PIBAR 2024

Panel title: “Ensuring our common future: From Ideas to Impact”

The panel will feature discussions on the work that the University of Chicago Trust is doing to contribute towards sustainability of the global commons.

Panelists:

Tanushree Ganguly

Tanushree’s career efforts focus on strengthening data-driven air quality decision making, and unpacking challenges in implementing national-level policies at local levels. She started her career in technical consulting as a consultant with Illingworth and Rodkin Inc, an air quality and acoustic consulting firm. Following which, she worked as a researcher with New-Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment, exploring the foundations of India’s National Clean Air Programme and clean air planning in multiple Indian cities. Prior to joining AQLI, Tanushree led the Clean Air Programme at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, and supported multiple states and municipalities in charting pathways towards meeting their clean air ambitions. Tanushree has a graduate degree in Environmental Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, and an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Nirma University, Ahmedabad.

Vaishnavi Prathap

Vaishnavi is Assistant Director, at the Development Innovation Lab-India. She leads the research and policy vertical on Safe Water, which is focused on scaling up in-line water treatment across rural India.  Her previous appointments were with Yale Economic Growth Center, the Household Finance Research Initiative at Dvara Research, and Citibank Global Decision Management. Vaishnavi is a graduate of Madras School of Economics and Harvard Kennedy School.

Surbhi Arul

Surbhi serves as the India Program Head for the International Innovation Corps. She is a postgraduate in Public Policy from the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, and a graduate in Economics from Christ University. She believes that for developmental solutions to be truly impactful and sustainable, communities have to be central decision makers to claim social impact that is the most meaningful for them, requiring their involvement from ideation, design to implementation.

 She has 8+ years of experience of working in policy ideation, design, implementation and government liaison for greater social impact. She aims to work towards an inclusive, equitable, and humane world. At IIC, she is building a portfolio of engagement across health, education, environment, technology and AI, in partnership with government and non-government organizations.

 Urmila Chatterjee

Dr. Urmila Chatterjee is the Executive Director of the Data, Policy, and Innovation Center (DPIC) and Research Director at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC India). Urmila comes to the University of Chicago from a distinguished career at the World Bank, where for more than a decade she delivered high-quality knowledge products, led policy dialogue, and implemented complex lending projects in South Asia with a focus on poverty reduction, fiscal incidence, electricity reform, statistics modernization, water pollution, sanitation service delivery, and climate adaptation.

Prior to joining the World Bank, Urmila worked at the International Monetary Fund, the Indian Institute of Management and Citigroup. Urmila holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Mumbai; she is also a Chartered Financial Analyst.

 Kaushik Deb

Kaushik Deb leads the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago’s India team (EPIC India) as the Executive Director. As an applied economist with over 25 years of experience,  he has a distinguished career as a strategic advisor to governments and corporations on policy, markets, equity, access, and technology developments. Prior to joining EPIC India, he directed the India Program at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. His previous roles include serving as Program Director at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, where he managed research on global oil, natural gas, hydrogen, and petrochemicals markets. Additionally, he has led research on low carbon fuels and climate issues in Group Economics in bp plc., the Policy Group in IDFC and at TERI. He also established sustainability-focused management leadership programs at TERI University (now TERI SAS). He holds a D.Sc. from ETH Zürich and a master’s degree in economics from the Delhi School of Economics.

 Moderator:

Prachi Jain Windlass

 Panel title: Geopolitics and India’s role and impact

Mr Vijay Gokhale was the 32nd Foreign Secretary of India and has served as the Indian ambassador to Malaysia, Germany and China. He has the rare distinction of being the only Indian Foreign Service officer to have served in both China and Taiwan. Mr Gokhale is an expert on Indo Chinese relations and, as our ambassador in Beijing, played a key role in resolving the 2017 Doklam crisis.

 Mr T S Tirumurti has, over a distinguished career spanning 37 years, served as the Permanent Representative of India to the UN and as Secretary, Economic relations. He served as President of the UN Security Council in 2021. He was earlier the High Commissioner to Malaysia and India’s first representative to the Palestine National Authority. Mr Tirumurti is an expert on Indo Arab relations and on environment and climate related issues.

 Panel Title: Business and economics of sustainability

Distinguished for his transformative leadership in the global clean technology and mobility solutions sectors, Mr Nagesh A Basavanhalli is currently the Vice Chairman and Board Member at Greaves Cotton Limited where he has been instrumental in transforming the company into India’s leading provider of last-mile transportation solutions and services. He was earlier the Managing Director and President of Fiat Group Automobiles India Ltd.  Mr Basavanhalli has an MBA from Chicago Booth and engineering degrees from the University of Texas and Bangalore University.

Dr Dhruba Purkayastha is the Director for Growth and Institutional Advancement at the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a leading public policy think tank, research and analysis non-profit institution in India. Prior to CEEW, he was the India Director for Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), a global non-profit research and advisory institution, working on sustainable finance and financing energy transition. Dr Purkayastha has worked with the International Finance Corporation and the World Bank and has led the Regulatory Group for Sustainable Finance Task Force set up by the Ministry of Finance, Government of India.  He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Climate Finance Committee at the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) and a member of the CII Net Zero Council for India.

Mr Dibirath Sen is Managing Director and Head of Global Banking, North India, as well as India lead for Sustainable Finance at HSBC.  Mr Sen has over 22 years experience managing Large Local Corporates/ Conglomerates and Global MNC clients.  He has significant experience in the emerging field of Sustainable Climate Finance and is engaged with several front line international Policy Institutions and Govt bodies working on Climate Change/ Sustainable Finance and ESG.  He is a member of various Committees sponsored by International Policy Institutions on Climate change.