Past Event
Brand India: The Soft Power Evolution
May 1, 2019 | 18:00 - 19:45
- Kings College London, Bush House, London WC2B 4BG
- Kings College London, Bush House, London WC2B 4BG
Upcoming Events
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Webinar series: India’s foreign policy perspectives
Date February 22, 2021
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Uganda-UK Trade and Investment Convention
Date September 10, 2021
Past Events
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The Great March of India’s Democracy
Date February 1, 2019
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Countdown to the Indian General Elections: What should we expect?
Date April 8, 2019
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Brand India: The Soft Power Evolution
Date May 1, 2019
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Dissecting the election results: What next for India?
Date June 5, 2019
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Policy Internship series in India
Date August 1, 2019
Bio
Abhinandan Sekhri is co-founder and CEO of media critique, news and current affairs website Newslaundry.
Before founding Newslaundry, he worked as a producer, director and writer in various television and film projects. He regularly delivers lectures and hosts panel discussions on journalism, RTI, and the importance and independence of media, and has delivered talks at Harvard’s India Conference (2018 edition) and several Indian colleges including NIT Karnataka-Surathkal, St. Xavier’s College, Lady Shri Ram College, IIM Lucknow Noida Campus and Manipal University.He also delivered a TEDx talk about ‘journalism of independence’ at TEDxJaiHindCollege in 2015.
Bio
Manish Tewari is a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha from Anandpur Sahib. He belongs to the Indian National Congress Party.
He is an Advocate by profession and practices in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts of Delhi, Punjab and Haryana. He was the Minister of Information and Broadcasting from 2012 to 2014 and a Member of Parliament from Ludhiana from 2009 to 2014.
Bio
David Landsman is the Former Executive Director of Tata Limited, the Indian conglomerate’s European subsidiary. He was a British diplomat, serving as Ambassador to Albania and Greece and Chargé d’Affaires in Yugoslavia and has worked on EU, UN, NATO and security issues. He currently provides senior-level counsel in strategy reputation and geopolitics at the interface of business and governments.
He is a senior adviser at DRD Partnership, Chair of the British-Serbian Chamber of Commerce; director of DocuChain (SaaS), Agora Envisioning and the UK-India Business Council. He is on the Advisory Board of Strategy International; and the International Advisory Board of the London Institute of Banking and Finance.
Bio
Subramanian Swamy is a present Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, Economist and Statistician. He was a member of the Planning Commission of India and a Cabinet Minister in the Chandra Shekhar government.
He serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, Kerala. He has written on foreign affairs of India dealing largely with People’s Republic of China (PRC), Pakistan and Israel. He was a professor of Economics at Harvard and IIT Delhi.
Bio
Anurag Behar is the CEO for Azim Premji Foundation, Chief Sustainability Officer of Wipro Limited & Vice Chancellor, Azim Premji University. Previously, he was the CEO of Wipro Infrastructure Engineering. He is a member of the Committee that has developed India’s National Education Policy (2019).
He has been a Board member of Wipro GE Healthcare Ltd, The University of Trans-Disciplinary Health Sciences and of the TERI University, served on many government & sector councils such as MHRD’s EQUIP, the National Mission on Teachers and Teacher Education, the Government of India implementation committee for the Justice Verma Commission, Karnataka Knowledge Commission, and the CII’s National Climate Change Council.
Bio
Preeti Dawra is a Texas India Forum spokesperson and was the lead for Communications for PM Modi’s historic Howdy Modi event in Houston, Texas, in 2019. She has close to 20 years of expertise in strategic marketing, corporate communications & branding, public relations and journalism in leading public and private sector institutions encompassing Singapore, USA Hong Kong and India. Preeti Dawra is also the Managing Director-Asia for Tina Brown Live Media/Women in the World.
Ms Dawra currently serves as the Senior Strategic Advisor to New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service, and National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies. She is a board member of Princeton in Asia (Singapore), and serves as an advisory member of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center’s “Artist Residencies” from India.
She also writes a weekly column titled the “Singapore Conversation” with leading opinion makers for Mint, one of India’s largest business dailies.
Bio
Amar Patnaik is a present Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Odisha. He belongs to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and is the General Secretary of BJD Parliamentary Party office at Delhi.
He is a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Austin, Texas, USA. He has certification in Risk Management Assurance (CRMA) from the Institute of Internal Auditors, Altamonte Springs, Florida, USA.
Bio
Zac Goldsmith was appointed Minister of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and at the Department for International Development on 10 September 2019.
He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and at the Department for International Development on 27 July 2019 and 10 September 2019.
