Programme
Keynote Speakers
Montek Singh Ahluwalia
Montek Singh Ahluwalia is currently the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Government of India. Prior to this he was the Director of the Independent Evaluation Office (IMF), Member of the Planning Commission in New Delhi as well as a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. He had previously served as Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance; Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs; Commerce Secretary; Special Secretary to the Prime Minister; and Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance.
He earned his B.A. (Hons) degree in New Delhi and his M.A. and M. Phil. degrees from Oxford University. His published work includes papers in professional journals and contributions to books.
Georges Amar
Georges AMAR, born 1950, is Head of Prospective & Innovative design team in RATP (the Paris public transport company). His function is to bring new knowledge, concepts and methodologies through extended cooperation, with the academic world and other partners. Engineer from the Ecole Nationale Supéeure des Mines de Paris, Georges is also an artist (painter) and a writer. A long career in urban transport has afforded him a large experience as a researcher, a manager of large innovative projects (La Dénse Hub, etc.), as well as a prospective expert. He has published many papers in different Journals (.Les Annales de la recherche urbaine., .Les Cahiers de géoéque », etc.), and several books, among which .Mobilitéurbaines, ége de la diversitét devoir d.invention. (2004) is devoted to cultural differences and the urge for innovation in urban transport.
Jean-Pierre Chamoux
Jean-Pierre Chamoux is a confirmed international expert for information and communication policies for over 25 years, Professor CHAMOUX joined the University Paris V - René Descartes in 2001. He was previously teaching at the University of Le Havre. Graduated as an industrial engineer from Ecole Centrale in Paris (1963) he received his doctor's degree from the University of Paris in 1967 and a Master's Degree from the University of Wisconsin (1964).
Appointed from 1995 to 1998 to chair the Office for Service Industries in the French government, Pr. CHAMOUX founded & chaired the research center "Droit & Informatique" in Paris from 1975 to 1998. He published several books on communications policy as well as many articles and contributions in reference books and scientific journals & the press, both in France & abroad.
From 1986 to 1989, he was Head of the French Regulatory Authority for Post & Telecommunications in the French government. Former Director of a leading legal publishing house in Paris, now a branch of Reed-Elsevier, he introduced data banks & electronic publishing in this firm from 1972 to 1986. Until 1998, Pr. Chamoux was the editor of a quarterly journal "Le Communicateur" established in 1986.
Bert Klerk
Since 2009 Bert Klerk is CEO of the five-person Board of ProRail. Bert Klerk (born 1951) gained his Master’s degree in Political Economy at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 1975. He joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1977, and there became an expert in foreign relations in the field of commercial policy. One of the positions he held there was manager of the Department of Internal EC Affairs.
He became manager of the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1987, and Deputy General Manager of the Directorate General of Industry and Services in the General Management of Regional Economic Policy. He accepted the position of Director on the Board of Chemicals, Building and Business Management in this directorate in 1993. Bert left central government service in 1995 and joined the Municipality of The Hague. His positions there were successively General Manager of Urban Development, Acting Managing Director of the Department of Building and Housing, and Managing Director of the Department of Spatial Development and Economic Affairs. In addition to implementing a merger, setting up the new structure and culture and making these departments financially healthy, developing an integrated vision of the city was part of his range of duties.
In 2000 Bert Klerk accepted the position of General Manager of Railinfrabeheer, the organisation responsible for managing and maintaining the existing railway network and constructing new lines. Furthermore, Bert Klerk is Chairman of the Association of European Rail Infrastructure Managers, the lobby organisation of the independent European Infrastructure Managers. He is also vice-chairman of the European Regional Assembly of the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC) and Member of the Board of the European Rail Agency, an institution of the European Union.
