental in spearheading the ‘Make in India’ initiatives for Danfoss in India.

Sanjay Bajpai

Head, Technology Missions Division (Energy, Water & all Other), Department of Science & Technology, Government of India

Dr. Sanjay Bajpai is an experienced Advisor and is currently the head of the Technology Missions Division (Energy, Water & all Other) with the Government of India. He has a demonstrated history of working in various Government administration. He is a strong research professional with a Doctor of Philosophy – Ph.D. in Alternative Fuel IC Engines from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. His skills lie in Research and Development (R&D), Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency, Research, and Technology Transfer.

Saranya Anbarasu

Research Associate, CARBSE

Ms. Saranya Anbarasu is a student of M.Tech Building energy performance program of CEPT University specializing in Building science and energy. She also worked as a research intern at CARBSE (Center of advanced research in Building science and energy, Ahmedabad) focusing on Changeover control algorithms in Mixed-mode buildings. She has completed her bachelor’s in Architecture and has a two-year practice experience. After the masters, she pursued 6 months funded BHAVANs research internship at the University of Colorado Boulder to develop Modelica based open-source simulation models for Evaporative coolers, which can be a potential contribution to IBPSA Modelica library. Recently she has joined CARBSE as a research associate, continuing her works in Modelica and LECaVIR.

Satish Kumar

President & Executive Director, AEEE & Convenor – ENERGISE

Dr. Satish Kumar is an international energy efficiency expert and serves as the President and Executive Director of the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). He has also served as a senior energy efficiency advisor or technical expert in energy efficiency to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, NITI Aayog, Energy Efficiency Services Limited, Bureau of Energy Efficiency, Bureau of Indian Standards and Department of Science and Technology (DST), Confederation of Energy Efficiency. Prior to AEEE, he was the Vice President and Energy Efficiency Ambassador and led the Energy Management business at the Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd., In his 25+ years of work experience, he has held many leadership positions in business, policy advisory, research and non-profit organisations in the USA, India and Europe and is recognized as a triple-sector leader. He has a Bachelor of Architecture from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, a Ph.D. in Building Science from Carnegie Mellon University and was selected by Schneider Electric for its Business Leadership Executive Program at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flager Business School and received the LEED Fellow status from the US Green Building Council in 2014.

Shikha Bhasin

Programme Lead, CEEW

Shikha Bhasin is a researcher on climate change mitigation policies with a keen interest in innovation systems of low-carbon technologies. She is currently leading the Council’s research on cooling and phasing down hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). She has previously worked on regulatory frameworks required to meet India’s Kigali Amendment commitments, and the institutionalization of an R&D platform for supporting the phase-out of HFCs, in India. A co-author of the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), she continues to serve as a member of the implementation committees for the ICAP on R&D and the servicing sector.
A graduate of Delhi University and the London School of Economics and Politics, Shikha has worked extensively on policy-focused international technology cooperation research projects on climate change for over seven years. Her research lies at the interface of policy and academia and has been used to ascertain strategies in various governments, international organisations, and philanthropies. Shikha has also served as an Advisory Board member to the Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN) instituted by the UNFCCC and contributed to the inception and working of the UNFCCC’s Technology Mechanism.

Shloka Nath

Head – Sustainability and Special Projects at Tata Trusts & Executive Director, India Climate Collaborative

Shloka Nath currently leads the Sustainability and Special Projects portfolio at the Tata Trusts, one of India’s leading philanthropic foundations. In this role, she is focused on the organization’s work on climate, energy, and environment, implementing and funding sustainable and scalable solutions that help both people and nature thrive through India. She is also the Executive Director of the India Climate Collaborative, an India-led platform founded in 2018 by a group of philanthropies interested in continuing to accelerate India’s development, while also exceeding its climate goals. Prior to this, Shloka co-founded and was the Managing Partner of Sankhya Women Impact Funds, a gender lens fund with a focus on sustainability. Shloka is also an active angel investor in social enterprises and has mentored organizations across sectors. She has spent over a decade in journalism with the BBC in London, as a news anchor with New Delhi Television (NDTV) and Principal Correspondent with Forbes in Mumbai, with a special emphasis on financial inclusion, sustainability, and public policy. In 2010, Shloka was nominated for India’s highest awards in journalism for her reportage on microfinance in India.

