Pawan Girdharilal [/b]Agrawal [/b]is the CEO[/b] of the renowned Mumbai Dabbawalas[/b]. A Proficient professional with fascination towards enlightening and encouraging students in Academic field, he is involved in conducting research and contributing to the design and delivery of courses for the entire educational fraternity, and fostering a positive learning environment by embracing a wide range of teaching methodologies. He has been awarded “Best Teacher Award” for the year 1994 -95 by Dnyan Prasarak Shikshan Sanstha, Mumbai for his exemplary contribution in the education field. Dr. Pawan has completed his Ph.D thesis on the title, ‘A study of Logistics and Supply Chain Management of Dabbawala in Mumbai’[/b]. He has travelled worldwide spreading awareness about the Dabbawalas and delivered lectures at Paris, Netherlands, US, UK and at management institutions all over India. He has been appreciated for showing empathy for the socially weaker strata of society and initiating various activities for their upliftment of the economically Backward Areas in Mumbai.
Kunal Kapoor's, [/b]Indian Actor,[/b] tryst with cinema began as an assistant director to Rakesh Mehra in Aks[/b]. But the call for acting proved far stronger, and Kunal found himself moving on. Making a most unconventional debut with Meenaxi: A tale of 3 cities[/b], the critically acclaimed actor took things at his own pace thereafter. Since over a year now, Kunal has also been associated with Naseeruddin Shah’s theatre group. His recent success with Rang De Basanti[/b] has given Kunal a much wider fan following than he had had before.
Harish Bijoor,[/b] Brand-expert & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc.[/b] Harish Bijoor is currently a Brand Domain specialist operating out of Bangalore. He runs a unique boutique consulting outfit branded “Harish Bijoor Consults[/b]”, a brand name that has a consulting presence across the markets of Hong Kong, Seattle, London and the Indian sub-continent.Harish spent the first eight years of his career with Brooke Bond Lipton India Limited (now Hindustan Lever Limited) moving through the Sales and Distribution stream during the first four years and the Brand Management stream in the next four. Brands handled: Teas: Red Label, Special, Super Dust, 3 Roses, Taj Mahal. Coffees: Bru, Deluxe Green Label, Tripti, Café, etc. Harish has recently published a book titled, “Marketing Trends – Smart Insights into the world of Indian Business[/b]” ….. a serious book written in a style that is distinctly young and MTV-ish!
Faith Gonsalves,[/b] Founder, Music Basti[/b], founded Music Basti in 2008. Her focus of work is pioneering partnerships and networks creation with local, national and international organizations; project management and supervision of policy development, volunteer training and management, monitoring and evaluation of programs and activities; developing strategies for advocacy and awareness about children’s participation and rights. While completing her Bachelors in History from Lady Sri Ram College, Delhi University, she worked with other local and national organizations on projects including with the Indian Education System, Child Rights, promotion of the arts and arts management, and she was the Editor for The YP Foundation’s annual publication, “‘The Bridge: Understanding Afghanistan Today[/b]”. Faith also enjoys singing whenever she can!
Abhay Rustum Sopori[/b] , [/b]an accomplished Santoor player[/b] and Music Composer. Son of legendary santoor player, Padmashri Pandit Bhajan Sopori, young Abhay has music in his genes. His maturity in playing and understanding music far exceeds his age.He has participated in some of the very prestigious music festivals of India and abroad prominent being ‘Jeonju Sori Festival-2004’, ‘Asian Music Festival-2002’, ‘Sankat-Mochan Festival’, ‘Harballabh Sangeet Festival’, ‘Indira Gandhi Memorial Concert Series’, ‘Basant Utsav-Kolkata’, ‘NDMC Morning Raga Concert Series’, ‘Spic-Macay Concerts’, ‘International Doctors Meet at AIIMS - Delhi’, ‘Sharadh Purnima Sangeet Mahotsava’, ‘Raag-Tarang Festival’, ‘Bandra Festival’, ‘Pranav Sangeet Samaroh’, ‘Salt Lake Festival’, ‘Arpan-2004’, etc.Abhay has already made some innovations in his Santoor by introducing the ‘Open String concept’ to boost the lower octave of the Santoor and further developing the ‘Been Ang’ on Santoor.
Prashant Panjiar [/b]is a self-taught photographer[/b]. A post-graduate in Political Science from Pune University, India, he worked on photographic projects focusing on peasant movements and other social issues through his college and university days. His first self-financed project that received public acclaim was his work for a book on banditry in the Chambal region of Central India. In 1986 he moved on to joinIndia Today magazine[/b]. As senior photographer with India Today, many important international stories were entrusted to him. Apart from spending nearly 3 months in Iraq, Kuwait, Israel[/b] and Saudi Arabia[/b] covering the Gulf War in 1991[/b], he also covered the situation in Afghanistan after the Russians pulled-out. He traveled to Pakistan a number of times working on difficult stories, invariably at the height of Indo-Pak tension. Within the country too, he covered the major events and trends. These included the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, Punjab, Kashmir, the elections of 1989 and 1991, the Bihar earthquake, and many socially relevant stories.
