Network Capital: Recent Episodes

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Blending Creativity Across Disciplines: Puneet shares insights on how her diverse experiences in news writing, advertising, and acting have shaped her approach to storytelling and creativity. She emphasizes the importance of adaptability and continuous learning in the ever-evolving media landscape.

2.⁠ ⁠Discipline and Rigor of Writing: How Puneet finished her book and found a publisher

3.⁠ ⁠Writing with Authenticity: Drawing from her debut novel, Puneet delves into the intricacies of writing with a blend of reflective realism and pop culture.

Puneet Sikka is a media professional who has previously worked as a writer in the news and advertising industry. She is also an aspiring actress with performances in theatre, TV and digital commercials, short films as well as a feature film to her name. Puneet studied at the Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune. Her debut novel, Take No. 2020, is a hybrid of pop culture and realism that combines her lived experience within the entertainment industry and her passion for writing.

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David works at the intersection of technology and teams. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Cambridge University. He has worked on the Android team at Google, and managed Facebook's internal videoconferencing and collaboration team. He has also been Head of Engineering at a number of startups, supervising the growth of digital product teams from 10 to 100+ engineers.

David is now an independent consultant and owner of Simplified Systems Consulting, helping clients as an Interim VP Engineering. In his spare time he still writes code, and practices contemporary dance. He recently published "Building High Performing Teams", in which he describes his approach to running successful Tech companies.

In this podcast, we cover -

1. The art of running a successful tech company with a people first approach

2. Why the most complex technological challenges ultimately are people challenges and how you can resolve them

3. Ways to make big career transitions

This is the link to his book - https://www.amazon.com/Building-High-Performing-Teams-Successful/dp/B0D449KWN5

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Mental models for figuring out what to do with your life

2. Nuances of career transitions

3. Doubling down on the things you care most about

Dhruva Bhat is an entrepreneur and researcher with extensive experience in educational innovation and international development. He co-founded and directs Lumiere Education, a company that delivers advanced extracurricular programs focusing on research, AI/ML, and professional development to high school students worldwide. Under his leadership, Lumiere has reached over 4,000 students from 70 countries. In the past, he has helped scale India’s largest debate education nonprofit, the Indian Schools Debating Society, and coached the Indian national team to win the World Schools Debating Championships.

​Dhruva graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in economics, magna cum laude and from Oxford University with a Ph.D. in international development as a Rhodes Scholar. His research on education and entrepreneurship in developing countries has won the Dunlop Prize in Business and Government, the Burke Knapp Travel Grant and the Murray Speight Research Grant.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Thinking about your career in phases

2. Figuring out what matters and why

3. Working like a lion: Sprint, rest, repeat

Abhilasha is a graduate of IIT Delhi and Harvard Business School. Over the years she has worked at the intersection of tech and innovation across diverse industries such as digital healthcare, blended education, and consumer tech across Asia and North America.

She was previously the Chief Growth Officer at Open Secret.

​Outside her professional career she is passionate about mentoring college students and young professionals, and advising early stage businesses and non-profit organizations.

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Heidi Roizen is a venture capitalist, corporate director and former technology CEO/entrepreneur. Today, Heidi is a partner at leading venture firm Threshold Ventures and serves as a board member for private companies Upside Foods and Polarr in the Threshold portfolio. She is currently also an independent corporate director for Invitation Homes (NYSE:INVH) and Planet Labs PBC (NYSE:PL). Heidi is also an Adjunct Lecturer at Stanford University and leads Stanford’s Threshold Venture Fellows Program in the Management Science and Engineering department. At Stanford, Heidi also serves on the advisory councils of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) and Stanford Technology Ventures (STVP). She started her career as co-founder of software company T/Maker and served as its CEO for over a dozen years until its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation. After a year as VP of Worldwide Developer Relations at Apple, Heidi then became a venture capitalist in 1999. She has undergraduate and MBA degrees from Stanford and is the proud mother of two kids and two rescue dogs.

In this podcast, we cover -

1. The adventure of building and scaling your business

2. The art of having difficult conversations

3. Nuances of gender dynamics in entrepreneurship

4. Leveraging your social network to advance social good

5. The joy of giving back

Read her HBS Case Study: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=26880

Check out her podcast:

https://www.threshold.vc/podcast

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Understanding various contributions of one of the most iconic, but understudied leaders of modern India

2. Women in politics during the early years of post independence India

3. ⁠⁠Powerful friendships and fall outs

Pallavi Rebbapragada is a journalist and public policy consultant based in Delhi. She started her career at India Today as a features writer and journeyed through Europe, the Middle East and the Far East capturing life and culture in her stories. She then worked with Forbes and Firstpost, at times dipping into the dark depths of the economy of death workers, prison reforms and India's drug crisis. On other days, she interviewed the strongest voices across politics, business and cinema. Her first book, Upon a Bright Red Bench, was assessed at the Yale Writers' Conference in 2014. During her recent stint at the Delhi Vidhan Sabha, she realised that her true passions lay at the cusp of poetry and policy. With empathy and strategy, seeping into ink and onto paper, she wishes to pen the story of her nation's tomorrow.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. The ethics of career choice
2. Critical analysis of the structural badness of work
3. AI ethics and achievement gaps

John Danaher is a lecturer in the Law School. He holds a BCL from University College Cork (2006); an LLM from Trinity College Dublin (2007); and a PhD from University College Cork (2011). He was lecturer in law at Keele University in the UK from 2011 until 2014. He joined NUI Galway in July 2014.
John's research focuses on the ethical, legal and social implications of new technologies. He maintains a blog called Philosophical Disquisitions, and produces a podcastwith the same title. He also writes for the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.
Free, open-access pre-prints of his academic papers can be found on Philpapers, Researchgateand Academia.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Taking an idea from a side hustle to a thriving business
2. Understanding the nuances of content moderation
3. How humour and kindness scale

Noel is the founder of CurryTraits, a leading private group boasting over 1 million members. With a background in Product Management, Social Media Management, and Community Management, Noel brings a wealth of experience to the table. Additionally, Noel has founded a Social Media Consultancy and has worked for one of Australia’s Largest Financial Institutions, further enriching their expertise in the field.

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In this podcast, we cover - 1. The parallels between publishing and venture capital2. The economics of publishing3. How to get your book publishedFounder and publisher of Juggernaut Books, Chiki was the founding editor in chief of Random House India and publisher of Penguin India from 2011-15, she is a passionate publisher and all about books. Authors she has worked with include Amitav Ghosh, Vikram Seth, Anita Desai, Arundhati Roy, Twinkle Khanna and Rujuta Diwekar.

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These are 10 sure ways to never make progress on anything you truly care about

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. ⁠Role of serendipity in building meaningful careers

2.⁠ ⁠Ethical principles toward shaping more inclusive technologies

3.⁠ ⁠Feminist and anti-racist approach to AI

Eleanor started her career in financial technology before co-founding an e-commerce company. Now a Senior Research Fellow at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence at the University of Cambridge, she maintains her strong interest in commercial concerns and opportunities in AI by working to bridge the gap between industry in academia in AI Ethics. She runs a team that is building the world's first free auditing online tool that allows companies to meet the EU AI act's obligations - which have been enriched with feminist and antiracist principles. She previously explored what AI ethics currently means to AI engineers at a major tech multinational the size of Meta. Her advisory work in the AI Ethics space also includes the UN Data Science & Ethics Group's 'Applied Ethics Toolkit'. On this site you can learn more about her past and present projects, media appearances, and publications.

She has an international dual degree PhD from the University of Bologna and the University of Granada, where she was an Early Stage Researcher for the EU Horizon 2020 ETN-ITN-Marie Curie Project “GRACE” (Gender and Cultures of Equality in Europe). She has made two short films about science fiction utopias and dystopias, and co-created a feminist quotation-generating App called 'Quotidian'.

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TN Hari is an advisor and sounding board to numerous young entrepreneurs and startups. He is also a Strategic Advisor at ‘Fundamentum’, which is a homegrown growth phase VC fund set up by Nandan Nilekani and Sanjeev Aggarwal. Hari was the former HR at BigBasket.​He has studied at IIT & IIM and worked at an executive level with multiple start- ups/scale-ups and has been through four successful exits in different industries (Daksh, Virtusa, Amba Research, TaxiForSure).​His passion is in scaling organizations through clear thinking and relentless execution. He writes regularly on LinkedIn. LinkedIn identified him as the one of the Top Voices in India for three years in a row (2016, 2017, and 2018).​He has Co-authored three books. The last two books were “Cut the Crap and Jargon – Lessons from the Startup Trenches” was published by Penguin; and “Cutting the Gordian Knot – India’s Quest for Prosperity” was published by Bloomsbury.

