Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee is B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering from Jadavpur University (1986); M. Tech in Metallurgy from IIT Kanpur (1989) and PhD in Materials Science & Metallurgy from University of Cambridge, UK (1993). He carried out two post-doctoral research engagements – one at the Rolls Royce University Technology Centre at Cambridge between 1993 and 1996 and the second at the University of Birmingham between 2000 and 2002. Joined Tata Steel R&D in 1996 and headed the function as Chief Research & Development and Scientific Services till 2009. In 2009, seconded to Tata Steel Europe as Group Director Research, Development & Technology for Tata Steel Group. Dr Bhattacharjee is an expert in development of materials and associated technologies. Holds over 50 international peer reviewed journal publications and over 20 patents.

As Vice President Technology and R&D in Tata Steel, Dr Bhattacharjee is leading the development of sustainable technologies and materials. He sets direction and mentors teams to develop new processes, products and business in steels, polymer matrix composites, advanced ceramics and graphene. His personal contribution to technology development spans areas including mineral beneficiation, value from waste of mines and industrial plants, generation, storage and utilization of green hydrogen, carbon dioxide capture and utilization, application of artificial neural networks in process control and novel processes for coatings.

He is enabling teams to collaborate across industry, academia and start-ups to scale up technologies and businesses. Under his guidance, pilot plants have been set up in carbon capture and usage, hydrogen has been used in large scale in a running blast furnace, valuable soil conditioner has been developed and being marketed from difficult-to-reuse steelmaking slag. Iron powder, a waste from the pickling process, is being developed into permanent magnets. High value carbon for battery anodes has been developed from coal tar pitch – a by-product of the cokemaking process. Under his mentorship, teams are working on upgrading low-grade ores and waste materials to obtain high value electrical vehicle battery cathode materials. He has developed businesses from scratch in advanced composites, advanced ceramics, and graphene In 4 years. Dr Bhattacharjee initiated and scaled up businesses in these materials from zero to around INR 500 crores annual revenue. Dr Bhattacharjee is Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and of the Indian Institute of Metals.

He has been a Visiting Professor at the Imperial College London; at the University of Warwick UK and, at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, China. Dr Debashish Bhattacharjee is Chairman, Research Council of CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar Chairman of Ceramat Private Ltd., and Tata Steel Advanced Materials Ltd; Director on Tata Steel Long Products Ltd; Chairman CII ER Subcommittee and Taskforce on Start-ups, leading CII Advanced Materials Subcommittee; Chairman of Expert Committee on Industry Academia Connect Task Force (Bengal Chamber of Commerce); Member of Technology Advisory Group for Empowered Technology Group, GoI; Member of NABL Board.

Rajat Verma is the Founder and CEO of LOHUM Cleantech. He has grown LOHUM into India's largest producer of sustainable Li-ion battery raw materials through a combination of recycling, repurposing, and low-carbon refining. LOHUM has rapidly scaled up as a hub for innovation felicitated with the National Energy Efficiency Innovation Award (NEEIA) by Honorable President of India Droupadi Murmu in 2023. As of 2024, LOHUM has built a battery recycling market share of approximately 70-80% in India. Rajat has multiple patents across the field of battery lifecycle management to his credit, and he actively represents the industry on various committees formed by the government to achieve a circular economy.

Thanks to these high-impact contributions, Rajat represents a key voice of sustainability in the global clean energy transition. Rajat has spent 22 years in the technology industry. As a pioneer in the electronic waste management ecosystem, he has developed several solutions across the eWaste value chain for markets across India, the US, and the GCC. He is also an active early-stage technology investor. A prolific academic, Rajat holds engineering degrees from IIT Kanpur and Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant received his PhD (Chemical Engineering) degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1997. He took over as the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee on October 12, 2022. Prof. Pant previously held the positions of Petrotech Chair and Federation of Indian Petroleum Industries Chair Professor, Chairman GATE & JAM, Chairman, Library, Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Dean Faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He is Adjunct Faculty at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Prof. Pant’s research contribution involves a wide range of innovative studies covering heterogeneous green catalysis for hydrocarbon conversion, CO2 capture and conversion, biomass and coal to chemicals and Hydrogen and waste to energy. Prof. Pant has over 30 years of academic and research experience during which he published 230+ Journal articles having 13954 citations with h-index 60 (i-10 index 191) and is granted several national and international patents. Prof. Pant also serves as an editor for Chemical Engineering Science, Food and Bioproducts Processing Journal and has been invited as an editor of special issues in various journals published by Wiley, Springer Nature and Elsevier.

