Speakers & Thought Leaders

Ameera Shah

MD - Metropolis Healthcare Ltd
Ankita Vashistha

Founder & CEO - SAHA Fund
Ashish Malani

MediAceso Healthcare
Ansoo Gupta

COO - Pinstorm
Apurva Purohit

President - Jagran Group
Ambi Parameswaran

Founder Brand-Building.com
Chandni Jafri

CEO - Mumbai Angels Network
Chhavi Rajawat

Sarpanch of Soda Village, Rajasthan
Dr. Indu Shahani

Chair Academic Council, ISDI
Harjeet Khanduja

Vice President HR - Reliance Jio Infocomm
Harish Sadani

Co Founder - MAVA
Jay Krishnan

CEO T-Hub
Lubeina Shahpurwala

Co-Founder, Mustang Socks
Malini Agarwal

Founder & Creative Director - Miss Malini Entertainment.
Naiyya Saggi

CEO and Founder – BabyChakra
Paromita Vohra

Filmmaker & Founder, Agents of Ishq
Priya Naik

CEO – Samhita Social Ventures
Rahul Narvekar

Founder - The India Network
Revathi Roy

CEO - Hey Deedee
Ritu Soni Srivastava

Founder - Obino, Health & Weight Loss Coach
Sasha Mirchandani

Founder & MD - Kae Capital
Shruti Mishra

Anchor & Features Producer
Tara Sharma

Actress & Producer
Trisha Shetty

Founder & CEO - SheSays

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Ameera Shah

MD - Metropolis Healthcare Ltd

Ms. Ameera Shah is the Promoter & Managing Director of Metropolis Healthcare Ltd., a highly respected and multinational chain of diagnostic centers.

Ms. Shah has evolved Metropolis from its single pathology laboratory status to a fully integrated multinational chain of 150 diagnostic centers and 1000 collection centers across the globe. Metropolis delivers over 30 million tests a year, catering to more than 20,000 Laboratories, Hospitals, Nursing homes and 2,00,000 Consultants. With 34 years of experience in delivering accurate reports, Metropolis has earned the reputation of being India’s leading and only multinational chain of diagnostic centres with presence in Sri Lanka, Kenya, Mauritius, Zambia and Ghana.

She has revolutionized the pathology industry from being a doctor led practice to a professional corporate group in an extremely unregulated, competitive and fragmented market. Under her leadership, Metropolis has been the first to create a sustainable business model for pathology, the first to traverse in to emerging markets & the first to implement global standards of quality in all its processes & systems.

Ms. Shah received a degree in Finance from The University of Texas at Austin and has also completed the prestigious Owner-President Management Program at Harvard Business School.

Ms. Shah is an eminent industry spokesperson and has been featured as a speaker in various National and International forums, industry events and conclaves. She has been a key-speaker at prestigious events organized by IIM- Ahmedabad, Harvard Business School, TedX, CII and many such reputed institutions. She has also been elected the Secretary of the IAPL (Indian Association of Pathology Laboratories) and is the Chairperson of the ‘FICCI Health services Western Subgroup’ that drives policy decisions at the Center. Ms. Shah is an independent director on the board of several reputed companies and she is also an advisor to many educational institutions.

An International & National award winner, She was conferred with ‘The Young entrepreneur of the Year Award’ by GE in 2006 and ‘The Young Achiever of the Year Award’ at the CMO Asia Awards in 2011. She was also the recipient of the prestigious ‘Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ in 2011 organized by Entrepreneur India and Bloomberg. She has been honored with ‘Exemplary Women Leadership award’ at the World Women Leadership and Congress awards 2014. She has been chosen as one of the most respected leaders under 40 years by Economic Times & Spencer Stuart (2014). Recently Forbes Asia listed Ms. Shah in the Asia’s Most Powerful Women 2015 for powering the rise of Metropolis Healthcare and brining a significant shift in the diagnostics industry. She is one among the only 12 Indian Women to be featured in this globally acclaimed list. Ms Shah has also been featured in the acclaimed ‘Young Global Leader’ list brought out by the prestigious ‘World Economic Forum’ in 2015. She recently won the Best Leaders in Healthcare Award by CMO Asia. She was also featured in the ‘Inspiring Business Leaders of India’ by the Economic Times. Additionally she was also honored with the coveted Corporate Champion Award by US India Business Council.

