Meet our
2023 Achievers
Our achievers are some of the brightest young minds in the India-UK corridor. They are trailblazers, Innovators and thought leaders, shaping India's future and setting global discourse.
Arts, Culture and Entertainment
Parineeti Chopra | Actor and Singer
University of Manchester
A National Film Award winner, Parineeti is an acclaimed artist with multiple honours and recognitions to her name. She has appeared in the Forbes Celebrity 100 list since 2013.
Anu Menon | Director and Screenwriter
London Film School
Anu graduated in 2007 with a rare distinction. She directed the ten-part series Four More Shots Please! for Amazon India, which was nominated for a 2020 International Emmy Award & the biopic drama Shakuntala Devi available on Amazon Prime Video. Most recently, Anu directed block two of Killing Eve Series 4.
Anjali Menon | Director and Screenwriter
London Film School
Anjali is a Malayalam filmmaker and screenwriter and founder of Little Films. She has won international, national and state awards for her work. She is the founder of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC), an organisation that focuses on gender equality in the Malayalam film industry.
Parambrata Chatterjee | Actor and Director
University of Bristol
One of the most popular actors of Bengali cinema, Parambrata gained pan-India recognition in 2012 after featuring in the Bollywood movie Kahaani. He won the prestigious ‘Rituparno Ghosh memorial award’ for his second directorial venture in 2013.
Rakasree Basu | Film Producer
University of Glasgow
Rakasree Basu has pioneered in bringing Nordic film and television productions to India and co-produced the first Danish-Indian feature film. Her company, Frames Per Second Films, is a renowned female-led Indian production house catering to international productions.
Soha Ali Khan | Actor and Writer
University of Oxford & London School of Economics
Soha is an actress who has worked in Hindi, Bengali and English films. She has won various awards for her performance in the critically acclaimed movie 'Rang De Basanti'. She has authored 'The Perils of Being Moderately Famous' that won the Crossword Book Award.
Manu Pillai | Author and Historian
King's College London
Author-historian Manu Pillai has written four popular history books, most recently False Allies: India's Maharajas in the Age of Ravi Varma. He has won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar. He is currently working towards a PhD at King's College, London.
Saima Iqbal | Historical Conservationist
Oxford Brookes University
Saima has championed several voluntary heritage-led projects in culturally rich, remote areas of India. She won a UNESCO Asia Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation. She has also won the Young Indian Leader Award for her outstanding professional work and sphere of influence in heritage.
Sports
Aditi Chauhan | Goalkeeper, India
Sports Loughborough University
Aditi is the Goalkeeper of the Indian National Football Team, founder of 'She Kicks Football Academy' and the 'Aditi Chauhan Foundation'. She is a football expert analyst & commentator on major sports channels in India.
Chhavi Kohli | Fencing athlete
University of Edinburgh
Chhavi is an Indian national fencing athlete and a mental health practitioner. She is a two time Commonwealth Games Medallist. She has won various medals including three international gold medals. She was the youngest fencer to participate in the National Games in 2015. Chhavi is currently studying MSc Performance Psychology at one of the best institutions in the world, University of Edinburgh.
Deepthi Bopaiah | Sports, Entrepreneur
University of Oxford
Deepthi is the CEO of GoSports Foundation- a national award-winning non-profit organisation, that aims to identify, nurture & support some of India's top talent in their Olympic and Paralympic pursuit. She was awarded the Chevening Gurukul Fellowship at University of Oxford.
Priyal Narendra Keni | International Rifle Shooter
London Business School
CA, International Rifle Shooter, Social Entrepreneur & TEDx Speaker, who represented India for 7 years & won +110 medals before pivoting into consulting. She is now pursuing a MBA in London while scaling her social venture in India & is part of the UN Women 30 for 2030 network.
Saurav Ghosal | Squash Player
University of Leeds
Saurav is an Arjuna award winner. A trailblazer, he is the first Indian squash player to break into the top 10 in the world and was also the first Indian to win the coveted British Junior Open Under-19 Squash title in 2004. He won the 2022 Commonwealth Games men's squash singles. The world #15 holds a record 13 Indian national titles, 10 Professional Squash Association tour titles, a gold in the Asian Games and a gold in the World Championships. He took silver in the Commonwealth Games mixed doubles five years ago.
