Transformative Innovations
for the Digital Economy in India

Aaron is a lawyer and leader of the International Commercial Laws and Technology-Media- Telecommunication Laws Practice Group.

Aaron advises clients on complex cross-border transactions including technology deals, mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, legal and regulatory matters & commercial transactions across various sectors, with special focus on IT, digital media, e-commerce, retail and fin-tech.

He advises a number of multi-national corporations on various legal and regulatory aspects including privacy-related compliances and documentation; IP structuring, strategy and prosecution. He has also done extensive research and assisted clients in relation to disruptive technologies including AI, IoT, cloud computing and Ed-tech.

Aarushi Jain co-leads the Education and Intellectual Property Groups at the multi-skilled and strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates. With a niche focus on education sector, she has advised several clients, including pre-schools, K-12 schools and universities, Ed-Tech companies and strategic investors, both domestic and international, on legal, regulatory and tax issues.

Her specialization includes advising foreign universities and platforms with their India business, from a legal perspective. In addition, she also assists clients in collaborations, pathways, investments, acquisitions, joint ventures, licensing, marketing and distribution deals.

She is actively involved in education sector litigation and in providing regulatory advice. In addition to education, she works extensively on intellectual property, tech and media and commercial law matters at the firm.

With over 20 years of experience in the IP industry, Abhay heads the overall operations at IPpro India LLP, a sister firm of Nishith Desai Associates. IPpro provides patent analytics and drafting services in multiple engineering domains and undertakes patent portfolio management services for clientele ranging from large MNCs to start-ups and Individuals across different territories. IPpro also coordinates filing in various jurisdictions, tracks infringement, and provides litigation support.

Abhay, an engineer at heart and patent agent by profession, is passionate about emerging technologies and spends his time devising IP strategies and innovation best practices for harnessing innovations of our clients and protecting them across various jurisdictions.

He also curates content and conducts sessions for raising IP awareness and sharing IP-Law knowledge among budding IP professionals.

Ambassador (ret.) Atul Keshap serves at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as President of the United States India Business Council, whose members are dedicated to the growth of commercial ties between the world's two largest democracies.

Ambassador Keshap is a retired career senior Foreign Service Officer who recently served as Charge d'Affaires at the United States Embassy in New Delhi, leading the U.S. Mission's engagement with the government and people of India. Prior to that, he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, with policy responsibility for U.S. relations toward eleven countries of Southeast Asia and helped lead the bureau's domestic and overseas response to the covid-19 pandemic.

Across his 28-year career as an American diplomat, Ambassador Keshap served at postings in India, Morocco, and Guinea, and as United States Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives. He has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia, as U.S. Senior Official for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation, and as an Office Director in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs and in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs.

Anil is a media and technology lawyer with almost two decades of experience and have handled legal roles across organisations like Viacom 18 , Sony pictures network India & Zee entertainment enterprises limited. He has managed contracts, litigation, regulatory and IP protection for all facets of media businesses including broadcasting, OTT, Music, News, Sports, Live and consumer products.

As the General Counsel of Viacom18 and IndiaCast (International), he leads a strong team of lawyers managing the legal function. The team enables all businesses lines of Viacom18 which spans across 46 television channels across the world, the OTT Platforms (Voot & Voot Kids), Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Live Events and Consumer Product licensing. As the General Counsel of IndiaCast (International), he also manages distribution of channels and syndication of content across the world.

Previously, as the Group General Counsel for Zee Group, he not only managed the legal and regulatory aspects for its vast portfolio of television channels and other media assets but also was instrumental in setting up Zee’s Music business and managing legal aspects of its print, television and online news media businesses.

He believes that law and technology has to go hand in hand with business to unlock true potential of media platforms.

Aniruddha regularly advises global and domestic clients on transactional and regulatory matters. He focuses on disruptive and new-age technologies, mobility, drones, IP, data protection, cybersecurity, anti-trust, education, and media and has a keen interest in technology law generally.

Aniruddha graduated from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (NLSIU) in 2019. He was the Chief Editor of the Indian Journal of Law and Technology, a peer-reviewed journal of NLSIU which was the first journal in India to deal with the interface between law and technology. He was also the joint-convenor of the Law and Technology Society at NLSIU which is well-known for its annual academic conference ‘Consilience’ on upcoming issues on law and technology.

