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Prof. M G K Menon has had a distinguished career as a scientist and policy maker, and has held a number of prominent appointments including Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, Secretary, Department of Electronics both in the Government of India; Member, Planning Commission (1982-89); and Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister. He was also President of the International Council of Scientific Unions ICSU from 1988-1993. He is the recipient of prestigious awards such as Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan in recognition of his distinguished service to the Nation. He has also been honoured with the Abdus Salaam award. He has been a member of Parliament, in the Rajya Sabha. He has a Doctoral Degree from Bristol and was educated at Agra and Bombay.

Nitin Desai has had a long and distinguished career in the Government of India and the United Nations. In the Government of India, Mr. Desai worked at senior levels in the Planning Commission from 1973 to 1987. He was also the Secretary of the National Commission on the Development of Backward Areas and a Member-Secretary of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. From 1988 to 1990 Mr. Desai was the Chief Economic Adviser and Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance. Mr. Desai’s international involvement has been most prominent in the development and promotion of sustainable development as the goal of policy, first as Senior Adviser and principal draftsman for "Our Common Future", the Report of the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development and then as Deputy Secretary-General for the Rio Earth Summit and as the Secretary General for the Johannesburg Summit. He retired from the UN in 2003 as the Under-Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs.

Presently Mr.Desai is a Special Adviser to the UN for the World Summit on an Information Society . He is an Honorary Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK as well as a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance. He is on the advisory board of several international NGO initiatives. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations, a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and a Trustee of the Delhi Policy Group.

Krishnendu Bose, set up Earthcare Films, making wildlife and conservation films. After acquiring a Masters degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics (1985), he went independent, making documentaries on conservation development politics.

Harvesting Hunger – a film on the politics of food in India won the Special Jury Award at Okomedia Environment Film Festival in Freiberg, Germany in 2000. Jardhar Diary – a film on community conservation in the Himalayas was awarded by Earthvision Environmental Film Festival, Tokyo 2003. His film on the tiger crisis- Tiger- the death chronicles was awarded the Wildlife Conservation Award at the 4th Vatavaran Film Festival 2007, Delhi and Conservation Award at the International Wildlife Film Festival at Missoula, Montana in 2008.The Latent City, his film in 2009 was showcased at the Indian Panorama, at the International Film Festival 2009. He was awarded the highest award for documentary filmmaking in the field of Environment and Wildlife in India- CMS-UNEP Prithvi Ratna Award in 2009.

Along with producing films, he conducts workshops in schools and college on Environment using his films as a medium. He has designed and executed exchange programme between rural communities of India around films made about them. Krishnendu has done a project funded by Ministry of Environment of Germany– looking at efficacy of raising awareness

for conservation through films among young people. Presently he is running a participatory video project with the community in the island of the Great Nicobar.

Krishnendu is a fellow of an international fellowship programme- LEAD (Leadership in Environment and Development) and a member of IUCN commission on Education and Communication. Krishnendu was invited as a consultant, to participate in a weeklong workshop with the youth in Togo, West Africa, training them in participatory video. Krishnendu was invited to attend and screen his films, at the First Congress on Communication for Development in Rome, Oct 2006. Krishnendu is also a guest faculty at a Media College in Delhi. He was nominated on the Jury for the highest Indian film award, the 56th National Film Awards 2010.

Since 1996 Krishnendu, has also involved in International Television production. He has produced shows for Sony- AXN’s- Amazing Race Asia. He has also co-produced an award winning documentary on pesticide deaths with Honrung Television, Hamburg – Cycle of Poison. He has been line producer of television programmes produced by CBS Network for their 7 time Emmy Awarded Series Amazing Race, and a science series- Daily Planet for Discovery Channel, Canada among many other shows. Krishnendu, lives with his wife Madhurima and 2 children in Delhi.

Dr Ashok Khosla has been the President of Development Alternatives, an NGO working in the field of Appropriate Technology, environmental management, policy advocacy etc. since 1983. Currently, he is the President of Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), New Delhi, President of People First, New Delhi and Secretary General of People's Commission on Environment and Development, New Delhi.

