People

Dr. Naushad Forbes

Dr. Naushad Forbes is the Co - Chairman of Forbes Marshall, India›s leading Steam Engineering and Control Instrumentation firm. He is Chairman, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Economic Research (CTIER), Ananta Aspen Centre and Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST).

Forbes Marshall’s deep process knowledge helps their customers save energy, improve product quality, increase process efficiency, and run a clean and safe factory. Forbes Marshall has consistently ranked amongst India’s Great Places to Work.

Naushad is on the Board of several educational institutions and public companies and has chaired CII National Committees on Higher Education, Innovation, Technology and International Business.

Naushad was an occasional Lecturer and Consulting Professor at Stanford University from 1987 to 2004 where he developed courses on Technology in Newly Industrializing Countries. He received his Bachelors, Masters and PhD Degrees from Stanford.

Naushad is on the Board of several educational institutions and public companies. Naushad has long been an active member of CII and was President of CII for 2016 – 17.

Mr. Farhad Forbes

Farhad is Co-Chairman of Forbes Marshall. He has been at Forbes Marshall since 1982. Previously, he was a member of the R&D technical staff of Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto, California. He is presently Chairman and Board member of Family Business Network - International (FBN-I), an association of 3500 family businesses from 65 countries with 17,000 individual members. He is also currently Chairman of the CII National Committee on Affirmative Action, and is a past Chairman of CII western region and a past Chairman of the CII-FBN India chapter. He is a past member of the Advisory Council of the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, and a member of the Advisory Board of the MSx Program (formerly known as the Sloan Program) at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.

He received his B.S. in 1977 and his M.S. in 1979 in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He received his M.S. in Management in 1991 from the Sloan Master’s Program at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

Mr. Janak Nabar

Janak is CEO of the Centre for Technology, Innovation and Economic Research (CTIER), and has been leading CTIER’s research efforts. Janak is a member of the CII National Committee on Technology and the Expert Group on Technology. He has been part of working groups constituted by NITI Aayog to rank national R&D laboratories and develop the India Innovation Index.

He has previously worked as an Economist and Investment Strategist in the private sector in Singapore. Janak’s work experience includes two years with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Serbia where he worked on the performance and financial monitoring of UNHCR’s NGO partners. Besides his research interest in innovation and technology policy, Janak also researches and writes on India’s macroeconomic policies.

Janak holds an MSc (Econometrics and Mathematical Economics) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, MA (Mathematics) from Balliol College, University of Oxford (as a Radhakrishnan Scholar and BA (Mathematics) from the University of Pune (ranked first in the university).

Dr. Pankaj Chandra

Professor Pankaj Chandra is the Vice Chancellor of Ahmedabad University. He was the Director of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (2007-2013) and Professor of Operations and Technology Management at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Bangalore. He holds a BTech from the Banaras Hindu University and a PhD from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has been a full time faculty member at McGill University and IIM Ahmedabad and a visiting professor at the University of Geneva, The Wharton School, International University of Japan, Cornell University and Renmin University, Beijing. He was the first Associate Dean (Academic) at ISB, Hyderabad.

Professor Chandra was a member of the Government of India Committee on Rejuvenation of Higher Education (Yashpal Committee) that relooked at the Indian Higher Education system as well as the Committee on the Autonomy of Central Institutions. He was also a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Professor Chandra’s research and teaching interests include Manufacturing Management, Supply Chain Coordination, Building Technological Capabilities, Higher Education Policy, and Hi-tech Entrepreneurship. His recent book titled ‘Building Universities that Matter’ studies issues of Governance, Change and Institution Building in Indian Universities. He serves on the board of several firms and institutions.

Dr. Sunil Mani

Professor Sunil Mani is the Director and also Professor, Reserve Bank of India Chair at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram. Formerly, he was a member of the faculty and head of graduate studies at the United Nations University-Institute for New Technologies (now known as UNU-MERIT) at Maastricht in the Netherlands

He obtained his M. Phil and Ph.D. in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and has done postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford on a fellowship from the Ford Foundation, New York. He has held Visiting Professorships at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy and University of Toulouse Jean Jaures, Toulouse, France and at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Further, he serves on the editorial boards of three international journals, Research Policy (Elsevier), Structural Change and Economic Dynamics (Elsevier), and the International Journal of Technology and Globalization (Inderscience).

