Shekhar Dutt started his career in 1967 as an Indian Army officer and was awarded Sena Medal for Gallantry in the 1971 Indo-Pak War. He then joined the Indian Administrative Service in the M.P. cadre. As Director Irrigation and Power in the Govt. of MP, he was involved in modernizing power generation and distribution systems and also setting up many small and micro Hydal Power generation projects. He was also Director Command Area Development in the Govt. of India handling maximization of Irrigation and Power production and distribution of all Major Irrigation Dams of the country. As Principal Secretary of School Education, Sports and Youth Affairs and of Tribal Development Departments in M.P. he introduced the Education Guarantee Scheme and the ‘Shiksha Karmi Bharti Niyam’ which helped in universalizing elementary education. Large scale Teachers’ education and training was undertaken through the Distant Learning Mode using ISRO Satellites.
In the Central Government, as Director General of Sports Authority of India he organized the training and coaching enabling India to win the highest ever 69 medals in the Manchester Commonwealth Games 2002. As Secretary in the Ministry of Health, he set up the National Institute of Siddha, the National Institute of Unani Medicine and the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL) for digitally storing the knowledge of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani Medicinal systems. He worked as Secretary Defence Production where he was responsible for overseeing and facilitating production of various Land, Sea and Air Systems. Earlier, as Joint Secretary Defence Production (1991-96) he was in the Board of Directors of six Defence Companies. As Defence Secretary (2005-2007) of India he initiated a number of measures towards increasing the pace of modernization as well as bringing about greater probity in Defence Procurement. He was instrumental in finalizing the Indo-US Framework for Defence Relationship in 2005. He was also responsible for finalizing the charter of Indo-German, Indo-Japan and Indo-Australian Defence Cooperation. After retirement he became Deputy National Security Advisor in the PMO (Aug 2007- Jan 2010) where he looked after the issues concerning all the aspects of the Strategic Defence as well as National Security. Shri Dutt assumed the office of the Governor of Chhattisgarh in Jan 2010 and was Chancellor of 11 State Universities and Visitor of 6 private Universities. He was instrumental in setting up the National Centre for Natural Resources in Ravi Shankar University, Raipur with the help of Dept of Science and Technology, Govt. of India.
He has been conferred with the Degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) Honoris Causa by the University of Engineering and Management, Kolkata in 2017. He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Letters and named as an Honorary Fellow of the Swansea University, UK in 2018. He was given the Honorary Fellowship of The Institution of Engineers (India) in December 2011. The Paul Appleby Award for 2016 was conferred upon him for distinguished services to Public Administration. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Congress of Ethnopharmacology in 2018 at Dhaka, Bangladesh. He also served on the Board of Governors of DeSales University, USA from 2008 to 2010.
Shekhar Dutt has authored 2 books – Reflections on Contemporary India and India’s Defence and National Security. He has also authored a number of articles on national security, development and Sustainable Projects in various journals and compilations.
At present, he is Member, Executive Council of the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), New Delhi; he is the Chief Mentor of Indian Space Association (ISpA); Member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Joint Warfare (CENJOWS), Ministry of Defence, GOI; Director General Sustainable Projects Developers Association; Member of the Governing Board of the University of Engineering and Management (UEM), Kolkata; Member of the Governing Board of the University of Engineering and Management (UEM), Jaipur; Member of the Central Board of Harijan Sewak Sangh; Member Advisory Board of Society for Ethnopharmacology; Chairman National Advisory Council of Indian Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) and Patron, Global Counter Terrorism Council (GCTC).
Vineet Mittal is a serial entrepreneur who has played an active role in shaping up the clean energy transition in emerging economies across Asia and Africa. Mr. Mittal has successfully executed a renewable energy portfolio of more than 5 GW and has vision to be 11 GW company by 2025.
