Mr Karthik Ganesan is a seasoned researcher specializing in energy and environmental issues, with a focus on India’s electricity system. Over the last decade he has been instrumental in conceptualising and building a number of research verticals at CEEW and brings an edge to the organisation’s quantitative policy analysis work. As Director, Strategic Partnerships, he now dons the hat of internal adviser across research teams and creates institutional platforms and partnerships that strengthen CEEW’s foundation for world-class research and enhance its impact.

Mr Ganesan holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He also holds an undergraduate degree in Civil Engineering and an M.Tech in Infrastructure Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He’s an avid birder, Scrabbler and can spend hours talking about the benefits of composting.

Mr. S. Sivakumar is the Group Head of Agri and IT Businesses in ITC Limited and is a Member of its Corporate Management Committee. He also oversees ITC’s Sustainability as well as Social Investments Programmes.

A global exemplar in Sustainability, ITC is the only enterprise in the world of comparable dimensions to be carbon-positive, water-positive and solid waste recycling positive for nearly two decades now. ITC’s value chains support over 6 million sustainable livelihoods.

ITC’s Climate Smart Agriculture Programme helps over a million small holder farmers cope with climate change by using natural based solutions.

Mr Sivakumar was the Divisional Chief Executive of the Agri Business Division from 1996 till 2017, during which the e-Choupal initiative was developed and executed under his leadership. Sivakumar serves on the Advisory Council to the Ministry of Rural Development on National Rural Livelihoods Mission, the Commodity Derivatives Advisory Committee of SEBI and on the Management Committee of National Agricultural Higher Education Project of the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare.

Mr Sivakumar is the Chairman of the National Agriculture Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Mr Amit Prothi is the Director General of the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). Mr. Prothi brings a wealth of international experience and expertise on climate and disaster resilience issues. He has demonstrated 25 years of progressive leadership in the fields of urban planning and resilient infrastructure, with experience across more than 15 countries including the USA, China, India, Greece, Mongolia, and Mauritania.

Mr. Prothi served as Director of Sustainable Planning at AECOM, one of the largest global infrastructure advisory firms, was a consultant to the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank and worked with global thinktanks and philanthropic organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation supported 100 Resilient Cities program.

Mr. Prothi holds a bachelor’s in architecture from the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi, and a dual Masters in Regional Planning and Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has also pursued doctoral studies in urban studies and planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mr Morten Bødskov (b. 1970) has served as the Danish Minister of Industry, Business, and Financial Affairs since December of 2022. The Minister has had a long political career as a member of the Social Democrats, including previous roles as Minister of Justice, Minister of Taxation, and Minister of Defence. Morten Bødskov is recognized for his expertise in public administration and his focus on economic growth, business development, and financial regulation in Denmark.

Erhvervsminister Morten Bødskov CV – Regeringen.dk

Mr Manish Chaurasia is a financial services professional with over 25 years of experience in origination, credit risk assessment, risk management, syndication, and business transformation in the Asia-Pacific region. Within the mentioned functional categories, he has handled various products, including infrastructure finance, structured finance, trade finance, and investment banking.

From July 2015 to December 2023, Mr Chaurasia served as the managing director of Tata Cleantech Capital (TCCL), the world’s first private sector Green Investment Bank, jointly promoted by Tata Capital Ltd and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). During his tenure, the company, starting from scratch, funded/syndicated over 350 projects in the clean-tech sector, with aggregate disbursements of over USD 3.0 billion. Additionally, the company executed several marquee advisory assignments and partnered with global climate finance investors to channelize low-cost funds into the clean-tech sector in India.

For two consecutive years, in February 2019 and February 2020, Mr Manish Chaurasia was presented the “100 Top Most Influential BFSI Leaders” award by the World BFSI Congress, recognizing the contribution made by TCCL in the war against climate change. Starting January 1st, 2024, TCCL merged with Tata Capital Ltd. In the merged entity, he has been designated Chief Operating Officer, Corporate & Cleantech Finance, with responsibilities to oversee Cleantech Finance, Large Corporate, Mid Corporate, and Emerging Corporate Verticals.

Mr Dibirath Sen is a career Corporate Banker with over 2 decades of experience in the Industry – he has worked with Standard Chartered Bank and ICICI Bank prior to joining HSBC in 2010. He has spent most of his professional career as a Client Coverage Banker and Deal maker and has managed some of the largest financing and debt capital raising in the Indian market. Currently in a senior leadership role for HSBC in North India, he is the HSBC India CEO’s representative in various Industry bodies / Forums.

