Anupam started his entrepreneurial journey by founding People Group, which created businesses such as Shaadi.com, Makaan.com and Mauj Mobile. Today, the group is recognized as one of the most innovative enterprises in the country and is better known as the People Group.
Besides his operational role as a CEO, Anupam is also an active angel investor with over 240 investments such as Ola, Big Basket, Interactive Avenues, FarEye, Druva, Quizzez, PropTiger, DocsApp, Rupeek, Porter, Trell, Lets Venture, Animall, Jupiter, Zeni, Chalo, Rapido, Agnikul, Mobiqwik, and others. He is an advisor to and LP in some of the leading VC firms in India. He is passionate about entrepreneurship & innovation and is well regarded for his understanding and views of the same. Anupam Mittal has been voted by Business Week as one of India’s 50 Most Influential People in India and awarded Outstanding Serial Entrepreneur & Angel Investor by TiE in January2020 and just recently he won the Mint Award for being the “Most Iconic Investor of the Year 2022”
He is one of the most prominent Shark on the newest reality Television show, “Shark Tank India” and has invested in more than 24 companies through their platform with valuation of over 5 Cr. Clubbed together in Season 1 of the show.

Mr. Nirmal Jain, Founder of IIFL Group, is a first generation entrepreneur, who is credited with building one of the largest financial services groups in India in just about two decades. He is a PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management) from IIM, Ahmadabad, a rank holder Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant.
Under Mr Nirmal Jain's visionary direction, today IIFL is one of the largest financial services firms in India with three distinct listed businesses – IIFL Finance, 360 ONE (IIFL Wealth) and IIFL Securities.The group companies are backed by marquee global investors like Fairfax Group, Bain Capital and The Capital Group among others. IIFL Group has a customer base of over 10 million. Mr Jain is also the founder of 5paisa.com, India’s only listed discount broker.
The Economic Times recognizes Mr Jain and one of the most promising business leaders in Asia. He has received the CA Entrepreneur Leader Award in the Financial Services category from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and is recognised among the most successful IIM alumnus by Business Today magazine.
Mr. Jain lives in Mumbai with his wife and three children. He is also passionate about contributing to society, especially in the fields of education and healthcare for the under privileged, for which he has setup the IIFL foundation. IIFL Foundation’s flagship project ‘Sakhiyon Ki Badi’, is one of the largest girl child education in India and has already brought 36,000 out of school girls into the education fold in Rajasthan. Mr Jain is an early-stage investor in dozens of fintechs working towards frugal innovations helping large-impact financial inclusion in India.

Niten is a Partner at Paragon Partners, a mid-market private-equity fund based in India. Niten has rich experience in investing, managing P&L, running business operations, and strategy consulting spanning over 20 years. Some of his investments include Maini Precision Products, Cravatex Brands, Chai Point, Incred Finance, GoBolt, mCaffeine and several others.

Prior to joining Paragon Partners, Niten was an executive at Cipla where he held progressive leadership roles across general management, P&L Leader, strategy and M&A. Prior to his tenure at Cipla, Niten worked BCG, advising several top companies in India across consumer, healthcare, and financial services. Prior to his role at BCG, Niten was a founding member at QDx Inc., a US-based start-up that developed a first-generation imaging-based medical diagnostic device.

Following Abbott's acquisition of QDx, he played a key role in technology integration and scaling up manufacturing of consumables. Niten holds an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, a Master's in Chemistry from Ohio University, and a Bachelor's in Chemical Engineering from Mumbai University.

Under Yash's leadership, Singularity Ventures was born in 2015, becoming a pivotal player in driving private investments into multiple companies. Yash Kela's entrepreneurial spirit, strategic acumen, and commitment to innovation have not only shaped Singularity Growth but have also made a significant impact on the PE investment landscape in India.

Narayanan has over 23 years’ experience in management consulting and industry. His current focus is on Education, Skill Development and social sector advisory. He has experience across financial services and Infrastructure sectors, spanning multiple solution offerings –business strategy, process and performance improvement, and organization and change management, systems and IT strategy
Narayanan leads a team of over 60+ professionals exclusively focused on Education and Skilling – working across India, SAARC, Middle East and African regions He is an acknowledged thought leader and represents KPMG in multiple forums. He was invited to be a part of the expert committee to review the New Education Policy by the Govt. of India. He is in the Board of Studies for two leading private Universities. He was a part of the Pawar Committee for Technology in Education - constituted by MHRD; He is part of various committees for Education and Skill Development in leading Industry forums such as CII and FICCI

Damini Chaudhari is the head of Strategy and M&A for the Greater India Zone, Schneider Electric. She leads the strategy and M&A functions for the company with a strong focus on driving innovation, fostering strategic partnerships with startups, steering Sales Excellence, and spearheading the digital transformation strategy.