Suheil Tandon | Sports Entrepreneur
Loughborough University
Suheil is the Founder-Director of Pro Sport Development, an award-winning social enterprise utilising sport for the holistic development of young people. He believes in the power of sport in catalysing social transformation, and has conceptualised several innovative initiatives across India. Suheil has a postgraduate degree in sport management from Loughborough University, UK and an undergraduate degree in mathematics and economics from McGill University, Canada.
Government & Politics
Raghav Chadha | Politician
London School of Economics
Raghav is the youngest Member of Parliament in India (Rajya Sabha). He is a national executive member & national spokesperson of the Aam Aadmi Party. He is Chairman of the Advisory Panel to the Chief Minister of Punjab.
Bhavya Bishnoi | Politician
University of Oxford & London School of Economics
Bhavya is currently serving as a Member of Legislative Assembly from Haryana, as the youngest legislator in the current assembly. Bhavya also runs a non-profit, 'Bhajan Global Impact Foundation (BGIF)', through which he aims to effect transformative change through policy advocacy, impact interventions, and development collaborations.
Atishi Singh | Politician
University of Oxford
Atishi is an Indian politician, educator, political activist and MLA from Delhi. She is a member of the Political Affairs Committee of Aam Aadmi Party. She served as Advisor to the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia, primarily on education.
Gurjot Singh | Senior Police officer, Punjab
University of Bristol
Gurjot is an Indian police officer, writer and singer, who has authored the best selling 'New India - The Reality Reloaded' He is currently in the UK, working with the Avon and Somerset Police force in the domain of Digital policing.
Kaushal Vidyarthee | Office of the Former President of Indian National Congress
University of Oxford
Kaushal holds a DPhil in Social Policy from Oxford where he came as an Inlaks Scholar. He has worked on the UNDP & European Commission projects and is associated with Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana, the poverty reduction & women empowerment initiative of Rajiv Gandhi Charitable Trust. He was VP of the Oxford University Students Union.
Manish Chadha | Joint Secretary, Govt of India
King's College London
Manish is a Joint Secretary to Government of India, through lateral entry scheme. He leads foreign trade for select geographies & commodities, leading FTA negotiations in Industry track (IPR, GI, Innovation & MSME) and manages IT & cyber security for the Department of Commerce. He is a Chevening Gurukul Fellow.
Dr Megha Bhargava | Joint Commissioner, Indian Revenue Service
University of Cambridge
Dr. Megha Bhargava works in the IRS & holds key portfolios in domestic & international taxation, intelligence & criminal investigation of financial crimes. A qualified dental surgeon, she strives to ensure Universal Health Coverage to marginalised communities. As the Co-founder of NGO 'Samarpann', she has been helping to facilitate equitable access to Inclusive Education, Comprehensive Healthcare & Livelihood generation opportunities for rural and tribal communities across various parts of India.
Law
Menaka Guruswamy | Senior Advocate 240
Law University of Oxford
A Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of India, Menaka is known for having played a significant role in many landmark cases. In 2019 she was featured as one of the TIME 100 most influential people in the world for her work spearheading the successful, historic battle for LGBTQ rights in India. She is the first Indian and second woman to have her portrait hung at the Milner Hall in Rhodes House at the University of Oxford.
Arghya Sengupta | Author and Lawyer
University of Oxford
Arghya is the Founder and Research Director at 'Vidhi'. He has served on a number of government committees including the B.N. Srikrishna-led committee of experts on a data protection framework for IndiaHe has publications in Law Quarterly Review, Public Law, and columns in The Telegraph and The Times of India. He has authored a book "Independence and Accountability of the Indian Higher Judiciary".