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In this podcast, we discuss

1.⁠ ⁠Why reading matters and how it shapes our world view

2.⁠ ⁠How to read when one is flooded with content from all sides

3.⁠ ⁠What learning across disciplines looks like

Professor Anamika teaches literatures in English at the University of Delhi Her doctoral thesis is on the reception of John Donne across the ages. She has published extensively also in the areas of Translating Studies and Gender Justice. Besides 8 volumes of cricitism, she has published 7 well received novels in Hindi. Three of her novels, Dus Dware ka Peenjara, Aienasaz and Trin Dhari Oat have won national awards and have been staged as major stage productions.

In 2020 she received the Sahitya Akademi Award for her poetry collection” Tokri Mein Digant”Poems from her other poetry collections “ Anushtup”, “ Khurduri Hatheliyan”,” Doob - Dhan”, “ Pani Ko Sab Yaad Tha”, “ Band Raston Ka Safar” etc are prescribed at different Universities and have been rendered into languages such as Malayalam, Marathi, Bangla, Punjabi, Oriya, Kannad, Korean, Russian and English. She herself is an avid translator and also the founder editor of a bilingual journal called Pashyantee.

Her essays on womanist discourse in Hindi too have been translated into many languages and she herself has translated the works of Rilke, Neruda, Doris Lessing, Octavio Paz, and fellow women poets extensively. Her major English publications include Transplanting British Poetry in Indian Classrooms, Donne Criticism Down the Ages, Post-War Women Poets: Treatment of Love and Death, Feminist Poetics: Where Kingfishers Catch Fire, Translating Racial Memory, Weaving a Nation: Proto-Feminist Writing in Hindi and Urdu .

This is her recent book - https://www.amazon.com/Trin-Dhari-Ot-Anamika/dp/9355183917

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Frameworks for combining impact with profitability to build a mission driven business

2. The early days of building ReNew: the journey of finding early believers and operating in a ‘blue ocean’

3. Nuances of nurturing talent and championing gender and diversity

Vaishali Nigam Sinha is the Chair for ReNew Foundation and Chief Sustainability Officer for ReNew Power, which is India’s largest renewable energy IPP (Independent Power Producer). A strong advocate of equal participation of women in economic activities, Vaishali is also passionate about Climate Change, Women’s Entrepreneurship and Leadership. She has been a speaker at international forums like the California Governor’s Global Climate Action Summit, Clinton Global Initiative and United Nations Global Compact Network.
Vaishali is deeply engaged with industry bodies, think tanks and educational institutions. She is a member of the Governing Council of the UN Global Compact Network, India (GCNI) and Chairperson of their Gender Committee; Chairperson – South Asian Women In Energy (SAWIE); Co – Chair of CII Indian Women Network and Woman Empowerment Committee. Vaishali is on the Advisory Board for Columbia Global Centers | Mumbai and is a member of the Governing Council of the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women. She also serves on the Advisory Committee of the Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA) at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Vaishali was felicitated for her outstanding contribution towards woman empowerment by CSR Journal in July 2019, and also recognized as being amongst India’s Top 25 Impactful CSR Leaders by the India CSR Network in April 2019. CEO Today magazine has conferred the Business Woman of the Year Award 2019 on her for her achievements and leadership of women in business. Vaishali has completed the Owners and Presidents Management Program from Harvard Business School and has a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she was an American Association of University Women (AAUW) scholar.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Frameworks for effective leadership in an uncertain and volatile world

2. Personal insights on the idea of ‘success’ and ‘feeling successful'

3. The art of identifying and navigating important points of ‘inflection'

Sharath is the Globally Recognised Authority on Leadership at Inflection Moments. He is an acclaimed Advisor, Facilitator & Author supporting Leaders and Organisations to Futureproof Success. He supports a wide range of organisations to safely navigate their Inflection Moments & futureproof success, through an innovative Guided Journey process. These include pre-eminent global corporations (e.g. L'Oreal, Shopify, Adecco), public sector organisations (e.g. the UK's NHS & Parliament), non-profits (e.g. Teach for All, Ashoka), growth businesses (e.g. JKS Restaurants) and venture funds (e.g. within the Omidyar Group). Sharath teaches Leadership at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Sharath's groundbreaking first book "Intrinsic" received widespread acclaim from fellow authors Dan Heath and Nir Eyal, to former Prime Ministers.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. The art and science of forming multi-dimensional careers: nuances of achievement

2. Frameworks for understanding change as a philosopher

3. Frameworks for analysing achievement in the automated workspace

Sven Nyholm is a Professor of the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence at LMU Munich and the Principal Investigator for AI Ethics at the Munich Center for Machine Learning. Much of his recent work has been about the impact of emerging technologies on our opportunities to live meaningful lives, have meaningful relationships, and do meaningful work. He is particularly interested in how life in the contemporary world – with technologies like robots and artificial intelligence – affects traditional ideas about ethics and our human self-understanding. Nyholm’s publications include Revisiting Kant’s Universal Law and Humanity Formulas (De Gruyter, 2015), Humans and Robots: Ethics, Agency, and Anthropomorphism (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2020) and This is Technology Ethics: An Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2023).

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In this podcast we cover -

1. The increasing importance of liberal arts in a world with rising automation

2. The role of mentors and building an ‘entrepreneurial mindset'

3. The ‘Personal Journey Map’ and the importance of the ‘startup of you'

Priyank Narayan

Founding Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship at Ashoka University, a leading liberal arts university. He started his career with IBM. He has been an entrepreneur for many years before joining Ashoka University. Priyank teaches courses on Design Thinking, Innovation Management, and Developing an Entrepreneurial Mindset. He is a guest faculty member at IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, HEC Paris, and Naropa Fellowship, Leh. An MBA from the Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Priyank has also studied at IIM Ahmedabad. He has completed executive education programmes at Harvard Business School and Singularity University, California. He holds a PhD from the Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi.

Mukesh Sud

An engineer from IIT Delhi, he founded several small-scale industries involved in abrasive blasting and thermal sprayed coatings. Mukesh began his academic career in the US at Augustana College (2006-09), after which he was a tenured faculty member at the Dolan School of Business, Fairfield University (2009-15). Mukesh is a visiting faculty at Ashoka University, Delhi NCR, and the Naropa Fellowship at Leh. At IIM Ahmedabad he conducts executive education programmes on 'Design Thinking' and 'Creating Entrepreneurial Organizations'. He is on FICCI's Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Committee.

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In this podcast, we discuss -

1. Frameworks for overcoming the cold start problem in early stage startups

2. Content and product strategies to empower small and medium sized businesses

3. Insights on startup acquisitions

Amita holds the position of Co-founder and CEO at Playback, a pioneering interactive video platform designed to assist businesses in fostering customer engagement and enriching their brand storytelling. She spent over a decade on Wall Street and in management consulting. She also has a notable presence in the tech sector, with a focus on strategy, operations, and IPO.​

Amita's compelling global narrative unfolds across five countries. She was born in India, raised in Jersey City, pursued studies abroad in London, earned her MBA in France and Singapore, and contributed to digital innovation in the Middle East - Saudi Arabia/UAE. Her exploration has taken her to 65 countries and counting.​

Passionate about making a significant impact, Amita is dedicated to building and scaling businesses that touch millions of lives. She channels her energy into transforming impact-focused ideas into tangible and actionable business initiatives. Additionally, she is committed to mentoring women and underrepresented founders.​Amita has developed a set of strengths, including being a creative problem solver, a strategic visionary, possessing insatiable curiosity, being a thoughtful communicator, and maintaining a growth mindset.​

Outside the professional realm, Amita finds joy in various activities. She embraces an active lifestyle through strength training, hiking, yoga, and meditation. Her reading interests span business books, biographies, and historical fiction. Furthermore, she immerses herself in the vibrant art scene of New York City.

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In this podcast we cover -

1. Key geo-political trends in 2024 to look out for

2. The repercussions of diminishing US leadership and rising new non-state actors

3. Frameworks for thinking about optimism, technology and a new social contract.

Dr Maha Hosain Aziz is a professor and author in global risk and future trends based at NYU’s MA International Relations Program, leading the annual global risk prediction project with Wikistrat, the world’s first geopolitical crowdsourced consultancy; she is a risk expert on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Complex Risk and speaks to audiences globally on her research. She has written a trilogy of books including seven-time award-winning bestseller Future World Order (2020) plus sequels Global Spring (2024) and 10 Shock Events By 2030 (2024). She also created ten-time award-winning VR/AR political comic book The Global Kid (2021) with edtech partner Musemio, drew the seven-time award-winning original (2016) and is working on Evolution (2024) – a comic book about global extremism partly created by generative AI. Dr Aziz has donated a % of all of her book and comic profits to important causes, including vaccine equality via the WHO, Pakistani flood relief via The Citizens Foundation and the Abid Aziz Fund for Syrian refugee youth via charity Peace & Sport. She is a global citizen with strong Pakistani Muslim roots who grew up in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and the US, studying at Brown (BA), Columbia (MA) and the London School of Economics (MSc, PhD).