Ankita Vashistha

Founder & CEO - SAHA Fund

SAHA Fund is India’s first SEBI registered venture capital fund to promote and invest in women entrepreneurship. SAHA fund invests in companies run by women founders/ senior management, companies hiring 50% or more women, or companies creating a service or product for women consumers. We want to promote women entrepreneurship, employment and engagement. SAHA fund has a 100 Crore corpus to invest in companies in India with a small global carve out. SAHA Fund is investing in companies in the pre-series A stage, which are leveraging technology to scale up and address the larger markets to create a quantifiable impact. Investments are across e-commerce, healthcare, education, tech platforms, food tech, mobile, data analytics, enterprise solutions, artificial intelligence, cloud etc. Some of the fund’s investments are Fitternity, MyAlly, InnerChef, Shoptimize, Joules to Watts to name a few. The fund currently has leading industry icons, family offices and SIDBI as investors. Some of whom also play an integral role and are part of the Advisory Board.

The SAHA Fund is run by CEO & Founder, Ankita Vashistha, who has over a decade of experience in private equity and venture capital across UK, US and Asia. Ankita works very actively in the start-up ecosystem in India, Philippines, Singapore, UK, USA to source, evaluate, mentor and invest in early stage technology enabled and focused companies. Ankita works closely with portfolio companies to help them create value, scale and expand leveraging technology across health-tech, ed-tech, fin-tech, food tech, media, ecommerce and enterprise-tech. Ankita is very passionate about promoting gender equality at the workplace across the emerging markets. Previously worked at Tholons capital, Wavemaker Labs, Aureos Capital and Abraaj Group. At Aureos Capital, Ankita was part of the global investor relations and portfolio management team based in London and was part of the team to raise 700M USD from cornerstone investors like CDC, Norfund, FMO, ADB for the group’s regional funds. Ankita has experience working with a diverse investor set across Institutional investors, Development Finance Institutions, Banks, Fund of Funds, Family Offices and HNI’s. She is an active member of the ecosystem and is part of the Indian Angel Network. Ankita is an electronics and communication engineering graduate from VTU and Masters in Finance and Management from UK’s top business school, Cranfield school of Management, UK

Ashish Malani

MediAceso Healthcare

Back in 2009 Ashish Malani was busy building his career as a CA in London when his aunt died of cervical cancer. It came as a jolt for Ashish and his elder brother Manish. Eager to do something about improving women’s health, the siblings, after studying products and services in the West for months, came up with Shecup, the first brand of a reusable menstrual cup designed and marketed for Indian women. In 2010, they began manufacturing the cups in Palghar, near Mumbai. Made of health-grade, non-toxic silicone, the cup is inserted into the vagina during menstruation. It costs Rs 695, and can be used for years, says Ashish, who also works as a CA for a Pune firm.

MediAceso Healthcare is a social enterprise based in Mumbai working in the field of Menstrual Hygiene Management for over 7 years. It conducts Health & Environment Awareness programs for girls & women in both the rural and the urban sectors. Such programs are conducted in Schools, Colleges, medical institutes, women social groups, residential complexes and corporate offices (like Jet Airways, TAJ, Indigo Airlines, Tata motors etc).

Ansoo Gupta

COO - Pinstorm

Ansoo Gupta is a highly qualified marketing professional. She has been in the media industry for about 20 years working with brands like Star TV, National Geographic Channel, The History Channel etc. She is currently the COO of India’s largest independent digital marketing firm Pinstorm. In her marketing career, Ansoo has launched and nurtured many successful brands across various product categories.

She was awarded ‘Achiever of Excellence in Marketing’ by Bombay Management Association and Bhujbal Knowledge City in the year 2011.

Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management Alumni Association conferred a ‘Corporate Excellence’ award upon her in February 2013.

A prolific speaker, she has spoken at various national and international conferences on topics of branding and marketing, digital marketing, starting-up, women empowerment and of course on travelling as a way of life.

Apurva Purohit

President - Jagran Group

Apurva Purohit is currently the President of the Jagran group, handling several of their business verticals in media including Radio City India’s leading FM network, Midday and Jagran New Media. She was recently judged one of the Top 30 most powerful women in in Indian Business by the India Today Group.

