Distinguished Fellows
Ms Prabha Rao
Ms. Prabha Rao is Executive Director, South Asian Institute for Strategic Affairs and Distinguished Scholar at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi. She is a former IPS officer from Karnataka cadre (1982 batch) who went on a deputation to cabinet secretariat and served in several locations abroad. She also runs an NGO — Encourage India, for skilling victims of trafficking and left-wing extremism.Ms Karuna Gopal
Ms. Karuna Gopal, is an Internationally acclaimed Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker and a Futurist. She is the Founder President of Foundation for Futuristic Cities, a think tank that has influenced Urban Transformation in India for two decades.Her work is at the Intersection of TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | FUTURE CITIES. As a Plenary Speaker, she represented India at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference (CLGC) 2023 Rwanda, AFRICA | BRICS Innovation Forum 2023 Moscow, RUSSIA and COP21-UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Paris, FRANCE.
Ms Gopal contributed to the design of the '100 Smart Cities Mission' of India and has been invited to speak at the launch of the Mission by the Prime Minister. Her innovation SCULPT YOUR CITY- 2009 (Crowd Sourced Protocol for Co-Creation) has shaped the Mission guidelines and has been declared a National Best Practice.
In the past, she served as an Urban Expert for The WORLD BANK, DFID (Department for International Development, UK), USAID (United States Agency for International Development) & ADB (Asian Development Bank).
Ms Gopal lectures senior IAS officers at India’s Premier Academy LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) Mussoorie, WBI (World Bank Institute) and ASCI (Administrative Staff College of India).
Ms Gopal has given more than 100 Keynote addresses globally and was invited to address Harvard Asia – Business Conference 2020 at Harvard University, USA.
She currently heads the Policy Research division for Women in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She also serves on the Board of Engineers India limited, under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.