Chintan Chandrachud | Barrister
University of Cambridge
Dr Chintan Chandrachud is a barrister at Brick Court Chambers, London. His practice focuses on commercial & public law. He is widely published & is the author of "The Cases that India Forgot" (Juggernaut 2019) & "Balanced Constitutionalism: Courts and Legislatures in India and the United Kingdom" (OUP 2017). He was listed by Chambers & Partners as an “associate to watch”, and by Legal 500 as a “key lawyer”, for tax litigation.
Gunjan Singh | Attorney
SOAS, University of London
Gunjan Singh is an Indian attorney specialising in Human Rights law for over 8 years. He is a recipient of the Chevening Scholarship. He holds an LL.M in Human Rights, Conflict and Justice from SOAS, a degree in law from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, and a Master in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India.
Krishna Omkar | Corporate Lawyer
University of Oxford
Krishna bridges the worlds of business, thought-leadership & civil society, counselling boards, C-suite executives & corporations on embedding Sustainability, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion as a business strategy to create equitable outcomes & long-term growth within the context of Stakeholder Capitalism. A corporate lawyer by background, he has quarterbacked some of the most complex & high-value M&A deals of recent years spanning 60+ jurisdictions & US$200 billion + in total value.
Shreeyash Uday Lalit | Advocate, Supreme Court of India
University of Cambridge
Shreeyash U. Lalit is an advocate practising in the Supreme Court of India, various High Courts and other fora. He completed his B.Tech from IIT Guwahati in 2014, and thereafter, pursued his LLB from Delhi University in 2014-17. He went on to complete his LLM from the University of Cambridge in 2017-18 as a Tata Trust, Narottam Sekhsaria, Trust and Pegasus Scholar."
Policy & Society
Samir Saran | Policy Maker
Anglia Ruskin University
Samir Saran is the President of Observer Research Foundation (ORF), one of Asia's most influential think tanks. He curates the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual flagship platform on geopolitics and geo-economics, and is the founder of CyFy, India’s annual conference on cybersecurity and internet governance. Samir is a member of the India-CEO Climate Action Group, Global Risks Advisory Board, and the Regional Action Group of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Amy Nishtha Satyam | Head of Office for Timor-Leste, UN Women
University of Nottingham
Amy was appointed as the Head of Office for Timor-Leste in UN Women, the entity of the United Nations that is dedicated to working towards Gender Equality & Woman's Empowerment in 2021. As the youngest woman to head a country office for UN Women amongst 193 countries, she is an unapologetic feminist, a trained economist with a keen interest in applied macroeconomic and fiscal policy.
Ishrat Jahan | Development Professional
London School of Economics
Ishrat is a development professional with experience in social impact & institution-building. She has led large-scale multi-million projects & developed institutional mechanisms within Governments to ensure effective collaborations across sectors. Her work across thematic areas brought her to LSE on a fully-paid fellowship. She is currently an AFSEE Ambassador and works with the World Economic Forum as South Asia Lead for Forest Restoration & Conservation projects.
Mitali Nikore | Economist & Policy Specialist
London School of Economics
Mitali advises several organisations including the World Bank, ADB, & UN agencies. She is experienced in gender mainstreaming, infrastructure dev, finance, policy advisory & social entrepreneurship. She has been selected as 'She is: 75 Indian women in STEAM' by the Government of India & one of the 22For2022 industry leaders by Forbes magazine. She is a widely published researcher and writer with leading media houses.
Nabila Jamshed | Governance Specialist, UN
University of Oxford
Nabila is a global Governance Specialist working with the United Nations, and a vocal public voice for multilateralism and global cooperation in building international peace and security. She has delivered ten TEDx talks and lectured at universities around the world on multilateralism.
Pravin Sanjay Nikam | Social Entrepreneur
London School of Economics
Educator and founder of the non-profits Samata Center & Roshni Foundation, Pravin enables people at the grassroots by creating access to education, justice and reproductive health rights. He served as a Commonwealth Election Observer for Zambia & has been honoured with the esteemed National Youth Award by the Indian government.
