Envision India Conference 2024
VIEW EVENT DETAILSOn Thursday, June 6, 2024, Asia Society Northern California will host a half-day conference in Silicon Valley on the topic of envisioning India. In the past year, reports on the ‘rise’ of India, India’s potential to become the next great economic superpower, and India’s technological development have swept the globe. Join top leading voices across the fields of business, government, technology, academia, and entrepreneurship as we analyze and envision the critical role of India in our rapidly changing world.
Our conference agenda will include sessions on India’s 2024 elections, public health in India, India’s technological and economic advancement, and U.S. and India’s bilateral relationship.
We will be offering limited virtual options to members and non-members. Session 1 on The Emerging U.S. & India Partnership will be livestreamed.
We appreciate additional donations, which help further our global mission of building bridges. Please donate here.
Conference Agenda:
1:00 p.m. - Registration
1:30 p.m. - Conference Begins
- Opening Remarks – The ‘Rise’ of India & Reflections on India's 2024 Elections
- Consul General K. Srikar Reddy, Consul General of India at San Francisco
In April 2024, India held the world’s largest democratic election to date, bringing close to one billion voters to the polls. India continues to be in the world spotlight given its growing economy, population size, strategic capabilities, and impressive leadership in innovation. Join us as we set the stage for our conference – Where does India stand on the world stage? And what does the future look like both domestically and internationally?
- Session 1 – The Emerging U.S. & India Partnership
- Mukesh Aghi, President and Chief Executive Officer, US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF)
- Arzan Tarapore, Research Scholar, Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC), Stanford University
- (moderator) Asha Jadeja Motwani, Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist and philanthropist
Exactly one year ago, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington, D.C., cementing the critical partnership that lies between the U.S. and India. From the activism in the QUAD in creating a free, open, inclusive, and resilient Indo-Pacific, to the continued work on iCET (U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology), the U.S.-India partnership has flourished over the years. With the increased turbulence in geopolitics and rising U.S.-China competition, speakers will analyze the challenges and prospects that lie for the U.S.-India partnership in the realms of foreign policy, security, economics, and trade.
- Session 2 – U.S.-India Tech & A.I. Investment Amidst a Tech Revolution
- Shruti Gandhi, Founder, Array Ventures
- Aanchal Gupta, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft
- Madhu Shalini, Managing Partner, rocketship.vc
- (moderator) Ella-Tamar Adhanan, Director, Global Gateway, Silicon Valley Bank
Over the last year, India has continued to boom in the tech sector – from the dozens of successful startups reaching unicorn status, cutting-edge innovation, and the Indian government’s commitment to invest in infrastructure. Gain insights from seasoned professions in the investment and technology field about the major trends in the tech and investment sector, and what the roadblocks are in India’s technology revolution.
- Session 3 - Public Health in India
- Rajani R. Ved, Director of Health, India Country Office, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
India faces unprecedented opportunities and challenges in the public health space due to the rapidly growing economy, a vast population, and persistent hurdles in healthcare accessibility. Over time, both the public and private sectors have accorded significant importance to healthcare, with an emphasis on expanding healthcare schemes and fostering innovation in medical technology. Delve into the current realities of public health in India and the opportunities and challenges India faces in delivering comprehensive healthcare for all.
- Closing Remarks
- Reception & Professional Networking (snacks & drinks will be served)
5:00 p.m. - Conference Concludes
Speakers
Ella-Tamar Adhanan is Director within Global Gateway, Silicon Valley Bank’s international market expansion team. She works with some of the most disruptive and exciting companies from emerging international markets, with a focus on India, the Middle East and North Africa. Based in San Francisco, Ella extends SVB’s network and services to entrepreneurs and investors from these global markets as they expand and scale in the US. She draws inspiration from clients and founders’ drive, dedication and resilience and enjoys helping them realize their vision through SVB’s platform.