Mr Sen has, over the last 3 years, played an instrumental role in growing the Sustainable/ Climate Finance practice for HSBC in India and today HSBC India stands amongst the top 3 sites for HSBC in Asia Pacific region. His experience in the Renewables sector and some of the innovative financing solutions he helped deploy in the sector leapfrogged HSBC as one of the leading Sustainable Finance institutions in India.

As the Sustainable Finance lead for HSBC India, Mr Dibirath Sen represents HSBC in several key initiatives/ working groups in partnership with leading International Policy Institutions and Think tanks viz – Member of the CII Net Zero council , Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (a Michael Bloomberg initiative with India as one of their pilot locations as a Steering Committee member and the Climate Change Finance Initiative for India by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Working Group member.

Mr Dibirath Sen is an MBA and Science Graduate (with Hons in Mathematics) by education. He is an amateur but avid photographer and automobile enthusiast. He also spends some personal time to do Mentoring for young professionals and small business/ start-up entrepreneurs.

Mr Rajesh Miglani is a seasoned climate finance expert with 27 years of experience, currently serving as Senior Climate Business Specialist and Climate anchor for the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in South Asia. He has spent 17 years at IFC, driving climate business initiatives and providing expertise in climate finance, carbon markets, Industrial decarbonisation, sustainable cities and climate metrics. His key achievements include establishing the First Cleantech NBFC in India (Tata Cleantech), introducing the First SLB in the textile sector, registering the First Metro Project (Delhi Metro) with UNFCCC for carbon credits and many more.

Mr Miglani has also led various climate advocacy initiatives, such as the Sustainable Housing Leadership Consortium, Carbon Pricing, Blended Finance, and Low Emission Development Strategy for the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation. Additionally, he was part of the working group for creating a Regulatory Framework for Sustainable Finance in India.

Prior to IFC, Mr Rajesh Miglani spent 7 years at EY as a core member of the Sustainability team, pioneering carbon transactions and environmental management. He holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering and an Executive MBA.

Mr Hafiz Hussin is a sustainable finance professional with over 10 years of experience in executing impactful financing solutions across the Asia Pacific region. He currently serves as Vice President of DBS Bank’s Sustainability team within the Institutional Banking Group responsible for structuring sustainable finance solutions for corporate clients across various industries. Prior to DBS, he held several sustainable finance and corporate banking roles at other banks.

Ms Usha Subramaniam is a seasoned business and HR leader with a proven track record of driving organizational success, fostering collaboration across countries such as Denmark, US, Sweden, Poland, Russia, United Kingdom, China, Singapore, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, and championing employee-centric cultures. Her wealth of experience and cross-functional expertise position her as a valuable asset in driving sustainable growth and innovation at Grundfos India.

Her tenure at Grundfos, spanning over a decade, exemplifies her ability to drive organizational growth while prioritizing employee development and empowerment. As the Country President of Grundfos India, Usha plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s strategic direction within the Indian market, leveraging her rich background in business management, profit center management, and people growth.

Ms Usha Subramaniam’s leadership roles in multinational corporations like IKEA, TAFE, and TATA Infotech Ltd., further attest to her expertise in navigating complex business landscapes and driving operational excellence marked by leadership, strategic vision, and a commitment to fostering inclusive workplace cultures. Her extensive experience across diverse functions and geographies underscores her adaptability and capacity to thrive in dynamic global environments.

Mr L Prabhakar is Executive Vice President and Head – Social Investments at ITC Limited, a leading Indian conglomerate. In this role, he oversees all social interventions of ITC focused on enhancing social and environmental capital that includes areas like Natural Resource Management; Sustainable / Climate Smart Agriculture; Social Forestry; Waste Management; Education; Skilling; Livelihoods, Health & Nutrition, Sanitation; and Women Empowerment. An alumnus of KREC Suratkal and XLRI, Jamshedpur with 36 years of experience, he has been associated with ITC for 29 years in different capacities in Human Resources, primarily in Agribusiness, apart from stints in FMCG, Information Technology and Corporate, before moving to his current role in mid-2021. He has also worked with TVS Motors for 4 years and Murugappa Group (EID Parry and CUMI) for 3 years in the Human Resources function. Throughout his career in Human Resources, he has also remained engaged with activities related to societal responsibility.