Pratishtha Deveshwar | Disability Activist
University of Oxford
Pratishtha is a Diana Award Recipient - UK's highest honour recognising the next generation of humanitarian change makers. Her journey from a road accident that left her paralysed from chest-down at the age of thirteen, to making history by becoming the first ever wheelchair-user from India to study at Oxford, is an inspiration for all!
Ruma Bhargava | Country Lead Healthcare WEF
University of Oxford
Dr Ruma leads the health vertical of the World Economic Forum; and is the founder of NGO, 'Samarpann' which has been awarded by the Government of India for serving children across 7 states in rural India. She previously worked with the International Red Cross, is a professor, columnist and clinician.
Shalmalee Aidoor | Health Policy Consultant
University of Warwick
Shalmalee is a health professional & public policy consultant. She is passionate about outcomes in health, gender & governance in India. Currently, she is working as a Chief Minister's Fellow in the Office of the Deputy Chief Minister of the Government of NCT of Delhi. In the past she has helped build multi-stakeholder platforms in Jharkhand and Maharashtra to advocate for improved health outcomes of children.
Urvashi Prasad | Director, NITI Aayog
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Urvashi is a Director in the Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office, NITI Aayog. She is part of the team supporting the work of Government of India's Empowered Group 1 for managing Covid-19 pandemic. Urvashi co-authored India's first Voluntary National Review presented at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development & has over 150 publications to her credit.
Vignesh Krishnan V | City Director, Teach for India
University College London
Vignesh is an educator and was part of the founding cohort of Teach For India Delhi. He is a Chevening scholar and joined the Hyderabad team of Teach For India as the City Director in early 2020, where he plays a critical role in unleashing the potential and power of a local movement for educational equity.
Media & Journalism
Marya Shakil | Senior Political Editor & Anchor
Birmingham City University
Marya Shakil is an award-winning Indian television journalist, political editor and TV news anchor with CNN-News18. She hosts the network's shows News Epicentre and Reporters Project. Her show on the Muslim yearning to be part of the mainstream earned her the prestigious Ramnath Goenka Award in politics and government category in 2012.
Chaitanya Marpakwar | Journalist, Times of India
Cardiff University
Chaitanya is an award-winning investigative journalist with the Times of India. He has won the prestigious Ramnath Goenka award twice, for his reportage on the Save Aarey movement, and his series of investigative reports on the penguin purchase scam at the Mumbai Zoo.
Danish Khan | Journalist & Historian
University of Oxford
Danish has been covering the UK and Europe for Times Now, ET Now, Mumbai Mirror, Hindustan Times, MoneyControl for over a decade. He was awarded the Martin Senior scholarship and Amersi Foundation scholarship. He has co-authored 'Escaped - True stories of Indian fugitives in London' and taught at Stanford and Oxford. He is the President of the UK's Indian Journalists' Association.
Gaggan Sabherwal | Senior Reporter, BBC
Nottingham Trent University
Gaggan Sabherwal is a Senior Reporter with the BBC. She is an award-winning multi-platform investigative journalist, reporter, digital media producer, current affairs, and documentary filmmaker. She won the News Reporter of the Year award in 2017.
Rahul Kanwal | News Director, India Today
Cardiff University
Rahul is an Indian TV Journalist & News Director of India Today Group. He hosts the prime-time show Newstrack on weekdays and interview based show, Jab We Met. He leads news gathering & operations for the network, managing a team of 500+ reporters. The stories he helps curate are featured across 5 television channels and 20 digital platforms, with a cumulative reach of nearly 500 million consumers.
Raksha Kumar | Multimedia Journalist
University of Westminster
Raksha is an award-winning freelance journalist, with a specific focus on human rights. She has reported from 12 countries across the world and a hundred districts in India for outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, NPR, the Guardian, TIME, Foreign Policy, South China Morning Post and The Hindu. She is a Fulbright and Chevening scholar.
Rohit Jaiswal | Journalist & Strategy
University of Stirling
Rohit is Vice President of NDTV, where he heads distribution sales. He has been responsible for expanding the reach and distribution footprint of the news channels in both India & others countries with sizable Indian Diaspora and making it a global channel on the likes of BBC, CNN, Al-Jazeera and the likes. Today NDTV channels are available in over 70 countries reaching 100m households, enabling others in India to follow suit.