He is fellow of several national and international academies such as Royal Society of Chemistry, London (FRSC, London), National Academy of Science India (NASI), Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Fellow of Indian Desalination Association (InDA), Biotech Research Society of India (BRSI), Institution of Engineers India, Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers etc. He has been recipient of several national awards which include : Distinguished Alumni Award, HBTU-Kanpur, Prof. K. L. Chopra Applied Research Award by Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, CHEMCON distinguished speaker award, Herdilia Award for Excellence in Basic Research in Chemical Engineering by Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers and Dr. A. V. Rama Rao award for best Ph.D. supervised, Gandhian Young Technological Innovation Award. Prof. Pant is also an honorary Faculty at the University of Queensland (UQ), Australia and has been visiting professor at Auburn University USA, Tuskegee USA, University of Saskatchewan Canada, Aston University UK., UNSW Australia, University of Utah ,USA, etc.

N. Kalaiselvi is the present Director General of CSIR-cum-Secretary DSIR, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Lekhan Thakkar is an Indian career civil servant and diplomat who currently serves as Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the National Security Council secretariat. He previously served as Counsellor (Economic and Commerce) and is the Commercial Representative of India in Embassy of India at Beijing at People's Republic of China. He formerly served as Director to Government of India in Ministry of Finance and Executive Director for National Financial Reporting Authority. He is a 1995 batch Central Secretariat Service officer

Dr Vijay Kumar Saraswat is a distinguished scientist with vast experience in defence research—in both basic and applied sciences—spanning several decades. He retired as Secretary, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), after decades of government service. He holds a PhD from Osmania University and an ME degree from the Indian Institute of Science. Dr Saraswat has had an illustrious career and is credited with the indigenous development of missiles such as Prithvi, Dhanush, Prahaar, and Agni-5; the two-tiered Ballistic Missile Defence system; the initial operational clearance of Light Combat Aircraft Tejas; and nuclear submarine INS Arihant.

As Secretary, DRDO, Dr Saraswat played a pivotal role in the: (i) establishment of command, control, communication, storage, transportation and deployment infrastructure for strategic nuclear assets to support the Nuclear Doctrine; (ii) flight evaluation of long-range subsonic cruise missile (iii) long-range radars for tracking incoming (enemy) ballistic missiles, command, control and communication network, command centres with decision support system for defending the National Capital Region against ballistic missile threats, (iv) establishment of the Cyber Security Research and Development Centre for developing offensive and defensive technologies for cybersecurity.

As the Homi Bhabha Chair Professor and Consultant to IOCL R&D, Dr Saraswat evolved a roadmap for the development of alternative energy systems such as clean coal technologies; high-efficiency concentrated solar power systems, and bioenergy- and hydrogen-based economy. He is currently the Chairman of Research Advisory Council, IOCL R&D. As Chairman of NTPC R&D Advisory Council, he prepared a similar alternative energy technology development plan focusing on clean coal technologies and advanced ultra-supercritical thermal power plant to work on efficiencies better than 40% and highly reduced greenhouse emissions.