Aparna is a leader of the IP and TMT team at Nishith Desai Associates. She is integrally involved in IP transactional and advisory work and handles patent prosecution and IP litigation. She has vast experience in advising clients over a wide spectrum of industries in relation to protection and enforcement of their IP. Aparna has authored several articles on complex IP issues in India.

Aparna has represented clients in IP disputes before the Supreme Court of India, the Delhi High Court and lower courts, the Intellectual Property Appellate Board and the Indian Patents Office. Before NDA, Aparna was a part of the litigation team at a leading boutique IP law firm in New Delhi, India where she represented India’s biggest generic drug manufacturers in several landmark IP disputes including the Supreme Court’s decision in Bayer v. Union of India affirming grant of the first ever compulsory license for a patented product in India. She is a registered Patent Agent.

Aparna graduated from National Law University, Jodhpur in 2014 with a B.Sc. (Hons), LLB (Intellectual Property Hons.) degree and completed her LLM in Intellectual Property Law from the George Washington University, Washington DC in 2018. In addition to being registered to practice in India, Aparna recently cleared the New York State Bar Examination and is in the process of obtaining a license to practice in New York State.

Ashish leads public policy function at NASSCOM which involves a range of technology policy issues related to competition, data, taxation, consumer protection and emerging business models. Previously, at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, he led the technical assistance to the Ministry of Finance on the regulatory architecture around FinTech and consumer protection in the financial sector. Earlier, he co-incubated micro pensions to enable low income workers to save for old age and advised Governments on pension reforms. He began his career as an economic journalist.

Ashish is the General Counsel of CoinSwitch Kuber, India's largest crypto platform.

Ashish also led the legal and regulatory affairs of WhatsApp for India. He helped build the e-commerce and fintech / payments business of Facebook, Instagram & WhatsApp in India.

In the past, Ashish has worked with various large Indian and US companies like Netflix, eBay, Reliance Jio & Snapdeal. Over last 20 years, Ashish has first hand witnessed and contributed to the growth of Internet business and related regulations and jurisprudence in India. Ashish has successfully managed sophisticated, professional, and diverse investors and board members.

Ashish S.K. is one of the most prominent personalities in the animation industry in Bollywood. He created world-class animation studios in India, created the best original animated content and completed and commercialized several animated films for studios in Hollywood in the last 17 years. Ashish S K is the founder of Punnaryug Artvision Pvt Ltd & Screenyug Creations Pvt. Ltd. He has formerly been the CEO of Reliance Animation & Reliance AIMS. He took Reliance Animation to the global arena to position the company as the best Indian animation studio to create Original IP.

Ashish is a leader of the International tax practice group at the multi-skilled and strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates. He focuses on cross border tax and corporate structuring transactions including tax litigation. He regularly advises clients on various cross border issues relating to tax treaty interpretation, capital gains, applicability of minimum alternate tax, indirect transfer tax issues. He has also acted and advised on several cross-border mergers and acquisitions and has significant experience on private equity investments. He regularly advises foreign education institutions, EdTech companies, pharmaceutical companies, not-for-profits on Indian tax and exchange control laws.

He has also been involved in regularly advising the gaming industry, BPOs, healthcare and IT/ITES with respect to issues on withholding tax, goods and service tax. He regularly represents clients before the Supreme Court of India, High Courts and Tribunals. He has successfully represented investment funds before the High Court on matters relating to applicability of Minimum Alternate Tax, withholding tax issues in the healthcare industry. He has also represented clients before various tribunals on matters relating to indirect transfer taxes, transfer pricing applicability and other such international tax disputes.

Ashish graduated holds a bachelor’s degree in law from esteemed Government Law College, Mumbai, India (University of Mumbai). He regularly writes articles which are published in international leading publications.

Darren Punnen is a Leader of the Pharmaceutical, Medical Device, Healthcare and Med-Tech team at Nishith Desai Associates. His practice particularly focuses on advising several multi-national pharmaceuticals, medical device and healthcare companies on complex regulatory, intellectual property and investment matters.

He has also been part of multiple pharmaceutical and healthcare transactions, providing investors with essential inputs that are unique to this industry. He also advises several clients on matters in the food and beverage industry, and handles matters relating to technology, media and telecom laws as well.

Darren regularly contributes to national and international publications, writing on various topics including pharmaceutical, medical device and healthcare regulations, med-tech and digital health.

