Dr. Gauri Bharat

Dr. Gauri Bharat is the Chair of History, Theory and Criticism and an associate professor at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, India. Her teaching and research focus primarily on how people engage with the built environment. She explored this in her PhD, which analysed Adivasi built environments as an archive of their history. The project not only demonstrated what architectural change can tell us about the social, environmental and historical lives of such communities, but also reflected on the role of research and history in shaping personal and collective identities. For the past few years now, Gauri has been fascinated by the oddities and untold stories of Indian cities. She has experimented with teaching architectural history, theory and humanities using the city of Ahmedabad as a laboratory. Her students have mapped cows, roadside shrines, fruit and vegetable markets, temporary markets, and roadside eating habits, among other things. By immersing themselves in the seemingly mundane but actually complex urban phenomena, her students learn to make sense of cities as both sites and processes. This is now developing into a project that combines mapping with discourses on popular culture, gender, marginality and politics in order to theorise Indian urbanity.

Atish Indrekar

Atish Indrekar was born in Chharanagar, an outskirt area of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He is an actor and director for the past 15 years at Budhan Theatre, a volunteer community based theatre group of Chhara Tribe which was labelled as called “Criminal Tribe” during colonial rule in India. He has mastered the use of applied / participatory theatre for community mobilization and cultural activism. He has performed in more than 60 plays at local and national level, all based on socio-political issues of marginalised and oppressed communities (especially DNT & Adivasis) across India. He has taught theatre in many reputed Institutes like IITs and IIMs. He believes in the power of theatre. Theatre is for all, and anybody can do it. He has done his Graduation in Theatre and Diploma in Mass-Communication. Right now after a big gap, he is perusing Masters in Theatres.

Dr. Ganesh Bagler

Dr. Ganesh Bagler is an interdisciplinary researcher working in the areas of complex systems, computational biology, bioinformatics, in silico drug discovery, and applications of data science to health and medicine. He is trained in physics, computational techniques and computational biology, with PhD from CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, and postdoctoral training from National Centre for Biological Sciences and Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics. He is credited with the observation of assortative mixing in residue interaction graph models of protein structures as well as discovery of exceptional ‘contrasting food pairing’ in Indian cuisine. His research involves questions on the interface of biology, medicine and computational sciences.

Dr. Raghavan Rangarajan

Dr. Raghavan Rangarajan has been on the faculty of the Theoretical Physics Division at the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (PRL) since 1997. Dr. Rangarajan did much of his schooling in Ahmedabad and a few years in Bombay. He then obtained his Bachelor's degree in physics from Princeton University and his Master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Prior to joining PRL he was a post-doctoral fellow at the Houston Advanced Research Centre. Dr. Rangarajan's areas of research are cosmology and particle physics, and he works primarily on processes that occurred in the very early Universe soon after the Big Bang. In particular, his research has been on topics such as dark matter, the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the universe and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Dr. Rangarajan has also been interested in working with college students and has been actively involved for the last decade with the Advanced B.Sc. Physics Programme in Ahmedabad which brings together college students from across Gujarat and faculty from research organisations in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar like PRL, IPR and ISRO. He is also an Editor of the journal, Physics Education.

Harshwardhan Zala

Harshwardhan Zala is 14 Years Old, Smart Drone Developer, Robotics Developer, Entrepreneur, Tinkerer, Programmer, Designer, Mentor and Basically a 10th Grade Student. He is Founder and CEO of Aerobotics7. Aerobotics7 is Start-up of New Technologies like Robotics and Drones, which Founded and Managed by him. He started his Journey when he was 10 Years old; He started making New Innovative things That will be Very Helpful for the Entire, He is working for Solving the World’s Current Problems, And Want to Provide these Facilities to the World. He already made 42 Projects like 16 Robots and 8 Drones. When he was thinking about how to reach to the People and provide them those Smart Technologies, then he decided to Start- up a Company to Reach to The People and Provide them The Smart Solutions for Fix the Current Problem with Their Smart Technologies All over the World. He Learns that Technology in Electronics, Robotics and Drone by Himself. He is Learning through Internet on their PC. He didn’t go Anywhere else for Learning these Technologies. He learned by himself. He is Teaching these Technologies to the Young People like him, Providing them Whole Knowledge of Drones, Robotics and Electronics in Aerobotics7.

Mr. Atul Singh

Mr. Atul Singh is the founder, chief executive officer and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, an independent section 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization in the United States that aims to inform and educate global citizens both through its journal and its teaching programs. Its crowdsourced multimedia journal, with strong editorial processes, provides a 360° view to help readers make sense of the world. The journal is recognized by the US Library of Congress (ISSN 2372-9112) and has more than 1,800 contributors from over 70 countries.

Fair Observer’s education and training programs for students, young professionals and business executives cover subjects like journalism, geopolitics, the global economy, diversity and more. The 2016 Voices of the World Program in partnership with the United Nations Foundation was Fair Observer’s biggest training program so far, and it involved over 300 youth in six countries: India, Morocco, Kenya, Austria, Mexico and the US. Fair Observer is also a partner of the World Bank, Knowledge@Wharton and the University of Oxford.

