A room of builders.

Shriya leads Employability and Skills at The Convergence Foundation. Before this role, Shriya led the Social Sector practice at McKinsey & Co,  India where she worked with non profits, foundation and the government on strategy engagements. Prior to joining McKinsey, she was the Country Director of the International Innovation Corps, a University of Chicago social impact program that works on large scale development programs with central and state ministries in India. At IIC, Shriya has led multiple large scale projects in Health, Gender, Education, Waste, and Technology & Data, for Central and State ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, National Health Authority, Ministry of Electronics and IT, NITI Aayog, and multiple state governments. Shriya has an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and has also run her own Export firm in India.

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Shubha Sarma is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1999 batch from the Odisha cadre. She currently serves as Principal Secretary in the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Odisha.

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Born on April 20, 1976, she holds a graduate degree from Delhi University, a Master’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an MBA from Amity University. A multilingual officer fluent in Assamese, English, French, Hindi, and Odia, she has contributed significantly to governance and public welfare initiatives, particularly in areas related to women and child empowerment.

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Shweta Punj is Editor for Economic Policy at Moneycontrol, where she drives Moneycontrol Policy Next—India’s only platform for deep-dive discussions on policies shaping the country’s growth and governance landscape. A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, she has over two decades of experience across TV, print, and digital journalism, tracking India’s political economy, innovation, and policy reform.

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Previously Deputy Editor at India Today, Shweta has also worked with CNBC-TV18, Bloomberg UTV, and Inside Washington Publishers, and has reported from Capitol Hill on U.S. health policy.

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A Polestar and South Asia Laadli Award winner, she co-founded the Whypoll Foundation, which developed India’s first women’s safety app and crowd-sourced safety map. She is also the author of Why I Failed, which was translated into 5 languages. 

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Shyam Suryanarayanan is the Director of Udhyam Shiksha at Udhyam Learning Foundation.He leads the mission to integrate entrepreneurial mindset education into government schools, a program that has already reached over 4 million students across 12 Indian states.

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With a 25-year career spanning everything from tea tasting to building successful life sciences career platforms and ed-tech ventures, Shyam brings a unique, real-world perspective to his focus on employability, experiential learning, and mindset transformation for India’s youth. 

Siraz Hirani is a senior international development leader with over 24 years of experience shaping country-level strategy and directing complex, multi-country operations across South and Central Asia. As Director Programs at Mahila Housing Trust, he provides strategic leadership for regional portfolios spanning India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. His work is centred on designing and scaling bottom-up solutions for the urban poor, with a core focus on women's empowerment, inclusive urban development, and climate resilience. Siraz’s work bridges grassroots action with policy and investment to drive systemic, gender-smart climate solutions. Siraz holds an M.Sc. in Disaster Mitigation, an MBA in Finance, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Currently serving as Joint Secretary (NRLM) in the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, Smriti Sharan has brought to MoRD a blend of bureaucratic discipline and ground-level sensibility. Over the past few years, she has been centrally involved in the policy framing, programme oversight, and field-level review of key livelihood and gender-equity initiatives, particularly under the flagship Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

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Smriti Sharan’s approach is marked by a strong emphasis on convergence, community-led action, and systems strengthening—both in institutional frameworks (state missions, federations) and on the ground (front-line workers, cadres, SHGs). Her public addresses reveal a focus on gender empowerment, rural livelihoods diversification (farm and non-farm), and enhancing capacities of rural institutions to act as engines of development. 

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She has worked as Deputy Director General (Establishment) in the Department of Posts and also served as Chief Vigilance Officer in Projects Equipments Corporation Ltd., a public sector enterprise under Department of Commerce, Government of India. She has also held the position of Director, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and handled the subjects of cooperation and farmers welfare.  As Deputy General Manager, she served Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) in the Department of Animal Husbandry  & Dairying.  