In 2014, Shloka served as Campaign Manager for Meera Sanyal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Candidate for Mumbai (South), for India’s General Elections. She was also formerly a speechwriter at the House of Lords (UK) and founded the Research and Studies Programme for Gateway House, a foreign policy think tank in Mumbai. Shloka has a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BSc in Government from The London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also the author of the book, “Hidden India: Journey to Where the Wild Things Are” (April 2018), a compendium of photographs and writing about Indian wildlife and landscapes.

Shobhana K Pattanayak

DG, ASCI

Dr. Shobhana K Pattanayak holds a Degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the Department of Studies & Research in Environmental Science, Gulbarga University, Karnataka, India; Masters in Science (Hons.) in Biological Sciences from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India; a Post Graduate Diploma in Environment Law from National Law School of India University, Bangalore; and a Diploma (CIAP from Ecole Nationale d Ádministration (ENA) Paris, France with specialization in Public Finance.

Prior to being appointed as the Director-General of the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), he was Secretary for the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India till 2018. He also held the position of Additional Chief Secretary, Home Department, Government of Karnataka (July 2013 to February 2016) and Principal Secretary, Energy Department, Government of Karnataka (Jan 2013 – June 2013). He was the first Mission Director, National Horticulture Mission, Government of India at the time of its launch in 2005. He also served as Registrar, University of Mysore.

During the period 2009-12, he was posted as Minister (Agriculture), Embassy of India, Rome & Alternate Permanent Representative of India to UN Agencies in Rome, he served on the Evaluation Committee and the Executive Board of IFAD; held the position of Member, Finance Committee (2009-11 & 2011-13) and Chairperson of Committee on Agriculture, FAO (2010-2012) and President of Executive Board, WFP (2012) in Rome.

Shubhashis Dey

Associate Director (Energy Efficiency), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation

Shubhashis is a climate change and energy efficiency expert with 16 years of experience in providing advisory services on initiatives related to energy efficiency, climate change mitigation and adaptation in sectors such as industry, transport, forestry, water, urban infrastructure, and buildings. He is a Postgraduate from IISWBM, Kolkata, and Bachelor of Engineering from Nagpur University. Shubhashis is currently working as Associate Director – Energy Efficiency Program at Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation. Shubhashis provides strategic planning, leadership, and guidance to Shakti’s Industry, Buildings, and Cooling program. After joining Shakti, he mobilized philanthropic efforts to support areas including energy transition of industries; energy efficiency and thermal comfort in affordable houses and sustainable cooling for all.

Sneha Sachar

Strategic Advisor, AEEE & Consultant Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI)

Sneha Sachar is a Strategic Advisor for the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE). Her areas of specialization are in cooling, and the interrelation of energy efficiency and environment at large, including sustainable energy solutions and utility DSM strategies. She is a LEED accredited professional (BD+C). She did her B. Arch. from the Institute of Environmental Design in India, and her MBA from Darla Moore School of Business in the USA.

Somesh Kumar

IAS, Chief Secretary to Government of Telangana

Sri Somesh Kumar was born on 22nd December 1963 in the State of Bihar. He has earned a post-graduate degree in Psychology from the University of Delhi. Before joining the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the year 1989, Sri Somesh Kumar worked as a psychologist in DRDO for about two years between 1987 and 1989. As a civil servant, he began his stint as the sub-Collector, Bodhan and went on to serve as PO, ITDA; Addl. Commissioner, GHMC; Collector, Anantapur Dist.; Project Co-ordinator AP Urban Service for Poor; Commissioner, Collegiate Education; Commissioner, Tribal Welfare. As GHMC Commissioner, he is credited with the introduction of now popular Rs. 5-a-meal scheme and the launch of the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).