Mr Prabhakar is currently a member of CII’s National Committee on CSR and CII National Committee on Water. For the last 2 years, he has also been an assessor for the ICSI National CSR Awards.

In the past, he has been actively associated and held positions of responsibility with National HRD Network (NHRD), CII, Employers Federation of Southern India (EFSI), Hyderabad Management Association (HMA) and Global Compact Network India (GCNI).

Mr Anuj Sharma is a development sector leader and social entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in designing and scaling up low-cost, high-impact sustainable solutions for underserved communities across India. He has a degree in textile engineering and a Masters in PGDRM from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand. He is an Amul-Tata scholar and a Global Social Business Incubator fellow.

Mr Sharma is the CEO of Arghyam, a non-profit organisation focused on rural water security in India. Prior to this stint, he led the scale-up of Piramal Sarvajal to provide safe drinking water to 768,000+ people across 1800+ locations in India. He led the Rajasthan chapter of Pratham, an education non-profit to reach over 1.7m students across 40,000 government schools, mobilizing 20,000+ volunteers and a team of 300 people.

Mr Anuj Sharma is a CMO Asia awardee, member of several committees and consultations, and guest faculty on social entrepreneurship and development management at leading academic institutes like IIM (A), IRMA, CEPT and EDII. He is a speaker at various international events and forums where he shares his learnings and insights gained from working with communities, government agencies while developing decentralized solutions and leveraging technology. He is an avid reader, table tennis player, writer and speaker.

Mr. V K Madhavan has spent fifteen years living and working in rural India on an integrated development approach. First, in districts of North-Western Rajasthan with the Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust till 1998, and then in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand with the Central Himalayan Rural Action Group (CHIRAG) (2004 – 2012). In the interim, he worked on policy related issues with ActionAid, as an independent consultant and then on women’s leadership and governance with the Hunger Project. For a three-year stint between 2013 and 2016, Madhavan headed a skill development company that sought to provide unemployed young people with access to jobs in the organized sector. Since May 2016, Mr. Madhavan has been the Chief Executive of WaterAid India.

Mr. V K Madhavan has a Master’s in Politics (International Studies) from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Mr Sameer Gupta is the driving force behind Jakson Group which was incepted in year 1947 and today, is India’s leading Energy & Infrastructure conglomerate having revenues of around 6000 crores and employing about 5000 people directly.

His strategic direction has been pivotal in steering Jakson Group’s expansion into multiple business lines, including the manufacturing of Diesel & Gas Generating Sets, Solar Modules, and Electrolysers, along with innovations in Solar off-grid products, Hybrid Solutions, and Battery-based Energy Storage Systems.

Under his guidance, the group has also made significant strides in Solar Rooftop solutions and diverse EPC projects across Grid Scale Solar, Hydrogen, and Electrical Transmission & Distribution sectors, as well as in Railways, Metro, Water, Civil, and Defence projects.

Mr Gupta is actively playing/ played following roles- Chairman, MSME Committee for CII National Council, Advisory Board, Infravison Foundation, Past Chairman, CII Northern Region Council, Director, AKG Foundation, Executive Member, Abdul Kalam Technical University, Executive Member, Sharda University, Advisory Board, CII Triveni Water Institute and Past Chairman, Skill Council of Green Jobs.

He holds an Electronics Engineering degree from Pune University and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School.

Along with his professional work, Mr Gupta has a keen interest in music, travel, and literature on leadership and spirituality.

Mr Sameer Gupta’s leadership is driven by a philosophy centered around continuous learning, investing in people, and fostering collaborative relationships, underpinned by a deep-seated commitment to his community and family business legacy.

Mr. Sudarshan Chary is a Master’s in Business Administration from Latrobe University, Melbourne and has a Post graduate diploma in Family Managed Business from SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.

Mr. Chary has been associated with the family business for over 18 years. He is a partner in Padmanabh Packaging that is into manufacturing of Corrugated boxes, Director in Padmalaya Pulp Packs Pvt Ltd that manufacturers Paper moulded Egg trays and, Director in Sattva CFS and Logistics Private Limited and Visakha CFS & Logistics Private Limited. The organisation operates Container Freight Stations and Inland container depots across 7 locations in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Mr. Sudarshan Chary is currently the Vice President 2 of the Association of Corrugated Case of Telangana (ACCT), the state Association for Corrugated box manufacturers and a Managing Committee member of the Federation of Corrugated Box Manufacturers of India, (FCBM)., the apex body at the national level.