You can connect with her on her LinkedIn - http://linkedin.com/in/drmahahosainazizThe Time Article - https://time.com/6550584/5-shock-events-world-future-essay/Our Future World Order - http://www.futureworldorder.org/

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Mark-Anthony Falzon is a social anthropologist. He is a professor at the University of Malta and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His books include Cosmopolitan Connections (Oxford, 2005), Multi-Sited Ethnography (Ashgate, 2009), The Examined Life (2019), The University of Malta (2020) and Birds of Passage (Berghahn, 2020).

His book examines the social and cultural infrastructure that sustains Sindhi business and its trade networks. It provides a rich historical context to the narrative by tracing the origin of Sindhi trade to the annexation of Sindh in 1843, when it was incorporated into an expanding global economy. The book also locates Sindhi business within the dynamics of the contemporary Indian diaspora and features several success stories both from India and outside. Furthermore, it emphasizes the commercial inventiveness, spatial mobility, and adaptability of Sindhis—-the qualities crucial to building successful cosmopolitan businesses. The book features an arresting introduction by best-selling author and commentator, Gurcharan Das.

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Anirudh Suri is a venture capitalist, technology entrepreneur and policy advisor. He is the managing partner of India Internet Fund, a US and India-based technology venture capital fund, and author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations (HarperCollins, 2022). Previously, he worked with the Government of India in Delhi, McKinsey and Co. in New York, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, and Goldman Sachs in London.

​Anirudh completed his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He studied Economics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Haverford College. He has served on the global board of the Harvard Alumni Association and was the president of the Harvard Club of India from 2017–19.

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In this pathbreaking work, Shrayana Bhattacharya maps the economic and personal trajectories--the jobs, desires, prayers, love affairs and rivalries--of a diverse group of women. Divided by class but united in fandom, they remain steadfast in their search for intimacy, independence and fun. Embracing Hindi film idol Shah Rukh Khan allows them a small respite from an oppressive culture, a fillip to their fantasies of a friendlier masculinity in Indian men. Most struggle to find the freedom-or income-to follow their favourite actor.

Bobbing along in this stream of multiple lives for more than a decade-from Manju's boredom in 'rurban' Rampur and Gold's anger at having to compete with Western women for male attention in Delhi's nightclubs, to Zahira's break from domestic abuse in Ahmedabad-Bhattacharya gleans the details on what Indian women think about men, money, movies, beauty, helplessness, agency and love. A most unusual and compelling book on the female gaze, this is the story of how women have experienced post-liberalization India.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. How giving advice to others helps us more than it helps them

2. The importance of setting ‘flexible’ goals.

3. Forgetfulness and the art of avoiding everyday errors.

Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and the former president of the international Society for Judgment and Decision Making. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, a research center with the mission of advancing the science of lasting behavior change whose work is being chronicled by Freakonomics Radio. Over the course of her career, she has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to spur positive change, including Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, 24 Hour Fitness, Walmart and Morningstar. An award-winning scholar and teacher, Katy writes frequently about behavioral science for major media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, and Scientific American. Her bestselling book How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You are to Where You Want to Be is now available. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (summa cum laude), where she studied Operations Research and American Studies and her PhD from Harvard University where, she studied Computer Science and Business.

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In this podcast, we cover - 1. The art and science of curating interesting conversations2. Nuances of productising serendipity 3. Anyone’s technology and philosophy suite

Introducing Alfred MalmrosCurrently building Anyone, an app that makes it easier to get and give advice through 5-minute phone calls. Get in touch for early access.Previously worked at Google's Jigsaw, that builds technology to make people in the world safer. Launched and built the Jigsaw brand and brought Perspective, Intra, Project Shield, Montage and Protect Your Election to market. Created Blackout to help people understand technology and its role in the world, a VICE News documentary about technology and the global struggle for free expression. Built Sideways Dictionary which explains technology using analogies everyone can understand.Featured on Ad Age's 40 under 40 list, exhibited at the Smithsonian in New York and the Design Museum and Science Museum in London. Awarded D&AD Pencils, One Show Pencils, Webbys and Cannes Lions; and named one of Sweden's 101 most talented people by Veckans Affärer. Associate lecturer at London College of Communication and a RSA Fellow.Introducing Vjera OrbanicBuilding a start-up, designing conversations. Background in contemporary art and performance. Specialised in leadership development, course design and coaching. Launched ventures that combine arts, learning and training and development.

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Dr. Anamika is a prominent contemporary Indian poet, social worker and novelist writing in Hindi, and a critic writing in English. She has eight collections of poetry, five novels and four works of criticism in her credit. Currently, she is Reader at the Department of English, Satyawati College, University of Delhi.

Anamika was born on 17 August 1961 in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. Her father Shyamnandan Kishore was a Hindi poet and her "first teacher in poetry". Anamika describes herself as a very lonely child who led a very isolated life in a huge household. Her only companions were the books from her father's library. She says reading these books, living a life of imagination and listening to her "aunts, classmates, other women, women in distress," their stories and their pain shaped her understanding of women, whose socially-constructed femininity she learnt to deconstruct and question after studying the work of poets like Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Marge Piercy, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker.

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Anamika studied at the Universities of Bihar, Muzaffarpur, Lucknow and Delhi. Her PhD thesis was on "Donne Criticism through the Ages" and her post-doctoral research on "The Treatment of Love and Death in Post-war American Women Poets". Her current topic of research as a fellow at Teen Murti Bhawan, Delhi is "A Comparative Study of Women in Contemporary British and Hindi poetry".

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A.S. Panneerselvan is fellow at Roja Muthiah Research Library, Chennai and head of its Centre for Study in Public Sphere. Earlier, he was the Readers' Editor (an independent internal news ombudsman) of The Hindu, for nearly a decade. Apart from being a regular columnist, he is also an adjunct faculty member of the prestigious Asian College of Journalism,Chennai.Panneerselvan is the author of Karunanidhi: A Life, published in 2021 by Penguin Random House. He was conferred the G.U. Pope award by the Government of Tamil Nadu for his literary and journalistic contributions. He was the head of the jury for the 2022 JCB Prize for Literature.In this masterclass we discuss - 1. The art and science of translations.2. M.K. Stalin’s ideas on egalitarian.3. Who is Karunanidhi? Why does DMK matter?

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Shashi Tharoor is a member of the Indian Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency in Kerala. He previously served as the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information and as the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs.He is also a prolific author, columnist, journalist and a human rights advocate.He has served on the Board of Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is also an adviser to the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and a Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities at New York University. He has also served as a trustee of the Aspen Institute, and the Advisory of the Indo-American Arts Council, the American India Foundation, the World Policy Journal, the Virtue Foundation and the human rights organization Breakthrough He is also a Patron of the Dubai Modern High School and the managing trustee of the Chandran Tharoor Foundation which he founded with his family and friends in the name of his late father, Chandran Tharoor.Tharoor has written numerous books in English. Most of his literary creations are centred on Indian themes and they are markedly “Indo-nostalgic.” Perhaps his most famous work is The Great Indian Novel, published in 1989, in which he uses the narrative and theme of the famous Indian epic Mahabharata to weave a satirical story of Indian life in a non-linear mode with the characters drawn from the Indian Independence Movement. His novel Show Business (1992) was made into the film 'Bollywood'(1994). The late Ismail Merchant had announced his wish to make a film of Tharoor’s novel Riot shortly before Merchant’s death in 2005.Tharoor has been a highly-regarded columnist in each of India's three best-known English-language newspapers, most recently for The Hindu newspaper (2001–2008) and in a weekly column, “Shashi on Sunday,” in the Times of India (January 2007 – December 2008). Following his resignation as Minister of State for External Affairs, he began a fortnightly column on foreign policy issues in the "Deccan Chronicle". Previously he was a columnist for the Gentleman magazine and the Indian Express newspaper, as well as a frequent contributor to Newsweek International and the International Herald Tribune. His Op-Eds and book reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, amongst other papers.Tharoor began writing at the age of 6 and his first published story appeared in the “Bharat Jyoti”, the Sunday edition of the "Free press Journal", in Mumbai at age 10. His World War II adventure novel Operation Bellows, inspired by the Biggles books, was serialized in the Junior Statesman starting a week before his 11th birthday. Each of his books has been a best-seller in India. The Great Indian Novel is currently in its 28th edition in India and his newest volume. The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone has undergone seven hardback re-printings there.Tharoor has lectured widely on India, and is often quoted for his observations, including, "India is not, as people keep calling it, an underdeveloped country, but rather, in the context of its history and cultural heritage, a highly developed one in an advanced state of decay.". He has also coined a memorable comparison of India's "thali" to the American "melting pot": "If America is a melting pot, then to me India is a thali--a selection of sumptuous dishes in different bowls. Each tastes different, and does not necessarily mix with the next, but they belong together on the same plate, and they complement each other in making the meal a satisfying repast.”In this masterclass we cover - 1. The art of sharing timeless wisdom through aphorisms2. Frameworks on resilience, grit and navigating difficult times3. Mental models on success, leadership and happiness