Damini comes with 17 years of experience and her impressive career includes an impressive seven-year tenure at Schneider Electric, where she showcased her expertise in various roles. She started her journey in the global mergers and acquisitions team, where she adeptly handled complex deals involving restructuring, divestment, joint ventures, and acquisitions. She later moved into a business role, heading GREENext, a Schneider Electric and Temasek joint venture that focuses on providing sustainable and resilient energy solutions through solar and battery hybrid microgrid technology.

With her extensive experience, Damini played a pivotal role in the acquisition of L&T Electrical & Automation business, a significant deal valued at INR 14,000 crore, as well as Temasek's strategic investment in acquiring a 35% stake in the joint venture with SEIPL.

As the strategy head, her role focused on collaborating with regulators and ensuring a successful integration process. Damini has been instrumental in transforming the acquired entities through efficient restructuring and transformation, driving them toward success.

Prior to her tenure at Schneider Electric, Damini spent a decade at Citigroup Global Markets in the investment banking division in London and Mumbai covering the European industrial, automotive, and business services sectors. The experience included buy-side and sell-side transactions with corporates as well as private equities, equity, and debt capital market transactions.

Damini holds an MBA degree from Nirma University, Ahmedabad, with dual specialization in finance and marketing. She excelled academically as the university topper and gold medalist, further highlighting her dedication and commitment to excellence.

Hari heads the India office at DSG Consumer Partners. He has 13 years of experience, including 8 years of private capital experience in both private equity and venture capital. At DSGCP, he has led investments in brands like Super Bottoms, Ugaoo, Stay Vista, Nutrova, XYXX, and Supertails.

Hari’s greatest joy at work is enabling founders to drive their businesses to self-sustainability and taking control of destiny without depending on external capital.

Prior to DSGCP, he spent four years as a Vice President at Peepul Capital, where his investment experience includes KLAY Child Care Chain, Voylla fashion jewellery, Medall Diagnostics, Komli Media, and TeleDNA. Hari has an MBA from IIM Bangalore, a B.Tech in Information Technology, and a B.E in Manufacturing Engineering from the College of Engineering Guindy where he was the University Gold Medalist.

Mohal, a University of Sheffield alumni with a degree in Materials Science, is building "Matter" that is set to drive sustainable change aided by technology.
In November 2022. Matter unveiled India’s first geared EV motorbike that is set to revolutionize the future of mobility in India. It is a testament to the company's commitment to pushing boundaries and disrupting the EV ecosystem with safe, secure, and reliable products.

With a keen interest in technology, Mohal began his professional journey in 2014 by founding Lalbhai Composite Solutions (Ahmedabad, Gujarat), a company in the composite material space, as a Director. Thereafter, he worked with Ethereal Machines in Bangalore, where he dedicated his time to the research and development of new and innovative technologies.

Ethereal was awarded the CES Best of Innovation Award in 2018. India’s tremendous potential to build cutting-edge technologies was a key realization that set his journey ahead, creating the organization that is powering the major change for a sustainable future.
With Mohal's visionary approach, Matter is building new and exciting products and solutions across the electric ecosystem and stationary energy storage technology. The concept of vertical integration as a core principle is helping Matter create innovative solutions across mobility and energy systems, redefining the lives of many.

With the motto of redefining the present, reimagining the future. Matter has built the advanced tech stack with more than 300 innovators and created more than 100 Ips. With a focus on research and development, Matter aims to continue creating cutting-edge technologies that will benefit both society and the environment. Matter

Puneet Kothapa is a Chartered Accountant by profession of around 10 years post qualification experience. He worked for a reputed advisory firm before joining the management of the group in the year 2012 and has been at the helm of affairs across all entities in Narayana Group.

He is responsible for providing strategic, financial, and operational leadership for the Company & Narayana Group and closely works and coordinates with the Board of Directors and senior leadership team.

Besides this, he also has numerous honours to his credit including India’s Top Minds Award 2020 – 21 Awarded by Hindustan Times and CNBC TV18, Most Promising Business Leader 2019 Awarded by Economic Times, Business Excellence 2017 Awarded by HMTV, Young Achiever 2014 Awarded by World Education Congress. He was also listed in the Best 40 Under 40 Entrepreneurs by Fortune magazine.