Dr. Milind Antani, a renowned surgeon turned lawyer, leads the Pharma & Healthcare practice at Nishith Desai Associates where he represents high net-worth clients in matters allied to JVs, M&As, VC and Private Equity Investments, Collaborations, Regulatory advice, IP, Licensing and Commercialization.

He also leads the Social Sector Practice and represents various global and national foundations in India. He continues as an active participant in helping frame national policies on key impact areas, within the medical field. He has authored and co-authored numerous articles and prestigious publications related to the Pharma and Healthcare industry.

A regular speaker at various prominent forums on Pharma, Medical Devices, Med-Tech & eHealth, Biotech, IP, Clinical trials, Healthcare, CSR and Social Impact investments, he is also a visiting faculty at premier institutions in Mumbai and Gujarat including the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA).

Dr. Shriram Nene is a board certified surgeon, a healthcare innovator, health and wellness social media influencer, an edu-tech pioneer and platform agnostic creative content producer. His medical journey started as a Thoracic and Vascular Surgeon, having practised in Denver, Colorado. In 2010, he became the director of Cardiovascular Services, Skyridge Hospital Lone Tree, Colorado.

In India, he is actively involved with the healthcare community. In 2013, he was a seed investor and Chief Medical Officer at Goqii.com - a wellness and wearable tech start-up. He is the founder of medical platform, Pathfinder Health Sciences, to make evidence based healthcare available to anyone needing it, worldwide. The goal is to empower the patient with best-in-class healthcare, through precision, personalized health approaches using a combination of media, apps and wearable technology and a smart services marketplace.

He is also a healthcare social media influencer who is mainstreaming conversations that improves lives and lifespans.

Dr. Raj Shah is a practicing cardiologist since 1975, and entrepreneur based in Philadelphia area, educated at the University of Pennsylvania and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine on the Temple and Drexel University faculties in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

In 2021, Dr. Shah established the “HEART (Healthcare Easy Access for Rural community via Telemedicine) Center” to deliver affordable, healthcare access to rural and underserved communities. As Chairman of the Health Council of the WHEELS Global Foundation, he is responsible for implementing and executing HEART Centers in more than 350 villages across India. Under Dr. Shah’s leadership, HEART Centers have provided healthcare to thousands of patients during the COVID-19 pandemic and have established plans to provide post-COVID pandemic care to over 3000 patients per day.

DR. Shah is pioneer in the field of telemedicine and the creator of SmartCareDoc telemedicine system which was deployed at “The Clinic at Wal-Mart” in 2012-14: The first telemedicine clinic in a retail store in America. He established a TeleRetinopathy screening program at the Temple University. He teaches Telemedicine course to the Executive MBA class of Rutgers University Business School.

Dr. Shah is board certified in internal medicine, cardiology, echocardiography, nuclear cardiology, and cardiac CT angiography. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Physicians. He received his medical degree with distinction from the M.S. University in Baroda, India, and graduate training in internal medicine and cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Shah received a Master of Business Administration with Phi Kappa Phi and Beta Gamma Sigma honors in 1997.

He is member of the Advisory Board of Kean University College of Business and Public Management and Global Business School in Union, New Jersey, USA; Trustee of S.M. Shah Law College, and Sarvajanik School in Mehsana, India.

George Jacob is the President & CEO of Bay.org in San Francisco, which oversees six institutions – Aquarium of the Bay, The Bay Institute, Sea Lion Center, Eco Center at Heron’s Head Park, The Bay Model Alliance, and the Bay Academy – with a unified mission to protect and conserve the San Francisco Bay and its fragile ecosystems from the Sierra to the Sea. He currently leads the landmark transformation of the Aquarium of the Bay on Pier 39 into an iconic $260 million living immersive ecotarium.

Trained at the Smithsonian, educated at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, University of Toronto, Getty Leadership Institute, and Yale School of Management, he is internationally renowned for spearheading stellar museum design-build projects and is one of the leading museum thinkers of our times. His portfolio of over 108 museums, 8 books, and his work on museums and science center projects, have been visited by millions around the world. In 2008, he was the Project Director for the 1812 Star Spangled Banner permanent exhibit – the Smithsonian’s most treasured national icon.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and recipient of the 2019 Louie Kamookak Medal. He serves on the Board of International Council of Museums USA, and is the Chief Advisor to UN Environment on Climate and Ocean Conservation Museum initiatives.