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Abhay Kumar or Abhay K. (born 1980) is an Indian poet-diplomat and India's 21st Ambassador to Madagascar and Ambassador to Comoros. He has served in different diplomatic capacities earlier in Russia, Nepal and Brazil. His published collections of poetry include The Seduction of Delhi, The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu, The Prophecy of Brasilia, The Alphabets of Latin America among others, while his edited books are CAPITALS, 100 Great Indian Poems, 100 More Great Indian Poems, New Brazilian Poems, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems,The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems among others. He recorded his poems at the Library of Congress. His writings cover poetry, art, memoir, global democracy and digital diplomacy. His Earth Anthem has been translated into over 50 languages and was played at the United Nations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Earth Day. He also wrote an anthem for SAARC spurring search for an official SAARC Anthem. He wrote a 'Moon Anthem' to celebrate the success of India's Moon Mission Chandrayaan-2. He has penned a 'Mars Anthem' to inspire the younger generation to explore our neighbouring red planet. He has also penned a Venus Anthem.

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In this podcast we cover - 1. The art of navigating success and failure 2. Lessons from Indian mythology for modern careers 3. The story of Dhruva and insights on leadership

Gauranga Darshan Das, a disciple of His Holiness Radhanath Swami, is an educator, TEDx speaker and a spiritual author of over 33 books. He holds a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He is a resident of the ISKCON Govardhan Ecovillage (GEV) and serves as the dean of the Bhaktivedanta Vidyapitha. He is also a member of the ISKCON Board of Examinations and GEV Administrative Council.

He regularly delivers online and residential discourses for children and adults in various forums, including temples, ashrams, schools, colleges, corporate events and platforms such as TEDx, Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Rotary Club, Hindustan Times, etc. He is a regular speaker on Hare Krsna TV. He has conducted over 45 online courses (www.vidyapitha.in) and over 7500 hours of lectures. He travels to various places in India, Australia, United States, etc. to teach and inspire spiritual seekers.

Some of his literary contributions include the Subodhini series of study guides, the Pravaha series of storybooks, self-enrichment books like Disapproved but Not Disowned, children’s book series like Bhagavatam Tales and Gita Wisdom Tales, and shloka compilations like the Ratnamala series. He runs a monthly ezine called Bhagavata Pradipika whilst penning thought-inspiring articles for international and Indian Back to Godhead magazines.

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In this podcast, we cover - 1. The importance of liberal arts in an AI-powered world

1. The art of asking better questions

2. How AI is changing corporate strategy

3. Building differentiable competitive advantage when machines are universally available

4. How to make diversity and inclusion work

Tiger Tyagarajan is President and Chief executive officer of Genpact.Genpact has more than 115,000 employees and annual revenues of $4.37 billion USD as of December 31, 2022.

Tiger was appointed as Genpact’s President and CEO in 2011 after serving as the COO of the company. Tiger is also on the Board of Kantar, a leading data, insights, and consulting company where he brings his expertise in contributing to their business innovation and transformation agenda. Tiger is especially passionate about diversity and serves on the board of directors of Catalyst, a global non-profit organization working with some of the world’s most powerful CEOs to help build workplaces that work for women.

Prior to Genpact Tiger spent many years at the Unilever Group, Citibank, and GE Capital in a variety of roles spanning sales, global operations, risk management, and business leadership.

Tiger has a degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

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In this podcast we cover - 1. A new framework for India, beyond the rough and tumble of partisan politics 2. History of Indian polity 3. The future of India and its people

Harsh Gupta ‘Madhusudan’ is an India-based public markets investor. He has written extensively on economics, finance and politics for Mint, Swarajya, The Wall Street Journal, The Indian Express and other publications.Harsh enrolled to study at IIT Delhi, before dropping out. He graduated from Dartmouth College with an AB degree in economics. He also holds an MBA from INSEAD. He is on Twitter @HarshMadhusudan.

Rajeev Mantri is an India-based entrepreneur and investor, investing in public companies and early-stage technology ventures. He has contributed articles on political economy, technology, investing and entrepreneurship to Mint, Swarajya, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The Indian Express and other publications. Rajeev graduated with a BS in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, and an MBA from Columbia University, specialising in private equity and value investing. He is on Twitter @RMantri.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Nuances of understanding Indian cities and how we have reached this point of exasperation

2. The pivotal role of India achieving India's promised destiny 

3. The art of meaningfully addressing the blizzard of policy issues that come with the phenomenon

Devashish Dhar is a former Public Policy Specialist at NITI Aayog. He is a Mason Fellow from the Harvard Kennedy School and Li Ka Shing Scholar from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore. He is also a Raisina Fellow, an IVLP Fellow, and has authored several articles for national publications.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Nuances of biochemical interventions into love and relationships

2. Ethics of deciding which medications should be a part of our society

3. The art of calibration within yourself to negotiate with your ideals of self worth

Brian is a Senior Research Fellow in the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford, Associate Director of the Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy at Yale University and The Hastings Center, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Medical Ethics. Brian’s work is cross-disciplinary, following training in philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, history and sociology of science and medicine, and ethics. A co-recipient of the 2018 Daniel M. Wegner Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Brian was also one of four named finalists for the 2020 John Maddox Prize for “standing up for science” (awarded by Sense about Science and Nature). Brian is also recipient of both the Robert G. Crowder Prize in Psychology and the Ledyard Cogswell Award for Citizenship from Yale University, where, as an undergraduate, Brian was elected President of the Yale Philosophy Society and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Yale Philosophy Review. Brian then conducted graduate research in psychological methods as a Henry Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford, followed by a degree in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science, technology, and medicine as a Cambridge Trust Scholar and Rausing Award recipient at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. After spending a year in residence as the inaugural Presidential Scholar in Bioethics at The Hastings Center in Garrison, New York, Brian was appointed Benjamin Franklin Resident Graduate Fellow while completing a dual Ph.D. in philosophy and psychology at Yale University. Brian’s essays have been translated into Polish, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hebrew.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Mental models for planning different ‘chapters’ of your life & taking different ‘tours of duty’.

2. Lessons on networking and augmenting your leadership skills.

3. The art and science of navigating career transitions

Anoop Prakash is currently President of the Ambulance Division at the REV Group Inc, a publicly-traded specialty vehicles manufacturer based in Brookfield, Wisconsin. At REV, Anoop runs a manufacturing and distribution organization of 1500 people and four facilities, building a broad range of ambulances to precise customer specifications, serving federal government, municipalities, and private ambulance service providers, both in the US and abroad. Prior to REV Anoop spent 10 years with the Harley-Davidson Motor Company, where he first led the company’s market entry into India, the acquisition of the company’s largest independent distributor in Canada, and, finally in the US market, leading US Marketing and US Dealer Development.

Prior to Harley-Davidson, Anoop had the opportunity to serve as a senior political appointee in the Administration of President George W. Bush, holding senior roles at both the US Small Business Administration and US Department of Housing & Urban Development. Prior to his government service, he held strategy, business development and sales roles at two technology companies, and worked as a consultant for McKinsey & Company, advising consumer and retail clients. Immediately after graduating from Stanford, Anoop served for four years active-duty as an Intelligence Officer in the US Marine Corps. Anoop also has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

In his free time, Anoop enjoys motorcycling, books on politics and policy, and travels with his wife Gita (also class of '95) and two daughters. Anoop is Vice President of the Board for the Hunger Task Force in Milwaukee, and leads the Wisconsin chapter of Leadership Now, a non-partisan organization of business leaders supporting democracy.

From his time as an Intelligence Officer, through to his current role as a Division President, Anoop has had to work either with or inside government organizations at every level and in multiple countries. Anoop credits his broad exposure through Public Policy and concentration in International Policy as critical to his understanding and ability to bridge the two worlds of business and government.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Why higher pay for workers doesn’t mean higher prices for customers, and the Costco case-study

2. Employee turnover: what drives it & how it costs companies more than most executives think

3. Differences in mindsets between good jobs and bad jobs systems

Zeynep Ton is a Practice in the Operations Management group at MIT Sloan School of Management. She is also president of the nonprofit Good Jobs Institute, where she works with companies to improve their operations in a way that satisfies employees, customers, and investors alike. Before joining MIT Sloan, Ton spent seven years on the faculty at Harvard Business School. She is the author of The Good Jobs Strategy: How the Smartest Companies Invest in Employees to Lower Costs and Boost Profits and The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay and Meaning to Everyone’s Work.

