Sustainabilty Summit 2024

Mr. Gautam Ray

President, BCC&I and President - Corporate, RPSG Group.

Mr. Gautam Ray, Fellow of The Institution of Engineers, graduated in Electrical Engineering from Calcutta University (erstwhile Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, (presently IIEST) in 1981 and completed Post Graduation in Electrical Power System, from the same Institute in 1983. He was, till recently, Executive Director of CESC Limited, age-old power utility serving the city of Kolkata for more than 100 years and also President (HR), Power Group of RPSG. Presently, he is President- Corporate, RPSG Group.

Mr. Ray has an experience of close to 40 years of working in Power System operations and load dispatch, before he migrated to HR & Admin. He was instrumental in working on a collaborative project with Singapore Power for improvement in Distribution Sector. He also established AIPM (Asia Institute of Power Management) under CESC, which imparted training and consultancy services for many power utilities of India and neighbouring countries.

He is currently the President of The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is the Chairman of National Safety Council - West Bengal Chapter, Former President - Calcutta Management Association for 2015-16 and 2016-17.

Mr. Ghanshyam Prasad

Chairperson, CEA

Shri Ghanshyam Prasad, born on 15th of May 1967, is presently holding the post of Chairperson and Ex-Officio Secretary to the Government of India, Central Electricity Authority, Ministry of Power from 15th July 2022. He is also the Member, ex-officio, of the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. He belongs to the Central Power Engineering Services batch of 1989. He was holding the post of Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Power from 1st June 2020 to 14th July 2022.

He is also the 1st Executive Director of the BIMSTEC Energy Centre (BEC). Further, he is also holding the position of Ex-officio Member of Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. He is the president of Central Board of Irrigation and Power (CBIP), Power Sector Skill Council (PSSC) and Excellence Enhancement Centre (EEC) for Indian Power Sector.

He also has corporate experience and was Government Nominee Director of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), a Maharatna Company; Power System Operation Corporation Limited (POSOCO), now renamed as Grid Controller of India Limited; and Jammu and Kashmir State Power development Corporation Limited (J&KPDCL). Presently he is the Director on the Board of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited in an ex-officio capacity.

He holds B.Tech (Electrical Engineering) for IIT, Benares Hindu University, M.Tech in Energy and Environment Management from IIT, Delhi and MBA (Finance). He has led the Indian side in the Joint Working Group (JWG) with Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Australia. He was also a part of the G20 Energy transition working group. He has received the policy pioneer of the year award by India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA) on 3rd May 2022.

He has served three years in the Bokaro Steel Plant, SAIL and 34 years in power sector which includes around 10 years in Ministry of Power. He has also served in Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission for around six years, during 1999 to 2006 and brought out new regulations essential for regulating the power sector.

During 34 years in power sector, he has worked and contributed in the areas of generation including the renewable energy, transmission, distribution, power market development/trading of power, Reforms & restructuring in power sector, energy efficiency, regulatory commission experience, disaster management in power sector, data analytics and information management system. A number of measures were taken to reduce the cost of power, ease of doing business, simplification of the procedures for approvals, bringing competition in power sector, power market, etc. Policy making is his passion. Through innovative solutions, prescribed the Rules, and resolved the chronic problem of Must Run of RE, Non-payment of Dues, Consumer centric approach etc. Tried to make the Power sector investor friendly and financially viable.

For energy security with respect to the power sector, he has revamped the integrated Resource planning. Resource adequacy (RA) plan along with Renewable Energy (RE) deployment plan are being prepared. This will accelerate the pace of energy transition.

He has visited countries like Canada, USA, UK, Japan, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal on various Electricity sector assignments including the power market development.

The challenge at present is to supply 24x7 green power to the consumers who wants to go green. The Concept of Renewable Energy-Round The Clock (RE-RTC) power has been broadened and study has been carried out to configure RE_RTC based on the least cost option with combination of various resources solar, wind, storage, Hydro, Hydro PSP etc.

