Former Comptroller & Auditor General of India

Mr. Vijay Shunglu, is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan award in 2019 for his contribution to civil service. He is the Chairman of our Governance & Advisory Board and is also a retired IAS officer who has served as the Comptroller & Auditor General of India. As a Secretary to the Government of India, he has held charge of the Department of Power, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Department of Company Affairs and Department of Health and Family Welfare.

In addition to heading the high level committee that investigated the Common Wealth Games scam, Mr. Shunglu has also led and was part of a number of other committees like the committee on financial position of distribution utilities appointed to assess the health of the country’s power distribution utilities, the committee on the displacement formed for the Sardar Sarovar Project, a committee appointed to evaluate the demand of Indian Institutes of Management for a fee hike, a high powered committee to select excellent IAS officers from all over the country, etc.

He has also represented the Government of India at international bodies like Asian Development Bank, IMF/World Bank, International Organization of the Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), Asian Organization of the Supreme Audit Institutions, etc. Mr. Shunglu was conferred the prestigious John Kandusch Award by INTOSAI in 1998 in recognition of the significant results and effective contributions in the field of financial control.

Mr. Shunglu received his B.A. (Honours) in Economics from St. Stephens College,University of Delhi and M.A. in History from University of Delhi.

Chairman, HDFC Bank

Mr. C M Vasudev, a retired IAS officer has had an illustrious career in the civil services and has held several key positions in India and overseas. He has served as Secretary, Ministry of Finance for more than 8 years and has undertaken various assignments, viz., Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Expenditure, Department of Banking and Additional Secretary, Budget with responsibility for framing the fiscal policies and policies for economic reforms and for co-ordinating preparation of budgets of the Government of India and monitoring its implementation. He has also served as Joint Secretary of Ministry of Commerce with responsibility for state trading, trade policy including interface with WTO.

He has extensive experience of working at policy making levels in the financial sector and was responsible for laying down policies and oversight of management.

Mr. Vasudev has worked as an Executive Director of World Bank representing India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. He has chaired the World Bank’s Committee on development effectiveness with responsibility of ensuring effectiveness of World Bank’s operations.

He has also been nominated as a Government Nominee Director on the Boards of many companies in the financial sector including State Bank of India, IDBI, ICICI, IDFC, NABARD, National Housing Bank and also on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India. He has been a member secretary of the Narasimham Committee on financial sector reforms and has chaired a Committee on reforms of the NBFC Sector.

Mr. C M Vasudev holds a Master’s Degree in Economics and Physics.

Former Chairman and Managing Director at Ernst & Young India and Managing Partner of S.R. Battliboi & Co. (SRB)

Mr. Memani is a Chartered Accountant by profession. He is former Chairman and Country Managing Partner of Ernst & Young, India. At Ernst & Young he specialized in Business and Corporate Advisory, Foreign Taxation, Financial Consultancy etc. and consulted on the corporate matters by several domestic and foreign companies. He has helped several multi-national companies in setting up businesses in India.

He has served as the Chairman of the Quality Review Board, an oversight Board to review the quality of auditors. He was a Co-Chairman of the Expert Committee constituted by the Ministry of the Company Law for the drafting of new Companies Act. For two consecutive years he was on the External Audit Committee (EAC) of the International Monetary Fund and was appointed the Chairman of EAC for the year (1999-2000). He is the only Indian appointed in this committee by IMF.

Mr. Memani is currently on the boards of listed Companies such as DLF Ltd., ICICI Venture Funds Management Company, HT Media Ltd., Aegon Religare Insurance Company Ltd. etc.

He has served as the Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in India and also the President of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry which was the 100th Year of the Chamber. Mr. Memani is associated with various other Chambers of Commerce. He is the former President of Federation of Indian Export Organisations and Indo American Chamber of Commerce. Currently he is member of the managing committees of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Indo American Chamber of Commerce, American Chamber of Commerce, Associated Chamber of Commerce, PHD Chamber of Commerce etc.

National Managing Partner, Grant Thorton India

Vishesh Chandiok is the National Managing Partner at Grant Thorton India. As part of the Grant Thorton India’s management board he is involved in overall practice management of the firm including developing new service lines, growth and development within existing service lines.

With nearly 15 years of experience, part of which was with Grant Thorton UK LLP, he specialises in International Standards of Auditing and US GAAS and has served several premier organisations across industries, both national as well international, as a engagement partner.

Mr. Chandiok is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales and holds a Master in Science in Business Management from Strathclyde Graduate Business School in Glasgow, Scotland.

Chief Economist, Economic Research Unit – Government of India

Dr. A.S. Firoz is a renowned economist, known worldwide for his immense research contribution on the steel and energy industries as also on international trade matters. A doctorate in disequilibrium economics from India’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, he has worked for the last two decades on various aspects of the business in these industries. He has also worked on the concept of soft budget constraint syndrome. Dr. Firoz has been associated with a landmark research project on mineral policy with Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations and research projects with organisations such as National Council of Applied Economic Research and Federation of Indian Mineral Industries etc.

He is currently the Chief Economist at Economic Research Unit, Government of India. He has earlier worked as a Consultant to the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (now re-designated as the Tariff Commission), Ministry of Industry, Government of India.

Dr. Firoz has over 400 research papers and articles published in major research journals and top Indian business newspapers. He has also addressed a number of international and national conferences and seminars on subject matters ranging from industrial development to government policy issues.

Former Assistant Director-General – General Management,

World Health Organisation (WHO), IAS

Namita Pradhan has been Assistant Director-General at the World Health Organization. From October 2007 till 2011, she worked as Assistant Director-General for Partnerships and UN Reform and Country Focus. She has led the process of renewal of Country Focus Strategy in WHO and has worked on a policy for managing Partnerships and relations with non-governmental organizations and renewal of the country focus policy in WHO. Her other assignments included being Vice Chair of the United Nations Development Group for the year 2010 and being appointed by the Secretary General to serve on the Board of Governors of the UN Staff College in Turin.

Earlier, she had led the process of renewal of results-based management in WHO, worked on the development of the 11th General Programme of Work 2006-2015, and the Medium Term Strategic Plan 2008-13, as well as the biennial Programme Budgets 2006-07 and 2008-09. At WHO Headquarters in Geneva, she worked as an Adviser to two Directors-General, Dr GroHarlem Brundtland and Dr LEE Jong-wook.

Namita began her career in 1977 in the Indian Administrative Service and has served in various positions in the State Government of Maharashtra and the Government of India, including Ministry of Defence. As Additional Commissioner for Family Welfare, she supervised the state Health and Family Welfare programme, including a World Bank-funded project for the city of Mumbai, providing a package of basic health care and family planning. She has also held positions in the Government of India in the Ministries of Defence, Women and Child Development. As Director of International Health in the Ministry of Health, she coordinated international aid and assistance for health. In 1985, she was awarded the Lester Pearson Fellowship as an outstanding public servant by the International Development Research Centre in Canada

Center for the Advanced Studies of India – University of Pennsylvania

Mr. Vijay Kumar works with the Center for the Advanced Studies of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania, which is a leading centre of research in South Asian Studies engaged in policy relevant research focused on challenges facing contemporary India, its rapidly changing economy and transformation & emergence as a major power. He is also a visiting professor on Corporate Strategy and Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Vijay Kumar started his career in management consulting with Booz, Allen. Subsequently, he joined Cresap, McCormick and Paget where he also served as a partner. He retired from the global consulting firm Coopers and Lybrand, LLP as a partner in charge of the India Desk.

Vijay Kumar holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi University; MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison; and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.