Sri Somesh Kumar served as the Principal Secretary, Tribal Welfare Dept. from November, 2015 to December 2016 and introduced the much-acclaimed Chief Minister’s ST Entrepreneurship & Innovation Scheme. As the Principal Secretary, Revenue, Commercial Taxes and Excise, Sri Somesh Kumar ensured a smooth transition to the GST regime plugged loopholes and tax evasion through technological and policy interventions and brought about several measures to curb leakage in the excise revenue. Sri Somesh Kumar was serving as the Special Chief Secretary (Revenue, CT, Excise) and CCLA (FAC) before being appointed as Chief Secretary to Government of Telangana on 31st December 2019.

Srihari Dukkipati

Fellow, Prayas Group

Mr. Srihari Dukkipati is Fellow at Prayas (Energy Group), where he works on energy data and modeling. He has been part of various working groups on improving energy data management in India convened by NITI Aayog and the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation and has authored several reports/papers on the topic. He has co-developed an energy systems model focusing on end-use demand estimation. Before joining Prayas, Srihari worked in the wireless communications industry.

Srinivasa Raju Chintalapati

Founder and Investment Advisor, iLabs Group

Mr. Srini Raju is the founder of iLabs Group. It is one of the pioneers of the Investment Ecosystem in India. Over the years, it has grown its scope in terms of both Investment and Industry. Srini has over 35 years of experience in Information Technology, Venture Capital and Private Equity. Prior to iLabs Group, Srini was Founding CEO & MD of Dun & Bradstreet Satyam Software (later became Cognizant Technology Solutions) and Satyam Enterprise Solutions. He has an MS in Civil & Environmental Engineering from Utah State University, USA and a BS in Civil Engineering with Honors from REC (NIT), Kurukshetra. Srini is passionate about Educations and Skills Development. He is a Founding-Member & Member of Governing Council of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad; Industry Partner (Donor) & Member of Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Sri City; Executive Board Member of Indian School of Business (ISB) and Benefactor of Srini Raju Center for Networked Economy (SRITNE); Co-Sponsor (Donor) and Board Member of KREA University; and Founding-Member & Board Member of T-Hub, Hyderabad.

Srujana Raghupatruni Patnaik

Founder, Cellerite Systems

Srujana Raghupatruni has M.Tech from IIT Delhi in Electrical Engineering. Post IIT Delhi, she was working with Shell as Senior Associate Electrical Engineer in Malaysia, Netherlands, and India. After which she was actively involved in research on alternate sources of energy, developing linear motors, electric bikes, control aspects of charging of energy storage systems and microgrids. Her passion for alternate, sustainable solutions for transportation drives her work. At Cellerite Systems, she is responsible for overseeing the development of new technologies for battery charging and assessing their potential to become new products or services. She has been past Secretary of PES/IAS/PELS Jt. Chapter of Hyderabad Section and champions the cause of green mobility and electrical safety.

Starlene Sharma

Climate and Cleantech Investor

Starlene Sharma is the founder of soon to launch Green Arth, an investment fund and consultancy structured to catalyze the commercial success of climate innovation in India. Additionally, she is the founder of Cleantech Women’s Innovation Network (CleantechWIN), Climate Editor for Business India and mentor for Climate LaunchPad, Climate Collective, the Powered Accelerator, and TechStars.

Previously, Starlene worked at Sangam Ventures where she established India’s first cleantech incubator and accelerator while implementing new models for investing in early-stage companies. Starlene has had two tech-for-development startups in India and started her career at Landmark Advisors, a New York hedge fund. Starlene completed an MPA from New York University and an MBA-E from ESADE Business School in Barcelona.

Steve Nadel

Executive Director, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Steve Nadel has worked at ACEEE for nearly 30 years and is currently serving as Executive Director of ACEEE Utilities and Buildings programs. Before ACEEE, he planned and evaluated energy efficiency programs for New England Electric, a major electric utility; directed energy programs for the Massachusetts Audubon Society (Massachusetts largest environmental organization); and ran energy programs for a community organization working in the poorest neighbourhoods of New Haven, CT. Mr. Steve Nadel has worked in the energy efficiency field for around 35 years and has over 200 publications on energy-efficiency subjects.

