Panellists this Year
2023Dr. Abhijit Chatterjee is an Associate Professor in Bose Institute, Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India and an expert in Air Quality, Air Pollution and Climate Change. Dr Abhijit Chatterjee completed his graduation and M.Sc in Chemistry from University of Calcutta. After his Ph.D. in 2009, he joined ISRO as a Post-doc for two years and joined Bose Institute as a faculty. He is a member of Americal Geophysical Union, Asia-Oceania Geosciences Society, European Geophysical Union etc. He has published over 60 papers in well reputed international journals and two books of Elsevier. He is an Editor of several journals of American Chemical Society. Dr Chatterjee is acting as an expert member of several air quality and climate change programs of Govt of India. He is the Nodal Faculty for West Bengal for the “National Clean Air Program” of Govt. of India. He is acting as a Chief Advisor for Kolkata Municipal Corporation for building the strategic action plans for air pollution reduction.
Ambrish Chandan is currently working as a technical advisor at Vital Strategies. Before Vital Strategies, he served an extended period with RTI International. He is a public health management professional with over 15 years of work experience in managing large-scale public health programs/projects in India and the Southeast Asia Region. He has handled many projects related to health systems strengthening in India including the National Health Mission, Ayushman Bharat, National Rural Livelihood Mission etc. He is an alumni of some of the most premiere Institutes in the country.
Amit Bhatt is the ICCT’s Managing Director for India. He is based in New Delhi and has over 20 years of experience in transportation, urban development, and management. Before joining ICCT, Amit was Executive Director for Integrated Transport at WRI India for 12 years. Prior to the World Resources Institute he worked with the Urban Mass Transit Company, India’s leading urban transport consultancy, and with Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services. He has also served as an adjunct faculty member at the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi. Amit has a bachelor’s degree in architecture and a master’s degree in transport planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. Amit also has a master’s degree in economics and a diploma in transport economics and management.
Anirban Banerjee holds a bachelor's degree in Electronics and Telecommunication from Shivaji University, Kolhapur. Prior to joining CSTEP, Anirban worked at the Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, IISc. His areas of interest include emission estimation and policy analysis.
Aniruddha Sharma is the Chief Reporter at Dainik Bhaskar. He has been based out of Delhi and reporting in Hindi since 1996
Anirudh Narla works on the evaluation of truck electrification pathways, the assessment of cost-effective technology pathways to reduce HDV CO2 emissions, and the charging infrastructure deployment strategy. Prior to joining ICCT, he worked on a variety of assignments across South and South-East Asia in the electric mobility and renewable power domains. He holds a Master of Technology degree in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management from TERI School of Advanced Studies, Delhi and a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada, Andhra Pradesh.
Ankit is an Architect and Urban Planner with about 12 years of experience in projects relating to spatial planning, urban governance, system design, and architecture. He co-founded Sensing Local, an ‘Urban Living Lab’ (ULL) based in Bengaluru. His core interest is in understanding the ways to disrupt the trajectory of development of Indian cities that invariably perpetuates environmental exploitation and deepens socio-economic inequalities. He is also deeply interested in using systems thinking and participatory processes to unpack complex systems and shape new perspectives to drive systemic change. Ankit has completed his Masters in Urbanism from TU Delft, Netherlands.
Ankita Jyoti before her current role, was working with CEED as Program lead- Ambient Air Quality where she engaged very closely with the Jharkhand government and ULBs for the formulation and implementation of the city action plans under NCAP. She has over 9 years of experience working on environment, climate change and air pollution. She is an expert in campaigning, research, working with government agencies and designing public-centric campaign strategies. Ankita has a masters degree in Environmental Sciences from Central University.
Anumita Roychowdhury has built and guided some of the key policy campaigns on air pollution especially vehicular pollution and multi-sector clean air action planning in cities. She is actively working with Indian and African cities to help shape the roadmap for clean air action plans. She has widely written and published articles, policy research papers and books. She has been awarded the prestigious Haagen-Smit Clean Air Award by the California Air Resources Board, California, USA.
Bhargav ‘s research interests span areas of health policy, environmental policy, and environmental epidemiology, with a focus on the impact of air quality and climate change on health. Before CPR, he worked at the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) where he set up the Centre for Environmental Health. Bhargav holds a Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH) from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Master’s degree in Global Environmental Change from Kings College London. He is also the co-founder of Care for Air, a Delhi-based non-profit working to raise awareness of air pollution among school children.
Brikesh Singh has close to 20 years of experience in environmental campaigning, citizen engagement and fundraising including a tenure at Greenpeace. Brikesh has been on the frontline taking direct action to highlight the climate crisis and demand accountability from decision makers. Brikesh joined Asar in 2017 and is leading the air pollution vertical. His expertise includes conceptualizing, planning and implementing innovative and engaging mobilization strategies.