Kunal Dalal has been the Managing Director at JBCN Education for nearly two decades. He earned his degree from the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, where he double-majored in Finance and Computer Information Technology. His unwavering dedication to education is driven by his belief in providing children with creative learning opportunities. Drawing from his experience as an IBDP learner, he has led JBCN International Schools to implement a learner-centric progressive education strategy.

Kunal’s goal is to empower students with the knowledge and skills necessary to become changemakers and navigate the challenges of the 21st century. He firmly believes that educators must go beyond imparting information and focus on developing responsible individuals who possess a global understanding and actively contribute to the betterment of society.

Recognizing the importance of sports in instilling key life values, Kunal emphasizes integrating sports into the learning process. During his leisure time, he enjoys playing tennis and cricket, having competed at the state level in both sports. He firmly believes that "Sports do not build character, they reveal it." This belief drives him to encourage learners through various sports initiatives and programs, fostering character development and leadership qualities.

Recently, Kunal has been appointed as the Independent Director on the board of Aptech Limited, a pioneering organization in the training and education sector based in Mumbai. This appointment further highlights his reputation and expertise within the education industry.

Kunal’s tenacious commitment to education is evident through his numerous initiatives at JBCN Education, which currently boasts a faculty of over 450 members across multiple centres. The organization's vision is to become a leading player in the K-12 education sector in India. His immeasurable dedication and trailblazing spirit position him as a catalyst for shaping the youth, fostering strong morals, and nurturing future leaders and problem solvers in an increasingly global society

Sandiip Bhammer is a Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Green Frontier Capital (GFC), India’s first-ever venture capital fund focused on investing entirely in early-stage companies engaged in delivering breakthrough innovation which is focused on India’s as well as the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, with a particular emphasis on Climate Action.
He is, also, an Adjunct Professor of Finance at the Isenberg School of Business at Univ.>of Mass – Amherst where he educates the next generation of leaders on Sustainable Finance and Investing and, also, on the importance of incorporating ESG considerations (with a special emphasis on Climate Change) into investment decision making, especially, with regards to developing economies. Prior to GFC and his teaching commitments at UMass – Amherst, Sandiip was a Co-Portfolio Manager of the DA Capital South-Asia Investment Fund, based in New York.

Darshan Ghodawat is the CEO and Managing Director of AVA Global Logistics LLP, an entrepreneur with a background in business management and a strong track record in international trade. With over 15 years of experience in multi-commodity trading and manufacturing, he has forged strategic partnerships, scaled edible oil production, and led AVA Global to support complex logistics projects globally. Beyond his business endeavors, Darshan Ghodawat is known for his philanthropic efforts, actively supporting initiatives such as animal shelters, Iskon, and aiding sick children and animals, showcasing his commitment to both business and social responsibility.

Mr. Sangeet Kumar seasoned professional and an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur brings2 decades of experience of process automation and material handling automation. He has extensive experience in Robotics, high-speed packing machines, Automated Storage and Retrieval System, warehouse design and engineering etc.

Prior to founding Addverb, he had more than a decade long stint with Asian Paints where he played a pivotal role in setting up India’s most automated factories and warehouses with state-of-the-art robotics and automation systems.In the initial years of his stint with Asian Paints, he successfully designed and commissioned two of the most automated paint factories in the world at Chennai & Rohtak. Subsequently, he became the youngest factory manager at the age of 29, where he was instrumental in setting up unique practices in operational excellence and people management.
He successfully led two brownfield expansion projects in less than 5 years. In his last stint as Factory Manager for Chennai plant, he resolved a longstanding dispute with the workers union by signing a mutually beneficial long-term settlement and turned around the plant on all operational parameters and ensured harmonious Industrial relations.
A globetrotter, voracious reader, and a passionate engineer, he loves spending time with his family, when he is not at work. A self-acclaimed sports enthusiast, he is an avid (cricketer) and has represented the team of GAILwhich keeps him fit and energetic in life

A fine blend of global thinking & Indian values, Raghav Podar is an educationist and a thought leader on constructing optimal learning environments. Having studied the education systems of Finland, Singapore, U.K. and Australia, he has been vested heavily into upgrading the quality of schooling in India. His trainings, presentations and workshops are keenly sought across schools, conferences and ministries across the world.

