India Law Forum & LITFest 2022

Sameer Kochhar is a social scientist, leading reforms historian in India and an acclaimed author. His domain expertise on socio-economic issues has been used by the government and private sector alike for consultancy on public policy and strategy. He has published 16 books including Defeating Poverty, ModiNomics and The Untold Story of Indian Reforms. He is privileged to have his books released by Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Narendra Modi, Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr P. Chidambaram, among several other luminaries. His mantra is growth, livelihoods and equity.

Rohan Kochhar holds an MPA in Public Administration and Management from University College London (UCL) and a B.A. (H) Economics from Delhi University. During his time at UCL, he also received an unconditional offer to pursue a PhD in Political Science under the tutelage of the Director, School of Public Policy and Head of Department, Political Science, University College London. He was UCL’s official nominee for the inaugural cohort of UNLEASH – A Global Innovation Lab for SDGs in Copenhagen funded by Carlsberg Foundation.

Raghava Krishna has 17 years of corporate experience with expertise in leading cross-functional creative product development Teams, Learning Design and Org Culture. He was the Development Director at Electronic Arts (EA Sports) where he led product operations for EA’s mobile game development studio. After his corporate stint, he moved into Public Policy to engage directly with India’s governance needs. He was the co-founder and Assoc Dean of academics at Rashtram school of public leadership. He is currently the co-founder and CEO of Brhat Foundation with a focus on Culture Creatives, Public Policy and Leadership Development.

J. Sai Deepak is the author of the bestseller India That is Bharat: Coloniality, Civilisation, Constitution published by Bloomsbury in 2021. He is also practising as an arguing counsel primarily before the Supreme Court of India and The High Court of Delhi.Sai has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Anna University (2002-06) and a bachelor’s degree in law from IIT Kharagpur (2006-09). He has been a litigator since July 2009 and was an Associate Partner at a leading National Capital Region-based litigation firm, Saikrishna &; Associates. In close to thirteen years of practice, Sai has carved a niche for himself in Civil Commercial litigation, IP litigation, Constitutional law and Competition law with reported judgements to his credit in each of these practice areas.

Rinkoo Wadhera (PhD & Post Doctorate) is Core Faculty at the Council for Historical and Sociological Research, New Delhi. She has taught at school and higher education levels for the past twenty-five years. Her areas of specialization include Folkloristics, Women’s Studies and Philosophy. She has authored Existentialism, Upanishadic Resolution and Via-Negativa in Indian English Poetry and Burdens on Hinduness along with contributions in several journals. She has been awarded Saksharta Mitr Award by the Govt of M.P and a Post Doctoral Fellowship by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

Shilpa Pandit is currently teaching psychology at The Ahmedabad University. She has applied her training in diverse ways- working in the social sector, including serving as a UNDP Research Officer, at MoRD from 2014-16. In the last 15 years, she has been associated with several credible grassroots and large NGOs as an expert in areas of research and policy implications for gender, rural employment, livelihoods, youth and health. As a Chevening scholar, she became particularly interested in entrepreneurship and the intersections of science, arts and humanities for problems and solutions on issues that confront us today.

Ashwin Kumar is an Associate Professor at the Amrut Mody School of Management, and Director, The Centre for Learning Futures, Ahmedabad University. He has over a decade of experience in teaching and research in Cultural Studies and has worked in Higher Education grant design and policy review, alongside being a literary and academic translator. His research interests are primarily in Philosophy of Culture, Cultural Theory and Conceptual History. His work addresses questions related to the philosophical landscape of the issues involved in the study of human cultures. His book Nationalism, Language and Identity in India: Measures of Community is published by Routledge.