Divya Goyal after graduating from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC), New Delhi in 2011-12 joined Hindustan Times in Chandigarh briefly as a reporter doing city beats. With The Indian Express since 2012 at Ludhiana (Punjab), she writes on school education, gender issues, art and culture, Sikh diaspora, heritage, environment, societies and other Punjab issues. Her specific interest and strength lie in writing news features and descriptive stories, explaining the issues from a broader perspective and exploring human interest angles.
Gunjan leads Climate Trends’ communications for air quality and climate impacts. She holds a masters in English Literature from Delhi University and a diploma in film making and television news from Jamia Millia Islamia University.
Dr. Harshal is a public health professional at AIIMS for over 11 years. Common Mental disorders, air pollution, climate change and epidemiology of NCDs are his research interests. He is deeply vested in working on air pollution and mortality, climate based model development of VBDs and evaluation of mental health services in India
Hitesh Vaidya has over 20 years of experience in the field of urban management, urban governance and capacity building. He has been involved in providing technical assistance and support to several urban local bodies and instituting significant urban reforms at local level including localizing of SDGs. He has been associated in urban development projects with many international organizations with a special focus on poverty alleviation. Mr. Vaidya holds a Master’s degree in Business Development and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Urban Development & Planning from the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Netherlands.
Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay has been in the field of journalism for the past 25 years. He is currently the senior editor at The Times of India. He started his career as an industrial feature writer with ET. Krishnendu has explored reporting on beats like forest and environment, heritage, transportation, urban planning, urban governance and government policies. He identifies environment and transportaion as his core interest area. He is an alumini of Jadhavpur University, Kolkata from where he completed his postgraduate degree in Mass Communication.
Mallika is a Senior Campaigner at Purpose. She brings together her experience from the education sector along with advocating for behaviour change through communications and Psychology. She has previously worked on self-started campaigns as well as helped WWF Australia design their national campaign on single-use plastics. Before Joining Purpose Mallika was leading outreach for Renew Oceans in Varanasi, (UP, India), a project aimed at diverting ocean bound plastic waste from the Ganges. She worked on identifying local partners, creating the Information-education and communication modules and also played a key role in implementing these modules in the communities through which she was able to positively impact, include and educate local riverside communities.
Mohammad Sartaj Alam is an independent journalist, associated with the Telegraph (UK), the Guardian, BBC & the Quint. He reports on oppressed voices that are needed to be heard. He has a strong network in the state of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Utter Pradesh, etc. He writes on the issue of climate change, just transition and social and political issues like discrimination, starvation, unemployment etc. He is an alumnus of Dr. CV Raman University, Kota.
Nalini Shekar presently works with waste pickers in Bangalore and has also worked on the issue of violence against women for over a decade. Currently, she is working on the inclusion of waste pickers in the Solid Waste Management process of Urban Local Bodies. Nalini has trained several hundred waste pickers about new ways of solid waste management and develop their skill to become waste management professionals. She has also worked with state officials on the need for sustainable waste management practices and integration of waste pickers. In a career spanning 33 years, Nalini has won many accolades including the Kempegowda Award 2015. She was chosen as one of 100 women in India who make a difference in the society by BBC.Com. Most recently she has been cited as Namma Bengalurean of the Year 2020 for her work in the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
Dr. Nitin specialises in managing baseline monitoring for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies in India and other South East Asian Countries. He has a Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. Dr. Nitin has published more than 22 research papers on air quality and is a recipient of multiple scholastic awards like the Young Scientist Award, Department of Science and Technology (New Delhi) and Best Paper Presentation, received an Award of Recognition in IASTA International Conference on Aerosols, Clouds and Indian Monsoon held at IIT-Kanpur.
Dr Pallavi Pant leads the Institute’s Global Health program, which supports high-quality, rigorous science as well as science-based communication of the findings to policymakers, scientists, and advocates in regions around the world. She has more than a decade of experience in research and public engagement on air pollution, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Her research has focused on urban air quality, including source apportionment and exposure monitoring and assessment.
Palwinder Singh is a postgraduate and a progressive farmer from Fatehgarh Sahib's Baronga Zer village. He is known as ‘Mausam Da Doctor' by the people as he has been using agriculture meteorology to enhance crop production. Palwinder shares the weather-related information with his fellow farmers through 15 WhatsApp groups that connect over 1,000 farmers. He is also working on Residue management for the last 12 years. In April 2021, the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICRA)-Central Research Institute for Dryland (CRIDA), Hyderabad under the Union Ministry of Agriculture honored him with the 'Best Progressive Farmer' award for practicing and sharing 'Agri-Metrology' information with fellow farmers.