Srijana Das | Senior Editor, The Times of India
London School of Economics & University of Cambridge
Dr Das is Senior Editor (Print & Digital) at The Times of India Group. She is the Editor-In-Chief of Times Evoke & Economic Times Evoke which focus on climate change & sustainability. An 'India-France Young Leader', she writes on diverse issues, from the environment to gender and development. She has interviewed eminent global personalities including President Joe Biden.
Business & Entrepreneurship
Adar Poonawalla | Business
University of Westminster
Adar is the CEO of the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, Serum Institute of India (SSI), which led the large-scale manufacturing of the University of Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine. He is a board member of the GAVI alliance. He is a philanthropist and named on the Forbes philanthropy list of Asia’s Heroes.
Abhishek Rungta | Entrepreneur
University of Bath
Abhishek Rungta is a tech enthusiast turned entrepreneur, who turned his passion into his career and bootstrapped one of the largest digital technology businesses out of Eastern India. The business was born in Bengal, grew all over India, and had an impact globally. He has been an active angel investor for over a decade and has backed 220+ startups with several successful exits. He launched his investment business - Seeders in 2021. He continues to scale his own enterprise - INT. year after year; besides incubating &: investing in high-potential businesses & entrepreneurs.
Adrija Biswas | Entrepreneur
University of Warwick
Global corporate leader, motivational speaker, innovator, singer, humanitarian, 9/11 Survivor and beauty queen - Mrs India UK Universe 2019. She has received the FCA Eureka Award for innovative solutions to empower vulnerable and disenfranchised women. She launched RASA - Rise and Shine Again, an initiative to empower you to build a better you.
Anu Shah | Entrepreneur
University of Leeds
Anu is a globally successful entrepreneur and a powerful advocate for gender parity through entrepreneurship and innovation. She is the founder of EFI Hub, Asia and Africa's first virtual start-up accelerator, which was acquired by Acorn Capital in 2018. She has built and sold startups in the HR Tech space in South East Asia and in the United States. She is currently with Meta, leading Brand Advertising initiatives.
Dev Aditya | Entrepreneur
Brunel University London
Dev Aditya co-founded Otermans Institute which upskills underserved learners in 13+ countries. It helped 35,000 during the pandemic. He built the first AI virtual teacher (humanoid) for displaced & refugee learners in the world. He is currently pursuing his PhD and was awarded by UK's Prime Minister in 2021 for his educational work, named Global Young Innovator by Innovate UK for work in AI, was an Under 30 Entrepreneur & Alumni of the Year of Brunel University.
Karmanya Singh Sareen | Entrepreneur
Imperial College London
Karmanya is Partner at Kommit Techno-Legal LLP, an intellectual property consulting firm in Delhi, India, which was recently awarded the Best Emerging Intellectual Property Consultant Firm - India by APAC Insider. He is the Director of the England Kabaddi Union, through which he promotes Kabaddi in the UK. He is a data privacy enthusiast, and is the main petitioner in the primary case looking at the Right to Privacy as a fundamental right in light of digital privacy.
Kaushal Shah | Entrepreneur
University of Southampton
Kaushal is the founder and CEO of envoPAP - a UK-based company creating innovative and circular packaging solutions to reduce unnecessary deforestation, air pollution and maximise the usage of waste. By repurposing discarded agro-fibres, envoPAP has saved over 1 million trees globally from deforestation, and Kaushal hopes to increase this number to 10 million by 2030. In 2021, Kaushal was honoured by Forbes magazine in the prestigious '30 Under 30' list for Europe.
Prerna Mukharya | Social Entrepreneur
University of Oxford
Prerna is the Founder of Outline India, a for-profit social enterprise. Outline India has worked across 60,000+ villages covering over 5.5 million enabling partners to track change, measure and grow impact. She was featured on Fortune magazine's 40 under 40 and was named a 'Woman-trailblazer' by Forbes. She is a Delhi University 'Distinguished alumni award' recipient.