Dr. Lalit R Gabhane is the Director General and Chief Executive of the National Safety Council of India (NSC), a national level, apex, autonomous, self-funded, not for profit organisation set up by Ministry of Labour, Govt of India, to promote the voluntary movement of safety, health, and environment in the industrial sectors (including unorganised sectors) in the country.

As a DG and Chief Executive of NSC, Dr. Gabhane has overall responsibility of managing all affairs of NSC including the responsibility as the secretary to NSC board of governors, regular interactions with the Govt authorities, corporates, NSC member organisations and other bodies. In his career with the NSC, he has steered the organisation to new directions and setting new milestones. He has been instrumental in introducing new unique initiatives such as National Safety Aptitude test (NSAT) for the first time in India, for encouraging young engineers to pursue Safety as a career. He has also introduced a Five Star-Safety rating system for the industries, to bench mark the HSE performance. He is a recipient of “Rashtriya Gaurva Award” by India International Friendship Society, for his contribution to Indian industry in HSE domain.

Dr. Gabhane holds a PhD in engineering from VIT Vellore, master’s degree in engineering (M.E.) of University of Maryland (USA), a bachelor’s degree in Fire safety engineering from Nagpur University. He possesses about 35 years of experience in industrial safety, health & environment management, in large corporates i.e., ITC Ltd, DLF Ltd, Diageo India, & Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in senior leadership roles.

A well-known national and international speaker, Dr Gabhane has published several technical papers on HSE and fire protection engineering.

Mr. Amit Kumar Singh is responsible for driving Asian Paints strategic and CSR initiatives and engagements in India and International markets spread across Africa, Middle East, South Asia and Asia Pacific. He works towards shaping conducive policy landscape, partnerships, market access initiatives, CSR, ESG and Sustainability strategy, as also, strategic investment, merger/acquisition decisions of the Asian Paints Group.

Mr. Singh plays a very active and value adding role in various committees in sectoral specific committees and councils. He works very closely and collaboratively with the country business, Supply chain and R&D leaders and is also a strategic adviser to APL’s CSR, Investor connect and ESG initiatives. He reports to the CEO and the MD of Asian Paints and is part of the leadership team at Asian Paints Group. Prior to joining Asian paints, Mr Amit Kumar Singh was Director Government Affairs South Asia for Medtronic wherein he was extensively involved in public private partnerships, bilateral and multilateral dialogues, Market Access and healthcare policy. Prior to Medtronic, he was heading the Government Affairs (India) for Mondelez India. He also represented the region AMEA (Asia pacific, middle-east and Africa) in the global center for excellence for Government and Public Affairs where he contributed to the global strategy for managing public and government affairs activities around the world.

Earlier, Mr Singh had worked in various capacities in Asian Paints, Ingersoll Rand, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) – An Indian Army think tank. He had led and been instrumental in setting up large greenfield investment projects and affecting strategic business partnerships in the private and public sector.

Mr Amit Kumar Singh is an acclaimed author. He has about 35 publications (Indian and international) to his credit. He is an M.Phil in International relations from CIPOD, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He obtained his Master’s degree in History and Bachelors in Science.

A graduate mining engineer from IIT(ISM), Dhanbad with PGDBM from XLRI, Mr Pankaj Satija has blended mining operation with framework of Safety, Health and Environment. As a PMP certified professional, he has undergone Indo German Manager Programme at Germany, Global Advance Management Programme at Beijing, Tata Group Executive Leadership Development Program at UK and General Management Programme from CEDEP, France.

Mr Pankaj Satija works as the Executive In-Charge of Ferro Alloys & Minerals Division (FAMD), Tata Steel Ltd leading the ferro alloys business and covering the full chromite and manganese value chain serving domestic and international customers. He has more than 28 years of experience in Strategic Planning, Project Management, Mine Planning, Mining Operations, Training, Production and Maintenance.

Mr Satija has been in task force for Sustainable Development Framework for Indian Mining Industry constituted by Ministry of Mines, taskforce for Modernisation of DGMS constituted by Ministry of Labour and Employment, taskforce for framing rules of Occupational health, safety and working conditions in mines constituted by Ministry of Labour and Employment, DGMS, Committee for Identification of Collaboration between DGMS and IBM, task force for suggesting alternative mechanism for computation of ASP of Iron ore, member of Inter-Ministerial Committee of Ministry of Coal, Govt. of India for making suggestions on augmentation and consumption of domestic coking coal by steel sector and member of Board of Mining Examinations (Metal) of the Ministry Of Labour And Employment.