For facilitating the development of RE, 1st time advance transmission planning for integration of 500 GW of RE, based on RE potential, has been brought out giving visibility up to 2030. This is based on the principle of transmission ahead of generation. He is working on the new areas of greening the Island i.e. Andaman and Nicobar Island. Future of power sector is in Non-fossil fuel: Hydro, Hydro Pumped Storage Projects, BESS, Renewable energy. Thus, involved in accelerating the pace of development of Renewable Energy Sources, Storage, green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia. He is working on to promote them for meeting the energy transition, energy security and de-carbonisation goal of the country.

Shri S. Suresh Kumar

IAS, Chairman, Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

Shri S. Suresh Kumar, an IAS officer of the West Bengal cadre belonging to the 1988 batch joined as the 49th Chairman of Damodar Valley Corporation on 1st January 2024. Prior to joining DVC, he was the Director General, Netaji Subhash Administrative Training Institute, Kolkata. Shri S. Suresh Kumar is a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from IIT Madras and has held several important positions across various departments across the country in a career spanning more than three decades.

Some of his positions include that of the Principal Secretary, Personnel and AR Dept, Government of West Bengal during 2018 to 2022, OSD in the Election Commission of India during 2009 and the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India from 2008 to 2014. Within the power sector, he served as the Additional Chief Secretary to the Govt. of West Bengal, Power Dept. since November 2019 till April 2023 and was also assigned the additional charge of Non-Conventional Energy Resources Dept., Govt. of West Bengal.

Mr. Deepak Gupta

Director (Projects), GAIL (India) Limited.

Mr. Deepak Gupta is a Mechanical Engineer, a DCE alumnus, with more than 34 years of rich and diverse experience in Oil and Gas Sector encompassing Project Management, Construction Management and Business Development functions. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) by the PMI, USA.

He has comprehensive and extensive experience in Project Management of Refinery, Petrochemical and Pipeline Projects from concept to commissioning and has led the execution of several successful Projects in India in all modes of Project implementation.

Sh. Gupta is holding the position of Director (Projects) GAIL India Limited, a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprises under the aegis of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural GAs. At GAIL, he is responsible for the Operation & Maintenance of ~ 16300 KM of natural gas pipeline network, ~2040 Km of LPG Pipeline Network, Gas Processing Units, Compressor & Booster stations, Implementation of pipeline projects PAN India, SCADA and Telecommunication Network along the pipeline and Contracts & Purchase functions.

Mr. Gupta, is concurrently on the Board of Directors of some Joint Venture Companies of GAIL, which includes Talcher Fertilizer Limited (TFL) as Chairman, Green Gas Limited (GGL) as Chairman, ONGC Petro-additions Limited (OPaL) as Director and South-East Asia Gas Pipeline Company Limited (SEAGP) as Director.

Mr. Arnab Basu

Mr. Arnab Basu is a Partner in PwC India, spearheading the firm's Advisory business, including Consulting, Risk and Deals. He brings rich consulting experience in diverse fields like Business model reinvention, Business Transformation, Operating Model Design, Performance Management, Removing Complexity, and defining Digital Strategy leveraging Enterprise Applications. He sits on PwC's Global Advisory Leadership team and has worked with a range of top tier clients across multiple geographies and industries, including Industrial Manufacturing, Metals & Mining, Oil & Gas.

Mr. Basu joined PwC in 2001 post his MBA from IIM Calcutta and specialized in strategy led business transformations using digital platforms and solutions and related Change programs. He is also an Enterprise Apps methodology expert within the global PwC network. Arnab is also responsible for PwC's investments in emerging areas like Climate, Cyber, Gen AI and the corresponding growth strategy and building high performance teams.

Mr. Damon DuBord

First Secretary for Energy Affairs, U.S. Embassy, New Delhi.

Damon DuBord manages U.S. engagement with the Government of India on energy policy, the transition to renewable energy, and energy security. He most recently served as the Deputy Counselor for Trade and Investment in Embassy Ottawa. He has also served in Mozambique, Washington, and Mexico. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Damon worked for the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Kazakhstan.