Apurva’s experience of over 27 years ranges across partnering private equity players in building superior organizations and creating valuable businesses, and handling media businesses and brands. Prior to her entry into radio she has been part of the television space where she worked with BCCL & Zee Telefilms

While she is passionate about diversity and inclusion, Apurva’s session focuses on empowering all individuals through her personal stories and experiences, both as a CEO, and as a woman in the workplace. Warm, funny and approachable, Apurva is a gifted storyteller whose session will encourage audiences to leverage their inherent potential, in order to become the best version of themselves. Her best-selling book, ‘Lady You Are Not a Man- the Adventures of a Woman at Work,’ is an invaluable tool in this process, providing practical insights and guidance which can be referred to on an ongoing basis.

Her vibrant and uplifting insights are fuelled by a deep desire to give back to society, both through wisdom drawn from her life and role as a leader, and her philanthropic endeavors.

Ambi Parameswaran

Founder Brand-Building.com

M G Parameswaran, or Ambi as he is known is a Brand Strategist and Founder Brand-Building.com. In a career spanning over three decades Ambi has handled assignments in marketing, sales and advertising with companies like Rediffusion DY&R, Boots Company and UDI Yellow Pages before dropping anchor at Ulka Advertising over two decades ago. He has helped build numerous brands including Digene, Brufen, Santoor Soap, Sundrop Cooking Oil, TCS, ICICI Bank, Wipro, Indica Cars, Zee TV among others.

He served as VP, then as CEO of FCB Ulka from 2003 to 2013, and as Advisor before moving out to set his own Brand Advisory unit Brand-Building.com.

Ambi has been contributing articles to premier business publications, has conducted seminars and branding workshops for Indian/ MNC organizations and industry bodies like CII, FICCI, AIMA etc.; he has spoken at international forums including the Kellogg India Summit at Northwestern University and Cornell University; he has also been a guest faculty at several business schools in Mumbai and at his alma mater, IIM Calcutta.

Ambi now has seven books to his credit including : “FCB-Ulka Brand Building Advertising – Concepts and Cases I & II”; “Understanding Consumers – Building Powerful Brands Using Consumer Research”; “Building Brand Value – Five Steps to Building Powerful Brands” (Winner of 2007 NTPC – DMA Book Prize). His book “For God’s Sake – An Adman on the Business of Religion” was published by Penguin in 2014. June 2016 saw the launch of his book “Nawabs Nudes Noodles – India Through 50 Years of Advertising”, published by Pan Macmillan.

Ambi is currently serving as the President of Advertising Agencies Association of India [2014-16]; he was President of Ad Club Bombay [2003–05]. He was inducted into the Board of Governors of IIMC in 2007 and he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Madras in April 2009.He successfully completed his PhD from Mumbai University in 2012 and AMP from HBS in 2014.

Chandni Jafri

CEO - Mumbai Angels Network

Chandni Jafri is a Triple Bottomline Advocate, StartUp Evangelist, Advisor, Mentor, Business Head and theatre producer & actor.

An MBA from NMIMS, Mumbai (1995-1997), the key mandate in her two decade professional experience has been to kick start projects/divisions/startup media enterprises. Her core skill areas are business strategy, sales, marketing, research & brand building. She has been part of the Founding team & Business Head of The VCCircle Network, VJive Networks, Gettyimages India, Web 18, CNBC-TV18 & Madison World.As a member of Indo-Canadian Business Chamber,her mandate is to focus on mutually beneficial trade, investment & alliance opportunities in the Indo-Canada corridor. She founded Sound & Light Social Ventures in 2013, which is a CSR Advisory, fundraising, Media & Ecommerce platform focussed on the Indian Social Sector.

Chhavi Rajawat

Sarpanch of Soda Village, Rajasthan

After doing an MBA from Pune, Chhavi Rajawat worked for companies such as Times of India, Carlson Group of Hotels, and Airtel, before she realised the need to bring about a change in the grass-root level if she wants to bring about a real difference. She went back to her village, Soda, in Rajasthan’s Tonk district to become India’s first woman Sarpanch with an MBA degree. Since then, she has been working to bring better water, solar power, paved roads, toilets and a bank to her village.

