Prof. Benjamin Sovacool

Professor of Energy Policy (SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit)
University of Sussex Business School, United Kingdom

Prof. Benjamin Sovacool works as a researcher and consultant on issues pertaining to global energy policy and politics, energy security, energy justice, climate change mitigation, and climate change adaptation. More specifically, his research focuses on renewable energy and energy efficiency, the politics of large-scale energy infrastructure, designing public policy to improve energy security and access to electricity, the ethics of energy, and building adaptive capacity to the consequences of climate change.

His research has been endorsed by U.S. President Bill Clinton, the Prime Minister of Norway Gro Harlem Brundtland, and the late Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, among others. He is a Lead Author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), due to be published in 2022, and an Advisor on Energy to the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation in Brussels, Belgium.

With much coverage of his work in the international news media, he is one of the most highly cited global researchers on issues bearing on controversies in energy and climate policy.

Dr. Debajit Palit

PhD (Energy Policy)
Former Director & Senior Fellow, Rural Energy and Livelihoods Division, TERI
Vice President (Hon), Indian Association for Energy Economics
Visiting Faculty, Anant National University

Dr. Debajit Palit has more than 25 years of experience working in the field of renewable energy, clean energy access, rural electrification, decentralized energy, mini-grids, energy-gender- poverty nexus, and water-energy-food nexus. He has been listed in the Top 2% World's Scientists (for 2019 & 2020) by Stanford University and Elsevier BV.

During his association with TERI from 1998 to March 2022, he has executed nearly 200 analytical & action research and implementation projects and handled around 70 projects as Principal Investigator/Team Leader in the field of clean energy technology, resource assessment & energy planning; decentralised energy project implementation; rural electrification policy and regulation, monitoring, evaluation, and impact assessment and capacity building. Till very recently, he was leading the Rural Energy and Livelihood Division in TERI as the Director and Senior Fellow. He is also the Vice President (honorary) of the Indian Association for Energy Economics and also part of various Expert Groups/Committees such as the LVDC Distribution Systems Sectional Committee (ETD 50), steered by the Bureau of Indian Standards, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy Committee for Benchmark costs for Decentralised Solar Applications and Working Group WG C6.38 of CIGRE (Council on Large Electric Systems). Earlier, he was also a member of the technical committee of the Decentralised Distributed Generation scheme under the National Rural Electrification Programme of the Government of India.

Dr Palit possesses vast national and international experience, working in projects for UN organisations, bilateral organisations, The World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and federal governments across 17 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Palit has also written widely on energy access and rural electrification issues, and has published three books and around 145 research papers in peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings, books, and magazines/newspapers. He is a sought-out speaker on rural and renewable energy issues, rural electrification and electricity transition, water-energy-food, energy-poverty-livelihood, and energy-gender-poverty nexus and has participated in more than 100 conferences and workshops across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Dr Palit holds a Master's degree in Physics and a Ph.D in Energy Policy.

Dr. Raman Ramachandran

Professor of Practice and Chairperson - MDP
K J Somaiya Institute of Management

Raman Ramachandran is a leader, with a proven record of leading organizations and businesses to success across Asia Pacific and South Asia. He has spent 22 years with BASF, world’s largest chemical company and held several leadership positions including Asia Pacific Business Head for BASF’s Agricultural Products, Head of BASF South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka) and Chairman & Managing Director of BASF India Ltd. He retired from BASF in March 2019 and subsequently joined PI Industries as MD & CEO. Though he stepped down from operational role as of 31st December 2021 but continues to be on the board of PI Industries. Raman is also the Vice Chairman on the Board of Calibre Chemicals Pvt Ltd and a Director of Proklean Technologies.

Raman has a Ph.D in Agriculture from University of Adelaide, Australia. He has spent early part of his career in Academic Research at International Research Centers such as ICIPE, Kenya, IRRI, Philippines and University of Wisconsin, Madison. Raman was recently awarded 'Lifetime achievement award' by the Chemical & Petrochemicals group of FICCI. Raman is also a certified coach and is passionate about organizational energy and leadership.

In his current role with K J Somaiya Institute of Management, he is a Professor of Practice and Chairperson - Management Development Programmes.

Roma Balwani

Sr. Advisor & Former President, Communications & Brand, Vedanta Group
Independent Director, John Cockerill, India
Chairperson – CSR & NRC committee, John Cockerill, India
Former President, Group Communications, Sustainable Development & CSR Member of the Group Executive Committee, Vedanta Resources Ltd.
Advisor, Deaf Cricket Society

Roma Balwani, a Graduate in Economics, with a Post-Graduation in Marketing from Mumbai University is a President, Communications & Brand, Vedanta Group. She is also an Independent Director, Chairperson of CSR & NRC committees of John Cockerill, India. The Indian hub of the world leader in the conception, manufacture and installation of reversible cold rolling mills headquartered in Belgium.

Roma has over three decades of experience in various aspects of strategic communications. In her previous role as President, Group Communications and Sustainable Development at Vedanta Resources plc, she has been responsible for driving Group Communications, Sustainability & CSR as a strategic function across the group. Prior to joining Vedanta, she was the Chief Group Communications Officer at Mahindra Group, India.

At Vedanta, her key portfolios included sustainable development, brand management, stakeholder engagement and group communication to promote Vedanta’s position as a purpose driven organization.

Sudha Iyer

Communication Consultant
Luc Hoffmann Institute

Sudha Iyer is a communication professional and a conservationist working to promote environmental sustainability and pro-conservation behaviour among people from different sections of society.

She currently works as a communication consultant with the Luc Hoffmann Institute – an organisation that incubates and accelerates new ideas and approaches for nature conservation.

Over the past decade, Sudha has used her communication skills to drive sustainability agenda within organizations and institutions. She is passionate about developing a broader constituency for a sustainable world. She is specialized in field-based experiential learning, sustainability leadership in corporate organizations, citizen science, conservation education, advocacy, and networking.

She is a University of Cambridge alumna graduating with a Master’s in Philosophy (MPhil) in Conservation Leadership and she also holds a PG Diploma in Journalism and Mass Communication from Xavier Institute of Communications (XIC), Mumbai.

Born and raised in India, she currently lives in Pune.

Dr. Gopal Sarangi

Faculty - Dept of Policy and Management Studies
TERI School of Advanced Studies

Dr Gopal K Sarangi is an economist with more than fifteen years of research and consulting experience. His primary domain of research covers energy market and regulation, intersection of energy technologies, fuels and resources with public policies, social systems and processes, energy and climate nexus, governance and institutional analysis of energy transition questions and impact assessment of energy and environmental interventions. He has a PhD on ‘Sustainability Assessment of India Electricity Sector’, from TERI School of Advanced Studies, New Delhi. He has contributed as PI, Co-PI, and team member to several collaborative projects. To his credit, he has published several peer-reviewed research papers in the domain of his research and has been invited to deliver talks in several national and international forums. He teaches courses on development economics, managerial economics and environmental economics.