A practicing lawyer for 24 years, Gowree Gokhale leads the IP, Technology, Media and Entertainment, data protection law practice of Nishith Desai Associates. She has assisted several international businesses in India entry strategy, corporate and strategic deals, litigation and arbitration in TMT and Pharma sector.

She has spearheaded several policy initiatives for the TMT and Pharma industry including for online content companies, gaming industry, IT industry as also for privacy and data protection laws. She has also been consistently working on high tech industry aspects. She has been named in several legal directories, including in in the Hall of Fame (TMT) in Legal 500.

One of the foremost authorities on IP management and protection strategy, Gowree has been the leading voice on several IP and technology related matters. She has been instrumental in devising IP litigation strategies for clients and has led several IP litigations before several prestigious forums in India.

Harshita Srivastava is a Leader at the M&A and Private Equity Practice at Nishith Desai Associates. She also heads the VC Investment & Start-up Practice at Nishith Desai Associates.

She has led numerous cross border transactions in India, Singapore and the United States. She advises strategic acquirers and Private Equity funds on legal and tax aspects of cross border deals with a special focus on business transfers. As the Head of the Start-up Practice, she represents global emerging growth technology companies throughout their lifecycles and the venture capital and the growth equity funds that invests in these companies.

She has also been part of the SEBI Committee instituted for the setup of the Innovators Growth Platform (listing platform) for start-ups in India. She is also recognized as an Expert in Residence by the Start-up Europe India Network.

Huzefa Tavawalla heads the Bangalore office along with the Disruptive Technologies Practice at NDA. He is also a techno enthusiast and has worked on several matters relating Drones, RPAS, Artificial Intelligence, Driverless Cars, AR/VR etc. He was also appointed as a task force committee member set up by the Indian Government to establish the legislative drone road map for India.

Huzefa has also been at the forefront of outbound and global M&A’s in particular project management for large cross border acquisitions. Further, he continues to advise on several cutting edge, complex and cross-border TMT matters.

Indrajeet specializes in antitrust, international trade and regulatory laws. Indrajeet routinely represents and advises clients on telecommunications and broadcasting regulations, e-commerce regulations, fintech regulations, privacy, data protection, technology policy and antitrust.

Indrajeet has previously been associated with leading policy think-tanks and industry associations, and assisted the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in framing recommendations on interconnection charges, public wi-fi and net neutrality, and assisted the Ratan P. Watal Committee on Digital Payments in framing its recommendations on a digital payments policy.

Jaideep is a technology lawyer whose practice focuses on disruptive technologies and their interaction with the law. In particular, he advises on fin-tech regulations, privacy and cybersecurity, e-commerce, telecom, and other technology-related regulatory, public policy and contentious issues.

Jaideep led the firm’s representation of the Internet and Mobile Association of India in a landmark Supreme Court case where a central bank restriction on virtual currencies was set aside by the Court. He also led the drafting of an independent submission made by the firm to the Government of India on virtual currencies, as well as the drafting of a self-regulatory code of conduct for the industry. He was recognized as a Notable Practitioner by Chambers and Partners for its India Fintech Guide. He is qualified to practice in India and California, U.S.A.

Jay Gullish, who is Executive Director of Digital Economy, Media, Entertainment and Satcom at the US-India Business Council of U.S. Chambers of Commerce in Washington DC. Jay has passionately promoted digital development in more than 20 countries over his 25 years of experience in government, industry, and civil society across the telecoms, information technology, satcom, and cyber sectors.

Most recently, Gullish served as a digital policy officer at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi covering cyber policy, telecommunications, information technology, digital inclusion, and commercial space. While at the Embassy, he aligned U.S. cyber policy toward India across multiple in-country USG agencies and consulates on behalf of the State Department’s Coordinator for Cyber Issues (S/CCI). Gullish was also the in-country lead for the U.S.-India ICT Working Group and the U.S.-India Cyber Consultations. Gullish previously worked in India’s outsourcing industry, and lived and worked in India for over five years. He has international technology experience in southern Africa, Israel, and Vietnam.

Kush is the co-founder of CARD91 and a fintech veteran with 18+ years of experience in the industry. At CARD91, he leads the product and technology development, regulatory compliance, and product operations for the business and card product.