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In this masterclass we cover -

1. Rebecca’s meandering career in academia and insights from her professional lowlights

2. The difference between malignant and benign sulking

3. The linguistic and gendered nuances of sulking

Rebecca Roache is a senior lecturer in philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. She works on various issues in applied philosophy, and hosts The Academic Imperfectionist podcast. She lives in Oxfordshire.

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In podcast we cover -

1. The art of persuasive writing; telling the universal story of having a dream, taking risks & leading a meaningful life.

2. Insights on having difficult conversations & making difficult choices

3. Lessons from geopolitics and the implications of our colonial histories on a new world order.

Anjan Sundaram is an award-winning author, journalist, academic, and television presenter. He is the author of Stringer, Bad News, and Breakup. His books have been featured by Christiane Amanpour and Fareed Zakaria on CNN, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, and NPR’s All Things Considered. 

Anjan presented the critically-acclaimed TV series, “Coded World”, about how Artificial Intelligence and algorithms are changing humanity. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Granta, the New York Review of Books, and The Guardian. 

He has received Reuters and Frontline Club prizes for his reporting and has served as an artist-in-residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. He is also a Skoll World Fellow and a TED Fellow, and was invited to give a TED Talk about his war correspondence. Stringer was a Royal African Society Book of the Year in 2014, and Bad News was an Amazon Book of the Year in 2016. 

Anjan graduated from Yale University with a Master of Science in mathematics and he holds a Ph.D. in journalism.

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In this podcast we discuss -

1. Importance of cultivating multiple interests

2. How to navigate a world centered around work

3. Negotiating with envy to find your ikigai

Simone Stolzoff is an author, designer, and workplace expert from San Francisco. A former design lead at the global innovation firm IDEO, his work has been featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and many other publications. He is a graduate of Stanford and The University of Pennsylvania.

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In this podcast we cover -

1. The art of writing an Indian book for a global audience

2. Translating social observation into gripping fiction.

3. The journey of writing a deeply researched fiction book 

Deepti Kapoor is an Indian author and journalist currently based in Portugal. Her first novel, A Bad Character, was published in 2015. In 2023, Kapoor published her second novel, Age of Vice, whose rights were sold to FX Studio for a major TV series.

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In this masterclass, we cover - 1. Understanding BAAS and it’s market landscape2. Solving high stake problem statements using first principles3. Art of pivoting and finding product market fit
Priyanka is on a mission to build accessible, secure, and modern finance solutions for the new digital economy. She is the co-founder of Falcon, a BaaS startup based in Delhi and Bangalore in India. She’s been immersed in fintech for almost a decade and has closely observed and participated in the ups and downs the industry has gone through in India. She has an economics degree from Yale University.

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In this podcast we cover -

1. Nuances of trust in the Indian society

2. Frameworks for understanding institutions and actively engaging in public discourse

3. The journey of writing a deeply researched non-fiction book

Subhashish Bhadra is an economist by training. He received an MPhil in economics from the University of Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship and a BA in economics from St. Stephen's College, New Delhi. His career has straddled both the policy and corporate worlds. He spent over half a decade working in public policy, especially on issues of technology policy, regulatory governance and digital rights. As part of his job, he has funded many of India's leading think tanks and helped shape the policy discourse in these areas. He has worked at a leading global management consulting firm, a venture capital firm and a tech start-up, working closely with CEOs, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, politicians and academics throughout his career. He has also published several articles in leading dailies like the Times of India, Hindustan Times and Indian Express.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. The art of coming depth and breath to become a deep-generalist

2. Insights from Pramath’s journey to build a multi-modal career

3. Frameworks for building a constructive mentor-mentee relationship

Pramath Raj Sinha has earned the tag of an institution builder, a profession that neither existed, nor could he ever have imagined for himself, when growing up in Patna, Bihar. What is perhaps less widely known is that as a Partner at McKinsey & Company, then as one of the Founders of the Indian School of Business (ISB), the Young India Fellowship (YIF), Ashoka University, the Vedica Scholars Programme for Women and the Naropa Fellowship, he has guided hundreds of students on their academic and career choices. As someone who studied metallurgical engineering, did robotics research, failed as an academic, then became a management consultant, a CEO, a media and now edtech entrepreneur, he believes you can surprise yourself with what you can do, yet shape your career purposefully and deliberately.
This philosophy is the foundation for Pramath's latest venture, Harappa Education and its School of Leadership (HSoL), an online learning institution to teach Thrive Skills to working professionals across the world. For over twenty years now, he is a pioneering force in higher education, setting up more than a dozen innovative institutions and programs in India and abroad. His first book, An Idea Whose Time Has Come, about the ISB story, is now required reading for anyone building a new university or institution. In 2015, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) named him 'Personality of the Year' for his contributions to education. Earlier, he was listed by Thinkers50 as one of India's Top 50 Management Thinkers.
Pramath received a BTech from IIT Kanpur (where he was conferred with the Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2018) and an MSE and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics.

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In this masterclass, you will learn -

1. The art of following your curiosity to build a portfolio of careers

2. Insights on geopolitics, the end of history and public deliberation

3. Mental models on personal productivity

Brian is a geopolitical strategist and advisor publishing extensively on Sino-American relations, statecraft in Asia, and the intersection of nascent technologies, political philosophy, and public policy. Currently pursuing a DPhil in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford, Brian graduated with a Distinction in the MPhil in Politics (Theory) at Wolfson College, and First Class Honours from Pembroke with a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, having attended Oxford on a full scholarship on a Kwok Scholarship. Brian has taught modules in politics to undergraduate students at Oxford and Stanford Universities (latter on exchange). Brian has presented on Sino-American relations and Chinese foreign policy at Tsinghua, Carnegie-Tsinghua Center, Stanford, the Young China Watcher and Tufts Conferences, and advised leading MNCs on macro risks in Asia. As the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Political Review, a publication aspiring to bridge the theory and practice gap, Brian serves as a columnist for the Hong Kong Economic Journal and the Editor-at-Large for ThriveGlobal, they write regularly for publications such as TIME, Foreign Policy, Aeon, Financial Times, the Diplomat, Fortune, SCMP, Nikkei, Japan Times, SupChina, US-China Perception Monitor, Neican, The Hindu, having also presented and written on issues of public philosophy for the Journal of Practical Ethics, the American Philosophical Association, and the Royal Institute of Philosophy. Brian is also the Founding Fellow of Governance Partners Yangon, a capacity-building oriented policy group and NGO based in Myanmar and Hong Kong, and the former Founding Secretary of Citizen Action Design Ltd., a youth-centric think-tank based in Hong Kong, alongside co-founding Project Change, an initiative designed to support youth with mental health issues in the city.

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In this podcast we cover - 

1. Mukesh’s early career and adventures as an entrepreneur

2. The journey of tracing the story of our relationship with our body

3. Actionable advice on building a meaningful career keeping health and curiosity at the core

Mukesh Bansal is a computer science engineer from IIT Kanpur and a technology entrepreneur. He founded India's largest fashion retailer Myntra and headed the ecommerce division for Flipkart after a highly successful acquisition. He is the co-founder of Cure Fit Healthcare Pvt Ltd. where he is involved in building a next-generation health platform that makes holistic health easy and accessible for everyone. He has over twenty years of experience in multiple early-stage start-ups in Silicon Valley (NexTag, eWanted, Centrata, newScale) where he held various senior management positions in Product Management and Marketing. Hacking Health: The Only Book You’ll Ever Need to Live Your Healthiest Life is his second book.

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This podcast covers - 

1. Philosophical underpinnings of meritocracy in China and India

2. Contemporary debates about how to overcome obstacles to meritocracy and prognoses for the future

3. Actionable insights on building more equitable and meritocratic organisations and institutions

Tarun Khanna is the Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School. For almost three decades, he has studied entrepreneurship as a means to social and economic development in emerging markets. At HBS since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton and Harvard, he has taught courses on strategy, international business and economic development to undergraduate and graduate students and senior executives.

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In this podcast we cover - 

1. The evolution of tech platforms from utopian marketplaces to cloud empires 

2. Lessons from history of economic power and collective action for democratisation

3. The role of entrepreneurs and small business in making tech platforms democratic and accountable. 

Vili Lehdonvirta is Professor of Economic Sociology and Digital Social Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford. His research examines how digital technologies are used to reshape the organization of economic activities in society, from gig platforms to online marketplaces and virtual currencies to crowdfunding. What are the implications to workers, entrepreneurs, and states, and how can this digital economy be governed?