Born in London, the son of billionaire businessman and financier Sir James Goldsmith of the Goldsmith family, he was educated at Eton College and the Cambridge Centre for Sixth-form Studies.
Bio
Dominykas Broga is the Programme Manager for International Trade at techUK and works with stakeholders across the UK Government and with partners around the globe to represent the UK’s tech-sector in trade-related matters, help technology companies access export opportunities and shape the government’s agenda on trade in non-EU countries.
Previously, he worked as a consultant at a market entry and trade facilitation consulting firm in South East Asia that helps European and American companies enter into the ASEAN markets.
Bio
Gurdeep Singh Sappal is the CEO and Editor-in-Chief of the 24×7 Hindi News Television Channel ‘Swaraj Express’and its sister website www.newsplatform.in.He is the founder and Executive Trustee of ‘Samruddha Bharat Foundation’.
He is the Former Chief Executive Officer and Editor-in-Chief of Rajya Sabha TV, the public broadcaster of Rajya Sabha, Parliament of India. He is the Officer on Special Duty to the Vice President of India and his political advisor.
Bio
Anand Anandalingam is the Ralph J. Tyser Professor of Management Science at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. He was the Dean of Imperial College Business School, London and Robert H. Smith School of Business. He is currently developing an online educational start-up to work in depressed areas around the world.
Bio
Urvashi Prasad is a Public Policy Specialist at the Office of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, Government of India. She is the Founder of Every Voice, a platform that highlights the perspectives, needs, challenges and aspirations of people living in poverty. She is on the Board of Directors of Operation ASHA, one of India’s largest tuberculosis treatment NGOs.
She is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers Community. She managed the health, water and sanitation portfolio of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in India for five years.
Bio
Rishi Sunak was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 24 July 2019. He was previously Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government from 9 January 2018 to 24 July 2019.
Rishi went to Winchester College and studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Stanford University where he studied for his MBA.
He was elected Conservative MP for Richmond (Yorks) in May 2015 and served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from June 2017 until his ministerial appointment.
Rishi spent his professional career before politics in business and finance, working internationally. He co-founded an investment firm working with companies in multiple geographies. He then used that experience to help small and entrepreneurial British companies grow.
Bio
Dinesh Dhamija is a former Member of the European Parliament for the Liberal Democrats, London region. He was on the Internal Markets and Consumer Protection Committee and the Budgets Committee. He was the Chair of the Indian Delegation to the EU and is the founder of the online travel agency, Ebookers.
Bio
Spriha Srivastava is the Executive Editor at Business Insider. She was the Deputy Digital News Editor for CNBC International. She worked at the Financial Times covering personal finance and at Thomson Reuters. She was one of the moderators for Global Markets Forum for market professionals.
Bio
Nakul Saxena is the Director of Public Policy at Indian Software Products Industry Round Table ( iSPIRT), a leading think tank for the Indian software products industry. He actively works with the Central Government and the State Governments of Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal and Kerala with regards to Startup Policies and Implementation of policies for Software Product Companies and Startups.
Bio
Prof M V Rajeev Gowda is an Indian politician and academician. He is a member of parliament in the Rajya Sabha and a national spokesperson for the Indian National Congress. He serves as Chairman of the “Congress Research Department” and is the Advisor for Bridge India.
He was Professor of Economics and Social Sciences and the Chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He served as the Director of the Central Board, Reserve Bank of India.
Bio
Sitaram Yechury is an Indian politician and a leader of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was elected as its General Secretary on 19 April 2015. He is a member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and was the party’s Parliamentary group leader.
Bio
T. V. Mohandas Pai is Padma Shri Awardee and current Chairman of Manipal Global Education (Manipal University). He was a former director of Infosys, and Head – Administration, Education and Research, Financial, Human Resources of Infosys Leadership Institute.
Bio
Lord Karan Bilimoria is a British Indian entrepreneur, life peer in the UK House of Lords, and a university chancellor.
He is well known for founding the popular global beer brand, Cobra Beer and currently operates as the company’s chairman. In addition to his business activity, He is a politically active crossbench member of the House of Lords, and also currently serves as Chancellor of the University of Birmingham.
Bio
Before Ashok Leyland, Hari spent 20 years at GE Global Research, and studied at the Indian Institute of Science. He is an accomplished manager with 20 years industrial R&D experience in people, technical, and functional leadership. He has successfully led and managed teams in the areas of electrochemistry, corrosion, and tribology developing materials and solutions for performance, degradation, and durability for different applications.
He has deep domain expertise in energy storage batteries and solid oxide fuel cells, is key member of the team that enabled launch of GE’s first commercial battery product (Durathon™) and the GE Energy Storage business, and has 20 international patents, 7 international journal publications, and 15 internal reports.