Kush has been instrumental in developing and implementing payment systems (with telcos and several banks) across various geographies in my 6 years stint with mChek (India's first big fintech company) and has also designed and architected ezetap's payment system till 2015. In 2015, he founded a student consumer durable loan company Quiklo. I have also helped with designing and mentoring some of the early-stage lending companies to build their Loan Originating System (LOS) and Loan Management System (LMS).

His expertise in the financial services sector lies in acquiring, issuing, and lending domains.

Dr Mihir A. Parikh leads Research and Innovation as well as Strategic Legal Consulting Practice of Nishith Desai Associates—an India-centric global law firm, from the firm’s Silicon Valley office in Palo Alto, California.

He advises private equity and venture capital firms in investment decisions and creating value for portfolio companies by integrating technology and law as strategic assets. He helps companies understand and apply a strategic legal perspective to manage future business risks, defend competitive advantages, and create new growth opportunities.

Additionally, he heads the firm’s initiative of setting up a Centre of Excellent (PACER) for thought leadership at the intersection of Technology, Law and Strategy. He is also an adjunct professor in the Management of Technology and Innovation department at New York University (NYU) and teaches in graduate programs.

Neeraj Roy is the Founder of Hungama Digital Media, India’s leading digital entertainment company. He has been at the forefront of the Internet revolution in India and has played a pivotal role in shaping the country’s digital entertainment landscape. Neeraj founded Hungama in 1999, at a time when the Internet ecosystem in India was still taking shape and has since led the organization to become one of the largest distributors and aggregators of digital entertainment content in South Asia. Since its inception, Hungama has touched over a billion lives and today, its services are available to users in more than 190 countries.

Neeraj was voted amongst the ‘Top Ten mobiThinkers’ and ‘50 Most Influential People in Mobile Entertainment’ globally. Neeraj was also awarded the Sun Microsystems – Economic Times Young Leader Award. He is an active speaker at various international forums such as Mobile World Congress, CTIA and World Handset Forum etc. and on several domestic and international committees advising on the global mobile and digital entertainment economy. In the past, he has served as the Chairman of the Mobile Entertainment Forum – Asia (MEF) and the President of International Advertising Association – India Chapter.

Nishchal Joshipura heads the Private Equity and M&A Practice at Nishith Desai Associates. He is a Lawyer, Chartered Accountant and MBA. He has lead several high profile deals in M&A and Private Equity space in India and set up various Indian focussed funds.

He advises strategic acquirers and Private Equity funds on legal and tax aspects of cross border deals in listed and unlisted space with a special focus on control deals. He has designed and implemented some of the most innovative structures for M&A and Private Equity deals in India and his structures have been consistently recognized as most innovative by Financial Times of London and RSG.

He also specializes in advising both offshore and domestic LPs and GPs on fund formation and has set up multiple funds across various asset classes such as private equity, distressed, venture capital, infrastructure, real estate, hedge funds, etc.

Nishith Desai is the Founder of the research & strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates ranked amongst the Asia-Pacific’s Most Innovative Law Firms by Financial Times.

Nishith’s interest span a wide spectrum of law, society and ethics. He is a renowned International lawyer, author, lecturer, researcher and a thought leader. Nishith himself is regarded as the ‘Father of International Tax’ in India and is a ‘true pioneer’ in the field of International Tax Law.

He was also a director on the board of Singapore International Arbitration Centre (2011-2019). Soon after India opened its economy to the outside world in 1991, Nishith pioneered the roots of asset management industry in India.

He established the first five India Focused Funds He played a seminal role in structuring several private equity funds in addition to structuring several domestic venture capital funds. Nishith has driven the conceptualization and creation of Imaginarium AliGunjan a state-of-the-art research facility that stands as an ode to ‘Blue Sky Thinking,’ near Mumbai.

Mohit is responsible for driving the group’s ambitious digital transformation agenda working closely with the group businesses and by leveraging emerging technologies to create new business models and transform customer experiences across the diverse set of companies.

Mohit is a part of the Group Executive Board and Director on the board of Mahindra Intertrade Limited & Bristlecone Limited. Mohit also chairs the AI & digital tech committee at FICCI.

Mohit joined the Mahindra Group in October 2020 from DBS Bank where he was the regional head of technology optimization and head of Asia Hub at Hyderabad before that. He led the development of digital banking capabilities & products focusing on technology innovation across Data/AI, Cloud, DevOps amongst other deep engineering areas.