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Smriti Sharan has been a part of various associations such as Member of CARUNA – Civil Services Association for Reach in National Disasters, as part of CARUNA-CPLO Hunger Helpline set up a country wide helpline with a view  to mitigate hunger during COVID times and also as Secretary, CPLO supervised the operation of four crèches in Central Delhi from 2016-March, 2022. 

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Sonal Sagore is an Indian actress acclaimed for her performance as Nehma in the Hindi–Kurukh film Humans in the Loop (2024), directed by Aranya Sahay. The film explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and indigenous identities, earning widespread critical acclaim. Sonal’s sensitive and powerful portrayal won her the Tasveer Best Actress Award (U.S.) and the WIF Best Actress Award (Mumbai).

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Subhadeep is an investment professional with almost a decade of first hand early stage venture investing experience across high impact sectors like agri-tech, food, rural supply chains, and rural focused alternate energy and farmer focused fin-tech startups in India. He leads the Delhi office for Omnivore and is a Partner in the investment team.

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Subhadeep has been responsible for leading investments in multiple startups across agricultural mechanization, supply chain technologies, digital agriculture, rural/farmer focused marketplaces, rural fin-tech and sustainable inputs amongst other sub-sectors of agtech. He is a regular speaker on topics around startups and the agri-tech and food sectors, at conferences organized by industry associations like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM and TiE.

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He is a mentor for multiple agri-tech focused incubators and accelerators in agtech. He is currently on the board of multiple Omnivore investee companies (AgNext, Gramcover, Ecozen etc.) and works closely with them on a variety of issues ranging from hiring, business development, strategy, fund raising, and general scale up-related aspects.

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Subhashree is a seasoned social sector professional passionate about building a thriving livelihoods ecosystem and enabling social entrepreneurs to scale their impact. She brings over 30 years of credit investing experience in Asian markets, with a strong track record of over 300 investments across 12+ countries. With 15 years dedicated to ESG investing, she brings deep expertise in aligning financial strategies with sustainable development outcomes.

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Her global outlook is shaped by having lived in six countries and worked with over 20 nationalities, giving her a unique perspective on cross-cultural collaboration and impact. Subhashree spent two decades with Fiera Capital (Asia) (formerly Clearwater Capital Partners), where she served as CEO of its Singapore office, before transitioning to the social sector. She began her career with ICICI Bank in India. Subhashree holds a PGDM from IIM Calcutta and is a CFA® charterholder.

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Mr. Subrata Singh is the Executive Director of the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), one of India’s leading institutions working on the conservation and governance of land, water, and forest commons. Over a career spanning more than thirty years, he has played a key role in shaping the discourse on community stewardship, decentralized governance, local circular economy, ecosystem approach to landscape conservation, system change and scale design.

Sujit John is the Deputy Resident Editor at The Times of India, Bangalore, where he has been with the publication for over 27 years. He began his journey with TOI in 1995 as an Assistant Editor on the Edit Page and has since spent over two decades focusing on business and technology journalism. Sujit conceptualized and leads the widely acclaimed Times Techies page and the Times Techies Webinar, which spotlight India’s technology ecosystem and inspire young professionals.

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He previously worked with The Observer of Business and Politics and served as a researcher with the Government of India’s 10th Finance Commission. An alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Sujit holds an MPhil and MA in Economics, and a BA (Hons) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi.

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Sumit Chauhan is an impact-focused CSR leader with over 15 years of experience across CSR, branding, and marketing. He currently heads Mphasis Foundation’s CSR initiatives across Asia and globally, driving programs that combine technology and social good. Previously, he led CSR at RBL Bank and managed national partnerships at FICCI on water and sanitation.

He has also worked with Macquarie Group, Parle, and Saatchi & Saatchi. A marketer turned CSR strategist, Sumit blends business insight with a development lens to build purpose-led, measurable, and meaningful programs focused on alleviating poverty through education, skills, water, and climate resilience initiatives.