Vish Iyer is the Global Chief Commercial Officer at Jakson Green, a new energy transition platform jointly promoted by India headquartered Infrastructure and renewables major Jakson Limited and clean energy veteran Bikesh Ogra. An energy industry specialist by background, Vish’s expertise lies across functional areas of the power sector business, given his 17 years of work across conglomerates such as Siemens, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra and Shapoorji Pallonji Group (Sterling and Wilson Solar). His body of work over the years led him to recently receive the unique distinction of being among only 3 Indians to have made it as a “Rising Star Finalist” at the S&P Global Platt’s Global Energy Awards (regarded as the “Oscars of the Energy Industry”) across the award’s 20 years’ history.

Vish serves as a member of the CII task force on Green Hydrogen and previously has served as a member of the FICCI Energy Storage Task Force, while also being an external advisor to the USIPF (US-India Partnership Forum) in the areas of clean energy, e-mobility and energy storage. A regular speaker at clean energy forums worldwide, Vish has been featured in annual industry panel discussions covered by Bloomberg TV India twice in a row. Vish holds a Master of Business Administration from the Purdue University Krannert School of Management and a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

Ruchira Shukla is the South Asia Regional Lead for Disruptive Technology Investments at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), World Bank Group. She oversees IFC’s investments in early stage technology businesses as well as VC Funds, and represents IFC on the boards of several startups and LP advisory committees. Her investments include Upgrad, Blackbuck, Bizongo, Tata1mg, Medgenome, Byju’s, and several others. Previously, as the Global Lead for the HealthTech business at IFC, Ms. Shukla led IFC’s investments and interventions in the HealthTech industry across emerging markets.

Ms. Shukla also ran IFC’s South Asia business in Technology, Media and Telecom, and has previously worked with organizations such as Boston Consulting Group and Lehman Brothers. She has over 25 years of experience across venture capital and private equity investing, strategy consulting, and investment banking across Asia, US and Europe. Her sector focus spans consumer internet, enterprise technologies, B2B eCommerce, healthtech, edutech and elogistics, with a keen interest in business models that leverage emerging technologies such as Web 3.0, AI, IoT and blockchain to disrupt traditional spaces.

Ruchira studied at IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad in India. She also graduated as Palmer Scholar from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

Smita Deorah is Co-Founder and Co-CEO at LEAD, India’s largest School Edtech company and the first unicorn in the segment.
A chartered accountant-turned-educator, Smita has over 22 years of experience in Finance, Leadership and Education. At LEAD, Smita is responsible for education research, product development and capability building. She has been instrumental in developing the LEAD Integrated System, which is benchmarked with the best education systems globally and contextualised for schools in India.

Smita is passionate about excellence and values in academia. Her goal is to bring quality learning to underserved communities and to bridge the gap between India's high-fee schools and its affordable private schools, so that every child can be nurtured to her true potential.
Prior to co-founding LEAD, Smita founded Sparsh, an NGO that worked for the uplift of Anganwadis in Mumbai in association with the Maharashtra government. She also implemented a ‘pre-school in a box’ solution in 16 Anganwadis to prepare students for school, and to reduce dropouts and low attendance.
Prior to this, Smita spent nine years at Procter & Gamble Singapore and India as a leader in Finance, Treasury and Strategy.
Smita is a great believer in continuous learning. After graduating from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics and becoming a Chartered Accountant, she completed Executive Programs from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Smita is the only leader from India to be conferred the 2022 Power of Women (POW!) award for her work in providing equal access to the future through quality education for all. She is also a recipient of the ‘Woman Ahead’ award at ET Startup Awards 2022. Smita has been recognised as one among the top 100 female entrepreneurs who are building and shaping India.

She lives in Mumbai with her family and loves travelling to different parts of the world.

Mainak is the CEO & Co-founder of GPS Renewables, a bio-energy company that is working towards accelerating the substitution of fossil fuel with biofuels.(Biogas, BioCNG, Ethanol and Green Hydrogen). Mainak has completed his MBA from IIM Bangalore and his engineering from NIT, Calicut. He had been named as one of the top Indian innovators under the age of 35 by the MIT Technology Review. He is also an ex-Global Shaper, World Economic Forum.

He founded Leverage Edu in 2017, and as its CEO now runs what is Asia’s most prominent Study Abroad Platform, with over 120Mn annual users & 25000+ successfully placed students. He also started Fly.finance & Fly Homes under the Leverage umbrella. Fly.Finance today does over $100Mn worth in education loans & $150Mn+ worth international remittance annually. Fly Homes, started in January 2023, is already at $30Mn in annual bookings.