Steven Fawkes

Chairman, EnergyPro Asset Management Ltd

Dr. Steven Fawkes has over 30 years’ experience at the intersection of sustainable energy and finance. He founded EnergyPro in 2012 to advise corporates, investors, and the government on financing energy productivity. EnergyPro has executed more than £60m of investment into the UK on behalf of its JV with EESL, the Indian government’s super ESCO. He has been a NED for private and public companies and sits on the Investment Committee of the London Energy Efficiency Fund. He has published extensively on energy and sustainable finance, including a blog: onlyelevenpercent.com and received awards from the Energy Institute, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy and the India Business Group.

Subhashree Basu

Associate Program Officer, Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF)

Ms. Subhashree Basu is an Associate Program Officer at the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) in New Delhi, India. She has previously worked as a Program Associate at the IUSSTF. Her work at IUSSTF entails strategic planning; interfacing with federal agencies, academia, and industry in India and the U.S. towards conceptualizing and facilitating programs; implementing various programmatic activities; R&D Program management and, conducting organizational outreach. In her roles at the IUSSTF, she has designed, implemented, and monitored the Research Initiative for Real-time River Water and Air Quality Monitoring (WAQM) Program; various visitation/exchange programs for students and scientists envisaged to address the issue of skill-development and capacity-building namely Bhaskara Advanced Solar Energy (BASE) Fellowship Program, Building Energy Efficiency Higher & Advanced Network (BHAVAN) Fellowships and Bioenergy-Awards for Cutting Edge Research (B- ACER) Program. These programs encourage collaborative research and relationships between individuals and institutions in the United States and India. She received her Master’s in Biochemistry from Jiwaji University, Gwalior in 2012.

Sudheer Perla

Country Manager (India), TABREED

Sudheer is the India Country Manager for TABREED, a UAE based district cooling utility that provides sustainable cooling as a service to over 250 million square feet of real estate developments across the GCC. Having commenced his stint at Tabreed leading its corporate finance function; he played a key role in the completion of a $1.7 billion balance sheet recapitalization plan in 2011. He has since worked in a variety of roles leading regional asset management and business development functions during which period he successfully established the business and sustainability case with real estate developers for district cooling and oversaw the development of several new greenfield assets or acquisition of captive cooling assets that led to investments over $400 million by Tabreed. An Oxford University management graduate and a chartered accountant by profession, his prior roles include PwC and Infosys in India.

Sunita Purushottam

Head of Sustainability, Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd

At Mahindra Lifespaces, Dr. Sunita is responsible for devising its low carbon and green building strategy, setting science-based targets and monitoring, zero waste to landfill strategy and creating a roadmap for achieving company’s sustainability goals and Apart from this, she drives the CSR work at TERI-CoE, and Green Army. Sunita is responsible for providing thought leadership for Sustainable Leadership Housing Coalition in which Mahindra Lifespaces is a founding member.

Before joining Lifespaces, Sunita was Head of Sustainability at Treeni Sustainability Solutions, which is a start-up in sustainability performance management space (www.treeni.com). Before Treeni, she was instrumental in setting up the Sustainability Practise at Infosys and responsible for developing and delivering sustainability strategy consulting offerings for large global companies. With over 20 years of experience as an environmental and sustainability consultant, she specializes in Strategic Impact Assessments, development of Sustainability Strategy, low carbon strategies, supply chain strategy, and Waste Management to name a few areas of her work. She is also a fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society London with a keen understanding of Climate Change.

Sunita has international experience and worked in the UK, USA, and India with leading companies. She has worked with WBCSD on the Action2020 working committee project in developing business goals for 2020. She has a post-graduate degree in Physics (with specialization in Electronics). She is a CSA America certified GHG emission quantifier. She has a Ph.D., in Environmental Science and Engineering from IIT Mumbai.

