Governing Council

Shri Suresh Prabhu

Shri Suresh Prabhu is a veteran politician and diplomat who has held key positions such as the Union Minister of civil Aviation, Railways, Commerce & Industry among others. He has also served as India’s Sherpa to the G7 and G20. He is a Chartered Accountant by profession, and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He has been a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) for 4 consecutive terms from 1996 to 2016, and later a member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) since 2016. He is also serving as the Founding Chancellor of Rishihood university.

Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe

Shri Vinay Sahasrabuddhe is a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Maharashtra since July 2016. Dr Sahasrabuddhe is the President at Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). He looks after the Good Governance, Central and State Government Program Coordination and Policy Research Department at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)as its National Vice President.

Shri MJ Akbar

Shri M. J. Akbar is a former Union Minister of State for External Affairs, and is a distinguished writer who has authored several internationally acclaimed books, mainly on the Indian subcontinent’s complex history and the turbulent interaction between faith and definitions of nationalism. Shri M. J. Akbar has also had an illustrious career as a journalist and editor. In 1976, he launched, as Editor, India’s first weekly political news magazine, Sunday, which quickly became a household presence. He started two daily newspapers: The Telegraph in 1982 and The Asian Age in 1994. He has served as the Editorial Director of India Today, Headlines Today and as the editor of the Deccan Chronicle and The Sunday Guardian. Shri M. J. Akbar entered public life in 1989, when he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Kishanganj, Bihar. He went back to the media in 1993, and returned to public life in March 2014, when he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became the party’s national spokesperson. He was elected as MP to the Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand in July 2015. In July 2016, he was elected for another term as MP from Madhya Pradesh.

Shri Swapan Dasgupta

Shri Swapan Dasgupta is a Former Member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of India’s Parliament. He is one of India’s most widely read political columnists for the past three decades. Having worked in almost all the leading publications in India in senior editorial positions, he has been an independent columnist since 2003. In 2015 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the President of India.

Shri Jayant Sinha

Shri Jayant Sinha is a second term Member of Parliament from Jharkhand, India. Mr. Sinha won his Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and 2019 with record margins. Previously, Mr. Sinha served on India’s Council of Ministers from 2014 to 2019; first, as the Minister of State for Finance and then as the Minister of State for Civil Aviation. Prior to his career in public service, Mr. Sinha was Partner at Omidyar Network (ON) and the Managing Director of Omidyar Network India Advisors, where he led overall investment strategy and operations in India from 2009 to 2013. As a global thought leader, Mr. Sinha has been published in the Financial Times, Times of India, Economic Times, Indian Express, Business Standard, Harvard Business Review, and the McKinsey Quarterly. He has pioneered new thinking on platform-based businesses, innovation-driven entrepreneurship, Climate Change, and sustainable development.

Amb Preeti Saran

Ambassador Preeti Saran is currently a Member of the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). She was formerly worked as Secretary (East) at the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. She joined the MEA in 1982, and has most recently served as Ambassador of India to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. She has also undertaken diplomatic postings to Toronto, Geneva, Cairo, Dhaka and Moscow. In New Delhi, she has served as Joint Secretary (SAARC/North), Deputy Secretary/ Director (Establishment) / East Asia, and Under secretary (ICCR/AMS).

Amb Amar Sinha

Ambassador Amar Sinha is a career diplomat who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1982. He is an Economics Graduate from Patna University and worked with the State Bank of India for over two years before joining the Indian Foreign Service.

Shri PVSLN Murthy

Shri PVSLN Murthy is the Chairman and Managing Director of North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi). He has previously served as a Chief General Manager and Chief Strategy Officer of the State Bank of India, and brings with him around 40 years of development and commercial banking experience.

Lt Gen Arun Sahni

Shri Arun Kumar Sahni is a decorated, scholar – soldier, with 40 years of commissioned service in the Indian Army. In his last assignment, tenanting the second highest rank of the army, he was the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of one of the six operational commands of the Indian Army.In addition to his Command assignments of leading military formations, his important staff appointments include ‘Chief Operations Officer’ of an Infantry Brigade in Sri Lanka as part of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF), Colonel General Staff responsible for operations of a Counter Insurgency Force in Jammu & Kashmir, ‘Principal Staff officer’ at Army Headquarters, Delhi,and ‘Director General Information Technology.

Shri Shaurya Doval

Shri Shaurya Doval is a Managing Director of Zeus Caps, where he leads the principal investment initiatrrives and deal originations in India. Mr. Doval is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a joint MBA Degree from London Business School and University of Chicago.

Dr Rupa Vasudevan

Dr Rupa Vasudevan is an Educationist , Founder and Chancellor of Bharatiya Engineering Science and Technology Innovation University, a State private University of Andhra Pradesh. She is also Co-Founder and Global President of World Forum for Education, an independent non-profit organization working globally to advance sustainable development, humanitarian response, and facilitating public good through knowledge sharing and Education.

Prof C Sheela Reddy

Prof. C. Sheela Reddy is the Principal of Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. She has previously served as the Chair Professor, Dr. Ambedkar Chair in Social Justice, Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA) from 2016 – 2021.