Mr. Andreas Schei

Counsellor for Climate and Environment, Royal Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi.

Andreas B. Schei is the counsellor for climate and environment at the Norwegian Embassy in New Delhi, where he works on topics such as climate and environment policy, circular economy, plastic pollution, marine litter and biodiversity. He has previously worked within multilateral environmental negotiations such as the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Mr. Franck Viault

Minister-Counsellor, Head of Cooperation, Delegation of the European Union to India and Bhutan.

Mr. Franck VIAULT took up the post of Head of Cooperation at the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan in September 2022. He has worked on development cooperation related matters in the European Commission (EC) services for more than 30 years.

Prior to joining the Delegation to India, Mr VIAULT was the head of sector for Sahel in the Directorate General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA) of the European Commission, West Africa Unit. Previously he has been EU Head of Cooperation in Cambodia and Indonesia (including representation to ASEAN). Before he was successively Head of Sector at EC Headquarters for Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well as South Asia.

Mr. VIAULT started his career with the EU in Thailand in 1988 and became an official of the European Commission in 1992, working alternatively at Headquarters (Brussels) and in EU representations to third countries successively in: Guinea, Madagascar, Mauritius, Indonesia, Cambodia and now India.

He holds an Agriculture engineer degree, a degree in rural engineering, water management and forestry, as well as a Diploma of Specialised Studies in Business Administration.

Mr. VIAULT is a French national, married and father of three.

Prof. Susanta Kumar Chakraborty

Vice Chancellor, Vidyasagar University.

Professor Susanta Kumar Chakraborty, Professor of Zoology and presently, the Vice-Chancellor of Vidyasagar University have a teaching experience of more than 37 years (3 years in Under Graduate Colleges and rest 34 years in the Vidyasagar University). He has been serving as Professor of Zoology, Vidyasagar University for more than 20 years. He did his M.Sc. (Zoology), M.Phil. (Environmental Sciences) and Ph.D. (Marine Sciences) Degrees from the University of Calcutta. His specialization centers around Ecology and Environmental Management.

So far, he has successfully supervised Ph.D. thesis of 42 researchers, published more than 200 research papers and Book Chapters in Internationally reputed Journals and Edited Books published by Internally acclaimed Publishers, written a number of books including the text books on Riverine Ecology Volume-I and Volume-II, Wetland Ecology published by Springer Nature, U.S.A.], completed 15 Research Projects sanctioned by International and National sponsoring agencies, Earned two International Patents, Visited several countries such as Australia, U.S.A., Hong Kong, Belgium, France, and Bangladesh in connection with his academic commitments, acting as members of the Editorial Boards of several National and international Journals, delivered few hundreds of lectures in different Seminars / Symposia across the world.

Professor Chakraborty has shouldered a number of administrative responsibilities in his own University which include Head of the Department for four times, as Dean Faculty of Science for a period of more than four years, as a member of the Executive Council for more than 15 years, as a member of the Finance committee for 6 years, as the President of Governing Bodies of two large colleges of Midnapore (West) district, each for a duration of 4 years etc. and also other academic institutions including I.C.A.R and U.G.C. He has been associated with a number of Scientific Bodies in India as Life Members and has received a number of Awards in recognition of his research commitments.

Dr. Vibha Dhawan

Director General, TERI.

Dr. Vibha Dhawan is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India and is currently also serving as an Adjunct Professor, at Consul General South Asia Partnership, Michigan State University. Being driven by a deep academic and research interest, Dr. Dhawan has authored 6 books and over 50 publications, which have added immense value to scientific research.

Dr. Dhawan's thought leadership and engagement in research as well as policy development, both at the national and international levels are widely acknowledged. She is currently a task force member of National Committees with the Department of Biotechnology, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, and the Biotech Consortium India. Dr Dhawan is currently a member of the Networks Strategy Council that advises Sustainable Development Solutions Network - a global initiative for the United Nations and was previously the Co-Chair of the T20 Task Force 4 on Refueling Growth: Clean Energy and Green Transitions. Under her able leadership, the National Centre of Excellence in Green Port & Shipping, in collaboration with the Indian Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways, was established at the TERI campus and played a key role in the establishment of the DBT-TERI Centre on Advanced Biofuels.