Sumathy Krishnan

Executive Director, TIDE

Ms. Sumathy Krishnan is the Executive Director at Bangalore based NGO, Technology Informatics Design Endeavour. She has been in the development sector since 2010 after working for 13 years in corporate holding various applied for technology related positions. At TIDE, she conceptualizes programs in which Science & Technology solutions impact communities positively and sustainably. VidyutRakshaka literally translating to ‘Saving electricity’ is her brainchild. It is a simple, technologically sound and highly effective intervention leading to a voluntary reduction in electricity consumption. The success of this model indicates her belief that technology solutions can deliver tremendous societal impact when leveraged appropriately.

Tanmay Tathagat

Director, Environmental Design Solutions (EDS)

Mr. Tanmay has a background of architecture and engineering. He works on projects dealing with sustainable development, building energy efficiency, green buildings, and energy efficiency standards and labeling in Asia, Africa and the US.

Tanmay leads the Environmental Design Solutions (EDS) team of consultants working on climate change policies, energy efficient building design, building code development, energy efficiency policy development, energy simulation and green building certification process.

His work over the last 25 years includes, the development of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC 2007 and ECBC 2017) and Eco-Housing program in India, and is currently leading the Market Transformation and Integration for Energy Efficiency (MAITREE) program as part of the US-India Bilateral initiative. Since 2003 EDS has worked on hundreds of green buildings, energy efficiency, and policy research projects worldwide.

Umesh Bhutoria

Founder & CEO, EnergyTech Ventures

Umesh Bhutoria is Founder & CEO of EnergyTech Ventures an emerging Data Analytics company working at Intersection of Energy, Data and Commercial Consumers.

Umesh has 10+ years of experience in the field of Energy Efficiency and is regarded as a thought leader in Energy Data Analytics. Awarded as Energy Manager of the year by AEE – US (Through India Chapter), Umesh is a member of Alliance for Energy Efficient Economy, India and Future Energy Leaders Forum, World Energy Council.

Upendra Bhatt

Chairperson, AEEE

Upendra Bhatt leads cKinetics, a leading Sustainability Insight, Innovation & Capital Advisory Firm. He is the Chairperson of the AEEE Executive Council and is also a member of several task forces constituted by industry bodies. In addition to this, he chairs the Sustainable Business Leadership Forum, an Industry practitioners group focused on resource sustainability and ESG issues through multi-stakeholder working groups. He holds a Masters in International Relations from Thunderbird – The American Graduate School of International Management, a Master of Business Administration from NMIMS-Mumbai, (India) and an engineering degree from Delhi College of Engineering (India).

Usha Ramachandra

Professor & Chairperson- Energy Area, Former Dean of Training Programs

Dr. Usha Ramachandra joined Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) as a Tarun Sondhi Fellow in 1995, to study the Liberalisation of India’s Civil Aviation. She joined the faculty in 1998 and became involved in several of ASCI’s training programmes and consulting assignments in the power sector. She contributes to programmes, policy and consulting on infrastructure regulation with a focus on the power sector, and energy reforms.

She has worked in the South Asia region particularly in Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan as a resource person on energy and power sector related issues in several training programmes and regulatory initiatives under the USAID funded SARI/E Project. She has worked on consulting assignments with power utilities, state and central regulatory commissions and governments in a variety of areas including tariff filing, tariff analysis, demand and supply estimates, regulations and policy-related issues.

She has conducted specially designed programmes for the THDC India Ltd., NTPC, PXIL, DVC, IEX, NHPC, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), etc. Apart from being actively involved in ASCI’s management development programmes, she has several publications and conference and workshop presentations to her credit. Dr. Usha Ramachandra served as an Independant Director on the Board of MIDHANI, a defense PSU which develops and manufacture custom-made alloys to suit the specific requirements of customers for their critical applications from 2015-19. She is an Independent Director on the Board of the Andhra Pradesh Gas Power Corporation (APGPCL) which is the first group captive power plant set up in the country.

