Vijay is an internationally known Indian rural development professional, social entrepreneur and a policy analyst. He is the founder of reputed organizations such as Pradan NGO and the Basix Social Enterprise Group.  He has also served on the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India Rangarajan Committee on Financial Inclusion and the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms. He has published over 20 papers in prestigious Indian and international journals, contributed chapters in 15 academic books and has authored over 70 papers/articles in the area of rural development, livelihood promotion and employment, microfinance, financial inclusion, social innovations and entrepreneurship. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management – Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi, and was mid-career Fellow at the Princeton University, USA.

Prof Ravinder Kumar Zutshi has held professorial appointments at San Diego State University, IIM Lucknow, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Long Island University, New York. Moreover, he has been visiting professor at IIT Delhi and a number of European Universities including, Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia and Eindhoven Technological University, Holland. As an academician he teaches and publishes extensively on Strategy, International Business, Business and Society and Entrepreneurship. Prof. Zutshi was Managing Editor of Journal of enterprising Culture and has been on the Editorial Board of Journal of Small Business Management and International Journal of Technological Management.

Along with his long career as academician, he has also contributed significantly in formation of public policies in India on number of issues including Public Enterprises, Industrial Training, Rural Labour, Industrialization in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, Youth Employment, International Knowledge Network and MSME Clusters by his direct engagements with erstwhile Planning Commission of India, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Government of Madhya Pradesh and National Industrial Development Cooperation, National Productivity Council. Moreover, he has advised a number of global financial institutions such as the World Bank, IDBI, Exim Bank, Singapore Technologies on subjects such as impact of global crisis on youth employment in India.

Dr Mungekar is an Economist, Educationist, Social Worker and a former Rajya Sabha member. He specializes in agricultural economics and is an expert on Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. He has been a Vice-Chancellor of the Mumbai University and has served in the Planning Commission, the Agricultural Price Commission of India. He has also been the Chairman and President of Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla

Somnath recently retired as Professor & Founding Dean (Academics) at Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur. He held regular faculty positions at three other Indian Institutes of Management at Lucknow, Bangalore and Indore, as well as other management institutes. He worked as a Consultant to the World Bank, Government of India, large corporate organizations like NTPC, Coal India, Union Carbide and social enterprises like Mahila Abhivruddhi Society, Andhra Pradesh (APMAS), and the Rashtriya Gramin Vikas Nidhi (RGVN). He was Visiting Fellow, Cornell University (USA) where he worked with Professor William Foote Whyte, the legendary researcher, scholar and author in Cornell’s Program for Employment and Workplace System (PEWS). He carried out his doctoral work on comparative industrial relations of Germany and India. He is associated with India’s Place in the World theme at RGICS.

Dr Vishal Massey holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Sociology, as well as a master’s degree in management and social work. Additionally, he is actively engaged in the field of Political Science as a student. He has more than 21 years of experience in research (qualitative and quantitative, academics and operations) and capacity development with technical expertise across disciplines. He focuses on strengthening government policies, monitoring and evaluation, gathering large databases, and analysing them in creative ways. He has experience in work with Government (NVDA/NVDD), UNICEF, Bilateral Agency-DANIDA.

He has written more than 13 research papers, more than 15 international reports, and is involved with a leading international think tank- The Club of Rome at the board level. Being an association with aboriginal roots, his main focus is on tribal development through technology transfer and research as well as empowering vulnerable communities in governance and policies.