Paras has been working with the India Climate Collaborative for the past two years. She is interested in science-policy interface research on climate change, with a particular focus on sustainable development and livelihood transition pathways (mitigation, adaptation) in the land-use and AQ sectors. Paras is also interested in using design and multimedia approaches to communicate climate change. She completed her Masters in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy from King’s College, London.
Polash is an alumnus of IIT Madras and expertise in developing emission reduction roadmaps, as well as financial and regulatory environmental health governance tools, clean fuel and vehicular technologies, and assessing air pollution sources. He works closely with a diverse set of stakeholders spanning state, civil society, and private sector actors at the national, regional and city levels to improve environmental governance on air quality and extreme heat. Earlier he has worked with Centre for Science and Environment and has over 8 years of experience in environmental health and air quality management.
Dr. Poornima Prabhakaran works closely with UN organisations including WHO, UNEP, UNDP and UNICEF on various projects. Her current role encompasses research, training, advocacy and technical consultations on environmental issues spanning air pollution, climate change, water, sanitation and hygiene, chemical and heavy metal exposures and health impact assessment studies. She is a trained physician from Bangalore Medical College and has a Master’s in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a Ph.D. in Social Medicine from the University of Bristol, UK.
Prabhakaran Veeraarasu, is an environmental activist from Chennai. He's a longtime member of the Poovulagin Nanbargal, a 30-year-old environmental organization, working on the issues of GM crops, nuclear energy, air pollution, climate change and he promotes alternative energy. Prabhakaran is a well known campaigner on various issues related to pollution & waste management. At present, he is serving as an expert committee member in the Tamil Nadu state planning committee for framing the state's waste management policy.
He holds an Environmental Engineering master's degree from Anna University.
A cross-functional leader with 20 years of experience, including 7 years as an entrepreneur and over 12 years in the education sector. Proven experience in starting new initiatives and building a profitable enterprise. Experienced in developing products, markets and strategic partnerships.
Preeti Sunderajan is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. 15 years of work experience with senior leadership positions in the arts and education sector with proven success in achieving revenue, profit, and business growth objectives within start-up and challenging working environments. She calls herself a thought leader in the performing arts, education space and a successful entrepreneur, building GAIT on sound business fundamentals with focus on the bottom line. She is skilled in team building, public speaking, curriculum development, creative movement, and teacher training.
Mr. Rajiv Khurana, is the CEO & Founder, The Personnel Lab; Founder, RETYREMENT and Founder & Managing Trustee, International Consulting Professionals’ Institute (ICPI). He has over 36 years of Industry and consulting experience in corporate world. He is an International consultant & trainer, venture mentor, executive coach, author, blogger and social entrepreneur. He is the author of 9 books and over 2000 columns & articles for newspaper.
Ranjit Gadgil working on Sustainable Traffic and Transportation - promoting walking and cycling, improvement of public transport and advocating less motorized vehicles for more liveable cities. He is also concerned with allied issues such as urban planning, governance, air pollution and road safety. Ranjit graduated from IIT Kanpur and spent a decade in the U.S before returning to India and joining the social sector. He has been associated with several NGOs gaining experience in various sectors.
Sachin Ankush Lungase since 2008 has been reporting on topics such as housing, infrastructure, energy, civic, weather as well as the environment. Sachin graduated from St Xavier's College in 2006 with a degree in journalism and began his career as a freelancer for Loksatta newspaper. He was awarded the Maharashtra State Government Award for Journalism in 2019 and also the Acharya Atre Award from Mumbai division.
Santosh leads Open Philanthropy’s grantmaking in South Asian Air Quality. His primary area of interest is air quality governance in India. As a researcher, he approaches the issue of state capacity and improved regulatory enforcement from an economics lens initially in J-PAL South Asia and Evidence of Policy Design (EPIC), and later at Center for Policy Research, from an institutional lens. He has a B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Dr. Sarath Guttikunda completed Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (Kharagpur, India, 1997) and has a Doctorate from the Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research (CGRER) at the University of Iowa (Iowa City, USA, 2002). Since returning to India in 2007, he conducts research in an independent capacity to support science, policy, and public dialogue on air pollution. He was a visiting faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi and Bombay) between 2011-2014 and 2014-2016. In 2009, Sarath became part of the global TED fellows community.
Sayli is a cross-sectoral professional with 17+ years of experience in urban policy and political economy in the government, profit and not-for-profit space. Presently she is involved in different capacities in various organisations. She is the Head of the City Climate Alliance, National Institute of Urban Affairs, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; Chair, Task Force- Collective Building Chair, India Forum For Nature Based Solutions and serves as an Advisor to the Municipal Corporation in Greater Mumbai. She works on issues related to sustainable urbanisation with a special focus on urban infrastructure planning, design and finance. Sayli holds a Masters's degree in MA International Journalism, Public Policy and Development from the University of Westminster.