Bio
He is Co-Founder and CFO of this six-year old Altigreen Propulsion Labs (APL), which is developing technology for high-efficiency hybrid/electric mobility solutions with a split team based in US and India.
Previously, he was CFO at BCH Electric and previously Chief of Internal Audit at Siemens Public Communications. He did his MBA at IIM-Ahmedabad.
Bio
Sajid Mubashir has been a scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology for 26 years. He implemented the following significant technology programs:
(a) Home Grown Technology Program (1997-2005): 56 Pilot Production Plants by Industry, 20 Pilot Plants at National Labs. Returnable funds. Direct recovery of 75% funds by TIFAC. The revenue to the exchequer included tax of >3 times the program outlay.
(b) Collaborative Automotive R&D -CAR (2003-2010): 200 member Academia-Industry collaboration network; Technology Roadmap; 10 Consortium Projects, a new model of engagement in India.
(c) Currently engaged in developing a Technology Platform for Electric Mobility.
He is currently on the National Automotive Board (NAB), an autonomous society under the Department of Heavy Industry, Government of India. The NAB is in fact a “program manager” for the Departments initiatives in Electric Mobility, Intelligent Transportation System, Automotive Regulatory Certification, Collaborative R&D. NAB will function as a repository of automotive domain expertise, and suggest policy, regulations etc., and develop Technology Platforms relevant to the Automotive Sector.
Bio
Chandana works in the Power Utility and Electricity Mobility vertical of AEEE as a Senior Research Associate. Her research area is Distributed Energy Resources, focusing on Electric Vehicles, Energy Storage, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency. She has over 6.5 years of work experience and is competent in Power System Studies, Data Science and Energy Modelling.
Chandana started her career in the Petrochemical Industry at Reliance Industries Limited. Prior to joining AEEE. she was engaged as a Consultant for the Technical Assistance program for Solar Rooftop Deployment. Chandana holds Masters in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management from TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi and Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Government Engineering College, Thrissur.
She is an active member of IEEE Power and Energy Society, Transportation Electrification, Block Chain and Smart Grid Community.
Bio
Huzefa Tavawalla is Head of Disruptive Technologies Practice Group & the Bangalore Office at Nishith Desai Associates. He is a core TMT lawyer and a technology enthusiast with an in-depth expertise in Technology – M&A. He has been representing numerous internet / digital / hi-tech multinationals in their global business expansions and M&A’s. He has also assisted similar companies on their India entry strategies. He has authored / co-authored several publications on UAV, Fintech, Regulatory Sanbox, investments in hi-tech, AI, driver-less cars, AR/VR, IoT, wearables etc.
Bio
Jitendra Nalwaya is having professional experience of more than 25 years in various organisations across India, mainly in Power Sector. He is an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from Manipal with an added qualification of General Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow. Presently, Jitendra is handling Sustainability and Clean Technology vertical in a Power Distribution Utility.
Jitendra has also gained major experience in handling Power Distribution operations/ Transformation in Government/ Private Licensee/ Franchisee operations. He is having professional experience in the field of Commercial, O&M and Project Management in Oil & Gas, Power, Infrastructure sector and handling P&L of a large organisation having multi city operations. He has also handled organisation strategic issues/ planning of change management including organisation transformation.
Bio
Gaurav Gupta is an officer of Indian Administrative Service of the 1990 batch. He works in the Karnataka Government as Principal Secretary, Commerce & Industries, with concurrent charge of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology.
He has an experience of over 25 years in fields of Commerce & Industries, Infrastructure, Power, Urban Development & Transportation.He has served as Commissioner for Industrial Development promoting industries and investments in Karnataka. He has been the key driver for the ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’, the flagship mega-investment summit. In the past, he has worked to create critical infrastructure – transport, water and electricity – for the State and also for the City of Bengaluru. He has served as Chairman of Bangalore Water Board, Special Commissioner in BBMP and Managing Director in KSRTC.
Bio
Prof NK Goyal is the President of CMAI; Chairman Emeritus, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India; Vice Chairman of International Telecom Union APT India; Member of Governing Board, Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council (Govt. of India) and Director of National Fertilizers Ltd.
He is actively engaged in ICT, Mobile, Telecom, Education, Alternate Energy, Multimedia, Infrastructure & Education Sectors.
Bio
Sohinder Singh Gill is the CEO of Hero Electric and Director General of the Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles, India since 2008.