Dr Harinarayana Kota
"The LCA Project is not about building an aircraft. It is about creating wealth for the country. If everything is brought from abroad how will you create jobs? We may have taken our time, but we have perfected it..." :Dr. Kota Harinarayana
Dr. Kota Harinarayana was born in Berhampur, Orissa, in 1943. He studied at City High School and Khallikote College in Berhampur before moving to BHU. He did his Ph.D. at IIT Bombay. He was deputed to DRDO in 1985 and assumed charge as Director, ADE, Bangalore. He was appointed as LCA Programme Director in December 1985. During 1995 he was elevated as Distinguished Scientist by DRDO. As Programme Director and Chief Designer of Light Combat Aircraft, he successfully directed the project leading to flight testing and clearance for limited series production. Thanks to his efforts, India succeeded in developing a state-of-art, high technology fighter aircraft of world class. He was awarded National Aeronautics Prize and FIE Foundation Award in 1996.He received the Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for 2001. He received the DRDO Technology Leadership Award for 2001. He was honoured with Padma Shri by Government of India in 2002. He received Gujar Mal Modi Science foundation award for the year 2006. He was honoured with DRDO Life Time Achievement Award for the year 2007. He was conferred honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) by the Berhampur University. At present he is the Raja Ramanna Fellow at National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. He was formerly Vice-Chancellor of Central University of Hyderabad.
Mr M Ravi Babu
M. Ravibabu has more than 20 years of experience in rail transport encompassing field and head quarters formations in areas of safety, operations, planning, marketing and sales,computers and general management. Some of the significant areas of work are:
In addition to practice, Mr Ravibabu is a keen academic. After joining the railways, he completed his Fellow Program in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. His thesis work was on the mode choice analysis of freight transport. He has published in different areas of transport in refereed journals and popular press.
As General Manager in RITES, he handled a variety of landmark consultancy assignments. He led the traffic teams in consultancy projects on privatization of arrangements of a Saudi Arabian Railway System and feasibility studies for Railway systems for UAE. He is currently Joint National Coordinator for Total Transport System Study of Planning Commission, Government of India. The study is a comprehensive assessment of intercity transport of goods and passengers across all the mechanized modes of transport.
He is also providing transaction advisory services for private-public participation in ports, logistic terminals and logistic hubs. In addition he is also leading the team for estimation of demand for regional air transport; as a study taken up as a part of the design studies for regional transport aircraft by National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL). He is also involved in development of rail line capacity simulator along with the team lead by Prof Narayan Rangaraj of IIT Bombay.
Game Leaders and Discussants
Sudha Mahalingam
Sudha Mahalingam is an energy economist with 30 years of professional experience. She is currently Member of India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board entrusted with the responsibility of regulating downstream hydrocarbon sector. In her capacity as an energy professional, Sudha is also a Member of India’s National Security Advisory Board which advises the Prime Minister through the National Security Advisor on security-related issues. Prior to her current assignment, Sudha Mahalingam held the prestigious Senior Fellowship at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, New Delhi, India where she contributed to shaping the country’s discourse on energy security. In 2007, Sudha Mahalingam was awarded the first K.Subrahmanyam award for excellence in strategic studies by Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, India’s premier think-tank for strategic studies.
During her long career, Sudha Mahalingam has worked for several leading think-tanks and research institutes as well as in mainstream business journalism. Her areas of interest encompass the geopolitical, economic, environmental and regulatory dimensions of all forms of energy including oil, gas, electricity including nuclear, hydro and coal as well as midstream and downstream activities like refining, petrochemicals, fertilizers etc. Sudha holds a M.Phil degree in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and LL.B degree from University of Delhi, apart from advanced diplomas in French and Portuguese languages. She has published numerous articles in Indian and international journals and writes regularly in the opinion columns of newspapers. She also speaks regularly on energy issues in national and international conferences.
Dr Ivo Wenzler
Dr. Ivo Wenzler is a Senior Expert within Accenture’s Management Consulting Experts Group and an associate professor and researcher at the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM) at the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. He is a co-founder of SAGANET (the Netherlands Simulation and Gaming Association), member of ISAGA (International Simulation and Gaming Association) and SOL (Society for Organizational Learning), and sits on the editorial board of the Simulation and Gaming Journal. At Accenture (80% appointment) he focuses on development and implementation of performance management, change management, and business simulation approaches aimed at business transformation and business resilience challenges of his clients. At the Delft University of Technology (20% appointment) he teaches a master’s course in simulation and gaming design and publishes regularly in the field of simulation and gaming.