Dr Saraswat initiated a programme for the development of silicon photonics technology by setting up the Photonics Valley Corporation in Telangana—a Government of Telangana initiative in collaboration with Photonics Inc., USA. This programme is expected to be a gamechanger for the next generation of networks, such as 5G and supercomputers. As Chairman of the Committee for Development of Indian Microprocessors, he led a team to evolve the configuration of the M-Processor for IOT, Smart Cities and other ICT applications. He also laid out the strategy for development with DieTy, CDAC, IIT(M), IIT(B) and SCL Chandigarh. Two devices have already been developed by IIT(B) and IIT(M). He has evolved a concept document for setting up the Indian Railway Research Institute (Shresththa) for Indian Railways, which would propel indigenous designs and manufacturing in programmes such as high-speed rail system and dedicated freight corridor and usher in a new era of R&D in the Railways. As Member, NITI Aayog, Dr Saraswat initiated the ‘Methanol Economy’ programme for transportation, energy generation and production of chemicals and fertilisers, etc. To this end, production agencies, academic institutions and petro-refineries have been brought together to further the cause. As part of the initiative, M-15 gasoline blend, methanol cooking stove, methanol-fuelled propulsion for inland waterways, and methanol-fuelled gensets are being introduced in the country. At the academia and industry levels, R&D in the gasification of high ash content Indian coal has been undertaken.

Dr Saraswat also chaired a committee on technical textiles and prepared a roadmap for the futuristic growth of this sector in India. The plan focused on the promotion of indigenous production of technical textiles and fibres such as carbon and aramid, for strategic and ballistic needs and laid due emphasis on reviving R&D in this sector. He has also chaired a committee for framing a ‘Roadmap for Make in India in Body Armour’. The excerpts from the committee's report were later used to frame BIS standards on body armour. Dr Saraswat led an empowered technical advisory committee for the development of national supercomputing systems. Configuration and strategy for development have been evolved and the programme has been launched as a multi-organisation mission. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Padma Shri (1998) and Padma Bhushan (2013). He has been conferred an honorary doctorate by more than 25 universities, most recently in 2018 by Jamia Hamdard.

The promoter of Rajratan Global Wire Ltd, Mr. Sunil Chordia started his career at an early age and joined the family business of iron and steel trading. He is a science graduate and then did his MBA (Finance) in 1987. In the year 1990, the family decided to foray into manufacturing Prestressed Concrete Wires and Pre-stressed Concrete Strands. That is when Rajratan Wire was born with a manufacturing facility in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh. He was entrusted with the daunting task of leading the new business. Having witnessed early success in the new venture, he decided, in 1995, to grow the business and diversify into making Bead Wire. With the vision of providing superior quality and customer service, he undertook various innovative measures to grow Rajratan where it is today.

He participated in various cross-country collaborations to introduce best manufacturing practices at his own manufacturing facility. This resulted in the evolvement of an indigenous technology into a world-class manufacturing setup with a skilled and informed workforce and products competing in international markets. His relentless approach to learning to stay ahead of the curve led to Rajratan’s strong foundation and leadership position in India, and strong global presence. The Thailand facility, which the Chairman had envisioned, is now an important contributor to Rajratan’s overall global business ambitions. To cater to the substantial tire capacities based out of South India & to set up a right feeder capacity to global markets, particularly Europe and US – Mr. Sunil has chosen Chennai as the strategic location for Rajratan’s third bead wire facility. He continues to hold various responsible positions in several industry and trade associations.

Presently he is chairman of CII Western Region. Mr. Sunil is also Chairman and Mentor of Levers for Change (LFC) – a niche implementation consulting firm that focuses exclusively on mid-sized, entrepreneurial run, manufacturing firms to help them achieve business and operational transformation. LFC is also building a world class SaaS product to facilitate holistic digital transformation of mid-sized manufacturing firms. However, this is the just the beginning, and Rajratan has many more miles to traverse under the stewardship of Mr. Sunil Chordia.

Dr Ratheesh is the director of Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET), which is an autonomous scientific society under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India. It is having three R&D laboratories located at Pune, Hyderabad & Thrissur.

Smt. SunitaVerma is the Group Coordinator for R&D in Electronics &IT at Ministry of Electronics & IT overseeing the entirety of R&D operations including National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). Her pivotal role extends to spearheading the advancement and promotion of Electronics and Information Technology nationwide. This entails crafting policies, evolving R&D proposals, orchestrating their execution, and facilitating their commercialization through collaborative efforts with industrial, academic, and R&D entities. With an extensive tenure spanning over three decades, she possesses a wealth of experience spanning the spectrum of R&D endeavors, from basic research to product development in the areas of Micro-Electronics, Additive Manufacturing, Quantum computing, Circular Economy in E-waste sector, Electronic Materials & Component, Nano Technologies, Medical Electronic and Health Informatics, Electronics Systems Development & Application, etc.