Despite being an elected representative, Chhavi is not affiliated to any political party. She has provided a regular supply of drinking water to her village and facilitated the construction of more than 40 roads. “If India continues to make progress at the same pace as it has for the past 65 years since independence, it just won’t be good enough. We’ll be failing people who dream about having water, electricity, toilets, schools and jobs. I am convinced we can do it differently and do it faster,” Chhavi said in an interview with NDTV

Even before the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan started in its current form, Chhavi had worked with the residents of her village to build toilets through community participation. In an interview with the Hindustan Times, she said, “Out of the total 900 houses at Soda, toilets have been constructed in 800 houses. A soft drink company spent Rs 20 lakh for cleanliness of a pond, the only source of drinking water in the village.”

Dr. Indu Shahani

Chair Academic Council, ISDI

Dr. Indu Shahani, Chair Academic Council, ISDI, Dr. Indu Shahani, Principal of H.R. College of commerce & Economics was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai in 2008 and 2009. She launched the 1298 Women’s Helpline against domestic violence and harassment with the help of leading NGO’s. She was also a Member of the University Grants Commission from 2011 – 2014. Dr. Indu Shahani who is the first Indian to be appointed Vice – Chair on the Board of the Governors of the International Baccalaureate and has over a decade of experience with the IB worldwide 2001 – 2010. She was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Westminster in London on November 16, 2009.

While Dr. Shahani continues to be Chief Mentor of colleges of the HSNC Board, from August 1, 2016, Dr. Shahani has taken on new responsibilities as President & Chair – Academics of the Indian School of Design & Innovation (ISDI), ISDI | WPP School of Communication and the Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ISME); and is the Founding Dean of ISME.

She has been acknowledged worldwide as a visionary thought leader for her significant contribution to education and value-based leadership. Dr. Shahani has received many awards, prominent among them are ‘Roll of Honor’ award towards her outstanding contributions in leadership and to Education and Partnerships with Deakin University in India; ‘Excellence Award for Humanitarian Service’ by the Rotary Club of Bombay; ‘Women of the Decade Achievers Award’ by ASSOCHAM Ladies League Mumbai; ‘Citizen of Mumbai Award’ by Rotary Club of Bombay; ‘Excellence in Education Award’ at the FLO Great Women Achiever Awards; and ‘Achiever of Excellence – Women Achievers 2012’ by Bombay Management Association recognising her contribution to society at large.

Harjeet Khanduja

Vice President HR - Reliance Jio Infocomm

Harjeet is an International speaker, writer, poet and a HR Leader. He is an alumnus of IIT Roorkee and INSEAD. He is currently working as Vice President HR at Reliance Jio Infocomm. He is awarded for his “Outstanding contribution to Global Learning” by World HRD Congress. He is among the Top 50 HR Tech Leaders for 2017. He received HR Leadership Award from Asia HRD Congress and is recognized as HR Power Profile by LinkedIn.

Harjeet is a TEDx speaker, SAP HCM Solution consultant, Six Sigma Green Belt, White Belt in Executive Coaching, Assessor for Predictive Index, visiting faculty at NMIMS and Corporate Advisory Board Member for Chandigarh University. This Chicken Soup writer is published in leading HR Magazines.

Harish Sadani

Co Founder - MAVA

Harish Sadani has been passionately running multi-sector developmental programs on gender and health, for over 26 years. He is Co-founder and Chief Functionary of Men Against Violence and Abuse (MAVA), India’s first organization of sensitive and concerned men working since 1993 to stop and prevent gender-based violence on women. Harish, who has done his Masters in Social Work from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, has been engaging and mentoring thousands of adolescent boys and young men across Maharashtra state to communicate with peers on healthy relationships, masculinity and sexuality-related matters, using out-of-the-box methods. Currently, he is also a Consultant and Trainer to Corporates, Universities and NGOs on anti-sexual harassment at workplace and other gender matters. In recognition of his pioneering and significant work in India on gender and masculinity, Harish has been awarded with the Ashoka Changemakers’ (US) Award, Maharashtra Foundation (US) Award, Civil Society Karmaveer Puraskar, Muktaa Sanmaan Award by IBN Lokmat news-channel and the Gender Diversity Award by Swedish Company Sandvik India. He has been invited by local, national and international bodies like UN Women and UNFPA to share insights and build capacities of various stakeholders on addressing issues of gender-based violence against women.

Jay Krishnan

CEO T-Hub

A passionate entrepreneur, thinker–doer, who believes in turning ideas into reality.