Mukesh Aghi is the President and Chief Executive Officer of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF). USISPF is the largest, independent not for profit entity based out of Washington DC. It focuses on building strong partnership between the US and India, focusing on geo-political, trade, technology transfer, innovation, investment and legislative issues. Mukesh Aghi has extensive experience working with business and government leaders in the U.S. and India to promote trade and strengthen ties between the two countries. Last four years USISPF has been instrumental in investing over $50 billions in India. Currently Mukesh Aghi is a board member and former Chair of the Compensation Committee at DXC Technology (NYSE) a $15 billion IT Services company. He is also member of the board at HT Media and Trustee at Claremont Graduate University in California.
Previously, Mukesh Aghi served as Chief Executive and Member of the Board at L&T Infotech where he expanded the business on a global level. L&T Infotech is over $1.2 billion IT Services company with over 25,000 employees worldwide. During his time at Steria, Inc. (India), Dr. Aghi served as Chairman and CEO of the Asia-Pacific region. Steria headquartered in Paris was a 2.5 billion Euro entity. Additionally, Dr. Aghi was the founding CEO of Universitas 21 Global, based in Singapore, the world’s largest consortium of research-led universities and global leader in providing post-graduate online education. He was also the President of IBM India for IBM Corporation and General Manager Manufacturing based out of Japan. Dr. Aghi was Senior Vice President at Ariba Inc based in San Francisco managing global operations. He grew J.D. Edwards global operations based in multiple countries-Tokyo, Singapore, London and Dubai.
Dr. Aghi holds several degrees, including an advanced management diploma from Harvard Business School, a Ph.D. in international relations from Claremont Graduate University, an MBA in international marketing from Andrews University, and a BA in business administration from the Middle East College, Beirut, Lebanon. As a fluent speaker in many international languages, Dr. Aghi was recognized by Esquire Magazine as a Global Leader and has won many awards over the course of his professional career, including the J. R. D. Tata Leadership Award. He was awarded by Government of India Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (India’s President Medal of Honor). In his free time, Dr. Aghi is a major marathon and mountaineering enthusiast. He has competed in over 27 international marathons and climbed some of the highest peaks in North America and Europe.
Shruti Gandhi is the founder of Array Ventures. Array Ventures is an enterprise data AI fund that invests at the preseed stage. She has invested in over 100 companies in their preseed rounds which are now worth billions. She has over 17 exits to companies such as Apple, Paypal, ServiceNow, Amazon, JAMF, and others. She is on lists such as Techcrunch 10 VCs that founders like, Top 100 Seed Firms, Top 30 Seed Women Investors. She has an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business for and Masters in Computer Science from Columbia University.
Aanchal Gupta is Corporate Vice President at Microsoft responsible for building core features for M365 product. Prior to her current role, as Deputy CISO and CVP, she led Microsoft Security Response Center, the frontline defense for millions of Microsoft customers around the world. Before rejoining Microsoft, she was CISO for Novi (Calibra) at Facebook, responsible for assessing and mitigating security risks across Facebook's cryptocurrency initiative. She joined Facebook after serving as CISO at Microsoft for Skype and Skype for Business. Prior to Microsoft, she led Yahoo's Global Identity team. Gupta was named one of Business Insider’s “Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2018”. She serves on the board of Internet Security Research Group, and Silicon Valley CISO Investments.
Asha Jadeja Motwani is one of Silicon Valley’s most highly respected venture capitalists. She has invested in over a 100 well-known technology startups in the Valley such as Paypal, Mimosa, AppDynamics, Meraki, and Pinterest. As founding stake holders in Google, Asha & her late husband Prof Rajeev Motwani played a critical role in building & crafting the DNA of Google the startup. Asha continues to work closely with Google Ventures and Google Foundation on various joint investments.
As an active philanthropist, Asha helped create MakerFaire Africa in 2009 and later launched dozens of MakerFests in India with the objective of showcasing alternative means of learning and earning through local problem solving. Asha set up India’s most advanced Fablab at Cept University (her Alma mater), and placed key engineers and architects from MIT and CEPT in it, to integrate Fablab into course curriculum. The results have been spectacular.