Uttam Kumar Nalamada Reddy

Hon’ble Member of Lok Sabha and Standing Committees -Energy

Mr. N. Uttam Kumar Reddy is a senior politician from Telangana who has had an extremely illustrious career. He was a decorated Fighter Pilot in the Indian Air Force, where he had flown MIG-21 & MIG-23 on Pakistan & China borders, and has served as ADC and Comptroller to the President of India. He was a 5 term MLA and a Minister in the Government of Andhra Pradesh before the separation of the State. Presently, he is a Member of Parliament from Nalgonda, Telangana and a Member of the Departmentally Related Standing Committee on Energy. He has a keen interest in energy policy and is a strong advocate of making India’s approach to energy more environmentally and socially conscious.

V. Srinivas Chary

Director, Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance, and Infrastructure Development at Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI)

Dr. V. Srinivas Chary is the Director, Centre for Energy, Environment, Urban Governance and Infrastructure Development at ASCI. He specializes in governance, institutional reforms and capacity building for improvements in urban service delivery. He has over 22 years of professional experience in the areas of urban infrastructure and service delivery and extensively worked on 24*7 water supply, urban sanitation, PPP, pro-poor strategies, etc. An engineer, urban planner and management professional by training, Prof. Chary, prior to joining ASCI, was a Senior Faculty at the Environment Protection Training and Research Institute (EPTRI), Hyderabad and at Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI), New Delhi. He was professionally affiliated to the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, University of Bradford, UK, University of Manchester, UK, and Water Engineering Development Centre, UK. He is a Chevening fellow.

Prof Chary has led over 150 advisories, consulting and research assignments both in India and South Asia. He has conceptualized and implemented structured capacity building programmes for elected representatives, officers of Administrative Service and urban sector professionals in India and outside. Prof Chary leads the Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Urban Development at ASCI instituted by the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India. Prof Chary supports the Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India by undertaking an independent appraisal of city development plans and reforms implementation. He has published extensively in national and international professional journals and presented over a hundred papers as invited speakers at conferences. He serves on numerous national and international committees. He was also a member of the Steering Committee on Urbanisation established by the Planning Commission for drafting approach paper for the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017).

Venkat Garimella

Vice-President, Schneider Electric

A prolific business leader with 25 years of experience in running and managing businesses
across domains; customer segments, Venkat Garimella is working with Schneider Electric for 16 years. Currently, he is leading the Strategy; Alliance function with a focus on future-proofing businesses, incubating ideas, championing Energy Efficiency; Sustainable development vision of Schneider Electric. Venkat is instrumental in winning prestigious awards like CII-ITC Sustainability Award, Golden Peacock award for Energy Efficiency; Sustainability, Frost & Sullivan Best practices award for Emerging Energy Management Solutions Provider, National CSR award 2019 by Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Venkat was also awarded as India’s most influential Sustainability leaders of India in 2018 by world CSR; Sustainability organization. He is an executive council member of AEEE (Alliance for Energy Efficiency Economy), National Executive Council member of IEEMA, Venkat is passionate about social impact initiatives like Skill development, Rural Electrification, Education, etc. and is currently the board member of Schneider Electric India Foundation (SEIF); member of Governing Body of Power Sector Skill Council (PSSC). An Electrical Engineer with a Master in Business Management specializing in Marketing. Venkat has worked with several start-ups and spends his free time supporting & mentoring them.

Venkatesh Dwivedi

Director, Energy Efficiency Services Limited

Venkatesh Dwivedi is the Chief Operating Officer of Energy Efficiency Services Limited, India. He has been the first project manager of EESL’s flagship scheme UJALA as well as the SLNP Program. He has been the National Program Manager for the Street Lighting National Program of India.

With more than 25 years of executive experience, he has been earlier in the Oil and Energy Sector in India in various roles in Operations, Technical Services, Project Management and Business Development.

Venkatesh Dwivedi is an Electrical Engineer from the Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and MBA from PGPEX Program of IIM Calcutta. He is a BEE certified Energy Auditor.