Satyendra Kumar is the CEO of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation and the Municipal Commissioner of the City.
Mr. Srinivasulu is an IFS officer from 1997 batch who served as the Member Secretary of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. He has always advocated the preservation of wildlife and environment and has served at various locations during the IFS service. His documentary on the River Kali garnered the attention of wildlife lovers world over, segments of which were released in COP 21 Summit meeting held in Paris. He is a gold medalist post graduate in Molecular Biology & BioTechnology from University of Agriculture and a top ranker in Ph.D. Program at All India IARI exam.
Siddharth Srivastava is a passionate sustainability professional with more than 6 years of experience in the field of Energy Transitions, Air Pollution, Climate Resilient Agriculture and Climate Innovations. He has worked in research and stakeholder engagement and is a keen believer in an entrepreneurial & hands-on approach. He has been working with research institutions and non-governmental organizations, in collaboration with legislators, policymakers, businesses, and civil society, to create a more sustainable & climate-neutral world. In addition to his work, Siddharth volunteers for various organizations to raise awareness and educate about science and what each individual can do to be a change-maker.
Sobia is an Architect and Urbanist, whose main focus is on tackling Solid Waste Management issues in the city of Bengaluru, through introducing systems thinking, strategic planning, data analytic & GIS mapping.
She has also led Smart City plans for Tumakuru and Thiruvananthapuram and projects under Swachh Bharat Mission in India. As an architect, she has worked primarily in the social sector, with organizations like NIVASA, S3IDF and Selco Foundation. She is originally from Bengaluru, India and has completed her B.Arch from Manipal University and MSc. in City Design and Social Science from the LSE Cities, London School of Economics & Political Science, UK.
Srinivas before joining the World Resource Institute worked at Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy focused on transforming cities by enabling citizen participation in local governance, enhancing transparency and accountability using technology and ground action with the Urban Development Department, Government of Odisha, and Swachhata Technology Platform, the digital interface to Swachh Bharath Mission, City Leaders Programme, an initiative by Janaagraha to build the capacity of local elected representatives. He brings passion and experiences with building enterprise software products, a political party and most recently, a grassroots citizen movement, Citizens for Bengaluru, to his current work.
Sunil Dahiya has over 10 years of experience as a strategist and research analyst on environmental issues. He led the energy and air pollution campaigns at Greenpeace India along with other groups that ultimately led to the formulation of India’s first-ever National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). Sunil has also been the leading expert and voice on the implementation of emission standards for coal-based power plants in India. His expertise is research, policy support and coalition development on the issues of the energy transition, climate change, air pollution and community rights. He has authored multiple reports and international research papers on air pollution and energy issues.
Supreet Kaur is a Post Graduate in Economics with Honors in Psychology at Graduation Level. Belonging to a family of educationists and having experience of teaching and education administration of around 18 years, she is a strong believer of Sikh principles. She is inspired and motivated to serve people and society at large. She is at present working with Doraha Group of Institutes. The group is running three Institutes – One CBSE School up to senior secondary level & 2 colleges. The group aims to provide quality education and persistently strives to uplift the standard of rural education.
Swagata Dey leads the work on hyperlocal air quality management in India. She has over 9 years of experience working within the domains of air pollution management, air quality monitoring, atmospheric chemistry, climate change and clean transportation. Before EDF, she was associated with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) as deputy program manager, Clean Air. She was also a contributing writer at Down to Earth, India. She has an MS degree in Chemistry from Ohio State University and also a master's degree in Environmental Studies from TERI, Delhi.
Tanushree is an air quality researcher who is working on developing a data-driven approach towards clean air policy making in India. Her research focuses on assessing the potential of alternative methods of monitoring air quality and understanding and addressing the current regulatory hurdles in the effective implementation of clean air policies. She is an alumnus of the Georgia Institute of Technology and has previously worked with organizations like Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and several consultancy firms.
Mr Sawant holds a B.E in Civil Engineering. He has around 30 years of field experience in Construction of Civil Engineering Projects and about 2 years experience in environmental issues. He is the Deputy Chief Engineer (Civil) Environment/ Ashray Yojana Cell in Brihanmumbai Mahanagarpalika Corporation (BMC) and also looking after redevelopment of Staff quarters for Safai (Conservancy) workers at around 30 sites located across Mumbai City & Eastern & Western suburbs amounting to approximately 12000 numbers of tenements of 300 square feet carpet area each.
Vinuta excels at developing strategy, planning campaigns, and building collaborative platforms for change. Vinuta has campaigned on a range of environmental and social justice issues in India for over 20 years. She led several successful campaigns on climate change and pollution at Greenpeace India, where she also served as Interim Executive Director and Program Director. She has supported Dastkar Andhra in its work with handloom weavers. She started her career as a chartered accountant.