Jay Krishnan is a serial entrepreneur and investor with two successful million dollar exits in the US and India. In a career spanning over two decades, Jay has donned many hats. He has held leadership responsibility in Fortune 100 companies, managed large transformational initiatives, built new products offerings and helped create scale. In the startup space, Jay has successfully founded and exited multiple companies in the IoT space across the world.

In the capacity of CEO of T-Hub, Jay is responsible for its overall growth. He is the brain behind several tech innovations that has aided T-Hub to become amongst the most coveted incubator in India. It is due to his foresightedness that T-Hub works on a technology enabled platform for all startups/entrepreneurs across verticals. He has been instrumental in fostering innovation through technology platforms like Sandbox and Playbook to empower entrepreneurs with solutions at every stage of their journey.

Jay is a MS in Electrical Engineering from University of Hartford, Connecticut and an alumnus of IIM, Bangalore where he did his executive MBA in General Management.

Prior to becoming the CEO T-Hub, he has worked with various organizations at leadership positions including CISCO Systems, Radifinity Information Systems Pvt. Ltd. amongst others.

Jay is an avid reader with deep interests in emerging technologies. In his free time Jay enjoys reading and traveling.

Lubeina Shahpurwala

Co-Founder, Mustang Socks

Mustang Socks was founded by Naazneen Katrak in 1986. Back then, she understood the need of cotton socks, which compelled her to single-handedly set-up Mustang. As the brand grew, a significant turning point in Mustang’s journey was Naazneen and Lubeina’s partnership. Their goal was to deliver value products to their customers, employees and the society, starting with superior quality, warm and comfortable socks.

In 2004, Lubeina Shahpurwala took up the mantel of Co-Founder at Mustang Socks. An entrepreneur and fashion enthusiast, she broke away from the trodden path to boost Mustang Socks to new heights. Drawing from her natural love for fashion and keen sense of business, Lubeina has been instrumental in making Mustang an aspirational brand in fashion apparel in India. With a combination of sharp business acumen, a hands-on approach in Mustang and a compelling desire to grow, Lubeina complements Naazneen’s passion perfectly. Her need to keep up with the latest trends has ensured that Mustang stays ahead in terms of product design and technology – whether it be their character range, vibrant seasonal collections, their health socks or the classy footlets.
Recently, she was recognized as the Entrepreneur of the Year in Manufacturing Business
at the 5th Entrepreneur India Awards 2015.

Together, Naazneen and Lubeina have taken Mustang to a whole new level. At a time when socks were only seen as a commodity, they made Mustang into a brand – breaking into the Indian fashion sector as one of the first fashion apparel companies.

Mustang today manufactures more than 1 million pairs of socks every month, and has 36 distributors across India. With a consistent and impresssive growth rate, they have tie-ups with some of the largest International Brands, Retailers and E-Retailers, including Amazon, FirstCry, Hopscotch, etc. They are also expanding to include other apparel products like scarves, vests and briefs for kids, etc

They recently launched their own e-commerce website and have also opened up their first wholesale store.

You can check out Mustang Socks by clicking on www.mustangsocks.com

Malini Agarwal

Founder & Creative Director - Miss Malini Entertainment.

Malini Agarwal a.k.a MissMalini is the Founder & Creative Director of MissMalini Entertainment, a leading new media network that creates highly engaging, multi-platform content geared towards India’s Internet Generation. Malini is India’s first and most famous celebrity blogger & social media personality, having pioneered Indian lifestyle blogging with MissMalini.com in 2008. The website today reaches over 4 Million organic monthly visitors from over 200 countries, more than 80% of which are women, and has a social media following of over 7.5 Million.

A regular speaker at CMO forums on digital brand building, she was ranked #1 on IMPACT’s 50 Most Influential Women in Media, Marketing and Advertising 2017, and listed among business leaders to watch in Fortune India’s 40 Under 40 List in 2017. She was also recognized as one of the Top 10 Young Business Women of 2016 by CNBC-TV18 at the Young Turks Summit, and declared as the #1 Digital Influencer in the world on SERMO’s Digital Influencer Index 2016.