Dr. Mani has published extensively in his area of specialisation in the form of 10 books, and several articles in refereed international and national journals and chapters in books. His latest (2017) book is with Franco Malerba and Pamela Adams, Rise to Market Leadership, New Leading Firms from Emerging Countries, Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, Mass, USA: Edward Elgar. Another edited work, India’s Economy and Society, Lateral Explorations is under publication by Springer. He is a member of the Research Advisory Council at CTIER.

Dr. Rakesh Basant

Dr. Rakesh Basant is a Professor of Economics and JSW Professor of Innovation and Public Policy at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). He has taught at universities abroad and worked as a consultant to several international organizations.

Prof. Basant’s current teaching and research interests focus on firm strategy, innovation, intellectual property rights, entrepreneurial business models, public policy & regulation. His recent research has focused on capability building processes in industrial clusters, Foreign Direct Investment in R&D, innovation-internationalization linkages, competition policy, inter-organizational linkages for technology development (especially academia-industry relationships), incubation models in higher education institutions, emerging entrepreneurial patterns and eco-system in India, strategic and policy aspects of intellectual property rights, linkages between public policy and technological change, economics of strategy, the small scale sector in India and policy issues in higher education.

His sectoral focus of the research in the aforementioned areas has been on Pharmaceutical, IT, Electronics and Auto-component industries. He was also a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s High- Level Committee (also known as Sachar Committee) that wrote a report on the Social, Economic and Educational Conditions of Muslims in India. In continuation of this work, a part of his current research focuses on issues relating to Muslims, especially affirmative action in higher education.

Mr. Anjan Das

Mr. Anjan Das is the Executive Director of Technology at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Anjan heads CII's work in the areas of knowledge-economy that focuses on effectively realizing economic benefits in terms of value added manufacturing, high technology exports and ownership of critical technologies from the investments made in knowledge ecosystem through public private partnerships.

Anjan has been the architect of conceptualising and implementing many innovative PPP vehicles including Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA) – a PPP Section 25 Company to manage fund and implement globally collaborative industrial R&D programs. He has been involved in Policy Framework & Advocacy in the areas of Industry's investment in R&D, technology acquisition and commercialization; Industry-academia collaborations; creation-protection-exploitation of IPR; Infusion of design in manufacturing; Innovation promotion and Entrepreneurship development.

Before joining CII, Anjan worked with CMC Limited, Mumbai; Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi; Hindustan Motors Limited, Kolkata. Anjan has been a consultant to World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and National Expert of UNIDO for delivering assignments. Anjan has a Post Graduate (M. Tech.) degree in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur.

Dr. Smita Srinivas

Dr. Smita Srinivas is Founder Director of the Technological Change Lab, a research platform originally established at Columbia University. She is a frequent global keynote speaker and has over two decades of consulting and high-level advisory invitations. She holds appointments as Visiting Professor in Economics and Innovation, Knowledge, Development Centre, The Open University UK, and as Honorary Professor University College London, Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Public Policy (STEaPP). She is Senior Research Fellow at CTIER.

Prof. Srinivas’s research focuses on theories and measures of economic development, technological learning, innovation, and science, technology and industrial policies. Building on a wide portfolio of funding, her research involves intra- and cross-industry patterns and institutional analysis. Industries include health, oil & gas, waste, energy, and product, process, and services, at the intersections of human health, agriculture, food, and environment areas. Her research and leadership has been recognized in diverse global awards and grants.

Dr. Srinivas was awarded the 2015 biennial Myrdal Prize from the European Association for Evolutionary Political Economy (EAEPE) for her book on the health industry, "Market Menagerie: Health and Development in Late Industrial States" (Stanford University Press Economics & Finance 2012).

She holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has held numerous Fellowships at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and has prior training in economics, physics, and mathematics. A longer profile of engagements, keynotes, journals, awards, and clients/collaborators, is available here.

Dr. Aradhna Aggarwal

Dr. Aggarwal is the Chair Professor in Indian Studies at the Copenhagen Business School and has over three decades of experience in University teaching and research.

Aradhna is keenly interested in industry, technology, international trade and investment related issues and has published extensively in leading international and national journals, and newspapers on these issues. She taught Economics at the University of Delhi from August 1982 to January, 2014. During this period she also had an opportunity to serve at various prestigious think tanks including the Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), ICRIER, and NCAER on a full time basis.

