Speakers

• Anupam Saraph Future Designer Strategic Leadership and Innovation Advisor, Systems Innovator
  

  Anupam Saraph

  Future Designer Strategic Leadership and Innovation Advisor, Systems Innovator

  Anupam Saraph builds capacity for insights into leverage points, system intelligence, and systems thinking, enabling high-impact strategies in resilience, sustainability, livability, and mission focus. The practical strategies, models, games, and tools he designs equips others to drive transformative change. His interventions have empowered and inspired leaders to unleash extraordinary value with out-of-the-box innovations, transformative change, and System Intelligence (SI).

  • Acclaimed for inventing actor-based modeling that brings system intelligence beyond generative AI, being “the most profound, elegant, and lasting way for system transformation” and as an “astonishingly creative and an educator in the best sense of the word” by Donella Meadows.
  • Acknowledged as a global expert on complex systems and governance by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
  • Successfully enabled businesses to scale more than several hundredfold.
  • Empowered NGOs to scale from local to global impact and bring transformative change to improve the livability of their systems.
  • Built mission focus and transformation capacity of local, state, and federal governments.

• Dr. Ramanath Jha Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation
  

  Dr. Ramanath Jha

  Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation

  Dr. Ramanath Jha belongs to the 1977 batch of the IAS. In the 80s and 90s, he worked as Administrator Pandharpur Municipal Council, Administrator & Municipal Commissioner Solapur, Collector & Deputy Director Municipal Administration, Ahmednagar, Municipal Commissioner Pune and Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA. His subsequent postings were as Regional Advisor, South Asia for the Urban Management Programme of the UNDP/UN-Habitat, Vice Chairman & Managing Director of MSRDC and Principal Secretary, Transport, Ports and State Excise, GoM. He received the State Government’s Chinmulgund award for administrative excellence in 1989. He sought voluntary retirement from Government in 2008 and joined the private sector as CEO & MD, Khed Economic Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. He is currently Chairman, Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee (MHCC), Chairman, Mumbai Commission for Art, Culture and Music (MCAMC), Adviser, Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA), Director General, MCGM’s Centre for Capacity Building & Research (MCMCR) and Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation (ORF). He works on urbanisation, urban sustainability, urban governance and urban planning.

• Dr. Yogesh Mhase IAS, Commissioner PMRDA
  

  Dr. Yogesh Mhase

  IAS, Commissioner PMRDA

  Dr. Yogesh Mhase, IAS, is the Metropolitan Commissioner of the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA). An experienced civil servant, he has previously held key positions across Maharashtra, including Collector of Raigad and leadership roles in CIDCO, MHADA, MIDC, and municipal bodies like Bhiwandi and PCNTDA. Since taking charge at PMRDA in 2024, Dr. Mhase has introduced several reforms aimed at streamlining governance and enhancing transparency. These include decentralizing building permission processes, setting fixed days for public interaction, and revamping the PMRDA website to improve public access to official information. Under his leadership, PMRDA has also taken proactive steps in urban enforcement—such as clearing illegal hoardings and addressing flood-prone infrastructure in rapidly growing areas like Hinjewadi. His vision is rooted in citizen-centric governance, efficient urban planning, and making the Pune Metropolitan Region more inclusive, livable, and climate-resilient.

• Meher Pudumjee Chairperson, Thermax
  

  Meher Pudumjee

  Chairperson, Thermax

  Meher Pudumjee is the Chairperson of Thermax Ltd, a company focused on providing energy and environment solutions. A postgraduate in Chemical Engineering from the Imperial College of Science & Technology, London, Meher joined Thermax as a trainee engineer in August 1990. A year later, along with her husband Pheroz Pudumjee, they took over the responsibility of turning around a Thermax subsidiary company in the UK.

  After her return to India in September 1996, she was appointed on the Board of Directors. With her newly acquired interest in Finance, she worked closely with the treasury and working capital management functions of Thermax. She was involved with overseeing a Joint Venture Company in the area of drinking water as well as the Air Pollution Control businesses of the company. In January 2001 she became a non-executive director and was appointed Vice Chairperson in 2002. During this period she played an active role in the turnaround of Thermax.

  She took over as Chairperson on October 5, 2004, after the retirement. She represented India at the Asian Business Women’s Conference in Osaka in 2006. The World Economic Forum in 2008 selected her as a Young Global Leader for her professional accomplishment, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world. She was selected CEO of the Year, 2009 by Business Standard.

  She served as the Chairperson of Pune Zonal Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). When a member of CII’s Young Indians, she chaired the National Employability initiative.Meher has a keen interest in music, especially western classical and is a member of a Pune based choir.

• Prof. Suhas Palshikar Co-Director, Lokniti, CSDS, Delhi
  

  Prof. Suhas Palshikar

  Co-Director, Lokniti, CSDS, Delhi

  Suhas Palshikar, based at Pune, India, taught political science from 1978 to 2016. He is honorary co-director of Lokniti, a research programme on comparative democracy, CSDS, Delhi and chief editor of Lokniti’s biannual journal brought out by Sage, Studies in Indian Politics. He was also editor of Samaaj Prabodhan Patrika during 1990-2004.
  Suhas Palshikar is associated with the National Election Study since the 1996 elections. He has also been involved in various research projects of Lokniti focusing on study of public opinion in India. Professor Palshikar was one of the principal investigators of the international project on Democracy in South Asia (Round One and Round Two).
  Professor Palshikar writes in English and Marathi on contemporary Indian politics and has also written extensively in academic publications on the theme of democratic politics in India. He has been a frequent contributor to The Indian Express and journals like Seminar and EPW. His Marathi books include ‘Rajyashastra Kosh’ (Dastane Ramachandra, Pune, 1987), ‘Maharashtratil Sattasangharsh’ (Samkaleen Prakashan, Pune, 2007), ‘Rajakarnacha Taleband’ (Sadhana, Pune, 2013) and ‘DeshPradesh’ (Unique Foundation, Pune, 2014).

  Professor Palshikar’s latest publications include the books, ‘The Last Fortress of Congress Dominance: Maharashtra since the 1990s’ (co-authored with Rajeshwari Deshpande) (2021, Sage) and ‘Politics and Society Between Elections’, (with Siddharth Swaminathan, 2021, Routledge) besides research papers: The expanding role of majoritarianism in India, (The Round Table, 2022, 111/3; 291-308) and Caste, Class and Vote: Consolidation of the Privileged and Dispersal of the Underprivileged (with Jyoti Mishra) (Studies in Indian Politics, 11.2, December 2023, pp. 258-73).

  He has also been co-editor of the Sage Series on Politics in Indian States. Some of his other works include Indian Democracy (OUP, 2017) and co-edited volumes ‘Electoral Politics in India: Resurgence of Bharatiya Janata Party’ (Routledge, 2017) and ‘Party Competition in Indian States’ (OUP, 2014).

• Vandana Chavan Indian Politician & Advocate
  

  Vandana Chavan

  Indian Politician & Advocate

  Vandana Chavan, an advocate by profession, was thrice elected as Councillor to the Pune Municipal Corporation from 1992 – 2007 and was Mayor of the City of Pune in the year 1997-98. She was elected to the Maharashtra Legislative Council in March 2010 and is presently Member of Parliament of India, Rajya Sabha since March 2012. Mrs. Chavan has spearheaded several initiatives in the city of Pune targeting citizen’s participation, empowerment of women and sustainable development. Mrs. Chavan has taken a leading role in several environmental movements in the city of Pune. She is also the founding President of ALERT-a network initiative to bring about dialogue between Government, elected representatives and citizens on climate change.