Under Mr Pankaj Satija’s leadership, Noamundi became the first mine in country where pilot launch for Drone Application in Mine Monitoring (DAMM) was launched in Jan 2017. ‘SABAL – Centre for Abilities’ (2nd in India) was also started at Noamundi under his leadership which is grooming PWD (Person with Disability) for a brighter future by offering various skill development courses. Under his leadership, Tata Steel Mining Limited was bestowed with the Responsible Chromium Award from the International Chromium Development Association (ICDA) for its performance in Sustainability for the 1st time in Chromite ore industry in India.

He has been associated with professional bodies and has numerous papers in National and International Journals to his credit.

Mr. Kiran Gopale is a Results-oriented professional having cross functional experience of around 15 years in areas of Sustainability, Life Cycle Assessment, Green Product Certifications, Sustainability Reporting, Business Excellence, ISO implementation, Kaizen, Manufacturing, Marketing and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) that directly results into overall improvement of the organization.

His achievements and certifications include- Business Excellence assessor for EFQM 2020 new model by CII, NBQP accredited certified lead auditor for QMS, EMS, OH&S, FSMS and EnMS ISO standards, under CSR initiatives, developed and inaugurated Experience Centre at Gram Tarang university, Bhubaneshwar & Ludhiana, conducted more than 200 internal and external audits, trainer for Green Product certifications, Sustainability Modules, GreenCo, 7 QC tools, Energy Management systems etc and is a Certified professional by CII for resource efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Mr. Gopale is an engineer by profession from Pune university and in his present role as ACM & Head – Sustainability, he oversees sustainability projects’ implementation and performance improvement of Godrej Interio which has a manufacturing footprint from Uttarakhand to Tamil Nadu.

He drives sustainability and improvement culture by promoting, facilitating, and monitoring various initiative for the Interio division by focusing on improvements, innovation & creativity, trainings, and competency developments.

Mr. Kiran Gopale is a council member of Good & Green Products Council, Greener India Council, Business excellence and GRACE council, a group of prominent leaders in the sustainability and continuous improvement field who are dedicated to achieving an ambitious sustainability plan at Godrej & Boyce.

Mr Shridhar Rao has been working with Elematic India Pvt. Ltd since 2014.

Mr. Rao is a qualified Mechanical Engineer from Mysore University and has completed MBA – Marketing from SP Jain Global Campus, Dubai. He has had an experience of more than 30 years in the field of Business Development and Sales for B2B products and has worked in India and Middle east representing construction and concrete machinery.

At Elematic, he is promoting Precast Construction technology and working as a Vice President Sales & Business Development.

Dr. Rajesh Singh works in the capacity of Sr Director (Business Development & Consulting Services), India, Asia Pacific and Middle East at Sphera India, being part of the senior global consulting leadership at Sphera . He comes with more than 32 years of experience in the areas of ESG Strategy, Life Cycle Assessment, Eco-design, Climate Change and Decarbonisation Strategy and has been a founder of thinkstep in India. As an LCA and Sustainability expert, he has been instrumental in creating and propagating LCA and EPD concept in India for last 16 years amongst Industries and academics while trained more than 500 professionals in this domain. Helped leading organisations to deploy Sphera ESG and LCA platforms. Prior to Sphera, Dr. Singh has worked at Steel Authority of India Limited for 16 years.

He has contributed extensively to help more than 300 companies for development of ESG framework, deployed ESG and LCA solutions in more than 100 companies , conducted and reviewed more than 500 Life Cycle Assessment/EPD/Ecodesign studies and multiple internal and external reviews in Steel, Aluminum, Glass, Energy, Textile, Agriculture, Packaging, Automobile, Chemicals, Building and building materials, FMCG sectors and also published more than 25 papers in international journals and presented at multiple national and international events.