Singh is a renowned public intellectual and educator who teaches political economy at the University of California, Berkeley and at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar where he also teaches world history. He is reputed public speaker on global issues who has given lectures and talks, as well as seminars and workshops at institutions like Harvard, the United Nations and Google.

RJ Dhvanit Thaker

RJ Dhvanit has an experience of 13 years as the Drive Time RJ in Radio Mirchi Ahmedabad. He has recieved the most prestigious awards in Radio Industry - The Best RJ (Gujarati) India Radio Forum Awards for 4 years in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014. He has recieved the Best Show India Radio Forum Award for his morning show ("Guruwar Gurjari" and "Hello Amdavad"). He did his hattrick with the third consecutive award in the same category from 2010 till 2012.

Dhvanit has been the State Emissary for the Election Commission of India for Gujarat State Vidhansabha Election 2012. He was the first Emissary to have spread the message for voter awareness with a zest through his strong presence amongst the voters of Gujarat. He was the Radio Ambassador for the Loksabha Elections 2014 as well. He visited numerous colleges and other educational institutions as well as various social organisations for voter awareness programmes. He participated in various social functions, rallies and other events to make the audience aware about their voting rights and educated them how to use EVMs. He featured in video quickies for voter awareness and popularised them on social media network. He utilised his strong social media presence and his newspaper columns to reach out to maximum people for the same. He has written columns in magazines and newspapers. A popular column was 'Dhvanit Sab Jaanta Hai' in Ahmedabad Mirror every Saturday. He has written movie reviews in Sandesh. Currently he regularly writes thrice a week for NavGujarat Samay in a column called 'Just Dhvanit'.

He was the host for the Village India Experience Gujarat 2009 at Leicester, UK. He was the anchor for the India Day Parade, NJ, USA in August 2010. He had been the host for The Times of India Food Guide Awards since its inception in Gujarat. He has anchored the award ceremony 5 times. He had launched his first music album called 'Majja Ni Life' in 2009. It comprises of 8 contemporary feel Gujarati songs capturing different moods of life that strikes a chord with every individual.He is the Brand Ambassador for Cox and Kings Travels, Gujarat since 4 consecutive years. He was the Brand Ambassador for Starz Club, Ahmedabad. He endorses Club O7, Ahmedabad. He is the brand ambassador for ADANI PNG for the year 2017.

Ishan Nangia

Ishan is a 20-year old versatile beatboxer from Delhi. Having won several national beatbox battles, he is all set to represent India internationally. He is the Current 2nd Position holder at the Indian Nationals Beatboxing Champs and has judged, organized and won several beatbox competitions throughout the country. He came 1st nationally in online Beatbox competition by Sony about 3 years ago and 2nd nationally in a talent hunt organized by Sprite about 3 years ago. He has performed in front of Danish and French Ambassadors as a special performance. He got invited to the Danish Ambassadors house for dinner too because of this beatboxing. He has influenced from several beatboxers like Alem, Gene, Zekka etc. and Snarky Puppy, Bobby Mcferrin, Skrillex and all English Pop music. Ishan believes in the almost never ending spontaneous experimentation that this art offers unlike any other musical instrument.

Mrs. Rinku Agrawal

Mrs. Rinku Agrawal is Presently working as a Scientist Engineer,'SF' at Space Applications Centre (ISRO) Ahmedabad. She is having 19 years of experience in Design and Development of Ultra High Speed Data Acquisitions Systems for Microwave Remote Sensing Radars. She has won many awards which includes "Recipient of ISRO’s Young Individual Service" in 2006 and "Recipient of ISRO’s Team Award for RISAT-1 Satellite" in the year 2012. She has written technical papers in national as well as international symposium. She has also worked as an Adhoc lecturer at L.D College of Engineering Ahmedabad and Government polytechnic Gandhinagar.

Apart from his professional life, she is a mother of 10 years old twin boys, a wife of proud husband who always has been supportive and encouraging in her personal as well professional growth. In 2013, when Mrs. Rinku was 38 years old, she was detected with Breast Cancer. She has gone through the psychological as well as the physical trauma during the treatment. Today She is a breast cancer survivor and much more a better human being. According to her, "Cancer is not the end of the life, Life is much more beyond Cancer."

Hanita Bhambri

Hanita Bhambri is a 22 year old singer-songwriter and poet based out of Delhi. She recently finished her Masters in Business from MICA, Ahmedabad and opted out of placements to follow her passion for music. She's the third rank holder in Ahmedabad poetry slam as part of Ahmedabad International Literature Festival. She has been featured on BBC World Service, Sofar Sounds, Balcony TV and Radio One. She has performed at Hard Rock Rising, UA festival, The gig week and Fangirl Live. She plans to carve out a space for independent music in India through her work.