Prerna Wadikar | Entrepreneur
University of Oxford
Prerna is a polymath with a portfolio career in leadership roles across multinationals, philanthropies and governments in Africa, Asia, Europe and 25 states in India. She pioneered institutional ESG (Environmental Social & Governance) education in India at establishments of national importance and is also the first Hindu board member of the Central British Fund for World Jewish Relief.
She is a Weidenfeld, Hoffmann, Oxford, Lincoln and Saïd scholar and the first woman MBA recipient of the prestigious Vice Chancellor’s Social Impact Award at the University of Oxford.
Punit Goyal | Entrepreneur
Aston University
Punit has been a serial entrepreneur in the renewable energy space and has founded 3 solar startups (PLG Power, PLG Photovoltaic and PLG Clean Energy) between 2008 to 2017 and invested US$150 mln in the clean energy projects. He also co-founded BluSmart - India's largest fully electric ride hailing service and India's largest EV charging network.
Purva Aggarwal | Entrepreneur
University of Hertfordshire
Purva is a celebrated entrepreneur, writer, business development expert and investment banker. She is the first female solopreneur in India and third globally to enter the 'children's online banking & wallet' space with her startup called Good Good Piggy. She is the Ambassador of the India Chapter of Women in Tech, an international non-profit.
Sadiq Basha | Entrepreneur
University of Greenwich
Sadiq set up his own institution in 2010 (formerly known as New College Manchester) and now called New College Group (NCG). In 2018, he set up Edvoy Technologies, a product development and services company. Today, Edvoy and IEC Abroad are highly successful global companies with offices in the UK, India, Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, China & Saudi Arabia.
Tripti Maheshwari | Entrepreneur
City, University of London
Tripti is the founder and director of Student Circus, a one-of-its-kind employability platform for international students in the UK. She is committed to using her entrepreneurial efforts to advocate for #InternationalAtWork and create a better employability ecosystem.
Utkarsh Amitabh | Entrepreneur and Author
University of Oxford
Utkarsh is the Chief Marketing Officer of 5ire.org, a blockchain unicorn valued at $1.5 Billion. 5ire.org acquired a stake in his company Network Capital (networkcapital.tv), one of the world's largest mentorship platforms that empowers 1.6 million school students and 150,000+ young professionals to build meaningful careers. He has authored two best selling books published by Sage.
Vibin Joseph | Technology Entrepreneur
Imperial College London
Dr Joseph, CEO of BiOZEEN is a co-founder and technopreneur. He stewards global operations that process and formulate more than a billion doses of vaccines every year, across 5 continents through self-managing teams. Vibin inspires positive change as a One Young World Ambassador and Gates Foundation Goalkeeper for UN sustainable development goals.
Education, Science & Innovation
Somdip Dey | Artificial Intelligence Researcher
University of Manchester
Somdip is a machine learning researcher, educator, entrepreneur & electronic music producer. He is credited with co-developing the Nosh app, an AI-based food management app, aiming to reduce food waste in the household. Dey also co-founded Nosh Technologies & is currently the CEO & Chief Scientist in the company. He is also a Lecturer of Computer Science at the University of Essex & the Danah Zohar Chair Professor of Quantum Philosophy at Woxsen University, India.
Beena Koshy | Paediatrician
Newcastle University
Beena is a developmental paediatrician, with a passion to set standards for clinical service & research in childhood development & disability in India. She has experience of being a clinical-academic in both India & UK & has been part of various international collaborations. Her research interests include early childhood experiences, cognition & autism spectrum disorder. She has been extensively published & has been awarded the Fellowship of Indian Academy of Paediatrics & the India Alliance ICPH Fellowship.
Arundhuti Gupta | Changemaker
University of Manchester
Arundhuti founded Mentor Together, a non-profit that provides mentoring relationships & networks to young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds. The platform has been accessed by over 32,000 users. She is an Ashoka Fellow, a Brookings Echidna Global Scholar, a World Economic Forum Global Shaper & was a UK-India Commonwealth Scholar.