Named India’s most famous blogger by the The Huffington Post and Forbes, Malini has been profiled by various international media outlets including BBC World (UK), Reuters, CNN (USA), DW (Germany), TV5 (France) and The Globe & Mail (Canada). She is also a regular feature in local publications such as Vogue India, Elle India, Grazia India, Hello! India, India Today, The Economic Times, Business Standard, NDTV Profit, among many others, and was even featured on CNBC’s Young Turks as a fast-growing media start-
up to watch.

Expanding on her digital leadership, Malini made her first foray into television in 2014 with the reality entertainment TV series, MissMalini’s World on TLC. She went on to also host Kya Seen Hai @MissMalini on ZOOM, one of India’s leading Bollywood & Entertainment TV channels and Vh1 Inside Access with MissMalini on Vh1 India.

Her 15 year career in media & entertainment includes stints as a vertical head at MTV, a popular RJ and Programming Director at Radio One, and as the Head of Digital Content for Channel [v]. MissMalini Publishing is backed by seasoned investors such as Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India, as well as the founders of Match.com, Chegg.com, SherSingh/Exclusively.in, and the Asia Director of TA Associates.

Naiyya Saggi

CEO and Founder – BabyChakra

Naiyya Saggi is the CEO and founder of BabyChakra. BabyChakra is the fastest growing & largest platforms for young parents to discover local services & products in India. It has been awarded as one of the top tech ventures by Google, BusinessWorld, Wharton University & The Exhibit Awards.

Prior to Babychakra, Naiyya was a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and at the Bridgespan group (Boston) where she worked extensively on her areas of passion: maternal & child health and education. Naiyya is a graduate of the Harvard Business School (MBA 2012) where she was a Fulbright and J.N.Tata scholar. She received her BALLB (Hons.) from National Law School, India.

Paromita Vohra

Filmmaker & Founder, Agents of Ishq

Paromita Vohra is a filmmaker, writer and committed antakshari player whose work focuses on feminism, urban life, love, desire and popular culture and spans various forms including documentary, fiction, print, video and sound installation. She has made several landmark documentaries including Unlimited Girls and Q2P as well as Partners in Crime, Morality TV and the Loving Jehad, Where’ Sandra, Cosmopolis:Two Tales of A Cityand A Woman’s Place. Time Out magazine listed her as one of ten Indians to have changed the way we watch films. She directed the cutting-edge prime time TV series Connected Hum Tum. She has written the internationally released Pakistani film Khamosh Pani (Silent Waters) and the comic Priya’s Mirror. Her writing has been published in various anthologies including Bombay Meri Jaan:Writings on Mumbai, Electric Feather:The Tranquebar Book of Indian Erotica, Mumbai Noir, Recess:The Penguin Book of Schooldays and First Proof.

She writes popular weekly columns in Sunday Mid-day and Mumbai Mirror and is the founder and creative director of Agents of Ishq a first of its kind multi-media, digital project about sex, love and desire with a 100% desi vibe.

Priya Naik

CEO – Samhita Social Ventures

Priya set up Samhita Social Ventures, in 2009 to bring together companies, donor organizations and high net-worth individuals to collaborate with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and social enterprises. Samhita is fully supported by Mr.N.S.Raghavan, the co-founder of Infosys.

Samhita works with companies and foundations to shape their social initiatives, facilitate program implementation, run cause-related marketing campaigns and assess impact created. Samhita’s unique advantage lies in its extensive grassroots network of NGOs and social enterprises, which results in a deep understanding of and strong relationships with social organizations.

Prior to setting up Samhita Social Ventures, Priya co-founded The Spark Group, an education company that delivered affordable education to low income communities.

Priya’s interest in social entrepreneurship began when she worked as a Researcher at the Poverty Action Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, USA. At MIT, Priya was part of two student-led start-ups that won several awards at MIT.

Priya has graduate degrees in Economics from Yale University, in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and in Commerce from Mumbai University where she stood first in the University. She also completed an Executive Education course from Harvard Business School.