She played a pivotal role as Coordinator for the Asia Pacific Consortium on Agriculture Biotechnology (APCoAB); as Advisor to the Director General of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) as well as Deputy Director, Research Partnerships and Coordination with the Borlaug Institute for South Asia. She has served on the boards of prestigious organizations in India and overseas including Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Ambedkar University, Ayurvet Foundation and Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI).Dr Dhawan was instrumental in establishing the highly successful Micropropagation Technology Park at TERI. Her other major achievements include developing e-contents for the post-graduate programme in biotechnology for the University Grants Commission. Her recent research interests are in the area of biofuels.

Mr. Deb A Mukherjee

Former President, The Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Managing Director, Cenergist Energy Private Limited.

An entrepreneur, professionally qualified as a lawyer, with over 38 years work experience in diverse business domains, engineering systems, information technology solutions and later in energy services for the last 15 years.

He was Executive Chairman of Eaga Energy India Pvt Ltd (subsidiary of Eaga plc UK FTSE250 company) until 2012. Currently he is an Investor and Country Representative for Power Roll Ltd, UK and also Managing Director of Cenergist Energy Private Limited which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eneraqua Technologies plc, a UK listed company.

Power Roll is exploring to invest in India.

He has served on various Trade Committees in India and the UK and spoken at several international seminars on Sustainability Issues, Energy Efficiency, Renewables, Water Management and on Business Strategies.

Mr. Pramod Singh

Chief Business Officer, India Power Corporation Limited.

With post-qualification experience of more than 30 years of extensive experience in power & infrastructure sector across the breadth of responsibilities in corporate strategy, business development, policy & regulatory affairs, power sales and techno-commercial management, Pramod Singh, is presently the Chief Business Officer and heading the Power Distribution Business in India Power.

In the past, he has worked in two of the largest private sector power companies in India (i.e. Tata Power & BSES (now Reliance Infrastructure)) and has been extensively involved with the Power sector reforms and Private sector participation covering various segments of the sector including Power Generation and Distribution.

He began his career as an Engineer Trainee with Asahi Glass Ltd, Delhi in technical services division from where he moved to BSES and held responsibilities in corporate management level in various programs covering development of power generation, distribution and EPC jobs. He also worked in North Delhi Power Limited (a Tata Power and Delhi Government JV) and was very actively involved in the revival and restructuring of the electricity distribution scenario in North and North West Delhi. He also worked for Tata TeleServices Limited as Chief Commercial Officer in Enterprise Group and was responsible for corporate account servicing and overall commercial management.

He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree from the REC, Rourkela (now NIT), and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from IMI, Delhi.

Mr. Rahul Raizada

Partner | Climate and Energy, PwC India.

Rahul is a Partner with the Climate and Energy practice within PwC. Rahul also leads the Global Centre of Excellence on Energy Transition for PwC Globally.

Rahul brings 2 decades of hands-on experience of advising clients on Energy Transition, Distribution Performance Improvement and large-scale Project Implementations. Some of the marquee projects he has worked on includes Energy Transition strategy for a territory, large scale implementation of a RE projects across several countries, operational reforms and digital immersion of Govt. utilities. Rahul brings experience of working in more than 12 countries on areas of energy transition, Behind The Meter solutions and distribution reforms.

Mr. Sudhir Kumar Jha

Chief General Manager & HOD, RE & EE, DVC.

Sri Jha joined Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) in the year 1988. During the early stages of his career, he was involved in the erection and commissioning of the 210 MW Boiler at Bokaro Thermal Power Station, DVC. He possesses extensive knowledge in the engineering and planning of various thermal power units within DVC. He served as the Head of Projects for both Mejia Thermal Power Project (2340 MW) and Andal Power Project (1000 MW).