Lehdonvirta’s book Cloud Empires: How digital platforms are overtaking the state and how we can regain control was published by MIT Press in September 2022. His previous book Virtual Economies: Design and analysis is published by MIT Press and translated to Chinese and Japanese. Lehdonvirta has authored and co-authored over 30 peer-reviewed articles published in journals such as Socio-Economic Review, Sociology, and Journal of Management.

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Simon Munzert is Professor of Data Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School and part of the Hertie School Data Science Lab. His research interests include opinion formation in the digital age, public opinion, and the use of online data in social research. He is the principal investigator of an international cooperation project funded by the VolkswagenStiftung entitled "Paying Attention to Attention: Media Exposure and Opinion Formation in an Age of Information Overload", and the recipient of a postdoctoral scholarship awarded by the Daimler and Benz Foundation. He received his Doctoral Degree in Political Science from the University of Konstanz.

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In this podcast we cover - 

1. Framework for understanding the evolving web3 landspace

2. Insights on value distribution on the internet

3. Experience as an investor in the web3 and crypto ecosystem

Stefano Bury has over fifteen years of experience in the business world. Stefano started their career as a Sales & Trading at BHP and then moved on to various boutique consulting firms before joining McKinsey & Company as an Engagement Manager. In February 2021, they became the Head of Platform at LongHash Ventures. Stefano has a proven track record in leadership and management and is known for their strategic thinking and ability to get things done.

Stefano Bury has a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD.

Their manager is Emma Cui, CEO & Founding Partner. They are on a team with and Shi Khai Wei - COO & General Partner.

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In this podcast, we cover - 

1. Dr. Prasad’s global career in International Relations and the importance of interdisciplinary thinking. 

2. The Hertie School experience and pedagogy of discussion for a cohort of global students.

3. The art of debate and engaging with diverse ideas

Shubha Kamala Prasad is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School. Her research examines domestic sources of foreign policy, spanning substate conflict to diaspora mobilization. She was a Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute (2020-22), Fiesole, Italy. Shubha was awarded her PhD in Political Science in 2020 from the Department of Government, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA. She completed her MPhil and MA in International Politics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. Her prior work experience also includes organizing Track II Dialogues between India and Pakistan.

Find out more about the Hertie School here. Do consider applying for their early application deadline on November 30, 2022 to be consider for financial and scholarships.

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In this podcast we cover - 

1. Insights from the Indian technological revolution of 1990s and 2000s.
2. Nurturing talent and building anti-fragile profitable businesses for the long-term.
3. Happy accidents and finding meaningful partnerships This is the story of a young man who steps out of the precincts of IIT Kanpur in 1974 with a dream in his heart – to become an entrepreneur and contribute to nation-building. Undaunted by the dearth of experience and means to capital in pre-Liberalization India, B.V.R Mohan Reddy’s enterprising spirit takes the long and winding road, never losing sight of his ambition. He gains overseas education on scholarship and dons multiple hats for eighteen long years before embarking on his life’s mission at forty. A mission that propels the company he incorporated, Cyient, to pioneer and excel in outsourced engineering services and introduce the brand ‘Engineered in India’.

Engineered in India takes readers on an entrepreneurial rollercoaster ride, allowing them to see human truths with tools that let them breathe life into their business aspirations and experiments.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. Interpreting Ambedkar for India today and in 2050

2. Understanding Ambedkar on gender, caste and his relationship with Gandhi

3. The intellectual history and multitudes of Ambedkar’s work and writings

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, MA, MSc, PhD, DSc, DLitt, Bar-at-Law, is today among the most revered of Indians, his statues across the country second only in number to those of Mahatma Gandhi. In this new biography, Tharoor tells Ambedkar’s story with great lucidity, insight, and admiration. He traces the arc of the great man’s life from his birth into a family of Mahars in the Bombay Presidency on 14 April 1891 to his death in Delhi on 6 December 1956. He describes the many humiliations and hurdles Ambedkar had to overcome in a society that stigmatized the community he was born into, and the single-minded determination with which he overcame every obstacle he encountered. We are given insights into the various battles Ambedkar fought to make untouchability illegal, his disputes with the other political and intellectual giants of his era, including Gandhi and Nehru, and his determination to invest India with a visionary Constitution that enshrined within it the inalienable rights of the individual and modern conceptions of social justice. ‘In so doing,’ writes Tharoor, ‘he transformed the lives of millions yet unborn, heaving an ancient civilization into the modern era through the force of his intellect and the power of his pen.’

Deeply researched, searching, and insightful, Ambedkar: A Life offers readers a fresh and profound understanding of one of the greatest Indians who ever lived.

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In this podcast we cover - 

1. The art and science of building no-code products

2. Business models and monetisation strategies for online products and software 

3. Louis' journey of becoming an internet entrepreneur 

Louis in his own words - 

"I live a dual life. During the day, I work with my family to run an offline-first business in my hometown – the coastal state of Goa, located on the west coast of India. At night, I build assets on the internet.

I started my journey as a creator on the internet with a newsletter called Complexity Condensed. It was fun but way too tiring. Writing is difficult work. And no matter how experienced you are, it never gets easier. After realizing this I decided to work on things that could survive without constant effort. I decided to build digital products. But I had a problem – I couldn't code.

I had two options – teach myself how to code, or learn the most cutting-edge no-code tool I could get my hands on (Bubble). I chose the latter. Why? Because I'm impatient. So far, I'm having a blast, and I don't regret it one bit."

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Mark-Anthony Falzon is a social anthropologist. He is a professor at the University of Malta and a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge. His books include Cosmopolitan Connections (Oxford, 2005), Multi-Sited Ethnography (Ashgate, 2009), The Examined Life (2019), The University of Malta (2020) and Birds of Passage (Berghahn, 2020).

His book examines the social and cultural infrastructure that sustains Sindhi business and its trade networks. It provides a rich historical context to the narrative by tracing the origin of Sindhi trade to the annexation of Sindh in 1843, when it was incorporated into an expanding global economy. The book also locates Sindhi business within the dynamics of the contemporary Indian diaspora and features several success stories both from India and outside. Furthermore, it emphasizes the commercial inventiveness, spatial mobility, and adaptability of Sindhis—-the qualities crucial to building successful cosmopolitan businesses. The book features an arresting introduction by best-selling author and commentator, Gurcharan Das.

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In this podcast we cover -

1. Mental models on bad jobs and great careers.
2. Nuances of ethnographic study when you are both the subject and the researcher.
3. The experience economy and bodily capital in the world of night clubs. "Working primarily at the intersections of economic and cultural sociology and gender, I study how societies value people and things. I research value and exchange in the context of labor, beauty, free stuff, elites, consumption, and social media, and I have written on theory and qualitative methods. My work has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation, and featured in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Economist, NPR, the BBC, and Chinese Cosmo, among others.

I received my BA in sociology from the University of Georgia in 2002, and my PhD in sociology at New York University in 2009. I have held visiting positions at the University of Amsterdam and the Central European University in Budapest. In 2021-22, I was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Budapest. I serve on the editorial boards of American Sociological Review and Qualitative Sociology.

I am a co-founder of the Ethnographic Cafe and BU's Precarity Lab."

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In this podcast we cover -

1. Mental models for career pivots

2. The art of thinking like a contrarian

3. Navigating the investment spectrum and breaking into private equity. "Every week, I create content that reaches over 1 million people around the world across Twitter (@SahilBloom), a newsletter (The Curiosity Chronicle), a podcast (Where It Happens), and more.

I am Managing Partner of SRB Ventures, an investment firm committed to investing in and accelerating the most compelling startups in the world. Fund I is a $10 million stage and sector-agnostic vehicle writing $100-250K checks into high-growth technology companies globally. Prior to launching the firm in January 2022, I was an early stage investor in 40+ startups across the technology landscape, including multiple unicorns.

I am also an Advisor at Altamont Capital Partners, a generalist investment fund with over $3.5 billion in capital under management, focused on control investments in middle market companies. I previously served as a Vice President at Altamont on the investment team and am an active board member at several Altamont portfolio companies, including Fox Racing, Intermix, and Brixton.

I graduated from Stanford University with an M.A. in Public Policy (2014) and a B.A. in Economics & Sociology (2013). While at Stanford, I was a four-year member on the Stanford Baseball Team (2009-2013), twice helping to guide the team to NCAA Super Regional appearances (top-16 finishes). Additionally, I earned two PAC-12 All-Academic Team awards, and twice received the Bruce R. Cameron Memorial Award, given annually to a student-athlete exhibiting excellence in athletics, academics, and leadership. Academically, I was advised in my pursuits by former Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice."