Akshay has raised over $70Mn from a mix of globally renowned institutions, well-respected family offices, and industry-leading operators. Among Institutions: ETS Strategic Capital, Shorelight, Blume Ventures, Kaizenvest PE, DSP Mutual Fund, Tomorrow Capital, DSG Consumer Partners; family offices: of Flipkart-founder Binny Bansal, Mankind promoter Rajeev Juneja, Capri Global, Indorama Ventures, Vicco, Singularity Ventures; & individual operators like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Ashish Hemrajani, Peyush Bansal, Ankur Warikoo, Karan Khemka, Ash Lilani, Vishal Gondal & Amrish Rau amongst others.

Founded in April 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi, LeverageEdu is a Global Study Abroad Platform that helps students from India, Nigeria & other emerging countries access best-matched higher education opportunities globally. It operates multiple products for students and universities, including Fly.finance, Fly Homes, Leverage IELTS, Leverage TOEFL, Univalley OS, and others. The company is backed by a mix of globally renowned institutions, deeply respected family offices, and industry-leading operators. Among Institutions: ETS Strategic Capital, Shorelight, Blume Ventures, Kaizenvest PE, DSP Mutual Fund, Tomorrow Capital, DSG Consumer Partners; family offices: of Flipkart-founder Binny Bansal, Mankind promoter Rajeev Juneja, Capri Global, Indorama Ventures, Vicco, Singularity Ventures; & individual operators like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Ashish Hemrajani, Peyush Bansal, Ankur Warikoo, Karan Khemka, Ash Lilani, Vishal Gondal & Amrish Rau amongst others. LeverageEdu enrolls over 6,000 students every month and offers personalized counseling, college application support, VISA, education loans, money transfer & accommodation.

Kapil Chopra is the Founder of The Postcard Hotel. The award-winning brand has been resolute in developing the most intimate yet highly differentiated experiential stays for guests in hidden destinations since 2018, while building a bold new narrative around personalised luxury. For the second year in a row, The Postcard Hotel brand has proudly received the distinguished title of "Asia's Leading Boutique Hotel Brand" at the prestigious World Travel Awards.
Additionally, The Postcard Hotel, Gir, has been bestowed with the recognition of “Asia’s Leading Wildlife Resort,” while The Postcard on the Arabian Sea has been acclaimed as “Asia’s Leading Boutique Hotel.” He is also the Chairman of the Board for EazyDiner, India’s largest instant restaurant reservations app.

Besides being a hotelier and entrepreneur, he is an avid collector of Indian contemporary art and writes for various national and international publications. Kapil is passionate about reforming healthcare in India and mentors the country’s most significant public health initiative, charitybeds.com which facilitates hospital admissions for the economically challenged sections of the society.
In his last assignment, he was the President, Oberoi Hotels and Resorts and under his guidance and direction, the group, had shown the fastest growth with an exponential rise in occupancy and revenues. During his tenure, the brand was voted The Best Hotel Group by the readers of The Telegraph UK, and also voted as The World’s Best Hotel Brand for two consecutive years by readers of Travel+Leisure USA.
Kapil was the Chairman of WTTC-II, heads various tourism initiatives for the government and was awarded “Hotelier of the Year” by Hindustan Times in 2012. In February this year, he was awarded The Hindustan Times Trailblazer Award 2021 for his contribution to public healthcare.

Mainak is the CEO & Co-founder of GPS Renewables, a bio-energy company that is working towards accelerating the substitution of fossil fuel with biofuels.(Biogas, BioCNG, Ethanol and Green Hydrogen). Mainak has completed his MBA from IIM Bangalore and his engineering from NIT, Calicut. He had been named as one of the top Indian innovators under the age of 35 by the MIT Technology Review. He is also an ex-Global Shaper, World Economic Forum.

He founded Leverage Edu in 2017, and as its CEO now runs what is Asia’s most prominent Study Abroad Platform, with over 120Mn annual users & 25000+ successfully placed students. He also started Fly.finance & Fly Homes under the Leverage umbrella. Fly.Finance today does over $100Mn worth in education loans & $150Mn+ worth international remittance annually. Fly Homes, started in January 2023, is already at $30Mn in annual bookings.