Rahul Narvekar

Founder - The India Network

Rahul Narvekar, Founder The India Network. Born in a small room in a chawl in Mumbai, Rahul’s father was an orphan who was raised in an orphanage and worked in a factory to support his family. He also did odd jobs so that he could provide simple “luxuries” to his family.They were the most well-off family in the chawl and were the owners of the solitary television in their chawl community. Rahul’s father ensured that despite their modest earnings, they never missed simple pleasures like a birthday celebration. The celebrations could not last long though. He lost his job due to factory lock-out. The following 10 to 12 years were a struggle with his father picking odd jobs to support his family and his mother sewing clothes for a living. Rahul’s parents ensured that his education was taken care of albeit not from a very fancy school called Sardarni Pratap Singh Janta Vidyalaya. Rahul was a topper all along and was into theatre, athletics, debates and was a voracious reader. He shares “I could not afford to buy Time and Fortune magazines in those days and would scurry the same from the “raddiwala’s” cache of magazines and books. These magazines were my source of inspiration and they gave me hope. I never stopped dreaming”.

Revathi Roy

CEO - Hey Deedee

Meet Revathi Roy, from taxi driver to serial entrepreneur. Taxi driver-turned-serial entrepreneur Revathi Roy is skilling women to become last-mile delivery associates and, more importantly, self-reliant. Here’s what our Forbes listed speaker has to say.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Revathi Roy picked up the pieces of her broken life and turned her passion into a business . Today, at 57, Roy is CEO of India’s first all-female hyperlocal delivery startup Hey Deedee. Incorporated as Zaffiro Learning, she set it up a year ago along with financial investor Jagdish Gothi of Kamdhenu stores. Hey Deedee mobilises women from low-income communities, trains them to drive two-wheelers and has them undertake last-mile delivery for companies like Amazon, Pizza Hut, Subway and logistics provider Shadowfax among others. “The ecommerce sector in India is set to explode. Our entire business model is based on fulfilling their logistical needs,” Roy says. That’s not all. Her business hinges on the empowerment of women. “The ladies we train come from backgrounds where everyday is a fight for survival. I want to empower them with a skill so that they can become financially independent and earn respect. If I could do it, so can they,” she says.

Ritu Soni Srivastava

Founder - Obino, Health & Weight Loss Coach

A successful entrepreneur is a life-long learner. Her success is cobbled together with bits and pieces of learning picked up from every notable experience she’s ever had. And Ritu has over the last 15 years has had an eclectic career to draw inspiration and learning from!

She’s been a primetime Radio Jockey, launched & run Radio Stations in the top metros of India as well as handled award-winning stints in Product Development and Brand Management for industry giants like Airtel and Wipro, in addition to being a wife and mother.

She has often been accused of building Obino for herself and she doesn’t deny the charge. Her post-baby weight loss struggle was a traumatic one and sparked off the idea of Obino so that people struggling with health and weight loss issues could get the right kind of help to take back control over their lives and bodies.

Under Ritu’s guidance, Obino has raised three rounds of funding and grown from a 5 member to a 60 member team with offices in Delhi and Mumbai, that has touched over half-a-million lives across the world. Supported by a US-based Healthcare VC RoundGlass Partners, Obino’s vision is to build a sustainable and innovative health technology company with a heart.

Sasha Mirchandani

Founder & MD - Kae Capital

Sasha is Founder & Managing Director at Kae Capital, an early seed stage fund. He is a Co-founder of Mumbai Angels, India’s first Angel Investment group. Prior to this Sasha was the Managing Director for Blue Run Ventures where he focused on consumer, internet, mobile, media, entertainment and knowledge process outsourcing. Earlier Sasha was at Mirc Electronics (Onida) where he was Head of Corporate Affairs and new business. Prior to that he was CEO and Founder of Imercius Technologies, a BPO focused on Healthcare. Sasha sits on the Board of Hathway Cable and Datacom Limited, Ador Welding and Mumbai Angels Venture Mentors among others. He is also a past President of EO Mumbai and is a member of the Mumbai Chapter of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO). He is also on the Board of Governors of the Universal Business School. He is passionate about working with startups and also interested in the development of entrepreneurship in India.

Shruti Mishra

Anchor & Features Producer

Shruti Mishra is a Features Producer and Anchor with CNBC-TV18’s Special Projects. She has produced India’s longest running show on entrepreneurship –‘Young Turks’, a 5-time award winning show. She has handled international shoots for Young Turks and anchored events like the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2012 from Australia and moderated Young Turks Tutorials with Dr Trehan of Medanta and Raghu Krishnamoorthy of GE. As part of her work with CNBC-TV18’s Special Projects, she has co-anchored ‘Lessons In Marketing Excellence’ Season 5, ‘India@75’ with KV Kamath and Adi Godrej and also co-anchored Financial Advisor Awards, Healthcare Awards & Investothons. Shruti has also co-produced flagship shows like ‘Heart of Business’, ‘India Inc’, ‘Gen Next’ and ‘Ministers of Change’. Shruti is an MBA in marketing from Symbiosis and has completed her Bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication from IP University, New Delhi.