Anthony Vipin Das | Ophthalmologist & Innovator
University of Oxford
Dr Das is a Network Associate Director & Consultant Ophthalmologist at the L V Prasad Eye Institute. He built eyeSmart EMR, an Electronic Medical Record & Hospital Management System that clocked in over 10.5 million consultations across 316 centres in 5 countries. His research focuses on big data & the application of data science in ophthalmology. He is a TED Senior Fellow & named among the Top 35 Innovators under 35 in the world by Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Anushree Srivastava | Astrobiologist
University of Oxford
Anushree is an Astrobiologist & finds ways to answer the big question - was there (microbial) life on Mars? Her research involves conducting chemical & biological experiments under simulated Mars conditions to understand how the signatures of microorganisms can be preserved within Mars-like substrates & detected on Mars. She is well travelled across the earth; her job has taken her from hot to cold deserts, the Arctic to a km-deep mine & ultimately to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre.
Manisha Nair | Clinical Epidemiologist
University of Oxford
Manisha is a clinical epidemiologist. She is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford. She established, and is the Chief Investigator of the Maternal & Perinatal Health Research collaboration, India (MaatHRI), a large UK-India collaboration for maternal and perinatal health research. Manisha won the Asian Women of Achievement Awards in Science in 2019.
Dr Maitreyee Wairagkar | Neuroscientist
University of Reading
Dr Maitreyee is a neuroscientist and neuroengineer developing assistive neurotechnology using artificial intelligence to restore lost function in people with neurological disorders. She builds brain-computer interfaces to enable people with severe motor & speech impairments to communicate directly via their brain signals by breaking barriers between humans & technology. She is a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Davis. Previously, she was at Imperial College London. She has received PhD and MEng in AI and Cybernetics from University of Reading.
Dr Harmandeep Singh | Cardiologist, NHS
University of Buckingham
Dr Singh is a Consultant in Cardiology & Clinical Lead for Ealing Community Heart Failure Service. He is a Consultant in Acute Medicine at Ealing Hospital, Clinical Lead for the Virtual Ward Program for LNWH Hospitals, Divisional Chief Clinical Information Officer for Ealing Hospital & Ealing Hospital's Covid-response lead. He is a Trustee at Heartlink Charity & a fellow at the Royal College of Physicians. He runs Heart-to-Heart, a support programme for heart failure patients, & runs various health check camps in Punjab; where he also has an educational fund set up to provide free education to students.
Dr Jagadis Kapuganti | Scientist and Innovator
University of Oxford
Jagadis works as Scientist V at the National Institute of Plant Genome Research. He is founder of startup Fruvetech Pvt Ltd and developed novel technology to enhance shelf-life of fruits & vegetables. He has received prestigious awards and fellowships, including a Marie Curie Fellowship, a Max Planck Fellowship, a Ramalingaswami Fellowship, AAB member UK, an Innovative Young Biotechnology Award, and BIRAC-BIG grant.
Dr Narendra Kumar | Cardiologist
London School of Economics
Narendra is a Board Certified Cardiologist with a Ph.D. in atrial fibrillation. He is the program chair for Texila American university and a visiting professor- Cardiology for EDU( Germany, Malta). He was key to the approval of the world's first epicardial VT ablation catheter. He proctored in initiating interventional EP ablation procedures across India at Raipur, Bhopal, Patna, Assam, Kolkata etc.
Michelle Fernandes | Environmental Scientist
University of East Anglia
Michelle is an Environmental Scientist with International and National onboard research experience. She has worked extensively in the Indian Ocean, Southern Ocean, & East Antarctic lakes. She specialises in generating high-quality oceanographic data to study the biogeochemical processes. She was actively involved in the Nansen project of the United Nations - Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Meghna Puri | President, WWI
King's College London
She is the President of Whistling Woods International (WWI). She also spearheaded Marketing & International Distribution activities for India's leading entertainment company, Mukta Arts Ltd. At WWI, she led the launch of 9 schools in the field of Film, Communication & Creative Arts. She was awarded the Honorary Fellowship by Bradford College for her contribution to Media Education, and in 2022 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Rai University.