Akshay has raised over $70Mn from a mix of globally renowned institutions, well-respected family offices, and industry-leading operators. Among Institutions: ETS Strategic Capital, Shorelight, Blume Ventures, Kaizenvest PE, DSP Mutual Fund, Tomorrow Capital, DSG Consumer Partners; family offices: of Flipkart-founder Binny Bansal, Mankind promoter Rajeev Juneja, Capri Global, Indorama Ventures, Vicco, Singularity Ventures; & individual operators like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Ashish Hemrajani, Peyush Bansal, Ankur Warikoo, Karan Khemka, Ash Lilani, Vishal Gondal & Amrish Rau amongst others.

Founded in April 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi, LeverageEdu is a Global Study Abroad Platform that helps students from India, Nigeria & other emerging countries access best-matched higher education opportunities globally. It operates multiple products for students and universities, including Fly.finance, Fly Homes, Leverage IELTS, Leverage TOEFL, Univalley OS, and others. The company is backed by a mix of globally renowned institutions, deeply respected family offices, and industry-leading operators.

Among Institutions: ETS Strategic Capital, Shorelight, Blume Ventures, Kaizenvest PE, DSP Mutual Fund, Tomorrow Capital, DSG Consumer Partners; family offices: of Flipkart-founder Binny Bansal, Mankind promoter Rajeev Juneja, Capri Global, Indorama Ventures, Vicco, Singularity Ventures; & individual operators like Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Kunal Shah, Ashish Hemrajani, Peyush Bansal, Ankur Warikoo, Karan Khemka, Ash Lilani, Vishal Gondal & Amrish Rau amongst others. LeverageEdu enrolls over 6,000 students every month and offers personalized counseling, college application support, VISA, education loans, money transfer & accommodation.

Niharika NM, is a 24 year old Indian digital content creator, widely known for taking the Instagram community by storm in 2020 through her humorous and relatable Instagram reels. She has also been the only solo creator to be chosen as one of the global ambassadors of Creators for Change- a YouTube initiative twice in a row, which uses influencers to generate awareness and engage their audience regarding relevant social issues.

Niharika's video 'Living Alone 101' went viral on Instagram and has crossed 11 million views in just under 13 days. She has since grown and continues to grow exponentially as she has become one of the fastest growing content creators on Instagram. With just 100k followers on 17 October 2020, she crossed the esteemed 1 million mark on 17 December 2020, exactly two months later. Currently she has over 2.8+ million followers across all social media platforms and is growing. This puts her in an elite bracket of 0.32% of users who have this kind of reach (according to the Mention x Hubspot Instagram Engagement Report 2020).

Born in Chennai and brought up in Bengaluru, Niharika’s taste in comedy is extremely diverse. She counts everyone from Jim Carrey to Rowan Atkinson and Brahmanandam to Vadivelu, as well as Vivek, Santhanam and Vennela Kishore among her inspirations. “If all else fails, I turn to my friends and family because they’re all absolute clowns, '' she says. True to this, her content often references them, especially her parents, whom she describes as “very traditional but also cool at the same time”. Through her childhood, they captured her innate humour on video and are therefore very used to it.

An engineer who is now pursuing her MBA in the USA along with juggling digital content creation, Niharika has immense love for theatre. Growing up, she had always been attracted to plays and movies, but the idea of being a part of such productions seemed too wishful.

Aditya Roy Kapur Actor Aditya Roy Kapur, a popular Bollywood actor began his journey in the entertainment business by working as a VJ (Video Jockey) on Channel V. He made his debut in the film industry with a small role in London Dreams (2009) and followed up with supporting roles in Guzaarish and Action Replayy in 2010.

Although he comes from an influential family in the film industry, the actor had to work his way up all by himself. With his sheer hard work and efforts less acting he became an overnight sensation with blockbuster romantic film Aashiqui 2, where he played the lead. The actor not only wooed the audience with his brilliant performance but also wooned a billion hearts with his charming personality. The journey goes on and 2020 looks like a great year for the him with exciting movies lined up back to back.

Rana Daggubati is an actor, producer, and entrepreneur. He started his career as the co-producer of a National Award-winning film, Bommalata: A Belly Full of Dreams (2004) and went on to make his acting debut in the Telugu film Leader (2010) and the Hindi film Dum Maro Dum (2011). He is widely known for his portrayal of the antagonist Bhallaladeva in the multilingual, magnum opus films Baahubali: The Beginning (2015) and Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), both of which won National Awards, and are among the top 10 highest-grossing Indian films globally. He leads operations at one of South India's leading production houses – Suresh Productions, runs an entertainment and talent management firm - Kwan Entertainment, mentors and supports tech start-ups in media with Anthill Studios, and has invested in one of India's most reputed comic book companies – Amar Chitra Katha.