Dr. Singh is a Civil Engineer, post graduate Environmental Engineer from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and a doctorate in Sustainability Management from Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Mr. Varun Chopra is the Executive Chairman of GEAR India, the number one MHE (Material Handling Equipment) Rental Company in India and also number one in Zero Emission MHEs. At GEAR, a PE funded enterprise, Mr Chopra is responsible for the strategic direction & the overall business and P&L. While leading the transformation of the organisation from a Vision, Culture, Strategy, Structure & Talent standpoint, he is building a high-performance agile culture to capitalise on the tremendous opportunity in the MHE industry in India and further on driving Zero Emission based MHEs that can play an instrumental role in the net- zero journey of customers as well as India as a whole.

Mr Varun Chopra has had the privilege of living and & working in India, USA, China & UAE. He comes with ~24 years of global experience across 50+ countries in Strategic & Operational P&L delivery across Intralogistics, Pharmaceuticals Consumer healthcare and FMCG businesses

Ms Madhulika Sharma is the Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer, ITC Limited. She has thirty-two years of work experience – 29 years in Tata Steel where she has worked across various functions including working as Executive Officer to Managing Director and Chief Corporate Sustainability. Ms Sharma decided to move on and joined ITC as Chief Sustainability Officer in Dec’ 21. She is passionate about sustainability and committed to integration of Sustainability into all functions of Business. Her areas of specific interest are climate change mitigation actions for transition and adaptation, adoption of diversity and inclusion at the workplace, embedding sustainability in supply chain, product sustainability and adoption of digital for rendering sustainable solutions.

Ms Madhulika Sarma was recognized as one of the top 25 Sustainability Superwoman in Asia by CSR Works, Singapore in 2019. She is a member of CII’s National Committee on Climate Change and represents ITC as Liaison Delegate in World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Ms Sharma has a B Tech (Electrical Engineering) from BIT Sindri in 1991 and Post Graduate Diploma in Executive Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 2002

Ms Kanika Pal is an award-winning CSR and sustainability professional with over 19 years of experience. Presently she is heading sustainability for Unilever South Asia where she is responsible for the strategy, performance and delivery of sustainability, along with advocacy & thought leadership on ESG. She holds a master’s degree in CSR from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand and an advanced management in public policy from Indian School of Business. At Unilever, she has also been instrumental in strengthening the sustainability governance, performance and advocacy in India. She has also strategized community relations around HUL factories through the flagship programme ‘Prabhat’ benefiting over 7 million people. In a span of five years, not only did Prabhat grow five times in scale and impact under her leadership, but she also designed and implemented strong grassroots level programmes such as Prabhat Poshan Saathi, Model Eco Village and Project Mooo for dairy value chain farmers, aligned with government priorities.

A TEDx speaker, she quit the corporate sector from 2015–17 and founded Solutions for Clean and Healthy Environment or SoCHE (सोच) Foundation, to influence behaviour change for a cleaner planet. Its flagship school education programme called Nature’s Jamboree published four books authored by children on environment conservation, available on Amazon.

Awarded ‘Corporate Social Intrapreneur’ by Schwab Foundation at the 2023 World Economic Forum in Davos, Ms Pal is also the recipient of ‘Global Women in Leadership Award 2022’, ‘Asia’s Top Sustainability Superwomen 2020’, ‘Most Influential Sustainability Leader’ and ‘Wommenovator’ citations in 2018, among others. She is a LEAD Fellow, an alumnus of South Asia Leaders programme by Common Purpose, UK and an honorary external member for the POSH committee of the NGO ‘Project Mumbai’. She has also been a working group member with World Economic Forum and has contributed to the recently published report on Unlocking Social Economy.

Ms Deeksha Vats is a sustainability professional with 3 decades of work experience in consulting and corporate set-ups. She is currently the Group Chief Sustainability Officer for the Aditya Birla Group (ABG), where she drives the sustainable business transformation agenda across all its locations on strategic, operational, communication and advocacy aspects of sustainability.

Prior to this at ABG, she led the sustainability agenda at group flagship Metals and Mining business, Hindalco Industries Limited. At Hindalco, she worked across geographies, functions and aspects towards mainstreaming sustainability in the business. This was a follow-up to her role where she led the environmental sustainability agenda at Aditya Birla Group on topics of climate change, energy transition, water, waste, emissions and biodiversity.

Over years, through her work at prestigious firms like PwC, EY, Engineers India Limited and Chemtex Engineering Limited, Ms Deeksha Vats has worked across diverse industry sectors. A regular speaker, panellist at sustainability events, she has been at the forefront of sustainability agenda in India through participation in working groups, industry bodies and expert networks.