Vineet Taneja

Deputy General Manager (Tech), EESL

Vineet is having a graduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, MBA in Energy and Bachelors in Law. With over 17 years of experience, mainly in the energy sector, he has worked across the Energy Sector value chain – Energy Generation, Distribution, Trading and more recently on end-use energy efficiency. He has worked with one of India’s most trusted TATA Brand. The experience has brought him in touch with the end consumers, their expectations, at the cutting edge of the energy sector value chain. After a stint of about 14 years in the private sector, he joined the Government of India promoted Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) a SUPER ESCO and has contributed to Government initiated large scale energy efficiency projects right from inception up to the commissioning stage.

Vishal Garg

Professor IIIT Hyderabad

Vishal Garg is Professor and Head of the Center for IT in Building Science at IIIT, Hyderabad. His current research interests are in the areas of building energy simulation, building automation, and cool roofs. He teaches building automation and controls, energy simulation, and lighting design & technology. He holds a B.Tech. (Hons.) degree in Civil Engineering from MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur and a Ph.D. from the IIT Delhi. He was the founding president of the Indian chapter of the International Building Performance Simulation Association (IBPSA) and chaired the organizing committee of the International Conference for Building Simulation-2015 and International Conference on Countermeasures to Urban Heat Islands (IC2UHI) scheduled in Dec 2019. He is a fellow of IBPSA and received the inaugural Arthur H. Rosenfeld Urban Cooling Achievement Award 2018.

Vivek Subramanian

Co-Founder & ED at Fourth Partner Energy

Mr. Vivek is the Co-Founder and Executive Director at Fourth Partner Energy (FPE). At FPE, Vivek is primarily responsible for Fundraising, Strategy, Risk, Corporate Development and Human Resources. Over the past 9 years, Vivek has been instrumental in building FPE into India’s largest distributed solar platform managing power requirements for over 100 marquee C&I clients.

Vivek is passionate about driving Renewable Energy adoption not only as a means for clients to become power independent, but also combat climate change. Vivek started Power@₹1 at FPE in 2018 wherein rural schools and primary health centers in India enjoy the benefit of solar electricity by paying just ₹1 per unit of power. Vivek believes in building a truly triple bottom line business – attractive returns to investor partners while maximizing social and environmental impact.

Prior to, starting FPE, Vivek was the part of the founding team at Avigo Capital, an Indian SME focused PE fund managing $375 million. Vivek was responsible for end to end investment management and fundraising at Avigo for close to 8 years. Vivek started his career with Accenture where he spent 6 years as a management consultant advising clients across various industries such as Engineering, Cement, Pharma, Transport & Consumer products.

Vivek has an MBA from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

Vivek is a sports enthusiast and is passionate about long-distance running having completed over 20 half marathons. Vivek was also featured as a “Young Turk” on CNBC TV18.

Yash Shukla

Technical Director (Energy Systems), Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE), CEPT University

Dr. Yashkumar Shukla is Technical Director at Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science and Energy (CARBSE), CEPT University. He has more than seventeen years of international experience in building energy-efficiency research and leads several energy-efficiency research projects at CARBSE. His current research includes calibration of simulation models, performance characterization of envelope and HVAC systems, net-zero energy buildings, and development of next-generation control algorithms. He currently serves on technical committees at various national and international forums. He is a mechanical engineer and holds a master’s degree from Texas A & M University and a Ph.D. from CEPT University.

Yashima Jain

Team Leader – Team KillBill 2018, US. Solar Decathlon

Ms. Yashima is a Technical Specialist at the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). She is an architect by profession and holds an experience of 2 years. She holds a Master’s degree in Building Energy Performance from CEPT University and a Bachelor’s degree in architecture from Chitkara School of Planning and Architecture. She has also done a Post-Graduation Diploma in Renewable Energy from TERI University. She represented CEPT university as a Team Leader for the Race to Zero student design competition organized by the US Department of Energy.