GITA Global Technology Development Award

Chair of Jury - Yagnaswami Sundara Rajan is an Indian professor, scientist and administrator. He is Honorary Distinguished Professor in Indian Space Research Organisation. He has made major contributions to various aspects of management of Science, Technology and Innovation. In 2012, he was awarded with Padma Shri for his contribution in Science and Engineering. He is one of the well known scientists, who has closely worked with Abdul Kalam, former President of India. Executive Director of Technology Information and Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), since (1988-2002) and executed Mission REACH, an initiative of TIFAC. He has held several senior positions in National Natural Resources Management System, Confederation of Indian Industry.[3] He also served as Vice-Chancellor in Punjab Technical University (PTU), Scientific Adviser to Punjab Chief Minister, Chairman of the Board in Nalanda University[4] and Adjunct Professor in Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani.

Prof G D Yadav – Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai -is an Indian chemical engineer, inventor and academic, known for his research on nanomaterials, gas absorption with chemical reaction and phase transfer catalysis. He served as the vice chancellor of the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (erstwhile UDCT) from 2009 until November 2019. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2016, for his contributions to science and engineering.

Prahlada Ramarao (DRDO Scientist)- is an Indian missile scientist, former vice chancellor of Defence Institute of Advanced Technology and a former director of Defence Research and Development Laboratory, the largest of the Defence Research and Development Organization laboratories in India, known for his contributions to Indian space programme. He served several space and defence organizations[5] such as Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram and Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bengaluru before joining Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad as its director in 1997, a post he held till 2005. During this period, he also served as the chairman of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (IGDMP)

Prof. Ashwini Kumar Nangia - Director of CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune. Prof. Nangia obtained his M.Sc. in Chemistry from I.I.T. Kanpur in 1983, and was awarded the Ph.D. degree of Yale University in 1988. He was Young Associate of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore (1992-1995) and awarded the Raja Ramanna Fellowship by DST. He is also a JC Bose National Fellow of DST. He is an elected Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore, Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi, National Academy of Sciences (India), Allahabad, and AP/TS Akademi of Sciences, Hyderabad. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, London. Prof. Nangia serves on the Editorial Board of international journals in chemistry and crystallography, including CrystEngComm (RSC) and Crystal Growth & Design (ACS). He is on the Advisory Board of Chemistry - An Asian Journal (Wiley-VCH) and Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Wiley). He was a member of INSA National Committee on Crystallography (2008-2015) and currently on the Structural Chemistry Commission of IUCr. He has international research collaborations with Russia, Singapore, China, UK and USA.

Prof. Ranjan Bose - Director of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. Prior to joining IIIT-D, he was Microsoft Chair Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Delhi. He has also served as the Head of Bharti School of Telecom Technology and Management and as the founding Head of Center of Excellence in Cyber Systems and Information Assurance at IIT Delhi. He is the author of the book Information Theory, Coding and Cryptography (3rd Ed.). This book has an international edition and has been translated into Chinese and Korean. He is the national coordinator for the MHRD Mission Project on Virtual Labs, which enables students all over the country to perform laboratory experiments remotely. He has also contributed to the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) and the National Pedagogy Project. He has served on the editorial boards of IEEE Access and Computers & Security (Elsevier), and has been the Editor-in-Chief of IETE Journal of Education. He has also been on the Security Advisory Board of GSTN. He is the recipient of the URSI Young Scientist award, the Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) Young Engineers Award, the AICTE Career Award for Young Teachers, the BOYSCAST Fellowship and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Research Award. He is Fellow of IET (UK) and Humboldt Fellow (Germany).

Dr. Sanak Mishra – President , Indian National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Mishra held Executive Director/CEO/ Managing Director positions of major national and international companies from 1996 to 2017. He was Member of the Board of Directors of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), and Managing Director of its Rourkela Steel Plant during 2002-’05. He was Vice President of ArcelorMittal group, the largest steel producer in the world, and was Chief Executive Officer of its Projects in India. He set up its Indian subsidiary, ArcelorMittal India Limited and also established in Kolkata the ArcelorMittal Design & Engineering Centre as a global facility. In 2014, Dr. Mishra was hand-picked to take charge as the first Secretary General and full-time Executive Head of the Indian Steel Association (ISA). Dr. Mishra has served as Senior Advisor to MIDHANI (Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited), a Govt. of India public sector in the Ministry of Defence during 2018-19. Dr. Sanak Mishra was President of the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) during 2009-10, and Chairperson of the USA-headquartered International Organisation of Materials, Metals and Minerals Societies (IOMMMS) during 2010-13. Dr. Mishra is a Member of the Selection Committee for the award of the German Chancellor Fellowship for Future Leaders from India.He has served as a Member of the Jury for award of the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best steel plant of India.He was a primary author of the white paper approved by the Government of India for setting up the Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI), and currently serves as Member of its Governing Board.