Under her supervision, India’s first ‘Centre of Excellence on E-waste Management’, has been established at Hyderabad, India. Wherein, various e-waste recycling process technologies have been developed and transferred to Industries for national benefit. She is heading the National Supercomputing Mission for development and deployment of state-of-the-art Supercomputing facilities in the country. Through her focused and visionary approach, NSM has created a robust ecosystem in the area of High-Performance Computing (HPC) in the country, wherein development of various indigenous HPC sub-components like Server Boards, Interconnect, Software Stack have been undertaken and over 24PF capacity of supercomputers have been deployed across the country. She was instrumental in the development of PARAM SHAVAK machine “Supercomputer in a Box” based on indigenously developed Rudra Server Board.

Thomas Fischer is a senior scientist at the Institute of Inorganic and Materials Chemistry of the University of Cologne, Germany. With a background in chemistry, he is leading the gas phase deposition and materials characterization activities of the Materialsand Nanochemistry group (Prof. Sanjay Mathur). Since its establishment in 2021 he is also a member of the Sustainability Council of the University of Cologne and coordinates the topical interest group “Sustainability in Research”. Dr. Fischer is also co-founder of the technology transfer centre “Material Alliance Cologne” providing state-of-the-art contract research, sampling and analytical services to small, medium and large companies

Current Role: Leading the AMAT Mumbai site since September 2020. About: Advanced materials science thought leader and prolific innovator with 35 US patents (& 20+ in other countries) having deep knowledge of materials, processing & additive technology. Proven track record of providing innovative solutions from lab scale to manufacturing on diverse suite of materials (Functional & Structural materials, processing and advanced manufacturing technologies). Over 20 years of corporate research experience in materials, establishing new research capabilities, building teams & growing talent. Six Sigma Black Belt & Associate Value Specialist (SAVE International). Leading efforts for the organization on expanding collaboration with academic institutions on joint studies to advance the state of art of materials and allied technologies

Prof. Samit K. Ray is a Chair Professor in the Department of Physics, IIT Kharagpur. He has previously served as the Director S. N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata, Dean (Post-graduate & Research Studies), Head, Department of Physics and Chairman, School of Nanoscience and Technology, IIT Kharagpur. His research interests are in the area of semiconductor materials & devices, quantum technology, low dimensional materials, photovoltaics and nanophotonic devices. He has served as a visiting faculty/scientist at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, University of Delaware, USA, University of Texas at Austin, USA, Queens University of Belfast, UK and Chang Gung University, Taiwan. Prof. Ray is an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences India and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He has published more than 400 research papers in peer reviewed journals and serving as an editorial board member of the journal Nanotechnology (IOP, UK), Scientific Reports and Frontiers in Materials : Optics and Photonics.

Dr Vilas Tathavadkar is Chief Technology Officer of Hindalco Industries Ltd and Function Head, Metals & Mining Technology at ABSTC, a corporate R & D centre of Aditya Birla group. Presently, leading Technology & Innovation functions with focus on transformation of primary aluminium & copper production processes to deliver sustainable and differentiated products. He is also leading collaborations with national & international research institutes and start-ups in new areas. He received his B. Eng (Metallurgy) from College of Engineering, Pune, M Tech (Materials Sciences) from IIT, Mumbai and Ph. D. (Metallurgy) from University of Leeds, UK. He was also Post Doctoral Research Fellow at University of Leeds, UK and Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands.

He has 33 years of research experience in national, academic & industrial research laboratories, including C-MET, Hyderabad, University of Leeds, UK and Tata Steel R&D, Jamshedpur before joining ABG in 2012. He has filed 44 patents and published over 75 papers He is recipient of Pune University Gold Medal, Tata Innovista Promising Innovations award and Hindustan Zinc Gold Medal of IIM. He is member of Research Council of CSIR-AMPRI, National Executive Council of IIM and MTD Committee of BIS.

