Speakers

Dr Preeti Bajaj is an electronics engineer, who graduated in 1991, earned a postgraduate degree in 1998, and was awarded a doctorate in Electronics Engineering in 2004. With 32 years of rich experience, she currently holds the position of Vice Chancellor of Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab. Earlier, she served as Vice Chancellor of Galgotias University at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh and as the Director of an autonomous institute, G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering (GHRCE), Nagpur, BoG Vocational Board of Maharashtra, officiating VC of GHRU Saikheda, Madhya Pradesh and many others. Her expertise is in accreditations and rankings, internationalisations, streamlining reforms in academic examinations through interdisciplinary education, activity-based examinations, and outcome-based education. She is very active and guided a number of institutions on accreditations NAAC / NBA. She was on the global committee of accreditations for 2016-2017. She is a tech lady, putting all her energy into nurturing systems and processes in HEI, especially for research, innovations and entrepreneurship that sets the roadmap for ranking and accreditations. She joined LPU on 16 November 2022, taking LPU to the next level.

Maj Gen (Dr.) G.K. Thapliyal, SM (Retd.) has over forty years of experience in the Armed forces and Higher Education. He has been conferred with various prestigious awards such as the Sena Medal by the President of India, Commendation Award by GOC-IN-C Southern and Western Command, Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgeons of India. He has been the head of Maxillofacial Team at UN Peacekeeping Mission Hospital in Cambodia, head of Biomedical Research Team at Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (DRDO), Delhi, Prof. and Head, Maxillofacial wing at Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Army Dental Centre, Research & Referral, Delhi Cantt and many private institutions.

Shobhit Mathur is the Co-Founder and Vice Chancellor of Rishihood University. He holds B Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay. He completed his MS Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington in 2006. After a brief stint of volunteering in Suriname, he joined Amazon.com at their Seattle headquarters. Shobhit’s role at Amazon was to help it transition from an e-commerce to a technology company. After completing 5 years in the USA, he returned to India to pursue his calling & contribute to his motherland. He first started his stint with Youth For Seva (YFS), to connect youth to society through volunteering & lowering barriers for their participation in nation-building. After scaling YFS nationally, he decided to go back to school and did his MBA from the Indian School of Business. He stepped out of the placement process and established the Vision India Foundation with his friends from various IITs. VIF was aimed at engaging bright young minds in policy making and governance. After 5 years, VIF transformed into Rishihood University. He played a key role in conceiving and building Rishihood University and now heads it as the Vice Chancellor. He has an avid research interest in technology, education, and public policy. He writes often in leading newspapers and speaks on many international platforms on these issues.

Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri, Professor of Marketing & Strategy, has been appointed as the Director, IIM Sirmaur effective from May 17, 2022. Prof Agnihotri takes charge as Director from his predecessor, Prof. Neelu Rohmetra, who has completed her five year term as the founding Director of the Institute. Dr. Prafulla Agnihotri holds a Master’s Degree in Management Studies (M.M.S.) from the University of Mumbai and Ph.D. in International Marketing Strategy area from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. Before joining IIM Sirmaur, he was associated with Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta as Professor of Marketing. He was also the founder Director of IIM Trichy. He has over thirty years’ experience in the industry – in sales, marketing and training as well as academics. He was also a visiting faculty with Euromed, Marseille Provence (an EQUIS Certified B-school), and CERAM, Sophia Antipolis, France. He has co-authored a book titled Principles of Marketing with Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong.

Dr. Chattar Singh is a well-known Social Scientist and a political analyst. Dr Singh specializes in regional studies having done his Master’s degrees in History, Mass Communication and Laws. He was awarded Ph.D degree by Kurukshetra university.He organized three national seminars and one international conference as Chairman of the History Department besides many orientation and refresher courses for the university and college teachers. As a Founder of School of Social Sciences, Law, Management and Fine Arts, Dr Singh spearheaded quality academics with focus on research an national and international seminars.He worked as Registrar of a noted international university in Greater Noida and as Proctor in another global university in Bikaner which was conferred the Best Education Award-2017 by The Economic Times and The Best Rural University of India for 2017-18 by the ASSOCHAM.

Prof. (Dr) Priyadarsan Patra is the Pro Vice-Chancellor and Distinguished Professor of DIT University. He earlier served as a Chief Architect and Principal Scientist of the global R&D divisions of Intel Corp (USA). He has provided leadership to multiple universities and global Industries in a career spanning nearly three decades. He has created and led world-class corporate research and development for Servers, Systems-on-Chip, and intelligent devices. His research interests include Applications of Machine Learning, Big Data & Cloud Computing, and the design of Low-power and Intelligent systems. Dr. Patra has edited multiple technical proceedings and has authored 85+ scholarly publications, five scientific books, 13+ USA and international patents, and other influential articles. He has mentored many Ph.D. students and young faculty members around the world. Among the several international conferences he has led is the International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Embedded Design International Conference on Intelligent Systems and Embedded Design. Passionate about social development and volunteerism worldwide for over 25+ years, he has founded the Sustainable Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS). He has worked on sustainable and appropriate technology, various facets of better access to education, and women’s empowerment, through multiple initiatives in India and abroad. Dr. Patra holds a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.S. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and a B.Eng. from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. A recipient of many recognitions, a few of the fascinating non-technical awards of note are the Intel Hero Award (Intel Corp., USA) and a Distinguished Young Leader Award.

Kunwar Shekhar Vijendra is the Co-founder and Chancellor of Shobhit University India and a prominent social entrepreneur based in New Delhi, who carries leadership roles in many organizations. He is a persistent advocate of the initiatives for education for all, secular values, crisis management through diplomatic and peaceful ways, and globalized systems of learning and peaceful co-existence. He had been instrumental in the development of a number of higher education institutes, research centers, and a hospital in north India. He is very actively involved with a number of social organizations also. Some of his major social affiliations are, Advisor of Shri JP Mathur Charitable Trust, New Delhi; Chairman of Livelihood Development Research Foundation; Founder of KSV Ayurved Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre; Founder, Centre for Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences and various others. Acknowledging his contribution to society in the areas of education and other concerns he has been copiously honored and awarded. Recently ASSOCHAM conferred on him the “Lifetime Achievement Award 2018″. He has traveled widely in India and to the countries like USA, UK, Germany, Australia, Russia, China, South Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, UAE, Mauritius, Rwanda, Uganda, Croatia etc. to participate in various professional, social, and educational activities.

Pravesh Dudani is the Founder & Chancellor of Medhavi Skills University (MSU), Sikkim and the Managing Director of the sponsoring body of the University – Medhavi Foundation. Mr Dudani is an IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University alumni and brings 15+ years of Education & Skills leadership experience into MSU. He founded Medhavi Foundation in 2012 with the vision to bridge the gap between the employability of the rural youths and the manpower requirements of industries. Under his leadership, Medhavi Foundation has partnered with National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) and various State Skill Missions and Government departments to implement NSQF (National Skills Qualification Framework) aligned Skill training mandates and has impacted 1,00,000+ beneficiaries since 2012 via various short term, long term and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) training initiatives. After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, Mr Dudani worked with renowned Education companies to gain experience in various facets of the Education domain. He worked with Educomp Solutions Ltd as head for K12 assessment space catering to more than 500 schools and later worked with IndiaCan Education Pvt. Ltd. in the space of vocational education and University education segment.

Dr. V. K. Rattan is designated as the Vice Chancellor of GNA University, Phagwara. He has served as an educationalist for more than three decades. He believes, higher education has been a matter of intense debate globally. In an exclusive interview with Collegedunia.com, Prof. (Dr.) Rattan spoke about his university and the education sector in India.