Currently, he holds the position of Head of the Department for Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency at DVC. In addition, he serves as a Director on the boards of two joint venture companies of DVC:

Green Valley Renewable Energy Limited: A joint venture with NTPC Green Energy Limited.
Bokaro Power Supply Corporation Limited: A joint venture with Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).

Mr. Manas Majumdar

Partner | Lead Fuels & Resources, Oil & Gas Sector Leader, PwC India.

Manas Majumdar has more than 22+ years of experience in the Energy and Chemicals domain, in India and globally. He is primarily anchored in Strategy and Transformation work in these sectors and his recent focus has been on New Energies and Transition (viz. hydrogen, green-fuels, hybrid energy offerings, direct-to-chemicals) and Digital Transformation to enable the transition and grow across markets.

In addition, he has advised both government clients, ministry & regulatory bodies and private sector, along with supporting startups on topics such as markets reform, resilience & preparedness, strategic growth plans & product-market strategy, business restructuring, operations performance improvement, cost optimization and supply chain transformation.

He is currently an Advisory Partner at PwC, and the Oil & Gas Sector Leader for the firm and leads Fuels and Resources consulting. Prior to that he was with KPMG, where he was National Leader for Oil & Gas and Chemicals; and before that he was with Kearney (USA) where he was leading the strategic operations team serving global chemical and oil & gas clients.

He has advised Fortune 500 clients, working across various geographical locations like the US, South- East Asia, Middle East and India. He has been a speaker at various international & national conferences and has also been recognized with global and regional awards for thought leadership and intellectual capital development in the energy domain.

Manas has done his integrated Masters in Technology from IIT Delhi and MBA from IIM Calcutta.

Mr. Debabrata Dutta

ED (EMD) Environment Management Division, Steel Authority of India Limited.

Shri Debabrata Dutta is presently holding the post of Executive Director (Environment Management Division) at Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL). As a head of the department, he is entrusted with the responsibility to oversee environment management activities at SAIL plants and mines, including continual improvement of overall environmental performance, compliance of environmental statues, ESG performance, climate change and decarbonisation, waste management, carbon border adjustment mechanism, sustainability, etc.

Before elevating as Executive Director, Shri Debabrata Dutta was worked as Chief General Manager I/c (Services) and officiated as Executive Director (Works), Rourkela Steel Plant. He did his BTech in Metallurgical Engg from NIT Durgapur and MTech in Ferrous process Metallurgy from NIT Rourkela. He has served as HOD of many departments like Plate Mill, HSM1, HSM2 . He was the key person in commissioning and stabilising a 3MT of HSM2 of an investment cost of 3600 crores. He is a dynamic leader who can lead from front and can bring a distinguished change in functioning of an organisation.

Dr. Sandeep Kumar

Assistant Professor, NSB - NTPC School of Business.

Dr. Sandeep Kumar is an Assistant Professor at the NTPC School of Business (NSB), Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Before joining NSB, he was working as a Research Associate (post-doctoral fellow) in the Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE) at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. At IISc, he worked on flexible organic and perovskite solar cells. Parallelly, he was also working on Ge-on-Si based near infrared photodetectors. He obtained his Master of Technology degree in Microelectronics from Panjab University, Chandigarh in 2009. He received his Ph.D. from the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK) in 2017. At IITK, he worked on organic devices, with a focus on organic solar cells. He has hands-on experience with device fabrication and characterization. He has practical exposure to working in state-of-the-art clean room facilities equipped with modern tools at IIT Kanpur and IISc Bangalore. His current research is focused on flexible organic and perovskite solar cells, near infrared photodetectors, and the techno-economics aspects of photovoltaics.

Mr. Anmol Shahi

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Dhruv Pathak

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Nikhil Kumar Singh,

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Ashutosh Behera

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Apaar Mathur

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Ripu Daman

NTPC School of Business.

Mr. Devansh Khanna

Delhi School of Business.

Ms. Kopal Jain

Delhi School of Business.

Ms. Pratyushi Singh

Delhi School of Business.