Dr. T.Bhaskar is presently the Chief of Technology Group, Tata Steel. Dr. T.Bhaskar graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology Warangal in the year 1990. He is a Gold medallist in Metallurgical Engineering and also won the Alumni Association Gold Medal for the Best Allrounder student of the 1990 batch. He also received the Bhagwan Shri Satya Sai Gold Medal for the Best Engineering Graduate of Andhra Pradesh. Further academic qualifications include a PGDM from All India Management Association and a Doctorate from the University of Pune. He has rich professional experience in the Steel and Forging industries. Worked with reputed companies like SAIL , Bharat Forge , Usha Martin and is presently with Tata Steel.

He held senior positions in Industry like Head of Steel Making at SAIL Speciality steel plant Vice - President at Bharat Forge , and Senior Vice - President at Usha Martin. He is a Technocrat with diverse and vast experience in speciality Steel Plants in Operations, process control , projects and Quality Assurance and TQM and he is a trained Lead Assessor of the QMS and also Assessor for Tata Business Excellence Model. Received speciality steels training at Boehlers Brothers / Voest Alpine Austria and on Continuous casting from Aachen University Germany and TPM training in Japan. Presented over 46 Technical papers in reputed journals. Received several prestigious awards like Fellowship of Indian National Academy Of Engineering ( INAE ), Prime minister’s Fellowship for Doctoral research from Dept of Science and Technology , IIM Essar Gold Medal , Young Metallurgists Award at SAIL , Distinguished Alumnus Award from NIT Warangal , and also Conferred Fellowship of Institution of Engineers ( India ) Visited various Steel Plants and Industries in USA , Canada , Singapore , Austria , Germany , France , Croatia , Italy , Singapore , Japan and China during professional career

Shyam Karagadde is a Professor in the department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Bombay. He holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from NIT Karnataka, and M.Tech & PhD from IISc Bangalore. His expertise is in the field of aluminium alloys, casting methods, mitigation of defects, and developing predictive models thereof. His interest in research related to aluminium alloys started during his PhD, where he worked on developing predictive tools for porosity and microstructure formation. Subsequently at University of Manchester, he explored real-time imaging observations on aluminium alloys for understanding mechanisms of defect formation. He teaches courses on Materials processing, Maths, and Data science at IIT Bombay. He has active collaboration with industries in India and abroad for various projects on casting of aluminium. Some of his recent recognitions include INAE young engineer award, INSA Associate Fellowship etc.

Chandan completed his Bachelor of Technology in Metallurgical Engineering from Jadavpur University in 1998. Subsequently he did his Master of Engineering in Materials Engineering from IISc in 2000. He joined the institute as an external Ph.D. student in 2006. Currently, he is head Of Department- Ministry of Defence.

I am a metallurgical engineer with over two and a half decades of experience in the Aluminum downstream industry. Throughout my career, I have taken on multiple roles, progressing from Process Engineer to Plant Manager, and currently serve as the Chief Technology and Engineering Officer for Aluminium Downstream at Hindalco. My expertise spans across various aspects of Aluminum manufacturing including rolled products & Foils. I have also had the privilege of leading the Specialty Alumina business for Hindalco that develops pioneering solutions for Consumer Electronics, Ceramics, Refractory and Glass industries. I had the privilege of working with Novelis in the USA for 3 years in Operations, Engineering and Product Development. My tenure at Novelis enriched my knowledge and allows me to integrate global best practices into our operations. I am particularly passionate about leveraging the latest technologies in Recycling And Digitalization in Manufacturing to make the organization sustainable and future-ready.

Dr. A. Seema has received Ph.D in composite materials from Cochin University of Science and Technology. She was a visiting Scientist at Cornell University, USA under BOYSCAST fellowship. She is a recipient of Nari Shakti Puraskar, the highest Civilian honor for Women in India and also a recipient of the prestigious National Award for Women’s Development through Application of Science and Technology awarded by Government of India. Her invention on wearable device for breast cancer screening was selected as one of the best ten innovations in Prime Minister’s award for Excellence in Public Administration in the innovations category. She was awarded “OPPI recognition” by Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India. She was also felicitated by ARMREB (DRDO) for her outstanding contributions for “Development of Supercapacitor Bank for Electronic Time Fuse Application”. Currently working in the area of 2D materials, sensors, actuators, energy storage, etc. She has transferred several indigenously developed technologies to industries for commercialization.