Mohit brings with him over 30 years of experience in Global Technology & Operations with the last 17 years in Banking and financial services industry. Prior to joining DBS, he was the Chief Technology Officer for Bank of Americas global business services and the CIO for Mphasis before that.

Mohit is electronics engineer with advanced management and leadership certification from Cornell and Georgia Tech.

Parul co-heads the International Tax and Fund Formation Practices at Nishith Desai Associates. She focuses on international taxation, cross border transactions and fund formation practice areas including cross border investments and group reorganization strategies, M&A transactions and venture capital / private equity funding structures.

She has represented several prominent private equities, venture capital, growth and angel funds in setting up their onshore and offshore fund structures including assisting them with negotiations with LPs. She has also worked with technology companies in advising them on matters involving digital taxation. She was the India Branch co-reporter for the subject “Taxation and Fundamental Rights: Taxpayers’ Procedural Rights in a Globalised World” for the IFA 2015 Basel Congress.

She was also the Secretary to the panel on “Indirect Transfer of Assets” for the IFA 2014 Mumbai Congress and to the panel on “Tax Treaty Override” for the IFA 2019 London Congress.

Pratik Gauri Founder & CEO, 5ire Pratik Gauri is a serial Indian social entrepreneur, investor, public speaker and writer widely known as the Creator of the 5th Industrial Revolution. He has been championing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and helping transition the world from a for-profit economy to a for-benefit economy for more than a decade. As the Founder & CEO of 5ire.org ( pronounced FIRE ), Pratik is responsible for the day to day operations of the firm and its strategic efforts.Pratik has founded 8 companies prior to founding 5ire, which is a blockchain ecosystem that brings forward Sustainability, Technology & Innovation to build the 5th industrial revolution.

Purushottam heads the Centre for Fourth Industrial Revolution, India at the World Economic Forum. He has twenty six years of experience in Leadership and Management consulting roles and proven entrepreneurial strength through multiple challenging assignments - Sales, P&L leadership and Organisation Transformation initiatives, building and managing large business verticals. He has multiple years of experience in building partner ecosystems for new growth initiatives through large System Integrators, Telecom Service Providers, Cloud Service Providers, Application vendors, Telecom and IT OEMs and Management consulting organisation. He is an Industry expert, Board Advisor and Trusted consultant across Smart Cities, IOT, and Digital Transformation. He also serves as a board member of Leading Technology Institutions, Driving convergence of Academia with Industry and Government for Policy and Programs. He is also involved in mentoring StartUps in the domain of IOT, AI, Smart Energy and Smart Cities. He has been recognized as an excellent people leader known for building large and diverse teams grounds up building collaborative culture in matrix structures with a result oriented approach.

Rahul Rishi leads social sector practice and impact investing at Nishith Desai Aassociates. He is a graduate in law from Gujarat National Law University with Masters in development studies from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. He has been an avid speaker on various domestic and international forums on philanthropy, impact investing, blended finance and social businesses. He has extensively advised domestic and foreign non-profits on cross-border philanthropies, program-related investments, foreign contribution laws, impact funding and has worked closely on developing us$ 1b IEOF (India Education Outcomes Fund). He has also worked closely with various impact investing bodies on policy changes and has authored newspaper articles and published academic articles on electoral funding, whistleblowers’ source protection, constitutional law, corporate social responsibility, cross-border and domestic philanthropy and the like.

Ratnadeep leads the Private Equity and M&A Practice at Nishith Desai Associates. He has over 13 years of experience as a commercial lawyer, primarily with top law firms and in the last 3 years with one of India’s leading private equity firms. He brings a unique mix of transactional experience and expertise in leading high profile, high stakes corporate litigation.

Having previously been a partner in one of India’s leading law firms, his work included managing multi-layered teams for execution, client acquisitions and deepening the domain expertise of the firm. As the general counsel of a private equity fund his work focused on closely supporting investment professionals to efficiently and safely deploy capital, while ensuring overall management of legal risk (both investment specific and franchise level).

Tanisha is a Leader of the Media, Entertainment and Gaming practice groups at the multi-skilled, research based international law firm Nishith Desai Associates. Tanisha has advised clients on IP, gaming laws, general commercial laws, and on privacy issues.

Apart from transactional and advisory work, she has also been integrally involved in a number of litigations and arbitrations and pre- litigation strategy in a range of industries. Tanisha has played a key role in the firm’s policy initiatives and representations to the Government. She regularly writes thought leadership and research articles and papers for internationally acclaimed publications.

