Region: India
Arshi Saleem Hashmi
Arshi Saleem Hashmi specializes in religious violent conflicts, counter-violent extremism and conflict resolution with special focus on South Asia. She currently heads the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at National Defence University, Islamabad. Arshi has been an Academic Fellow at the Oxford School of Global and Area Studies at the University of Oxford. She has also been a South Asia Leadership Fellow for Counter Terrorism Studies at Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Rotary International Peace Fellow. She was Kodikara Fellow at RCSS that resulted in a book titled Conflict Transformation from Ethnic Movement to Terrorist Movement. Arshi is a member of Women without Borders (WwB) Vienna…
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Zeena Johar
Zeena Johar is Senior Vice President, Business Operations at Advantia Health. Previously, she was Founder and CEO of SughaVazhvu Healthcare (SVHC) and IKP Centre for Technologies in Public Health (ICTPH), which helped create a primary care delivery network through rural clinics in India. Zeena returned to India in 2007 after earning her PhD in molecular diagnostics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and she spearheaded ICTPH’s academic alliance with University of Pennsylvania's School of Nursing. This partnership helped develop India’s first certificate program for Indian medical practitioners, empowering them to practice evidence-based protocol driven primary-care medicine. SVHC was awarded the NASSCOM Social Innovation Honor 2014, and is a part…
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Monika Halan
Monika Halan is Consulting Editor with Mint, India's second largest business daily and a well-known media personality. Monika is author of the best-selling book Let's Talk Money published by Harper Collins in 2018. She has worked across several media organizations in India and has run many successful TV series around personal finance advice in NDTV, Zee, and Bloomberg. She is a regular speaker on financial literacy, regulation, inclusion and consumer issues in retail finance. Monika has public policy experience working with the Government of India as an advisor to the Swarup Committee in 2009. She has served as a member of the Ministry of Finance Committee on Incentives (Bose Committee)…
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Celine d'Cruz
Celine d’Cruz has been advocating for the urban poor in various roles for more than two decades. She was a founding member and coordinator of Slum Dwellers International and currently serves as Urban Practitioner for the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights. Celine joined the board of Block by Block in February 2017 and has participated in Block by Block projects in Hanoi, Nairobi, Kalobeyei, and Addis Ababa. She currently serves as Vice President and as a member of the Project Committee.  Celine serves on the board for the Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, of which she was a founding member and previous Associate Director. She is…
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Unmesh Brahme
Unmesh Brahme is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of several leadership and strategy coaching firms, including Purpose Partners Worldwide and Coach Partners Worldwide. He is also Co-founder and Director of Transcend Leadership and TruePurpose. He works with clients globally as well as specific to the Asia Pacific region on building organizational and individual leadership quotient through a combination of purpose, mindfulness, and presence-based coaching interventions. Prior to these roles, Unmesh had successful senior management work experience in the social development, education, public-private partnerships, financial services, building purpose brands, social enterprise and investment management, start-ups mentoring, inclusive sustainability, strategy advisory, and co-creating compassionate emerging economies. His body of work has been…
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Prodyut Bora
Prodyut Bora is an Indian politician and Founder and Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of India. Previously, he was the National Executive Member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, India's principal opposition party and State General Secretary for BJP Assam, the National Convener of BJP’s Information Technology Cell, and a member of BJP’s National Media Cell. He directed a private software company for six years before entering politics. Prodyut is also a prolific writer—his opinion pieces have been carried in the Indian Express, The Times of India, The Economic Times, and The Pioneer.
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Jovitta Thomas
Jovitta Thomas is a community development expert from India, specializing in development work in fragile and conflict states. In her over 20 years of international work, largely in the Balkans and Afghanistan, she focuses on helping new/ transitional governments design and implement very large development initiatives covering the sectors of local governance, poverty reduction, community development, conflict management, emergency support, and core public services. Her expertise is focused on implementing projects in highly volatile environments and adapting international best practices to local contexts. In the Balkans, Jovitta worked to remove parallel structures and integrate minorities into the judicial system of the newly independent Kosovo. In Afghanistan, she was first Deputy…
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Parmesh Shahani
Parmesh Shahani is Vice President at Godrej Industries Ltd. and the founder of the award-winning Godrej India Culture Lab in Mumbai, which sparks conversations and collaborations about the changing face of contemporary India. Parmesh is a passionate advocate for LGBTQ inclusion in corporate India and has guided many of the country’s leading companies on their inclusion journeys. Parmesh's first book, Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (Sage), was originally released in 2008 and re-released in 2020. His second book Queeristan: LGBTQ Inclusion at the Indian Workplace (Westland Books) was also released in 2020. He is a member of the FICCI taskforce on diversity and inclusion and a…
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Sonali Kochhar
Dr. Sonali Kochhar, M.D. is a physician and clinical researcher leading global Phase I-IV Clinical Research, Safety and Epidemiology Studies, and Implementation Research for Vaccines and Drugs. She works on Infectious Diseases (including Coronavirus, Influenza, GBS, RSV, HIV/AIDS, Diarrheal Diseases and Tropical Diseases); Vaccines for Pregnant Women; Safety, Regulatory and Ethical strategies for clinical research for vaccines (including for epidemics, and pregnant women); Pandemic Preparedness; Introduction of New Vaccines; Increasing immunization coverage and acceptance; Vaccine Policy recommendations; Translating research into programs by Policy, Strategy and Communications Development and Healthcare Systems Strengthening for Immunization and Maternal and Child Health programs and Clinical Trial Data Sharing. Her work has informed global and…
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Subhashini Chandran
As Vice President, Social Impact, Asia Pacific (AP) at the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (CFIG), Subhashini Chandran is responsible for overseeing, executing, and scaling the Center’s strategy in Asia Pacific, contributing to global and regional objectives. In her role, she drives all regional CFIG activity covering programs, data and insights, strategic engagement, and partnerships. Subhashini has 25+ years of experience spanning the private and development sectors. She began her professional journey as an entrepreneur, growing her family’s tea farm in South India, to be one of India’s largest privately owned tea companies, employing ~7000 women. More recently, she has focused on the inclusion of small businesses and women-led enterprises…
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