Dr. W. Selvamurthy - presently working with Amity University as President, Amity Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation, Director General for Amity Directorate of Science and Innovation and Chair Professor for Life Sciences. He is also designated as the Chancellor, Amity University, Chhattisgarh. Dr. Selvamurthy has served Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Government of India for 40 years in which, all the health related life science research technologies were developed and inducted in the Armed Forces. His R&D contributions include development of life support technologies for soldiers, NBC Defence Technology, Nano Technology Application for Defence, Application of yoga for the Armed Forces, Military psychology and others. He was Chief Controller, Research & Development (Life Sciences & International Cooperation)in DRDO.Dr. Selvamurthy was closely associated with Department of Science and Technology (DST) for the promotion of health related research. He was Chairman of PAC in DST in the field of Health Sciences for International Co-operation with many countries for more than a decade. He was also the Area Co-ordinator for Biomedical technology under ILTP programme with Russia. He is steering the proposal for iconic flagship programme on health at the India-European Union GSO meeting at Delhi and also in Brussels. He is presently member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to Cabinet (SAC-C), particularly in the field of Life Science, including health researchHe is also an expert member in the Department of Biotechnology, ICMR and CSIR.

Dr. Raghunathan Rengasamy - Raghunathan Rengaswamy is a Chair Professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras. Prior to this, he was a Professor, Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Process Control and Optimization Consortium (PCOC) at Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX USA, Associate and full Professor at Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY and Assistant Professor at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India. Rengaswamy’s major research interests are in the areas of Fault Detection and Diagnosis (FDD), development of Sensor Placement (SP) algorithms for FDD and Fuel Cells. In recent years, Rengaswamy’s group also works in the area of computational microfluidics. Research work in this area has led to the formation of a start-up, SysEng LLC, in the US funded through a NSF STTR grant. With Prof. Shankar Narasimhan of IIT Madras, Rengaswamy co-founded Gyan Data Pvt. Ltd (GDPL), a high technology service and product development company located in IIT Madras Research Park.

Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri – Director – IIT Bombay. Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri works in the area of image processing, computer vision, machine learning and computational haptics. Some of the areas where he has contributed significantly include - depth recovery from defocused images, image super-resolution, blind deconvolution, hyper-spectral image visualization and pattern recognition in remote sensing images. In the area of Haptics, his major contribution lies in haptic rendering of point cloud data, kinaesthetic perception and haptic data communication. Prof. Chaudhuri has been on the editorial boards of IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) during 2006-2008, SIAM Journal SIIMS since 2018 and International Journal of Computer Vision (IJCV) since 2004. He has also been a Visiting Professor at several international universities such as the University of Paris Sud, France, Technical University of Munich, Germany, National University of Singapore, University of Erlangen, Germany and Hong Kong Baptist University. Prof. Chaudhuri has been a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc), National Academy of Sciences (NASI) and Indian National Science Academy (INSA). He is also a Fellow of IEEE.

Dr. Debashish Bhattacharjee - is the Group Director, Research and Development, Tata Steel. He joined Tata Steel in 1996 after completing his PhD from the University of Cambridge, UK, and carried out post doctoral research with Rolls Royce University Technology Centre in Cambridge. Between 1996 and 2001 he worked in R&D, Process Metallurgy Group and Technical Services Flat Products. After a second post doctoral at the University of Birmingham between 2001 and 2002, he returned to Tata Steel as Chief R&D and took up his current responsibilities in 2003. Dr Bhattacharjee has more than 30 international publications and has 5 patents, along with his colleagues, from his work in Tata Steel in the areas of products, coatings and hydrogen harvesting. He was awarded the Metallurgist of Year Award by the Ministry of Steel in 2004. He is also an AICTE-INAE Distinguished Visiting Professor at Bengal Engineering and Science University. Recently, the Institution of Engineers awarded him a plaque in recognition of his contribution to the field of Metallurgy and Materials Science.

Mr. Sunil Saxena - Global Business Leader with Track record of building business and teams in B2B markets across industry verticals.Internationally experienced leader with a successful track record in managing P&L, sales, marketing, technology, projects and manufacturing in both, regional and global business teams. Recognized as an energetic, market focused and customer orientated leader who relates well to business executives, professionals and associates in corporate and customer organizations. Lived and worked in Asia and Europe and Managed Business with Global Foot Print of customers and manufacturing sites.Key competencies include : Creating and communicating business vision , Profit and Loss responsibility,Business Strategy,Leadership,Manufacturing facility leadership ,Restructuring and reorganization ,Post acquisition integration,Director on the board of directors,Communication and interpersonal skills, Cultural sensitivity and relationship building skills, Glass fiber,Polymers,Automotive , Industrial Gases and engineering industry vertical experience.

Mr. Soumitra Biswas - Post-graduate (Master’s) qualifications in Chemical Engineering and Management from IIT Kharagpur and IIM Calcutta respectively.Mr. Biswas worked for nearly 10 years in the early part of his career in chemical plant design, process technology and also in industrial projects & products marketing in two leading multinational companies in India. As Adviser/Scientist-‘G’, Mr. Biswas headed the Advanced Composites Programme of TIFAC, an organization under Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. He very effectively steered the programme by launching 44 industry oriented and demand driven projects in a wide spectrum of composite applications. Mr. Biswas is now engaged as Adviser (Technology & Innovation) in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In his current capacity, he works for enhancing the research and innovation intensity of the Indian industry and start-up ecosystem in India.Mr. Biswas has published several technical articles and presented papers in many seminars & conferences in India & abroad.