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Prateek Jain, is our friendly Network Capital Rocket Scientist. He designed Business jets for years before, two tech startups and an MBA at Columbia Business School led him to Product Management. He now lives in San Francisco, and does Product Management at the Hypergrowth company - Twilio. Prateek is passionate about building technology, writing, and simplifying complex ideas to make an impact.

Lately, he's trying to meditate more and perfect his Hakka Noodles recipe.

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Catherine Yeo is a creator, entrepreneur, and investor studying Computer Science and English at Harvard University. By the age of fifteen, she accumulated a following of hundreds of thousands for her online content and turned content creation into a business. Over the years, her writing has spanned fiction, technical blog posts, personal essays and, now, The Creator Revolution: How Today’s Creative Talents Are Shaping Our Tomorrow. Her work has previously been featured in Teen Vogue, Los Angeles Times, NBC, and other publications.

Though she spends much of her days coding and nights writing, Catherine always makes time to read, swim, and cheer her heart out watching her hometown NBA team, the Golden State Warriors.

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Manjari Jaruhar is one of the first five women police officers in India and the first from the state of Bihar. Manjari Jaruhar was selected for the Indian Police Service (IPS), the elite crime prevention and law enforcement cadre of the Indian Civil Service, in 1976 and has held positions in the State Governments of Bihar and Jharkhand, the National Police Academy (NPA), the CISF and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). From fighting crime to administering a massive organization, Manjari Jaruhar has shown exemplary leadership in a domain traditionally dominated by men. She is the recipient of the Government of India's Police Medal for Meritorious Service and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service. She retired as Special Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and is presently an Advisor to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) based out of New Delhi.

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Srikant Gopal joined ETS in February 2018 as the new Senior Director for TOEFL Brand Marketing and was appointed to the position of Executive Director of the TOEFL Program in October 2018, in which he is responsible for the strategy, performance and growth of the TOEFL portfolio of products. His team, based in Princeton, NJ, USA and around the world, is focused on understanding and meeting the needs of TOEFL test takers, score users, key stakeholders and influencers in a superior way. The TOEFL product family consists of the TOEFL iBT test, the TOEFL ITP Assessment Series, and the TOEFL Young Student Series (Primary and Junior) tests, along with a suite of test prep products that include the TOEFL Go! App and the TOEFL MOOC course.

Srikant is a graduate of the Birla Institute for Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, India and earned his MBA from Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. He combines marketing and business experience from companies like Procter & Gamble and Nestle with a passion for education and student development. Currently residing in the Greater Philadelphia area, he brings a global background to the job, having lived and worked in six countries including the US, and with business experience across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.

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Saumya Saxena’s research focused on family law and religion in India. She is interested in the interface between law, policy, and society and was part of the Law Commission of India (2016-2018) where she researched on amendments to religious personal laws in India. She was part of the research team that assisted the Justice Verma Committee (2013) on amendments to rape laws in India. She has taught subjects related to gender, social movements, and Indian politics.

Saumya Saxena is a legal historian specialising in family law, religion and gender politics in India. She writes on women’s rights movements, religion and law in late 20th and 21st century South Asia. Her research brings into conversation a number of archives and analyses how issue of religious personal law contributed to the unique evolution of both, the rule of law, and the doctrine of secularism in India. She is a British Academy postdoctoral fellow 2018-2021.

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Tripurdaman Singh is a historian of South Asia and currently a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Born in Agra, India, Tripurdaman read politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, and subsequently earned an MPhil in modern South Asian studies and a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies, Universiteit Leiden and an Indian Council of Historical Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Agra.

He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the author of three books: Imperial Sovereignty and Local Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2019), Sixteen Stormy Days (Penguin, 2020) and Nehru (William Collins, 2021). He lives in Cambridge, UK and Agra, India.

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Director of Research, Cambridge Central Asia Forum; Lecturer in Development Studies, and Fellow of Jesus College at University of Cambridge

Dr. Shailaja Fennell is Director of Research at Cambridge Central Asia Forum and a University Lecturer in Development Studies. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge.

Since 2004, Dr. Fennell has been researching the linkages between rural development, environmental and educational strategies in India, China and Central Asia. She has specialised in the sub-fields of institutional reform, rural development, gender and household dynamics, kinship and ethnicity, and educational provision.

Her recent publications include The Handbook of BRICS (with P. Anand, F. Comim, and J Weiss) forthcoming (2018), Oxford University Press, Rules Rubrics and Riches: The Interrelations between Legal Reform and International Development (Routledge 2010), Gender Education and Development: Conceptual Frameworks, Engagements and Agendas (Routledge 2008) edited with M. Arnot. She is currently completing a book titled Grains and Gains: The Political Economy of Agriculture in China and India(Sage 2012), and working on a manuscript currently titled Development in Transition: Lessons from Central Asia.

Dr. Fennell pursued her bachelors, masters, and MPhil in Economics degrees from the University of Delhi, after which she went on to read for her MPhil and PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Politics, University of Cambridge. Her doctoral research was on long-term agricultural trends in India and China.

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D. Shivakumar, or Shiv as he is popularly known, is a Bangalore born leader and a management thinker.

He is currently the Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy at Aditya Birla Group. Previously, Shiv was the Chairperson & Chief Executive Officer at PepsiCo Holdings Private Limited, India. Prior to that he was CEO for emerging markets at Nokia.

Shiv started his career as a management trainee in the Consumer Products Division at Hindustan Ciba Geigy before shifting to Hindustan Unilever Limited where he spent 19 years in sales, marketing and general management positions. He moved to Philips, India as Chief Executive Officer of the consumer electronics division in 2003.

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Stefan Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College. He is also Director of the Centre for the Study of African Economies.

He combines his academic career with work as a policy advisor, providing strategic economic and development advice, and promoting the use of evidence in decision making. Between 2011 and 2017, he was Chief Economist of the Department of International Development (DFID), the government department in charge with the UK’s aid policy and spending. Between 2020-2022, he was the Development Policy Advisor to successive Foreign Secretaries at the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

His research interests concern what keeps some people and countries poor: the failures of markets, governments and politics, mainly in Africa, and how to achieve change.

His latest book, Gambling on Development: Why some countries win and others lose was published in May 2022. It draws on his academic research as well as his policy experience across three decades and 40-odd countries, exploring why some countries have managed to settle on elite bargains favouring growth and development, and others did not. Previously, Dull Disasters? How Planning Ahead Will Make A Difference was published in 2016, and provides a blueprint for renewed application of science, improved decision making, better preparedness, and pre-arranged finance in the face of natural disasters.

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Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjay Deshpande is a Learning Designer who currently leads L&D at Pride Circle. He has previously worked as a part of the Founding Team of Harappa Education and the skilling team of NASSCOM Foundation. He is passionate about mental health, queer rights and cancer advocacy.

He got diagnosed with incurable brain cancer at the age of 29 the day he landed on Harvard University's campus to start his Master’s program in September 2021. He's currently leading an effort to write & publish a first-of-its-kind book on Adulting with Cancer called ‘Don’t Ask Me How I’m Doing: Life, Death and Everything in Between’ -- to chronicle the experiences, raise awareness and create a resource for Indian and South Asian young adult cancer patients, survivors and caregivers.

He is an incoming graduate student at Harvard University, a postgraduate of the Young India Fellowship program at Ashoka University, and a Valedictorian and Student of the Year from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai.

Samira Daswani

Samira is an AYA cancer survivor who founded Manta Cares based on her personal experiences from cancer. Manta Cares is a global community of caregivers and survivors dedicated to making the cancer experience just a little easier.

In her non-survivor life, she is a healthcare strategy and design expert. She's led product design and management teams in the medical diagnostics industry, incubated and launched numerous healthcare startups. She started her career at McKinsey & Company. She has degrees from MIT, Wellesley College and Stanford University. In her spare time, she can be found scuba diving, sketching, writing poetry, and practicing taekwondo.

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Johnathan Bi is on the founding team of Lonsdale Investment Technology, a financial technology startup. He is launching a 7-part lecture series on René Girard, a French philosopher who posited a theory that rivalry, imitation (mimesis), and scapegoating mechanism govern human interaction and history, and how Girard’s Mimetic Theory impacts the contemporary world. A recent graduate of Columbia University in Philosophy and Computer Science, Bi is also writing a book on the intersection of Girardian social theory and Buddhist phenomenology. To watch, listen, or read the full transcript of Johnathan’s first lecture on Girard, visit this link.

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Over 200 million women and girls in India, and millions more across the world, cannot access a safe way to manage their period. This prevents them from participating in essential daily activities like going to school and work.