Dr Khosla obtained the School certificates at ‘O' and ‘A' levels from St. Lawrence College, UK. He has done his BA (Hons), MA (Natural Sciences) from Cambridge University, UK, and A.M. Ph.D (Experimental Physics) from Harvard University, USA. From 1963 to 1971 he was a Resident Tutor in Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. From 1972 to 1976, he was a Director in the Office of Environmental Planning and Coordination under the Ministry of Science and Technology, GOI, New Delhi. From 1976 to 1982, he worked with United Nations' Environmental

Programme, Nairobi. He has been awarded Global 500 Roll of Honour of the United Nations order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands.

Mr. Sushil Ramola is currently President of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in SRF and Director of the SRF Foundation - a society devoted to the cause of education. Earlier, he was President and CEO handling business responsibilities in Packaging Films Business, Coated fabrics, and a new venture in the IT-enabled services. Mr. Ramola was Corporate Head of Strategic Planning, Human Resource Development and Information Technology for SRF from 1998-2001. Prior to this, for 4 years he successfully established and ran the Group's first offshore manufacturing company, SRF Overseas Limited, Dubai as its President and CEO till 1998. This unit is a unique example of a process based organisation and has been rated as No.1 supplier by global giants like Michelin. It is today a Deming Prize winning company, the only one in the Middle East.

For the last 9 years, apart from business responsibilities, he has been involved in the management of The Shriram Schools and for part of this time in guiding the Corporate Social responsibility initiatives of the Group. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Essilor India, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Essilor SA,France, the world leader in ophthalmic lenses.

Mr. Ramola has 30 years of work experience, out of which 23 years have been with SRF Limited, a $ 400 million sales turnover multi-product company with eight manufacturing locations in India and overseas. He has led both manufacturing and services businesses and has expertise in bringing transformation in organizations, people management, strategic thinking, process design, manufacturing, and project management. Apart from wide experience as business leader, he brings in experience of engaging with the society, the Government and the NGOs on sustainable development. Currently, he is also an invited member of the CII’s National Committee for Industry-NGO Partnership and CII’s National Committee on CSR & Community Development.

Mr. Ramola graduated in 1975 with a gold medal in Chemical Engineering and did his PGDM from IIM, Ahmedabad, in 1981 after working for 4 years in Engineers India Limited, a public sector design and engineering company.

Dr. Saxena was a senior official with the Government of India and he served in various capacities in his long and illustrious career. He was the Government of India as Secretary, Planning commission (1999-2002) Secretary, Rural Development (1997-99), and Director, LBS National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie (1993-96). Earlier he was Visiting Fellow, CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research, Indonesia, 1994-95 and worked on Sustainable Forest Management.

The Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a Senior Post-Doctorate Fellowship to do research at the University of Oxford 1989-92, He is a member on the editorial boards of International Forestry Review, Oxford, and Food Policy, Amsterdam.

He is also a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, Stockholm, and Member, ADB Institute Advisory Council, Tokyo. On behalf of the Supreme Court of India, Dr Saxena monitor food based programmes in India. He now consults to a number of organisations on a range of issues.

Dr Sujatha Byravan is Senior Fellow at Centre for Development Finance, IFMR, Chennai and the focus of her work here is on climate adaptation. Her interests are in the broad areas of science, technology and development and are grounded in her technical background and education in the biological sciences.

Her recent projects and publications have been on sea level rise, climate migrants and exiles, biotechnology policy, innovation, and science for sustainable development.

She was, until recently, President of the Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG), Cambridge, Massachusetts, a non-profit/non-governmental organization devoted to fostering informed debate on the social, ethical and environmental implications of new genetic technologies. CRG carries out policy research, education and advocacy. Previously, she was Director of the Fellows Program at LEAD (Leadership for Environment and Development) International from 1999-2002, and in that capacity was responsible for developing and executing the program for the graduates of LEAD, who number over 1,300 and work all over the world in various sectors.

 

Sujatha has a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of South Carolina and did her postdoctoral work at the University of California in Los Angeles, U.S.A. She has received numerous grants and awards and has published extensively.

