Agenda

Alex has over 30 years professional experience in a series of leadership roles that has consistently focused on building partnerships to address the world's biggest development challenges. Since 2019, Alex has been serving as Chief, Special Initiatives, in the Telecommunications Development Bureau (BDT) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations specialized agency for information and communication technologies. In this role, he oversees special BDT-wide programs and projects including Giga (co-led with UNICEF with an aim to connect every school to the internet), Connect2Recover (ensuring countries have robust and resilient ICT infrastructure to support recovery from the Covid-10 and other crises), I-CoDI (the ITU International Center for Digital Innovation), and Partnership2Connect (a global coalition to mobilze actions and commitments to achieve universal meaningful connectivity and national digital transformation).

Prior to joining the ITU, Alex worked in both the private and not-for-profit sectors. From 2018-2019, he served as President of CG/LA Infrastructure, a US based company that promotes and develops infrastructure projects around the world. From 2000 to 2018, Alex was a member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum, an international organization for public private cooperation with a mission to improve the state of the world, where he held several leadership roles including the development and rollout of the Forum’s Global System Initiatives; heading the ICT, Media & Entertainment, Basics, and Infrastructure industry teams and related projects; and heading the Center for Global Industries Geneva. From 1988-2000, Alex worked in a variety of professional roles at Accenture as a Strategy Consultant, General Motors as a Quality Control Engineer, and the US National Parks Service. 

He is a licensed Professional Engineer with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toronto and a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Acclaimed as a leading Educational Administrator and Institution Builder, Professor Najma Akhtar is the first woman Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in over hundred years of its existence. JMI figures among top six Universities of India and was recently accredited with the coveted grade A++ by NACC, the credit for which goes to Professor Akhtar’s participative and proactive leadership. Famed for bringing transformation in delivery of Quality Education and Experiential Learning in sync with the evolving pedagogy, technology and innovation, Professor Akhtar has initiated measures for the realization of the objectives of National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 to bring about far-reaching reforms in both School and Higher Education system. She is all set to implement the NEP-2020.

Professor Karbhari Vishwanath Kale, Senior Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology is presently working as Vice-Chancellor of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Lonere, District –Raigad, MS. He worked as Director, Board of College and University Development (BCUD) of Dr. B.A.M.U., Aurangabad, MS. He was Head of the Department of Computer Science and IT at University for more than 9 years. He also served as Director of University Network & Information Center (UNIC) of Dr. BAMU, Aurangabad. He served as coordinator of Monitoring and evaluating committee of Avishkar research program organized by Governor of Maharashtra. He is a pioneer of Multimodal Biometrics and Remote Sensing Data Analysis in the region and has established & developed state-of-art Multimodal Biometrics Research Laboratory (MBRL) as a unique Laboratory of International standard. He has also established research laboratories of Geospatial Technology, Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition Technology. He has more than 32 years of experience in research, innovation and teaching at UG, PG and PhD level. He has published more than 364 National and International research articles, 06 books and 27 book chapters. His area of research includes Geospatial Technology, Remote Sensing and GIS, Image Processing, Pattern Recognition, Computer Vision, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Neural Network, Big Data Analytic, Internet of Things (IoT) etc. 

Prof. S. K. Singh is the Vice Chancellor of Rajasthan Technical University, Kota. He is a visionary academician and a reputed scholar who has made significant contributions in the field of science and engineering. He has been engaged in teaching, research, administration and consultancy for the last 34 years. He was selected as Professor in Delhi Technological University, Delhi (Formerly Delhi College of Engineering, an institute of Govt. of N.C.T. of Delhi, established in 1942) through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) at the young age of 35 years. He has obtained his PhD from BITS, Pilani, M. Tech. from IIT-BHU, Varanasi and B.E. from Gorakhpur University with first division and distinction throughout.

Prof. Singh has served on panels of many prestigious boards. He has been a member of the “Panel of Judges” to evaluate the performance of integrated steel plants in India for awarding the Prime Minister’s Trophy and the Steel Minister’s Trophy. His research has been recognised in the form of two patents - one from the Federal Republic of Germany and another from India. For his distinguished services, Prof. Singh has been honoured by many felicitations and awards by national and international professional bodies, like Hiyoshi Environment Award, Japan; APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial Award; Rashtriya Shiksha Gaurav Puraskar; International Felicitation and WEC-IIEE-IAEWP Environmental Award; Bharat Vikas Award and
Rashtriya Samman Puraskar.

Prof Ambarish S. Vidyarthi involved with the planning and execution of a number of research and teaching programs in biotechnology and bioprocess engineering for the past 2 decades has took over the office of Vice-Chancellor, Bikaner Technical University, Bikaner on May 04, 2021. Previous to his current assignment he served as the Director of two government engineering colleges; Nanhi Pari Seemant Engineering Institute, Pithoragarh, an institute established by the Government of Uttarakhand in 2011 and Institute of Engineering & Technology, Lucknow, established by the Government of Uttar Pradesh in 1985. Prof Vidyarthi, in his credit, the youngest Professor who had created the world-class research and teaching infrastructure at Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi while serving the institution from 2003 to 2014.

Dr. Manpreet Singh Manna has come with more than two decades of glorious and versatile experience in the spheres of Research, Education, and Administration. Presently working as the Associate Professor SLIET Longowal (Deemed University, Est. by Govt. of India), India, all while he carries on in the pursuit of his personal engineering education research projects as well as handling National & International assignments in the field of Education.

His prime areas of interest being Smart Grid, Renewable Energy Sources, Electric Vehicles and Electrical Machinery. He has significant contributions through various approaches such as directly supervising Ph.D. students, having acquired a grand total of 20 patents, 6 of which has been granted and 14 are published, as well as publishing over 152 publications of research and review papers published in International and National Journals/Conferences viz. IEEE, IASTED, ACEEE, IEE,
IET etc. He delivered more than 500 Expert/invited talks throughout country and outside India on the area of MOOCs, Curriculum Development, Accreditation, Energy Management, Data Science, AI etc. Also on board as a member for National and International bodies, Fellow, ISQEM-International Safety Quality Environment Management Association ISQEM, UK, Senior Member, IETIInternational Engineering and Technology Institute, Hong Kong Senior Member IEEE, Chair- IEEE
Delhi Section Photonics Society Chapter-Rajasthan, EXECOM member Prakash Bharati(consortium of IEEE Photonics Society Chapters of India), International Advisory Panel for IIMT, Life Member of the International Association of Engineers, Indian Institute of Technical Education, Fellow Institute of Engineers, India and many more. Recently, as Senior MemberIEEE, he has organized different webinars across different Institutes of India, mainly in the states of Punjab and Haryana, Himachal. He has been invited as Guest of Honor and Keynote Speaker at various prestigious conferences, FDPs and webinars.

I am a telecom professional with over 27 years of experience. I have served in Government of India as Indian Telecom Services officer of 1993 batch, for 20 years in various leadership roles across BSNL, MTNL, DOT, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. I then moved to corporate world, as CTO of Indus Towers Limited formerly known as Bharti Infratel Limited and served in this position for 7 years. 
I am qualified as  Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer, MBA in Public Policy and Management, Diploma Holder in Cyber Law, International Mediator and empanelled as Independent Board Member. 
I also run Sangati Foundation, a charitable trust which works for all forms of disabilities and has pan India presence. I also dabble in poetry in Hindi, Urdu and English and my collections have been published in four different books.