The Co-Founder and CEO of Mobile Premier League (MPL), Sai Srinivas is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur. Along with his Co-Founder Shubh Malhotra, this is his second startup. Their first venture Creo, a streaming hardware company, was acquired. Sai's interest in gaming dates right back to his days at game developer Zynga. Passionate about eSports, Sai hopes to take them across the country and democratise them with MPL. Sai hails from Hyderabad and has spent most of his professional life in Bengaluru.

Few artists have experienced the meteoric rise to fame that 23-year old Ritviz Srivastava has, and even fewer have been able to sustain that popularity. In December 2017, he shot to fame with a hit single, Udd Gaye, which effortlessly blended elements of Indian traditional music, hip-hop and electronica. The track was declared the biggest party anthem of the year in India by a partnership between Bacardi, comedy collective All India Bakchod & iconic Indian dubstep producer Nucleya. Apart from critical acclaim, it has been a hit with audiences all over India – clocking in at over 500 million plays across platforms, and propelling young Ritviz to headliner status at music festivals. He followed this up with a series of earworms through 2018 and 2019, becoming one of the most sought-after names in Indian electronic music in the process, his unique style finding takers all over the world. Currently, he is one of the most streamed artists on Spotify India since the platform’s February 2019 India launch, thanks in no small part to his debut album, Ved. This album, on which he worked closely with his manager Rahul Sinha, was meant to be a collaboration between Ritviz the producer and Ritviz the classically-trained vocalist. He has performed sold-out concerts across India to promote the album, culminating in a highlight show at the country’s largest multi-genre music festival, Bacardi NH7 Weekender Pune, in December 2018. The son of a singer and a tabla-player, Ritviz has lived Hindustani music since the age of six. Inspired by hip-hop in his youth, he started writing his own rap songs, and sought to meld his various influences into a unique style of music. He is currently working on his sophomore album, Dev, which is due to release in late 2019. Along the way, he has amassed 330,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, which features 9 tracks topping 1 million views. He will be supporting international superstars Dua Lipa & Katy Perry at their maiden India concert in November 2019. Venturing out of music creation, Ritviz has also curated his own music and comedy festival in collaboration with Bacardi India, the YUV Fest, featuring names such as Seedhe Maut, SickFlip, Dorwin, Kenny Sebastian, Sumukhi Suresh and Aadar Malik. The future certainly looks bright for Ritviz, who in a short span of time has gone from bedroom producer to viral sensation to headliner to festival curator. Not only does he make music that appeals to his millions of fans, but has a story that inspires them as well.

Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti (born 9 November 1940) is a successful textile industrialist and philanthropist. He is a liberal donor for arts, culture and education. After the death of his grandfather, Nalli Chinnasamy Chetti, in 1958, he inherited the family business trademarked Nalli Silks. He has written three Tamil books namely, Vetrikku Moondre Padigal, Needhi Noolgalil Nirvagam and Padagacheri Mahan

Mohan.K, The Co-Founder & CEO of Ippopay is a serial entrepreneur with 14 years of business experience in software technologies. He founded “RoamSoft '' a software development company following which he stepped into the welcoming world of FinTech having Co-founded “Foloosi Technologies” based in the UAE. Foloosi grew to see quick investors and the firm is now ranked in the top 20 fintech startups in the MiddleEast by Forbes. IppoPay is a Chennai based FinTech Venture established in November 2020, with about 30k Indian merchants already using IppoPays’s services and a growing count of investors on board.

Cdr. Navneet Kaushik (Project Director- Start Ups) is a retired Naval Officer/Veteran and now serving as Senior Scientist with Technology Development Board, Government of India. He is an ex-NDA and holds a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He did his B.Tech. from Naval College of Engineering and B.Sc. from National Defence Academy. He holds about 22+ years of experience in the Indian Navy and the Government of India, he has a proven track record of transforming organizational effectiveness and driving customer-led technology projects from idea to delivery.

He is an influential communicator, known for motivating teams, negotiating with international stakeholders (South America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa), and managing key relationships in government ministries as well as private-sector organizations.

He has led the board agenda to fund innovative technology and indigenization projects, resulting in loans to companies such as QuNu labs, Bharat Biotech, Botlab Dynamics (indigenous drones), Mylabs, and Biological E. He has guided 20 start-ups at the India Innovation Growth Program in Boston, USA as an ecosystem expert while representing Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.