Dr. Alka Parikh

Alka Parikh is an academic activist – she has been in academics for 16 years now, shaping the young minds but at the same time, has always taken up issues for research that feed into current debates the angle of the poor, the stories from the grass root. She has worked on various aspects of development – agriculture, food and water security, micro finance, disaster management, NREGA and rural employment, education, and such. At present, she is a faculty at DA Institute of Information and Communication Technology. She is also a Trustee for Utthan and Sarvang Utkarsh. She has been Head of Center for Disaster Management at Mumbai University and has served in the working groups of Planning Commission of India for 11th and 12th Five year Plans. Dr. Parikh has written a book on food Security that has been received favorably and she was recently awarded a fellowship by the World Bank to be a consultant to Eurasian Center for Food Security. She has also been consultant to projects for UNDP, GIZ, the World Bank and Sir Ratan Tata Trust. Dr. Parikh received her PhD from Cornell university, USA in Agriculture and Development Economics.

Jazz Sethi

Jazz Sethi is a professional choreographer and performer from Ahmedabad. She has performed over 200 professional shows in India and abroad and has completed her training from Broadway Dance Centre New York. Along with dance, she founded HEAL, a non-profit initiative which works with children suffering from cancer or any other disease. As of 2015, Heal had 4 chapters all over Gujarat and is still expanding. She was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of 13, and is now an active speaker for juvenile diabetes conferences. Jazz is a published poet and an avid reader, who loves to travel and listen to music.

Himanshu Patel

Himanshu Patel is the Sarpanch of Punsari – a village that has been declared a model village by both the state and the central government. He has been the Sarpanch of the village for the past 9 years, taking on the task of developing his own village at the age of 24 after completing his studies. Punsari hosts a population of around 6,000 people and has uninterrupted water and electricity supply. Along with that, the entire village is WiFi enabled and has street lights and a proper drainage system. The village is protected with the help of CCTV cameras located at certain points and has around 140 loudspeakers installed around the village. Over ‘300’ officials from around the country have visited this village and are trying to replicate this model in their villages. The village of Punsari has been the recipient of awards such as the Swarnim Gram Award and the Nirmal Gram Award by the central government.

Kristin Kagetsu

Kristin Kagetsu is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Saathi, a social enterprise dedicated to providing eco-friendly sanitary pads to women everywhere. Sanitary pads are a basic necessity yet current options are made mostly from plastic and other harmful chemicals. Saathi aims to take cradle to cradel responsibility for sanitary pads by making sure materials are eco-friendly and ethically sourced and increasing awareness of consumers on how they can live more sustainably. Saathi has won the 2014 HBS New Venture Competition and was a MassChallenge Finalist. Kristin has a passion for engineering design that makes a direct impact on people's lives. As an undergraduate student, she worked on multiple projects with the MIT Design Lab (D-Lab) in Brazil, Nicaragua, and India. Kristin also volunteered with the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers (SASE), working to structure and expand the national collegiate team to better support over 60 collegiate chapters, as well as to develop the SASE leadership in the Northeast. She is currently an MIT DLab ScaleUps Fellow and one of the Asia21 Young Leaders and resides in Gujarat. Kristen received her Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.

Nitin Tailor

Laying emphasis on rural development through entrepreneurship, Nitin Tailor founded the Serve Happiness Foundation where they organize youth inspirational programs and journeys to not only unravel the ethereal beauty of your country but importantly imbibe and spread the cultural values and the ensuing happiness onto our persona and the world at large. Additionally, he further organized a Gramin Yuva Edition of Narmada Prerna Yatra during to inspire rural youth towards entrepreneurship and set up small scale projects/enterprises in their respective villages by connecting them with successful social enterprises and role models in the field of Dairy Technology, Agribusiness, Food Processing Technology. We endeavor to give them unique exposure to unsung grass-root level heroes who have dreamt and converted their ideas into reality through sustainable enterprises in the Narmada region.

Dr. Manisha Shah

Dr. Manisha Shah has been running Kahaani, a sports academy, since 2006. She aims to try and guide children for better health with an interactive program and understands the importance of sports in our every day lives. A doctor by profession, she has lived in Ahmedabad and Hong Kong, where she specializd in Clinical Research Methodology. She has been been called a 'Trend Setter' by the Gujarat Innovation Society and organizes the biggest football tournament for children in Ahmedabad. She is also the Vice President of the Ahemdabad District Football Association and has over 200 kids training daily at Kahaani under the supervision of qualified coaches.

NIlambari Solanki

Nilambari is an avid bibliophile and a knowledge seeker. During graduation in Political Science she realized that there is an urgent need to make knowledge and learning applicable to life. To enable the bridging of the gap, she created an innovative venture - BookMan. Going beyond the conventional issuing of books and movies, BookMan is a part of evolved knowledge and education services on offer. BookMan reading recommendation for its clients come from the in-depth understanding of books and customer's preferences along with doorstep delivery. However, Nilambari's and BookMan's Journey of creation and discovery has only just begun.