Shubha Sarma is an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1999 batch from the Odisha cadre. She currently serves as Principal Secretary in the Department of Women and Child Development, Government of Odisha.

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Born on April 20, 1976, she holds a graduate degree from Delhi University, a Master’s degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and an MBA from Amity University. A multilingual officer fluent in Assamese, English, French, Hindi, and Odia, she has contributed significantly to governance and public welfare initiatives, particularly in areas related to women and child empowerment.

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Shweta Punj is Editor for Economic Policy at Moneycontrol, where she drives Moneycontrol Policy Next—India’s only platform for deep-dive discussions on policies shaping the country’s growth and governance landscape. A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, she has over two decades of experience across TV, print, and digital journalism, tracking India’s political economy, innovation, and policy reform.

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Previously Deputy Editor at India Today, Shweta has also worked with CNBC-TV18, Bloomberg UTV, and Inside Washington Publishers, and has reported from Capitol Hill on U.S. health policy.

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A Polestar and South Asia Laadli Award winner, she co-founded the Whypoll Foundation, which developed India’s first women’s safety app and crowd-sourced safety map. She is also the author of Why I Failed, which was translated into 5 languages. 

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Shyam Suryanarayanan is the Director of Udhyam Shiksha at Udhyam Learning Foundation.He leads the mission to integrate entrepreneurial mindset education into government schools, a program that has already reached over 4 million students across 12 Indian states.

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With a 25-year career spanning everything from tea tasting to building successful life sciences career platforms and ed-tech ventures, Shyam brings a unique, real-world perspective to his focus on employability, experiential learning, and mindset transformation for India’s youth. 

Siraz Hirani is a senior international development leader with over 24 years of experience shaping country-level strategy and directing complex, multi-country operations across South and Central Asia. As Director Programs at Mahila Housing Trust, he provides strategic leadership for regional portfolios spanning India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. His work is centred on designing and scaling bottom-up solutions for the urban poor, with a core focus on women's empowerment, inclusive urban development, and climate resilience. Siraz’s work bridges grassroots action with policy and investment to drive systemic, gender-smart climate solutions. Siraz holds an M.Sc. in Disaster Mitigation, an MBA in Finance, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Currently serving as Joint Secretary (NRLM) in the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India, Smriti Sharan has brought to MoRD a blend of bureaucratic discipline and ground-level sensibility. Over the past few years, she has been centrally involved in the policy framing, programme oversight, and field-level review of key livelihood and gender-equity initiatives, particularly under the flagship Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM).

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Smriti Sharan’s approach is marked by a strong emphasis on convergence, community-led action, and systems strengthening—both in institutional frameworks (state missions, federations) and on the ground (front-line workers, cadres, SHGs). Her public addresses reveal a focus on gender empowerment, rural livelihoods diversification (farm and non-farm), and enhancing capacities of rural institutions to act as engines of development. 

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She has worked as Deputy Director General (Establishment) in the Department of Posts and also served as Chief Vigilance Officer in Projects Equipments Corporation Ltd., a public sector enterprise under Department of Commerce, Government of India. She has also held the position of Director, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and handled the subjects of cooperation and farmers welfare.  As Deputy General Manager, she served Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) in the Department of Animal Husbandry  & Dairying.  

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Smriti Sharan has been a part of various associations such as Member of CARUNA – Civil Services Association for Reach in National Disasters, as part of CARUNA-CPLO Hunger Helpline set up a country wide helpline with a view  to mitigate hunger during COVID times and also as Secretary, CPLO supervised the operation of four crèches in Central Delhi from 2016-March, 2022. 

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Sreyamsa Bairiganjan, the Chief of Programmes at Shakti,at Shakti, has nearly two decades of expertise in sustainable development and clean energy. A published thought leader and speaker at global forums like the G20 Global, Asia Clean Energy Forum, TEDx, and Rio+20, he has authored influential reports that have shaped the sector's discourse. His approach emphasizes a triple-bottom-line strategy, balancing economic, social, and environmental benefits. Before joining Shakti, Sreyamsa was a Senior Energy Expert with the World Bank's Energy and Extractives team, leading transformative projects across South Asia and globally. His work included implementing innovative risk mitigation strategies to scale renewables, earning him multiple "Above and Beyond" recognitions for exceptional contributions. His tenure at the World Bank exemplified his ability to build cross-sectoral partnerships, driving scalable and impactful energy solutions. In previous roles at Arc Finance-New York, IFMR, and the World Resources Institute, he consistently advanced pioneering projects that harmonized development priorities with environmental stewardship, setting benchmarks for sustainable practices in the sector.

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Subhadeep is an investment professional with almost a decade of first hand early stage venture investing experience across high impact sectors like agri-tech, food, rural supply chains, and rural focused alternate energy and farmer focused fin-tech startups in India. He leads the Delhi office for Omnivore and is a Partner in the investment team.

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Subhadeep has been responsible for leading investments in multiple startups across agricultural mechanization, supply chain technologies, digital agriculture, rural/farmer focused marketplaces, rural fin-tech and sustainable inputs amongst other sub-sectors of agtech. He is a regular speaker on topics around startups and the agri-tech and food sectors, at conferences organized by industry associations like CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, NASSCOM and TiE.

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He is a mentor for multiple agri-tech focused incubators and accelerators in agtech. He is currently on the board of multiple Omnivore investee companies (AgNext, Gramcover, Ecozen etc.) and works closely with them on a variety of issues ranging from hiring, business development, strategy, fund raising, and general scale up-related aspects.

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Subhashree is a seasoned social sector professional passionate about building a thriving livelihoods ecosystem and enabling social entrepreneurs to scale their impact. She brings over 30 years of credit investing experience in Asian markets, with a strong track record of over 300 investments across 12+ countries. With 15 years dedicated to ESG investing, she brings deep expertise in aligning financial strategies with sustainable development outcomes.

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Her global outlook is shaped by having lived in six countries and worked with over 20 nationalities, giving her a unique perspective on cross-cultural collaboration and impact. Subhashree spent two decades with Fiera Capital (Asia) (formerly Clearwater Capital Partners), where she served as CEO of its Singapore office, before transitioning to the social sector. She began her career with ICICI Bank in India. Subhashree holds a PGDM from IIM Calcutta and is a CFA® charterholder.

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