A chemical engineer with 39 years of Industrial experience in Manufacturing, R&D and Business Management. Joined Carborundum Universal Limited as a Graduate Engineer Trainee and superannuated as Executive Vice President and Business Head in May 2021. Served on the Board of Directors for three Overseas Operations - CUMI Middle East, CUMI Europe and VAW Russia. Hands on experience in various technologies such as ceramic melting, smelting, fine powder processing, plasma process, sol gel synthesis and nano material processing. 20 patents. Created lab to commercial scale operations to address products for global markets. Travelled widely for business relationships, technology tie ups, product promotions and expanding operations. Steered the business to achieve various National awards in the areas of Innovation, Industry Excellence, HR Excellence, Manufacturing Green Initiatives etc. Continuing with Carborundum Universal Limited as their Corporate Technology Officer supporting CUMI and Its Subsidiaries on Technology and New Businesses. Also, Executive Review Committee member for India Innovation Centre for Graphene, PRSG member to NEIST Jorhat and Advisor to a few technical institutions.

Prof. Vijayaraghavan is a Professor of Nanomaterials in the Department of Materials and the National Graphene Institute at The University of Manchester. He leads the Nanofunctional Materials Group. He is also the Head of Internationalisation for the Faculty of Science & Engineering. His research involves the science and technology of graphene and 2-dimensional materials, particularly for applications in composites, electronics, sensors and biotechnology. He was previously a senior post-doctoral research associate at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany. He was awarded his MEng (2002) and PhD (2006) from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA and his BTech (2000) from the Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, India. He has published over 100 papers in international peer reviewed journals and delivered over 100 presentations at international conferences. He has filed 7 patents.

Bankim Chandra Ray, has been working at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India since 1989. A dedicated academician with more than three decades of experience, Bankim Chandra Ray currently holds a full professor position since 2006 at the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, India. He has been awarded PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 1993. Apart from instructing students in the field of Phase Transformation and Heat Treatment, he has also guided many Master degree and 18 PhD scholars. He has made seminal contribution in the field of field of Phase Transformation and Heat Treatment and Composite Materials. An adept administrator, he has also served as the Dean of Faculty, Head of the Department of the Metallurgical and Materials Engineering department and also an incumbent Coordinator of Steel Research Center at NIT Rourkela. His research interests are mainly focused on the mechanical behavior of FRP composites. He also holds a patent deriving from his research. With nearly 225 publications in international journals. and and Prof. Ray also authored 7 books, and 25 book chapters from the leading publishers. His association with several prestigious societies like Indian Institute of Metals and Indian National Academy of Engineering and many more governmental and private organizations, the constant endeavor towards academics and his field of specialization has been unparalleled and yet thoroughly inspiring for many of the young engineering minds. As an advisor to New Materials Business, Tata Steel Ltd., he has been instrumental in facilitating the steel honcho’s foray into the FRP Composites business. His constant endeavours towards academics and his field of specialization has been unparalleled, and yet thoroughly inspiring for many of the young engineering minds.

Dr B. Venkata Manoj Kumar is currently working as Professor at Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee. With the primary theme of understanding microstructure-property relations, Dr. Kumar has been actively involved in processing advanced ceramic systems like SiC, ZrB2, B4C, Si3N4, TiCN-Ni cermets etc., and studying the influence of microstructural characteristics on their material removal mechanisms when subjected to sliding, fretting, erosion or machining conditions.