Her long term vision is to A. create opportunities for students of all ages to pursue self driven peer based learning in small groups, as opposed to institutionalized learning in mediocre schools and colleges. B. Empower women and girls with technical skills and C. Enable a deep scrutiny & scholarship about India as a civilization through the lenses of history, culture & art. Currently she is supporting 12 Indian history scholars full time as they embark on their research & writing journeys.
Dr. K. Srikar Reddy before taking over as the Consul General of India at San Francisco, served at the Department of Commerce, Government of India as Joint Secretary where he oversaw India’s commercial relations with countries in Africa and the Middle-East. He was the Chief Negotiator of India for the India-Mauritius Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement (CECPA) and India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) that entered into force on 01 April 2021 and 01 May 2022 respectively.
He joined the Indian Foreign Service in the year 2001 and served in various positions at Indian Missions including Germany and Switzerland. Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of India to the World Trade Organization (WTO) from August 2014 to October 2017. He was India's Consul General to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from October 2017 to March 2020.
He also served at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi and handled India’s relations with Pakistan and East and Southern Africa (E&SA). He served as Regional Passport Officer, Hyderabad (July 2011 – August 2014) where he transformed the delivery of passport services in then undivided state of Andhra Pradesh, India for which he was awarded the “Passport Seva Puraskar (Best Passport Officer)” in June 2013.
Dr. Reddy was born in the district of Warangal, Telangana. He studied Medicine (MBBS) at Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal India. He speaks Telugu, Hindi, English and German.
He is married to Prathima Koppula, an IT professional and has one son.
Madhu Shalini is the Managing Partner of rocketship.vc, a global venture capital firm with investments in 14 countries. She was previously the Chief Data Officer of Gojek and helped grow the business into a $1 billion unicorn. She was on the board and started the Singapore office. Prior to Gojek, Madhu was an operating partner at a 150M private equity fund building startups across South East Asia. She was part of the founding team of Intuit’s Quickbooks Lending Platform where she helped grow the platform to $300 million and holds 3 patents in the areas of user data augmented algorithms for financial inclusion.
Dr. Rajani R. Ved is currently Director, Health in the India Country Office of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which she joined in 2022. Between 2010 to 2022, she worked with the National Health Systems Resource Centre, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, first as Advisor and then Executive Director, leading the establishment and institutionalization of India’s Community Health Worker (ASHA) programme, and design and early implementation support for India’s flagship primary health care reform initiative, Ayushman Bharat- Health and Wellness Centres. She has worked for over thirty years with grassroots NGOs, governments, donors and private foundations in programme implementation, policy development, implementation research and the design and evaluation of large-scale health programmes for women and children’s health, nutrition, and health systems. She has a medical degree from Madras University and a Master’s in Public Health from Harvard University.
Arzan Tarapore is a Research Scholar whose research focuses on Indian military strategy and regional security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to his scholarly career, he served for 13 years in the Australian Defence Department in various analytic, management, and liaison positions, including operational deployments and a diplomatic posting to the Australian Embassy in Washington, DC.
His academic work has been published in the Journal of Strategic Studies, International Affairs, The Washington Quarterly, Asia Policy, and Joint Force Quarterly, among others, and his policy commentary frequently appears on platforms such as Foreign Affairs, the Hindu, the Indian Express, The National Interest, the Lowy Institute's Interpreter, the Brookings Institution’s Lawfare, and War on the Rocks.
Tarapore joined Stanford University in September 2020. Prior to joining CISAC, he led the South Asia Initiative at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford. He previously held research positions at Georgetown University, the East-West Center in Washington, the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, and the RAND Corporation. He earned a PhD in war studies from King's College London, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales.
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Event Details
Computer History Museum, 1401 N Shoreline Blvd, Mountain View, CA 94043