 

Raj Kumar Verma has been a member of the civil service in the Government of Nagaland since 1983 and is presently Joint Secretary. During his first 10 years of service, he was posted in the most remote areas in Nagaland where, in addition to his administrative responsibilities, he assisted in the implementation of programs at the local level through the UN award winning Village Development Boards and Communitisation Programme. He is working with eternally aided projects, notably the NEPED project (as Deputy Team Leader), besides others. His interests lie in sustainable development in tribal areas and improved methods in agro-forestry, especially pertaining to areas where shifting cultivation (Swidden) is practiced, renewable energy issues, climate change and people-led approaches. He is trained in facilitation and moderation skills which he uses in project management and social mobilisation programmes.

He is skilled in Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation methodologies, especially Outcome Mapping, soft skills training and project design. Raj has served with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK government as a LEAD intern in the Environment Policy Department in the rank of First Secretary. He assisted in developing the UK strategy towards WSSD, Johanesburg.

In 2001 he has been made a member of the American Evaluation Association (AEA) and presented a paper on use of Outcome Mapping at the AEA conference at St. Louis, Mo. (USA). He has also been invited on the board of the Moderation Group, a core team in India dedicated the spread of moderation/ facilitation in

 

decision making, development and other spheres for participatory and sustainable development.

He has done several consultancies for international donors like ICIMOD, IFAD, IDRC, World Bank, CIDA, Governments of Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Bangladesh etc. and is associated with The Missing Link, an Environment Education and Communications NGO. He has worked on secondment with the LEAD India Secretariat as Director Programs, and was responsible for the Associate training of Cohort 10 and 11. His other skill lies in Resource Mobilisation that has enabled him to raise funds for several causes.

He was also a member of LEAD's Capacity Development Team and has attended Training of Trainers in Cross Cultural Communications, Ethical Decision Making and Negotiating for Sustainable Development.

Besides his normal government assignments, he is Principal Mentor for the Climate Change Leaders program in North East India. He is member of numerous boards like the Nagaland E-governance Mission Team, Climate Change Task Force, Electricity Regulatory Commission, South Asian Community of Evaluators and Project Director for the World Bank funded North East Rural Livelihoods Project in Nagaland. He has recently been elected to the Board of Directors of LEAD India.

Dr. Abey George has been working in the field of development and environmental conservation for the past 16 years. During this period, he has been involved in different capacities with the government, non-governmental organizations, environmental movements, research institutes and so on. He is currently working as Assistant Professor with KILA ( Kerala Institute of Local Administration), Government of Kerala, India which imparts training to local governments in the state of Kerala and other parts of India and other SAARC countries. At KILA, he coordinates training programmes related to natural resource management, implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), environmental and conservation issues , climate change adaptation issues and use of the Right to Information Act and good governance accountability . He has been awarded the Commonwealth Professional Fellowship in 2008 to work on climate change and local governance.

Following his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, he was actively involved with the Save Narmada Movement (Narmada Bachao Andolan), an involvement which took him to working on issues of Development and Displacement at the Unit for Rural Studies, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. Subsequently, he worked as the Coordinator of the Oceanic Circles Research Group at Sewagram Ashram, (established by Mahatma Gandhi), at Wardha in Maharashtra. <

Subsequently, he has been engaged in research and consultancy work with institutions and forums such as the World Commission on Dams (WCD) with whom

he conducted a study to assess the feasibility of micro hydel options for electricity generation in the state of Kerala; the Kerala Forest Research Institute atPeechi in Kerala, where he was part of a project coordinated and funded by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), the work being aimed at evolving a set of criteria and indicators for assessing Sustainable Natural Resource Management which were subsequently field tested; the Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development at the Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum (CDS) on a project that looked into natural resource use and industrial development in Kerala, with the CDS, he also coordinated a project which aimed to explore pesticide use patterns by small and medium farmers in the tribal tract of Attappady in Kerala.

Later he headed the training and human resourcedevelopment division of the internationally assisted watershed development project aimed at the eco-restoration of an extremely degraded tribal area (Attappady in the state of Kerala).

He is also co-ordinating one of the Decentralised Resource Centres (DRCs) of Lead India, that works on the theme of Decentralisation and Natural Resource Management.

Dr. Abey George is a graduate in Physics, and a postgraduate in Gandhian Studies. His Ph.D. in Development Studies is from the Centre for Rural Development and Appropriate Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi.