Our speakers

Fariza Ahmed, Counsel, Bombay Law Chambers

Farzana Haque, Head - Europe Telecom Business Unit & Global Head - Strategic Group Accounts, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Ms. Farzana Haque is the Global Head of Europe Telecom Business Unit and the Global Head for Strategic Group Accounts: Telenor, Telia and Hutch. Prior to her current role, Ms. Haque was Global Head - Large Accounts SBU at Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global information technology company with over US$16.54 Bn in revenues. Forbes magazine has voted TCS as India’s most admired company. Ms. Haque began her career with the TATA Group in Mumbai as a management trainee & has been with the group ever since. In recognition of her leadership at TCS, Ms. Haque was nominated to the World Economic Forum as a ‘Young Global Leader’. The Young Global Leader recognizes the top 250 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. Ms. Haque has been profiled and featured by leading Indian and International Media on her work both for her organization and for the development work that she does in India. She is also the recipient of the ‘INDIRA’ Super Achiever Award 2008. Ms. Haque is a frequent speaker at business schools around the globe and India on topics covering leadership, building global brands, and innovation. She is passionate about social development in India and works with NGO’s and foundations in order to further the cause, besides being on boards of few foundations. Ms. Farzana Haque is Co-Founder of “Stree Shakti”, a platform for women entrepreneurs in India.

Florian Kohler, Managing Director-Private Equity, OBVIAM

G. Mythili, Joint Managing Editor, JQE, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research

Current position: Professor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai; Also Joint managing Editor, Journal of Quantitative Economics, Indian Econometrics Society Publication.

Educational Qualification: Ph.D. in Econometrics, University of Madras, 1989; Ph.D. Thesis on “Production Risk in Indian Agriculture”.

After completing Ph.D, visited University of California at Berkeley for one year as a ‘Ford Foundation Post Doctoral fellow’ at the Department of Agricultural and Resource economics.

Visited Washington, US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research service in June 2007 for one month as part of collaborative project on “Supply Analysis of Indian Agriculture between pre and post reform period” Associated with many research projects in agriculture including Farm Management Study; Farm production risk; Accelerating Growth through globalizing agriculture; Supply response in agriculture; and agricultural policies and structural changes in India’s agri food system. Projects funded by organization such as UNDP, World Bank, European Commission and Australian Centre for International Agricultural research.
 
Participated and presented papers in many national and international conferences; Authored many research papers in national and international journals and coauthored 4 books.

Current research projects include:
1) Agriculture- nutrition linkages and
2) Analysing impact of agricultural policies using Intersectoral linkages.

G.S Bhalla, CEO & Founder, Cocoberry

A born entrepreneur, upon graduation from Delhi University, Mr. Bhalla opted to forego studies at a business school and set up his own business venture in 1994—a corporate gifting company. He has always been a pioneer in every business he has started. In 2000 he started one of India’s first KPO company focusing on the healthcare vertical for the US, which has now grown to over a 1000 employees globally.

In 2007 he completed the “Owners Management Program” and “Launching New Ventures” management programs from Harvard Business School.

When he thought of entering into the fast growing food-and-beverage industry, he thought of introducing something for the young, health conscious urban Indians and create a brand that is not only associated with health and wellness, but is also a socially and environmentally responsible brand.

Keeping the extreme hot weather in mind, he thought of this cold treat as a viable business option that offered guilt-free indulgence and launched Cocoberry, India’s first frozen yogurt chain. The first store was opened at the posh South Delhi locality of Defense Colony in 2009. There also were a lot of innovations and transformations along the way. Today with its outlets across the NCR, Mumbai, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Pune, Ahmedabad & Goa, Cocoberry is a national brand in less than a span of 2 years with over 30 outlets. Cocoberry will also be opening in international markets very soon.

Cocoberry has received several awards and recognitions in the two short years since it started including “ Top 100 Brands That Rocked India in 2010”(4P magazine), “Top 100 Retailers 2011”(Retailer magazine), “ Most Innovative Concept”(HT City), “ Best Frozen Dessert” (HT City), “Top Rated Frozen Yogurt” (Burrp) to name just a handful.

Mr. Bhalla has also received a number of awards and recognitions such as “Top Young Turk 2010” by CNBC India and has been profiled and featured numerous times in print and TV such as “CNBC”, “India Today”, “WSJ Mint”, “Outlook Business”, “Economic Times”, “Zee Business”, “ Inc.”, “ET Now” and many more.
He is also an avid golfer, shooter and enjoys outdoor sports and travelling.

G.S Sundararajan, Whole Time Director, Shriram Capital Ltd

G S Sundararajan is currently the Group Director, Shriram Group. He joined Shriram Group as the Managing Director of Shriram Capital Ltd, the Holding Company of Shriram Group's financial services and Insurance businesses across India and overseas. Sundararajan's experience in the Asian market and his understanding of the major countries and the business opportunities therein have together made Sanlam Emerging Markets induct him into their Board in South Africa.

In his capacity as Group Director, Mr. Sundararajan is director on the Board of these subsidiaries and provides oversight in critical areas of strategic growth opportunities for each of these companies. Specifically Mr. Sundararajan is responsible for the Retail and MSME business housed in Shriram City Union Finance and the life and non-life insurance businesses housed in the two Insurance ventures in collaboration with Sanlam, South Africa. He is the designated owner for leading the banking initiative for the group which is one of the key value-enhancing forays into the near future for this financial conglomerate.

Prior to this, Mr. Sundararajan was the CEO & Managing Director of Fullerton India Credit Company Ltd. , a registered Non Banking Finance Company catering to the financial services needs of the retail and commercial mass markets. He was also the Managing Director of Fullerton Enterprises Private Limited., a KPO, which had formed a strategic alliance with the Centurion Bank of Punjab to jointly drive the SME business.

Mr. Sundararajan was nominated to the Boards of two Financial Services investments of Temasek in China, one in Nanjing for the SME Business and the other in Chengdu in their Village Bank franchise. He was an integral part of Temasek's vision for India in the Banking and Financial Services space that went on to become the fastest growing and largest networked Finance Company in the country.

Earlier to this, he was the Managing Director and Head of Citibank’s SME and Asset Based Finance business in India. He had an exceptional stint at Citibank where he built the SME and ABF business of the bank across the country.

He started his career in Sales with Eicher Mitsubishi and went on to head the captive finance arm of this company in India.

Mr. Sundararajan holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Coimbatore and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Gagan Bhatia, General Manager - North India region, Uber Technologies

Gagan is General Manager for Uber in Delhi NCR region, overseeing all aspects of Uber’s operations in the region. Gagan brings a multitude of global experiences to Uber from an expansive business consulting and product management background. Prior to Uber, he was principal consultant at The Parthenon Group in London where he led multiple strategy and commercial diligence cases in the European markets. Gagan’s past experience includes roles in the digital industry with notable brands like Zynga, Tencent and Ibibo, managing product portfolios for online gaming and social networks. A keen traveller and adventurer, Gagan has combined this interest with career opportunities that have taken him to Europe, China and the United States.

A Delhi native, Gagan has an engineering degree from University of Delhi, graduating from Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, and a post-graduate business degree from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad

Gagan Gupta, Founder, KYT Ventures

Gagan Singla, CMO, Angel Broking

Gagan Singla is the Chief Marketing Officer of Angel Broking and the core member driving Angel in its growth trajectory in the digital world. A technologist by training and marketer by passion, Mr Gagan Singla is one of those rare professionals who can simultaneously handle responsibilities of a marketer and a data scientist.With unmatched skills in Marketing, Technology and a thorough understanding of Analytics, Mr Singla is leading the Digital Transformation at Angel Broking. Mr Singla’s Core Competencies include digital and mobile strategy, digital marketing and scaling, customer analytics and insights, product management, data and technology driven enterprise transformations, brand building, Corporate Communication and E-Commerce. With more than 12 years of experience – primarily in delivering large analytics-driven transformations across multiple sectors and geographies, Mr Singla is the go-to man when it comes to devising strategies that are extremely focused and stakeholder-specific. In his eventful professional career, Mr Gagan Singla has worked with prominent names like  Hughes, PwC, Deloitte and Quikr India with extensive assignments in the UK and the USA. Apart from his inspiring and insightful speeches, Mr Gagan Singla has also co-authored multiple research publications in the area of Graph Theory and Data Mining from the esteemed American Mathematical Society. Mr Gagan’s reputation as an influential personality comes with his membership of the Advisory Board of the prestigious DMAI (Data-driven Marketing Association of India). A Graduate in Computer Science & Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi and Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) in Finance and Systems from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) - Lucknow. His deep understanding of technology and customer behavior, coupled with his affable nature, make him a highly distinguished individual. 

Gagandeep Singh, Regional Sales Director, Salesforce