Previosuly, he has been associated with : GPL group of Industries NSEZ in Noida as Group CEO, JK Industries Group in Delhi as VP Strategic Management, Hero Honda in Delhi, as AGM of Projects , Kinetic Honda in Pune as Sr.Manager of Projects and Escorts Motorcycles in Haryana.
Bio
Deepangshu Dev Sarmah is a professional with over 18 years of experience in journalism, including 15+ years of in-depth coverage of the Indian automotive sector. He is presently associated with Auto Tech Review as its Founder Editor-in-Chief, driving editorial excellence with quality content for print, web and events (conferences & seminars).
As the head of the Professional Publishing (B2B) division at Springer Nature India, he is currently spearheading a project within the company to build a comprehensive driver training programme in sync with the Central Government’s mission of bringing down traffic- related deaths by half.
Bio
Neeraj Kumar Singal is a serial entrepreneur dedicated to building a sustainable business. He founded Semco Group, 20 years ago and scaled up the operations in Defence, Railways, Automotive & Energy sector with his swift learning & quick understanding, he has done major Joint Ventures and established vast supply chains. His passion towards a sustainable future motivated him to start his ventures which delve into the areas of new emerging technologies and business opportunities like Electric Vehicles, EV charging infrastructure, Lithium-ion batteries, energy storage systems etc.
Apart from managing his entrepreneurial roles, the best of his time is focused on the integration of evolving technology with industrial commerce. He is a member of the following organizations & is well represented in various leadership roles:
• YPO (Young President Organisation) • HBS Club of India • FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) • CII (Confederation of Indian Industries) • TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) • ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce of India) • PHDCCI ( PHD Chamber of commerce and Industry) • AIMA (All India Management Association) • IESA (India Energy storage Alliance)
Bio
Anil Srivastava is Principal Advisor to NITI Aayog and Director-General, DMEO and Advisor, Infrastructure Connectivity to NITI.
He was previously Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Civil Aviation. He has a background in Electric Vehicles, Transformational Mobility, Civil Aviation, Airline Operations, Public Policy, Corporate Governance, Finance – Treasury Computerization. His specialties are: Airlines Operations, Mobility, Airport Management, Monitoring & Evaluation of Government Schemes, International Negotiations .
Bio
Chris is the former group operations director of AEA Technology PLC, responsible for lithium-ion battery licensing, and CEO of IP2IPO Ltd (now IP Group). He is a highly experienced entrepreneur and former executive chairman at Covesion Ltd and Molecular Vision Ltd.
Bio
Arun Cherian is a seasoned professional with over 14 years of experience. He is passionate about electric vehicles and renewable energy and plays an active role in enabling youth leadership and stakeholder management for nation building projects. Currently, at SUN Mobility, Arun holds P&L responsibility for the eBus Business Division and expansion of this business vertical in domestic and international markets. Previously, he headed the team that crafted the strategy across multiple vehicle segments and mobility applications. He also led the team that is conceptualised the deployment strategy for SUN Mobility’s Quick Interchange Station™ network for cities. Prior to SUN Mobility, Arun was heading the strategic partnerships and smart cities division at Green India Building Systems and Services (GIBSS), a cleantech start-up in the geothermal space, where he led the efforts on fund raising, external stakeholder management and strategic business development. He has also held key positions in organizations such as Infosys, SAP, and Lodha Group.
Arun is an Electronics Engineering graduate from BITS Pilani and holds an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the India School of Business & Tel Aviv University. He is also a recipient of the ‘Young Fellow of Science’ fellowship from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Executive Committee member of Confederation of Indian Industries’ (CII) ‘Young Indian’s’ (Yi) organization. At Yi, he is actively involved in projects on youth leadership and mentoring budding entrepreneurs launch innovative start-ups in the social impact space.
He enjoys attending key industry conferences and sharing strong points of view on the roadmap to India’s transition to becoming a global leader in electric mobility. Apart from work, you can find him reading, cycling or training for half-marathons.
Bio
Pranav Singanapalli founded eMotion Motors with a mission to design eco-friendly performance Electric Vehicles at affordable prices for the Indian Market. The first offering from eMotion Motors is ‘SURGE’, a performance Electric Two Wheeler, unveiled in June 2018.
Pranav has a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry and is skilled in Design Management, Sketching, Adobe Photoshop, 3D Visualization, and Product Design. He obtained his Master of Arts (MA), focused in Multidisciplinary Design Innovation, from Northumbria University.
Bio
Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor at IIT Madras, did his B.Tech degree from IIT Kanpur and MS and PhD from University of Maine, USA and was a faculty at Washington State University, USA for a year and half before joining as a faculty at IIT Madras in 1981. In 2017-18, he was on sabbatical from IITM and was Principal Advisor to Minister of Power, MNRE, and Railways, Government of India, New Delhi.