Tara Sharma

Actress & Producer

Tara is an actor and producer and more importantly as she says, a devoted Mum! She has done about 15 films as an actress, some of which like Page 3, Masti and Khosla Ka Ghosla have been big hits. She has also done several ads. Tara and her husband Roopak have 2 small children, Zen and Kai. When they were born she started writing a blog (www.tarasharmashow.com) about what she describes as ‘the most incredible journey of my life – bringing up our kids’. In an attempt to be a hands on mum and get back to work, Tara successfully turned her blog into a multi platform show which she has conceptualized, hosts and co-produces with www.sooperfly.com . Her show, ‘The Tara Sharma Show”, has had four successful Seasons on TV. The Tara Sharma Show Seasons 1 and 2 were her diary as a new Mum and Season 3 and 4 of the show widened to become a platform to discuss topical family, parenting, women’s and children’s issues with a view to helping bring about positive change. She has celebrity and non celebrity guests on the show and aired on Star World and her YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/tarasharmashow Her multi platform show has been getting great response and they are soon going into Season 5. Tara plays the role of a non patronizing moderator and she and her guests debate, discuss, perhaps laugh and learn as they grow together. Some of the celebrity guests so far have been Aamir Khan, Kajol, John Abraham, Virat Kohli, Mary Kom, Shilpa Shetty, Konkona, Matthew Hayden, Juhi Chawla and others. And also many digitally infuential non celeb guests. An alumni of the Bombay International School, United World College Italy and the London School of Economics, Tara worked at Accenture before following her passion to act and create in the entertainment world. She is also committed to various social causes, especially for children, and tries to help where she can. She is grateful that she has found a way of being with her family and working and encourages all young mums to do what works for them. A strong believer in each to their own, and do what works for you, she applauds women who go back to work, those who chose not to or those who balance both, the main breakthrough she feels is women having the choice! What they chose is up to them. Tara is also a fitness enthusiast and believes good health for us all touch woodJ is most important. She runs and practices yoga regularly and believes in consistency as opposed to quantity, and a balanced approach to exercise.

Trailer of season 4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYlR8pi6zkI

Teaser of season 4 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qjm8laEqi6Q Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tarasharmashow/

Website www.tarasharmashow.com

Blog http://blog.tarasharmashow.com/

Trisha Shetty

Founder & CEO - SheSays

Trisha Shetty aims to end gender based discrimination and advance women’s rights in India by engaging with the youth and activating them as agents of social change to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Equality, Safety and Autonomy should be a guaranteed right and reality for women around the world. At SheSays Trisha believes in achievement of SDG 5- Gender Equality through investment in strong partnerships and institutional building. Recognising the need for interdependency, their ethos is to build a nexus of support in domains of sanitation, education, healthcare, public safety and public policy.

Trisha Shetty is one of the most prolific social activists of India who at a very young age has started to fight against the prevalent sexual abuse in India. She has launched an online platform exclusively for rehabilitation, empowerment and educating women about sexual abuse. She is more than just a women right activist. She is a friend for innumerable women. She was recognized by the United Nations where she was selected among 17 UN Young Leaders for Sustainable Development Goals. The Secretary General of UN said that these young leaders are expected to become beacon of fight against poverty, all forms of injustice and inequality.

The infamous Delhi Rape case of Nirbhaya in 2012 changed the heart of Trisha. She was no more looking forward to earn big bucks through proper legal channel. She wanted to do something for women who are being sexually abused and because of social pressure don’t disclose molestation. There was no proper platform available that can educate these women about legal rights and how to access them.

Trisha along with her sister Neha launched an online portal for the same purpose. She named the portal – SheSays (shesays.com) indicating a will to give voice to women who have been sexually exploited. This platform started to get lots of eyeballs and thousands of volunteers also come forward to help other women.

Trisha’s novel attempt has been recognized and appreciated by every right minded people. She has, in fact, become a voice for women who have to face sexual molestation in one or other forms daily.