She worked as an external consultant to prestigious international agencies like UNESCAP, ADB, UNDP, World Bank, GIZ, UNCTAD, Swedish Board of Trade; and the Ministries of Commerce and Information Technology, Government of India and RIS, the Ministry of External Affairs, among others. She is the author of Kerala Perspective Plan 2030 launched by Kerala Government in January She has authored two monographs both published by the Oxford University Press and has published several book chapters. She has presented her research in seminars and conferences in many countries across the globe. Prof. Aggarwal holds a PhD from the Delhi School of Economics.

Dr. Subash Sasidharan

Dr. Subash Sasidharan is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has previously been a researcher with institutions like the Madras School of Economics, Centre for Development Studies, Trivandrum and United Nations University Institute-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands. His research interests include Innovation, Technology change and studying the impact of Foreign Direct Investment and Multinational enterprises. He has also appeared in journals like World Development, Research Policy, Economic Systems, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Developing Economies etc

He holds an MPhil in Planning and development and a Ph.D. in Economics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Dr. Dinar Kale

Dr Dinar kale is a Senior Lecturer in Innovation and International development at the Open University, UK. He is co-Director of the Innogen Institute and visiting lecturer in the School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.

His research interests include technology strategies of healthcare technology firms from developing countries, dynamics of innovation and issues of knowledge transfer. His current work focuses on challenges of inclusive healthcare in developing countries and concerns with resolving issues that hinder innovation and development of the healthcare industries from developing countries. He has published in leading and highly respected international journals such as Research Policy, World Development and British Journal of Management.

He is currently external assessor at the University of Sussex and academic expert reviewer for the Newton Fund. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Intellectual Property Management and Efil Journal of Economic Research.

He holds an MSc in Organic Chemistry (University of Pune), an MBA in Marketing Management (University of Pune) and a PhD in innovation management from the Open University.

Dr. Abrar Ali Saiyed

Dr. Abrar Ali Saiyed is currently faculty at Amrut Modi School of Management of Ahmedabad University, Ahmedabad. Abrar earned his Fellowship in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) with specialization in strategic management, entrepreneurship and international business.

His research interests are studying innovation and internationalization in Small and Medium Enterprises, Family Businesses and Entrepreneurial Firms. He is also interested studying entrepreneurial practices in traditional business communities and marginalized communities in India. He has published his research in many peer reviewed journals and has presented at numerous conferences. He won the best paper award in IIMA Doctoral Colloquium in 2013.

Abrar has taught courses at various institutes like Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Management, Indore, Center for Environment and Planning Technology and Nirma Institute of Management. He has worked as a consultant to Industrial Commissioner and Industrial Extension Bureau (Government of Gujarat), ASL Logistics, Qua Nutrition, I-Tiffin, SEWA Handicraft, CCRT, Kobe Sizzlers, Serene Global and others. He also serves as subject expert for the MSME Panel of Confederation of Indian Industries Gujarat Chapter.

Dr. Megha Patnaik

Dr. Megha Patnaik is a research economist currently at the Indian Statistical Institute where she joined after graduating from Stanford, California. She has also worked as a data scientist at a leading financial software firm in Silicon Valley. Her current research covers topics in labour, corporate finance, entrepreneurship and the economics of innovation.

She has developed and conducted firm surveys with the US Census Bureau and the Atlanta Fed on management and uncertainty and is currently implementing a similar survey in India with CTIER and CII. She has previously been part of designing pension policy with the Ministry of Finance and Invest India Economic Foundation, and has worked as a consultant with the World Bank evaluating the Gram Swaraj Project in Karnataka.

Megha has taught at the Indian Statistical Institute, the Indian School of Business, and Chennai Mathematical Institute. She helps organise various coding workshops and runs a data science reading group over summer.

Swati Joshi

Swati is a Senior Research Associate at CTIER. She has extensive experience working with state governments and funding agencies such as the UNICEF and the World Bank across different development sectors like education, WASH, public health, social security and participatory planning. Swati has been part of several teams working on monitoring and evaluation, pilots to test state level frameworks and is well versed with the demands of project management and execution that such projects demand.

She holds a MSc with Distinction from Newcastle University and a BSc with Distinction from Pune University.