Dr. Kantesh Balani is Yadupati Singhania Memorial Chair, and a full Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur. He has authored three books and 200+ publications (10,000+ citations) in the peer-reviewed international journals and has delivered 200+ talks in the conferences and workshops. He is recipient of Swarnajayanti Fellowship (2017-2022) by DST, Govt. of India, and Metallurgist of the Year (2016) by Ministry of Steel and Mines, Govt. of India. He is a Fellow of ASM International Class of 2021, Fellow of National Academy of Engineering (India) 2021, and Fellow of National Academy of Sciences India 2021. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of Nanomaterials and Energy (Institution of Civil Engineering) journal, Associate Editor, Journal of Thermal Spray Technology (Springer), Principal Editor of Journal of Materials Research (Springer). His expertise is biomaterials, carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced bio/nano composites, coatings, and ultra-high temperature ceramics.

Mr. Niraj P. Bhukhanwala is an Entrepreneur and the Managing Director for Bhukhanvala Industries Private Limited which is a leading manufacturer High Performance Ceramic Solutions for Defence, Nuclear and Aerospace Applications. Under his leadership, Bhukhanvala Industries has been involved with many strategic projects with DAE, DRDO and ISRO. Also in the last 10 years, Bhukhanvala Industries has emerged as one of the global leaders for the manufacture of Boron Carbide powders and components with customers across the world. He has also recently founded 6C Nanocarb Private Limited, a STARTUP to develop Advanced Carbon technologies and products. Mr Bhukhanwala is also an Independent Director on Precision Wires Limited (an NSE listed company). Prior to joining the Bhukhanvala Group, he was part of Intel Capital India from 2000-2002. He also worked a Management Consultant with McKinsey and Company in London from 1999-2000 with a focus on Wireless Technologies and Healthcare. Niraj has a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Mumbai (1991-1995), a M.S in Electrical Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park, U.SA (1995-1997). He also has an MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France (1998).

Sudipto has over 33 years of leadership experience in manufacturing, finance, and international trade and investment promotion. He has worked at Steel Authority of India Limited, IFB Industries Limited, Industrial Development Bank of India, the UK Government’s Department for International Trade (DIT) and the Tata Group before launching Asterix Innovations Private Limited in February 2021. Asterix Innovations works in the areas of cross-border trade and investment, technology transfer, and innovative financing solutions. Its focus sectors are advanced manufacturing and materials, the future of computing, new and green energy solutions, and healthcare/Medtech.

Sudipto holds a B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering (1989) and an MBA (1994) from Jadavpur University and is a recipient of the University Gold Medal. In his current role, he is working with many foreign governments and global companies on their India strategies and with several Indian companies on their technology and partnership requirements.

Dr Ramanuj Narayan joined as the Director of CSIR-IMMT on 01st May, 2023. Prior to joining he was Chief Scientist & Chair, Department of Polymers & Functional Materials at CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (IICT), Hyderabad. He is also serving as Dean, Chemical Sciences, Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research (AcSIR). Prior to joining CSIR he has served Asian Cosmos R&D Co. Ltd., Tata Steel Ltd., and Tata Autocomp Systems Ltd. at various positions during 2002-08. He is the alumni of Magadh University, Bodhgaya, University of Delhi, NIT, Jamshedpur and IIT (ISM), Dhanbad & CSIRIICT wherein he has pursued graduation, post-graduation, post-graduation in technology and Ph.D. His research interest includes Coating/Paints, Hyperbranched Polymers, Polyurethane, Nano, functional & hybrid Materials and third generation solar cell. He has around 110 research papers in peer reviwed journals, 06 patents, 05 book chapters, 07 process technology to his crdit so far. He has also edited one book, 06 researchers have completed their Ph.D. under his supervison and has also supervised more than 25 post graduates and 05 post doc from India and abroad.

He has delivered more than 60 invited lectures, key note lectures on both national and international platforms. He has completed 14 research projects including the CSIR-XII plan cross clusture project ‘IntelCOAT’ and is leading the Centre of Excellence on Polymer Coatings granted by Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemical Fertilizers, GOI at CSIR-IICT. He is the recipient of 4th Berger Elite Researcher Award in Coating Research Excellence, 2019, Newton Prize 2017 awarded by the Newton-Bhabha Fund for the DST-RC-INDO-UK APEX-II team from India, IPA Award-2015 for Coating Research and IICT Gaurav Samman- 2011

A prototypical people’s person, Pallavi Gill has been primarily instrumental in scaling up the “RCMPA” brand recognition across the globe. She is widely regarded in the company as the go-to source on Customer engagement and retention. Her passionate take on philosophy and psychology enables her to simplify problems - where they come from and how to change them to amplify results, an absolute compassionate listener to customer needs and articulating product benefits, RCMPA today under her Sales & Marketing leadership is globally known for its CEPOLL-Cerium based polishing powders and High-performance Cerium and lanthanum salts from India. A First of its kind in the Rare-earth industry. She brings a track record of integrity, creativity and passion to every client acquisition over her career experience of more than 18 years. Closely Associated with RCMPA since its inception her market insight on untapped opportunities have helped create quality solutions that provide value to the customers from varied industry profile be it Glass, catalytic convertors, fertilizer or medicine. A continuous succour for improvement and yearning to be the best in field she has recently been inducted as an Executive IIM Kozhikode aluminous. She enjoys Training, Coaching and leading teams of Junior executives helping them quickly attain their full potential.

Shri Sagar Singh is currently working as Joint Director in the Chemical Department, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) under Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India. He has done his B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Delhi and is recipient of the prestigious BOSS Award at IIT Delhi received from the Hon’ble President of India for excellence in experimental and design based research. He has more than 12 years of experience in the Standards Certification and Formulation activities of BIS. He has represented BIS as an Indian Delegate at the International Meetings of Rare Earth Technical Committee ISO/TC298 organized by International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in May 2018 (at Sydney, Australia), May 2019 (at Tokyo, Japan) and May 2024 (at Kazan, Russia). He has worked on and is associated with a lot of important assignments related to Standardization in Chemicals and is well versed with the procedures for the standards development at National as well as those of ISO at International level. He is the current Member Secretary of Inorganic Chemicals Sectional Committee, CHD 1 of BIS

Tim Archer has worked as a commercial geophysicist for more than twenty-five years. He holds an Honours Degree in Geophysics from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Management Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch. Tim worked for Anglo American from 1994 to 2001, mainly with their SPECTREM airborne electromagnetic system. From 2004 to 2014, Tim owned and ran a geophysical contracting businessin the UK, specialising in nearsurface hazard detection. In 2014, he joined Reid Geophysics, a company which he now owns and manages, as well as providing non-seismic geophysical consultancy to mineral and energy explorers worldwide. In 2022, he set up Natural Resource Consulting with an Indian business partner, to promote and assist exploration for critical minerals and other subsurface assets in India. Tim is an active member of EAGE, IAEG and SEG. He is also a technical reviewer for Geophysical Prospecting and the Journal of Applied Geophysics, and a member of the Near-Surface Geophysics Inter-Society Committee on UAV (Drone) Geophysics Guidelines

Dr Jagannath Pal is working as Chief Scientist in CSIR-NML and looking after Ferrous process activity including agglomeration, ironmaking and steelmaking. He has more than 24 years of R&D expertise and 4 yrs of Industrial experience in the field of Ferrous process. He has supervised several M. Tech and Ph. D. Students. He is the recipient of several awards like the BHU Medal, CSIR-Ramen research fellowship, CSIR-NML's best project awards, Best paper awards of NMD-ATM etc. He has more than 65 research publications and 10 Nos of patents.

Dr. Akshay Bauskar is the leader of the Global R&D Center for Advanced Refractories at Vesuvius in Vizag. His team at Vesuvius has been pivotal in introducing groundbreaking products tailored to the unique needs of customers in the Steel, Iron, and allied industries, significantly contributing to India’s ambitious growth trajectory. With over 16 years of rich experience in Product Management, Operations, and Technology Leadership roles across North America, Dr. Bauskar has made impactful contributions at notable companies like Exxon Mobil, PwC, and Tarkett. Dr. Bauskar holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Tennessee Technological University, and an MBA from Louisiana State University. He is a prolific contributor to professional journals and holds several patents. Dr. Bauskar is also passionate about economic empowerment and sustainability. He actively volunteers for the United Nations to make a positive global impact.