Meghna Asthana | Researcher
University of York
Meghna is a highly trained, reliable and focused AI and Computer Vision Researcher. Her portfolio consists of a myriad of government, non-profit and academic projects - the most prominent of them being a Data Science for Social Good Fellow at The Alan Turing Institute & the University of Warwick. She has collaborated with the UK Government, UNICEF, NASA, ESA and ISRO on multiple projects.
Prashant Pillai | Associate Dean, University of Wolverhampton
University of Bradford
Professor Pillai is an award-winning academic leader and visionary in the field of computer science. He is currently Associate Dean for Research and Knowledge Exchange and Professor of cyber security for the Faculty of Science and Engineering. He is also the Director of Cyber Quarter - The Midlands Centre for cyber Security
Nivi Manchanda | Reader, Queen Mary University of London
University of Cambridge
Reader in International Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. She is the co-editor of R'ace and Racism in International Relations: Confronting the Global Colour Line' (Routledge, 2014). Her monograph Imagining Afghanistan: the History and Politics of Imperial Knowledge (CUP, 2020) was awarded the LHM Ling First Outstanding Book Prize by the British International Studies Association.
Nitesh Kumar Jangir | Researcher and Innovator
University of Oxford
Nitesh is a co-founder of Coeo Labs and InnAccel, a medical device company with a vision to prevent preventable deaths in the field of emergency and critical care. He was also a part of the Stanford India Biodesign Program where he developed and commercialised a device to safely tap pleural fluid. This technology (Thorashield) was licensed to a medical device manufacturing company.
Dr Suphiya Khan | Innovator and Researcher
University of Oxford
Dr Khan is presently an Associate Professor and Founder of the start-up Drumlins Water Technologies Pvt Ltd at Banasthali Vidyapith which is the world's largest residential NAAC A++ Women University. She is the recipient of many national and international awards. She has developed a patented and affordable world class scalable sensor equipped de-fluoridation technology for drinking water.
Dr Srijan Jindal | Researcher
University of Manchester
Born in Varanasi, Srijan completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee in 2016 and his Ph.D. at the University of Manchester in 2019. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool for a year after which he spun out a medical device company "PhenUtest Diagnostics Ltd." and is working towards commercialising a revolutionary rapid UTI diagnostic kit as the Chief Scientific Officer for the company.
Reshma Rao | Research Fellow, Imperial College London
University of Southampton
Reshma is a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow at Imperial College London. She works on understanding atomic-level (electro)chemical mechanisms at catalytic interfaces to discover next generation materials for energy conversion technologies. She holds a MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southampton & a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She conducted her postdoctoral research at Imperial College London. She is passionate about education and promoting diversity in science.
Raju Kendre | Activist
SOAS, University of London
Raju is a first-generation learner who hails from the Nomadic Tribe community of the Vidarbha region in Central India. His own life experience with accessing higher education opportunities motivated him to start 'Eklavya India'. Eklavya advocates for higher education of first-generation learners and builds grassroots leadership. He has been part of Forbes and Hindustan Times 30 under 30.
Vivek Chandrakant Gurav | Environmentalist
University of Bristol
Vivek is an Environmentalist who was awarded the 'Points of Light' award by the UK Prime Minister for his 'Plogging' campaign. Plogging combines jogging and litter picking as a way to sensitise people in India and the UK, while connecting youth across the globe to drive change in communities. He has been a Global Youth Ambassador, a TEDx speaker and a Think Big Scholar at University of Bristol.
Tarunabh Khaitan | Educator
University of Oxford
Tarunabh is the Head of Research at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at the University of Oxford, the Professor of Public Law & Legal Theory at the Faculty of Law at Oxford, a Fellow at Mansfield College, & an Honorary Professorial Fellow at Melbourne Law School. He is the founding General Editor of the Indian Law Review & founder & advisor of the Junior Faculty Forum for Indian Law Teachers.