She is admitted to the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa and regularly appears before the Bombay High Court. Tanisha has completed her LLB in the UK as well as in India.

Sanjay Nayar is one of the most well-known and seasoned investors in the Indian private investing landscape – with over 38 years of experience in the financial markets. After 14 years with KKR India (CEO), he now serves as Senior Advisor to KKR; he has also previously served on the Asian investment and portfolio management committees of KKR. He has been on the boards of various KKR portfolio companies and serves as Chairman of Avendus Capital. In addition, he also serves as a Non-Executive Director at NYKAA and will oversee organic and inorganic expansion in the UAE, UK, and the USA. Prior to joining KKR, he served as CEO of Citigroup's Indian and South Asian operations and was a member of Citigroup’s Global Management Committee and Asia Executive Operating Committee.

Marquee affiliations: Recently appointed as a non-official member for the Board of Trade, Government of India, representing the private sector; (A key advisory body to the commerce and industry ministry). Member of the Board of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), Governing Board of Indian School of Business (ISB), member of Advisory Board of Habitat for Humanity, Chairman of Grameen Impact Investments India (GIII); and Founder – Board Member of Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP). Previously served as: Member of NISM (SEBI’s National Institute of Securities Markets), Member of the first AIF committee led by Narayan Murthy under the SEBI, President of the IVCA, served on Board of EMPEA – Washington DC from 2015 to 2019.

Sahil Kanuga is leader in the International Dispute Resolution & Investigations Practice at research and strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates.

Known for his analytical and meticulous approach aimed to reach his clients' goal, Sahil has worked on an array of complex matters including Indian and international arbitrations. He aggressively tackles the challenges presented by each case - legal, financial, or otherwise and has advised on corporate and commercial laws, civil and constitutional matters and criminal offences. He has also negotiated private equity and joint venture transactions. A focused problem-solver, Sahil understands that business goals shape legal strategies.

Sanjay founded Blume along with Karthik Reddy in 2011. Sanjay oversees the broad B2B Tech (or the “built-in-India tech for global markets”) space. He also manages Investment and Ecosystem Partnerships at Blume.

The spectrum of investments Sanjay covers within B2B space range from Enterprise / Software / Cloud / SaaS to Hardware / IoT / Robotics, AI / ML, Data Science and Deep / Hard tech areas. Sanjay has overseen investments in some of Blume’s leading portfolio companies such as Locus, Little Black Book, Tricog, DataWeave and Yulu Bike amongst other emerging stars.

Sanjay is a board member on the Draper Venture Network (DVN), an affiliation of global venture firms. He also represents Blume as a founding partner-member of Arka Venture Labs, a cross-border B2B seed fund along with Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV) and Emergent Ventures.

Sanjay has an MBA from UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management and an engineering degree in Information Systems from BITS, Pilani.

Sanjay is based in Mumbai.

Sanjay Sood is the Project Director of eSanjeevani, Government of India’s Telemedicine Service and is heading Healthcare Informatics at C-DAC Mohali.

He is a nationally acclaimed health-tech innovator and a big picture leader with a global outlook centred around 29 years of rich experience spanning numerous geographies. He is well-versed in developing, testing, deploying, operationalizing and scaling novel and sustainable population-scale health-tech solutions that have improved the quality of life of millions on the darker side of the divide. He has worked with country governments, lawmakers, policymakers, international NGOs, and multilateral agencies and has also excelled in multicultural and war-ravaged settings. While partnering with all stakeholders, he has brought about paradigm shifts in the delivery of health services through technology and process re-engineering at the primary level. With a passion for working in the development sector, he believes in leading from the front to inspire his team in highly challenging and resource-limited scenarios as well. He has authored 50+ world-class publications (technology insights & trends, technology applications & adoption studies, viewpoint articles, reports & book chapters,

Shekhar Kapur is one of the very few international directors from India. A filmmaker, actor, television presenter and entrepreneur, he is the recipient of several accolades, including a National Film Award, a National Board of Review Award and three Filmfare Awards, in addition to nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award.

After major critical and commercial success in India, he found appreciation worldwide through his film Bandit Queen. Thereafter, he directed ‘Elizabeth’ which was nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture. While he continues to direct, his passion for new media and technology is very well known and he continues to be an evangelist for new media all over the world. He also founded a new media company, Qyuki, in partnership with Cisco and composer AR Rahman.