Parmesh Shahani,[/b] Head of Godrej-India Culture Lab, author of 'Gay Bombay' and editor-at-large of ‘Verve’[/b]. Parmesh bridges the business, academic and creative worlds. He presently runs the Godrej-India Culture Lab, an experimental thought-space dedicated to probing the textured nature of modernity in contemporary India. He is also the Editor-at-Large for Verve, India's leading lifestyle and luxury magazine. Previously, he founded Freshlimesoda.com, India's first online youth magazine and worked across the Indian mediascape, including Elle, the Times of India group, and Sony Entertainment Television. He also worked with the Mahindra group, where he helped set up a corporate venture fund and worked on other group wide innovation activities. Parmesh’s first book ‘Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India‘ was published worldwide in 2008. He is a TED Fellow[/b] and a MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow[/b] and often speaks about the rapid changes taking place in contemporary India at conferences all over the world.
Dr. Bhushan Punani[/b] is at present working as Executive Director of the Blind People’s Association[/b], Ahmedabad, one of the most leading disability development NGOs in the country. He is Rehabilitation Advisor for India to Sightsavers as well as CBM SARO (north, Treasurer of the Credibility Alliance and Chairperson of the ICEVI West Asia. He joined BPA after completion his Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management(SPA) from the IIM, Ahmedabad and the completed his LL.B as well as PhD from Gujarat University and Course in Vocation Rehabilitation from Haifa University, Israel. Awards including Helen Keller Award and Distinguished of IIMA Award. Recently he has been appointed as Member of the Committee on Drafting of New Legislation on Disability. He is member of the Steering Committee on Social Sector as well member of the Working Group on Disability Development for the 12th Five Year Plan of the Planning Commission. He has worked on number of Committees at the national level, member of General Council of the National Institutes and examiner for various Doctoral programmes of different Universities.
Irfan Alam[/b] is the founder of Sammaan Foundation[/b], an organization that works to systematize the cycle rickshaw industry in India. Irfan is an Economics graduate from LNMU, Bihar and he later joined Pondicherry University, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, USA for MBA, MDP and Leadership Program respectively. It was during his MBA days when his zeal for entrepreneurship bagged him the first break through in form of the winner’s crown of a TV reality show, Business Baazigar (By ZEE T.V.). The show aimed to find people with innovative business ideas. This is where; SammaaN Foundation first came into existence. Today, this organization is known, not only for systematizing and empowering the rickshaw industry but also for turning this, otherwise sick sector into a robust business model. Winner of first ZEE TV Business Baazigar show and the CNN IBN’s Young Indian Leader Award[/b] 2010 Irfan has also been chosen most promising entrepreneur by Business World 2010 and rated by Times of India and India Today, among the youth icons of India. He won World Bank innovation award and USIBC award for social entrepreneurship Irfan also has Prestigious Ashoka, TED, FORD and FYSE fellowships[/b] to his credit. He was invited by the US President Obama[/b] for Presidential summit on entrepreneurship early last year Washington and recently met Barack Obama during his visit to India and exchanged views on strengthening entrepreneurial partnership of both the countries.
Arvind Gaur[/b] who heads the Delhi , based Theatre group ASMITA is committed to innovative and socially relevant theatre. Starting off as a journalist and working for sometime for the electronic media, he set up ASMITA and earned a reputation in theatre circle in India and abroad. In the past 12 years, he has directed 48 major plays which include Girish Karnad's Tuglaq and Rakt Kalyan, Dharamveer Bharti's Andha Yug, Swadesh deepak's Court Martial, G P Deshpande's Antim Divas, Albert Camus' Caligula, Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions and Tara, Eugene O'neill 's Desire Under the Elms, Dario Fo's An Accidental death of an Anarchist, Dr.Narenda Mohan's Kalandar, Bertolt Brecht's Good Woman of Setzuan and Caucasian chalk circle, Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot, John Octanasek's Romeo Juliet and the darkness, Neil Simon's The Good Doctor, Vijay tendulakr's Ghairam Kotwal, Munshi Premchand's Moteram ka Satyagrah to name a few.
Arvind Gaur has been invited to perform in theatre festivals organized by National School of Drama, (Bharat Rang Mahotsava), Sangeet Natak Akademi, Sahitya Kala Parisad,Nandikar and Vivachana Theatre Festival, Old World Theatre Festival,National School of Drama weekend theatre, Muktibodh Natya Samaroh,World Social Forum and Nehru Centre Festival Mumbai. He has also conducted theatre workshops for Actors and Directors at Houston, USA and India Habitat centre, New Delhi.
(Updates brought to you by ManagementParadise in assosciation with TEDxMICA 2012)