Prof Jhunjhunwala is considered a pioneer in nurturing Industry-Academia interaction in India towards R&D, Innovation and Product Development. He conceived and built India’s first university affiliated business park (IIT Madras Research Park) to promote Industry-Academia R&D collaboration. TIE conferred him the title of Dronacharya for his contributions to the cause of entrepreneurship, as he incubated and nurtured more than 180 companies at IIT Madras. He heads the IITM Incubation Cell and Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). He leads TeNeT group, which has worked closely with industry to create innovative affordable products in sectors like telecom, banking, energy and electric vehicles.
Dr Jhunjhunwala has been Chairman and member of various government committees and has been on boards of several education institutions in the country. At the same time, he has been on the boards of a number of public and private companies and has driven comprehensive changes, especially in the areas of technology, in these companies. He was on the boards of State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics Ltd, HTL, NRDC, IDRBT, VSNL and BSNL as well as in Tata Communications, Mahindra Electric, Sasken, Tejas Networks, TTML, Intellect and Exicom. He is currently also on the board of BIRAC and the Chairman of Technology Advisory Group of SEBI. Also he is currently Chairperson in IIIT Kottayam and College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala.
Dr Jhunjhunwala was conferred Padmashri, Shanti-Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, H. K. Firodia Award, Silicon India Leadership Award, Millenium Medal at Indian Science Congress, UGC Hari Om Ashram Award,Ram Lala Wadhwa Gold Medal, JC Bose fellowship, Bernard Low Humanitarian Award, Dronacharya and Lifetime Achievement Award by TIE, Chennai among many others. He is fellow of IEEE, INSA, NAS, IAS, INAE and WWRF and a member of National Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA. He has also been conferred honorary doctorate by University of Maine and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.
Bio
Dr Ashvini Kumar is Senior Fellow and Senior Director, Renewable Energy Technology Applications, TERI. He took the post after superannuation from the post of the Managing Director of the Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd. (SECI), which is a Government of India enterprise set up for implementation of the National Solar Mission. Dr Kumar joined SECI as the Director (Solar) in October 2012 and thereafter continued as MD until July 2017. During his time in SECI, he steered it to develop and implement wide ranging programmes in solar and wind energy. He is credited in turning around SECI into a positive net worth company during 2014-15.
Before joining SECI, he worked with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India, in various capacities for over 26 years.
Dr Kumar obtained his Doctorate Degree in Solar Energy from IIT Delhi in 1981 and continued to carry out scientific work at IIT Delhi and later at Solar Energy Centre, now rechristened as National Institute of Solar Energy.
He has also co-authored three books, several review articles and over 50 research papers in peer reviewed journals.
Bio
Ashwin is an entrepreneur and investor, based in Manchester, UK. His goal is to raise and manage an early stage technology venture capital fund for emerging markets.
He started his career as a technology entrepreneur and moved into identifying, developing, assessing and investing in technology companies. To date, he has assessed and invested in the fields of software, semiconductors, cleantech, energy storage, display technologies, digital media, medtech and novel materials sectors. He has significant Board-level experience in early stage technology companies.
His specialties are: investment due-diligence, new product introduction, market feasibility analysis, technology transfer, technology evaluation and commercialisation, managing innovation strategy, value road mapping, IP analysis, and identifying areas of innovation.
Bio
James Quinn is CEO of Faradion, the world leader in non-aqueous sodium-ion cell technology company, based in Sheffield, in the British heart of innovative manufacturing. He is an international technology executive and entrepreneur, with a background in both publicly traded and private companies. He has significant experience with fund raising and mergers and acquisitions.
Bio
Pratik Dattani is Advisor to Bridge India and the Managing Director for boutique economic consulting firm EPG, specialising in economic analysis, strategic communications and market entry assistance with India, with offices in London, Bangalore and East Africa.
He was additionally, until August 2017, UK Director for the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the premier and largest industry body in India. He is also the co-founder of a tech start-up in the CSR space. Previously he worked in Economic Consulting at FTI Consulting and Deloitte in London and Abu Dhabi, with a focus on public policy and arbitration. He was Chairman for a not-for-profit membership organisation with several thousand members for three years.
He studied Economics at Warwick University, where he was awarded the Prize for Excellence, and LMU University of Munich. His dissertation won a prize at an international economics conference at Georgetown University, Washington DC. He has published academic research on behavioural economics and social impact and is a regular commentator on public policy and India across print, TV and online media, featured on BBC News, CBC, CNBC, CNN, NDTV, South China Morning Post and Huffington Post.