He has served on the Innovation Strategy Advisory board for the Prime Minister of India. In 2010, he served as one of the Jury Members (International Competition) at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. In 2020, he became the current president of the Film and Television Institute of India.

Simmi Sareen is chartered accountant and an MBA from London Business School with 23+ years of financial services experience. She is currently working on a series of interventions to support financial inclusion and climate tech ecosystem in India.

As head of Unitus Capital’s debt advisory business, she help financial services firms, social enterprises and climate tech businesses get access to relevant, timely capital from a large network of domestic and international lenders. She is also the co-founder of Climake, a platform for early climate tech startups to access markets and access equity and markets and innovative financing options. Climake also publishes collaborative research on gaps and opportunities in climate finance.

Smit Shah is the President of Drone Federation of India. He has been instrumental in enabling drone flights in India through policy advocacy and industry partnerships at the Drone Federation of India. Smit is passionate about public policy and technology integration for scale with a history of working in leadership and project management roles for lean businesses.

Sudipta Jash is a Start-Up Advisor and Fintech Strategy Expert. He has previously served as the Head of International Business at PayU Payments, a global fintech leader offering innovative payment, credit, and investment solutions across more than 50 markets worldwide. At PayU he has helped global merchants of all sizes expand into emerging markets including India. Sudipta brings an expansive global work experience of in Business Development, Engagement Management and Business Analysis. Prior to joining PayU, he was based in the United States with Mphasis Inc., as a Management Consultant and worked extensively with wide range of clients including JP Morgan, Citibank, Green Dot, Charles Schwab and Wolters Kluwer. He also had a short stint with Mphasis Europe in Brussels and Dublin.

Vaibhav Parikh heads the U.S office of research and strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates. Based in the New York office, he also leads the practice areas of Technology, Telecom, Mergers and Acquisitions, Private Equity, etc. For over two decades, Vaibhav has been advising major MNCs on Corporate & Securities laws, and Structuring of Inbound / Outbound Investments, Private Equity Investments, IP laws and Exchange Control Law, tying in his expertise in advising several private equity players and venture capitalists navigate their way to successful investments. He has also assisted several companies in facilitating cross border M&A transactions.

He has consistently been engaged in advising several top end Technology and Telecom companies. Vaibhav has often played the role of key advisory to leading Cryptocurrency exchanges in India and continues to do so. Several leading financial publications often turn to him for his valuable insights on the subject. Over the years, Vaibhav has also been advising several leading Indian e-commerce companies in their operations from a legal and regulatory standpoint and has facilitated some of India’s largest e-commerce transactions.

Best known as the father of the Indian gaming industry, Vishal Gondal sold his first entrepreneurial venture India Games to Walt Disney. A health and fitness enthusiast, he runs marathons, treks and goes ski diving. A notable angel investor, Vishal was listed among the top 50 executives in the mobile content space by the UK based ‘Mobile Entertainment’ Magazine alongside noted people like Steve Jobs.

His passion for technology, fitness & gaming led him to his next venture’ GOQii’ which is focused on helping people make a change towards a healthier lifestyle and be the force of good. Currently, he brings his knowledge and love for interviewing people to a whole you platform by hosting a podcast series ‘Beneath the Force: The Vishal Gondal Show, he has conversations with personalities from various walks of life providing a sneak peek into their fascinating lives while in his own style.

Vishal Gondal is the founder of GOQii and nCORE Games, driving innovation across the gaming and healthcare sectors.

Vyapak Desai heads the International Dispute Resolution and Investigation Practice at Nishith Desai Associates. A senior attorney with the firm, Vyapak specializes in bringing in the highest level of analytical and innovative input in cross border, complex contentious matters, corporate/regulatory investigations while also leading the Corporate and Securities practice in the past at the firm.

Vyapak’s vast experience in legislation includes representing clients as Counsel in a host of complex cases including investment treaty arbitrations, commercial disputes related to shareholder’s agreements, international trade and contractual disputes across industries such as oil & gas, infrastructure, private equity, Pharma & Healthcare and TMT.

Vyapak has additionally cultivated expertise in bankruptcy, corporate and securities laws as well as in white-collar crimes. Known for his innovative, pragmatic and solution-oriented approach, he is also a trained mediator/conciliator and acts as Arbitrator across international jurisdictions such as London, Singapore, Malaysia and India.