Cdr. Navneet Kaushik (Project Director- Start Ups) is a retired Naval Officer/Veteran and now serving as Senior Scientist with Technology Development Board, Government of India. He is an ex-NDA and holds a Master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He did his B.Tech. from Naval College of Engineering and B.Sc. from National Defence Academy. He holds about 22+ years of experience in the Indian Navy and the Government of India, he has a proven track record of transforming organizational effectiveness and driving customer-led technology projects from idea to delivery.

He is an influential communicator, known for motivating teams, negotiating with international stakeholders (South America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa), and managing key relationships in government ministries as well as private-sector organizations.

He has led the board agenda to fund innovative technology and indigenization projects, resulting in loans to companies such as QuNu labs, Bharat Biotech, Botlab Dynamics (indigenous drones), Mylabs, and Biological E. He has guided 20 start-ups at the India Innovation Growth Program in Boston, USA as an ecosystem expert while representing Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.

Karthik comes with a diverse experience spanning nearly 25 years in the fields of engineering, automotive and management consulting. In the past, he has been associated with leading firms like Ashok Leyland, McKinsey and Company, Tata Motors, Timken. In his tenure in these companies, Karthik has been part of transformational programs, such as building India's first indigenous passenger car platform at Tata Motors, one of India's first global R and D centres at Timken, leading large operations and organizational transformations across a wide base of heavy engineering and manufacturing firms at McKinsey and being a key driver in Ashok Leyland's highly successful business transformation story.

Karthik started his entrepreneurial journey with WayCool in 2015 with his partner and Co-Founder Sanjay Dasari. The company operates a full-stack, broad line product range across multiple channels and categories like Fresh produce, Staples, Dairy, Spices and Condiments, and Packaged products serving a base of 100000 Customers. WayCool, through its agricultural extension program - Outgrow, works with a base of over 80000 farmers to source produce, and also equips farmers with next-gen tech, while promoting principles of regenerative agriculture. With his core expertise in the areas of transforming business processes across operations, sourcing & supply chain organization, and leadership capability building, Karthik has driven WayCool Foods in becoming India’s largest Agri-Commerce company, today. He has built a strong culture of innovation resulting in WayCool leading automation, and running a highly efficient business model in the industry.

Karthik is an IIT Madras alumnus with a Masters degree from Purdue University and an MBA from Indian School of Business.

An alumnus of St.Xavier’s College in Kolkata. Vipul comes from an insurance background. With almost 15 years in companies like Apollo Munich and Bajaj Allianz, Vipul has been responsible for driving sales and managing teams in various parts of India. At Kaleidofin Vipul heads the Network Partnerships team and is responsible for driving business growth. He does this with a unique skill in managing a network of cluster managers and agents who service customers deep in the hinterlands of the country. Vipul and his team also drives corporate tie-ups with banks, MFI’s, NBFC’s and other financial sector organisations.

SuryaNarayanan PaneerSelvam, one of the founders of Skill-Lync started his journey as an entrepreneur in the hallowed halls of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with an online delivery service that helped him understand the various moving parts of a start-up. After seeing students like him from India, who were struggling with the mode of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he quickly realized that there was a huge divide between what students were trained in the engineering colleges in India and what was expected from the industry. This was a curriculum that did not keep pace with the changes in the global marketplace thus creating engineers who were not employable. It was around this time that he and Sarangarajan V Iyengar decided to start an educational firm to make mechanical engineers industry-ready. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Suryanarayanan joined Cummins Inc, as a product engineer. During the two years he worked at Cummins Inc, he was involved in developing Crankcase Ventilation for medium/heavy-duty engines. He also had the opportunity to lead the development of Cummins Filtration's state-of-the-art Crankcase filtration system. At Cummins, the competitive environment, challenging tasks that pushed him to provide his best and a great working environment enabled him to take the entrepreneurial plunge.

Karthik is a technologist turned serial entrepreneur. Before Inai, he co-founded his previous startup with Anta (his present co-founder) which they exited to a Spanish company. Prior to that, Karthik was Senior Chief Engineer with Samsung R&D and held various roles in startups and large companies including Juniper Networks and Qualcomm. Karthik did his master’s in engineering in the US (Clemson University), bachelor’s in engineering from University of Madras. He holds 10 international patents. His schooling was with DAV Boys Gopalapuram where he met his co-founder, Anta.