His passion for sustainability originates from the ancient Indian Vedic philosophy of ‘Mata bhoomi putro aham prithiwaya” - The Earth is to be protected like a mother and nurtured for future generations. Avaada is a culmination of his vision of conducting business for higher purpose. Vineet’s socially beneficial public policy campaigns like Community Development Certificate (CDC) and Grow Forest Mechanism (GFM) are very well-received. In line with SDGs he has launched humanitarian programs aimed towards women empowerment, quality education, healthcare and environment protection in rural environs.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, he is on B20’s taskforce for financing growth and infrastructure and Energy, Resource Efficiency & Sustainability. He is the former India Chair of World Business Council of Sustainable Development (WBCSD)’s program on Renewables Low Carbon Technology platform. Vineet has been twice recognized as the ‘Solar Man of the Year’ in 2014 and 2012 for his significant contribution towards the solar industry.
Sunil Gupta is an experienced business leader with a strong track record of building renewable energy businesses. Prior to Azure, he was the Head - Southeast Asia & South Asia Business at Vena Energy (a leading Asia Pacific renewable energy company), managing existing business and developing new projects. Earlier he was Group Head - Renewable Energy Business at Sembcorp Industries, Singapore, where he built the renewables business and spearheaded market entry in India, Australia, Singapore and Vietnam. In India, he was instrumental in managing a business comprising of multiple utility scale wind and solar power generation plants across seven different states. Prior to Sembcorp, Sunil was a cleantech industry professional with Standard Chartered Bank and Morgan Stanley.
Sunil holds a Master of Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He also holds a Bachelor of Technology from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
A leading first-generation entrepreneur, Sumant Sinha is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Renew Power – one of India’s largest clean energy companies. Sumant founded Renew Power in January 2011, with a vision to transform the way energy is produced and consumed in India. Since then, under his leadership, the company has grown exponentially and is today one of India’s premier renewable energy companies with an aggregate portfolio of more than 10 GW spread over more than 100 sites. Sumant is a passionate advocate for solutions related to climate change and sustainable development and has spoken at various thought leadership platforms, such as World Economic Forum at Davos, Climate Week NYC, CERA Week and other forums organized by Financial Times, ORF as well as leading global universities. He has written more than 150 opinion articles in leading global and Indian publications on the pressing issues of climate change, renewable energy and sustainable economic growth. Sumant has recently written a book – Fossil Free: Reimagining Clean Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World which is about the past, present and future of the world’s energy systems in the context of the world’s changing climate and spells out a playbook to create a carbon light future for India. Former Vice President Al Gore describes the book as “a compelling roadmap to a better, cleaner future for India—and other developing regions of the world”.
Sumant is Co-Chair, Electricity Governor’s Group and member of the Stewardship Board on Shaping the Future of Energy and at the World Economic Forum. He serves on the Board of Directors of the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and Chairs The Climate Group’s India Advisory Board. Sumant is Senior Vice President of the Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) and member - Advisory Committee of India Climate Collaborative- a platform promoting policy advocacy and thought leadership on climate change. He is on the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta, IIT Delhi and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA). Sumant has a Master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, a diploma in business management from the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and also a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi.
Mr. Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, Founder of ACME Group is an innovator, technologist and serial entrepreneur with several patents in his credit. He has more than 2 decade of experience in telecom & energy sector. Mr. Upadhyay is an inventor of many disruptive products/solutions in telecom energy space which have seen large scale commercial success and has contributed significantly in lowering down the call rate by reducing the cost of energy infrastructure.
His dedication and innovation has benefited the nation by bringing down the Solar Cost at INR 2.44 per kWh, historic low in India. Currently, ACME is the leading solar power developer with a capacity of 5.5+ GWp in India out of which 2.9+ GWp is operational including plant with historic low tariff.
The company has an asset base of USD 2Bn and employs more than 1200 associates across various sites. Mr. Upadhyay is progressively establishing an organization to excel with a vision of “Building next generation utility” and mission of “Providing Sustainable Green Energy at Affordable Rate” Currently the company through its innovation is working on energy storage, electric vehicle, water desalination and other new sectors to make their use commercially viable.
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