My social enterprise Asan (www.asancup.com) has designed an innovative menstrual cup that is extremely easy to use. A single Asan cup can be safely reused for 10 years, averting the waste of more than 2,500 sanitary pads or tampons. For every cup that Asan sells, we donate one for free to a woman or girl in a village who cannot afford period products.

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Vikram Aditya is the Co-Founder & CEO of DAOLens which is in the DAOTech space. DAOLens is focused on the four-step journey in the lifecycle starting from DAO discovery -> onboarding to reduce churn -> meaningful contribution -> effective DAO infrastructure. Previously, he was heading the Product at Merkle Science (Crypto Forensics and Compliance). They were creating the infrastructure necessary to ensure the safe and healthy growth of the industry, supporting the transition as cryptocurrencies consolidate with the $22 trillion financial services market.

Additionally, he keeps consulting and fiddling around on some personal side-projects. Previously, he was the Senior Director of Product Design at Sprinklr, working with thousands of brands like Disney, McDonald's, Apple, Prada, Loreal, Redbull, P&G, Nike, Samsung you name it. 

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Sathya MokkapatiSathya is the Co-founder & President of Kheyti, an enterprise which reduces income variability and increases climate resilience for Indian small farmers. Kheyti offers a solution called “Greenhouse in a box” which comprises an affordable greenhouse bundled with access to training and advisory. It currently signed up 1000 farmers for its program. Prior to Kheyti, Sathya co founded CosmosGreen, an enterprise focused on creating production expertise in agriculture and making farm ownership easy. Sathya is also a passionate teacher who has trained over 20,000 students across India in Chartered Accountancy. As a thought leader for the sector, Sathya has written in Stanford Social Innovation Review, SciDevNet, Huffington Post, Business Line, The Hindu and Yourstory. He recently delivered a TED talk at TED ClimateCountdown in Scotland. Sathya is an Mulago Rainer 2018 fellow, Aspen New voices fellow 2016 fellow and Acumen 2014 fellow. He is a Chartered Accountant who worked with PwC, before starting his journey in agriculture.

Sathya loves mountain motorbiking and photography.

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Rahul Sanghi most recently served as Fintech Lead for Visa in India & South Asia. He began his career as a consultant with KPMG in London, spending a majority of his time helping the firm set up its global enterprise blockchain and crypto asset advisory practice. He moved back to India in 2018 and joined Koinex (then India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange) as Director of Business and Strategy, before assuming the same role at B2B-SaaS startup FloBiz. He is currently the co-founder of Tigerfeathers, a media brand that is being built for Web3.

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In this podcast, you will learn - 

1. Cultural  and geographic in trends higher education.

2. The role of trust in the ETS exam process

3. Business School Advisory Council in India & GRE in Indian colleges

Alberto Acereda is the Associate Vice President of Global Higher Education at Educational Testing Service (ETS) in Princeton, NJ. He has overall responsibility for the ETS Assessment Solution Portfolio that focuses on undergraduate and graduate higher education, with special emphasis in innovative solutions to the higher education community. Prior to joining ETS in 2012, he worked for nearly 20 years in several universities in the United States, both as a research professor and as an administrator.

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Manu S Pillai is the author of the critically acclaimed The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore (2015) and Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (2018). Formerly chief of staff to Shashi Tharoor MP, he is also a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2017). His other essays and writings have appeared in Mint Lounge, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Open Magazine, The New Statesman, and other publications. The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin is Manu's third book, and a collection of essays on Indian history.   

In this Network Capital podcast, Manu reflects on his journey as a writer, key inflection points in his career and the art of making your passion your profession. Riddled with historical anecdotes and colorful stories, this podcast is essential for anyone interested in history, public policy and writing.

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In this episode you will learn the following:

1. The importance of conducting micro-experiments towards shaping a meaningful career

2. The art of being a contrarian

3. The power of multi-disciplinary learning and clear thinking

An author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan's leadership of the organisation.  In the first episode of this exclusive multi-part Network Capital podcast, Dr. Tharoor shares how he followed his curiosity, defied conventional norms and chose to pursue a career in international relations.

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Anirudh Suri is a venture capitalist, technology entrepreneur and policy advisor. He is the managing partner of India Internet Fund, a US and India-based technology venture capital fund, and author of The Great Tech Game: Shaping Geopolitics and the Destinies of Nations (HarperCollins, 2022). Previously, he worked with the Government of India in Delhi, McKinsey and Co. in New York, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington DC, and Goldman Sachs in London.

​Anirudh completed his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and his MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He studied Economics and International Relations at the London School of Economics and Haverford College. He has served on the global board of the Harvard Alumni Association and was the president of the Harvard Club of India from 2017–19.

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In this episode you will learn -

1. Principles of building communities by combining design, storytelling and empathy

2. The core purpose of architecture

3. Unpacking traditions and fusing with modern architectural constructs

Priyamwada Singh, founder of common Ground practice, a New Delhi India based firm, believes that Architecture and Design are a medium to create an equitable society. Some of her well known projects in India include - Renew centre for IIT, Delhi, Ashoka University, Harappa Learning, Heliotropism inspired residence in Jorbagh, Delhi amongst others.

Prior to establishing common Ground practice in 2013, she trained with prominent architects and artists around the world, including B.V. Doshi, Tobias Rehberger, Skidmore, Owens & Merrill (SOM), amongst others. She is a senior faculty at Anant University, Ahmedabad and teaches and leads collaborative research between AnantU and Pratt Institute, New York, USA. Ms. Singh completed her M.Arch. at Columbia University, USA receiving the Honor Award for Excellence in Design and the Kinne Fellowship.

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In this episode you will learn -

1. Emotional, psychological and financial cost of being diagnosed with cancer

2. Principles of building a community  of cancer survivors and caregivers

3. Processing suffering and becoming anti-fragile

Samira is an entrepreneur working at the intersection of design, healthcare and technology. Using the power of human-centered design, she is tackling one of the most pressing problems of our generation - mental health, isolation and burnout. Together with a group of talented individuals, Samira co-founded a venture that helps individuals better manage their emotional wellbeing.

She has been a part of 2 different technology startups and a consultant at McKinsey & Company. She brings a unique blend of design, operations and strategy to all her projects. She earned a Master's degree in Engineering, Design at Stanford University, a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering and art history from MIT and Wellesley College respectively.

As an avid scuba diver and a red belt in taekwondo, Samira spends her time exploring beautiful places.

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In this podcast you will learn -

1. The art of meaningful career transitions.

2. How to become a dreamer and a doer.

3. Frameworks of ‘zooming in & zooming out’.

4. The importance of nurturing talent and empowering new leaders.

5. Insights on multi-generational leadership in managing work, home and society.

Indra K. Nooyi served as CEO and chairman of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2019. Her prescient strategic thinking, insight into consumer behaviour and wisdom on managing a vast, global workforce make her one of the world’s most sought-after advisors to entrepreneurs, executives, and governments. She is also revered as a role model for women and immigrants, and celebrated for her empowering messages on inclusivity.

At PepsiCo, she was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, the company’s mission to deliver sustained growth by making more nutritious products, limiting the company’s environmental footprint, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. She has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, the U.S. State Department’s award for Outstanding American by Choice, and 15 honorary degrees. She is married to Raj Nooyi and has two daughters, Preetha and Tara.

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What do you do when you are rejected for your dream job and can’t deal with one more person telling you to be strong? What stops you from asking for that big role at work when you know you have a shot at getting it? For most of us, the world of work isn’t easy to navigate and life’s challenges rarely have simple answers. In this book, Radhika Gupta, the only female head of a major asset management company and creator of the viral YouTube video ‘The Girl with a Broken Neck’, offers straight-talking advice on how you can multiply your chances at achieving success.

A graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, a hedge-fund manager and an entrepreneur, Radhika Gupta has been included by Fortune in 2020 and Business Today in 2019 and 2021 in their list of India’s ‘Most Powerful Women in Business’ and by Economic Times in their list of ‘India’s Hottest 40 Young Business Leaders, 2020’. She is among LinkedIn’s Top Voices 2020: India and Top Voices 2020: Global (Finance &Economy). Her video ‘The Girl with a Broken Neck’ has inspired lakhs of viewers.

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Sanjiv Saraf is the founder, Chairman and principal shareholder of Polyplex Corporation Limited, which is among the world’s largest producers of PET films.

Sanjiv is an alumnus of The Scindia School and a graduate from IIT, Kharagpur (1980). After completing his graduation, he joined his family business in Orissa. In 1984, he ventured out on his own to establish Polyplex. Sanjiv has built an outstanding organization with exemplary values and ethos which are widely respected and admired in the industry, as well as within the financial markets- being publicly listed both in India and in Thailand.

An entrepreneur at heart, Sanjiv has incubated other businesses such as Manupatra –India’s premier legal information provider. Concern for the environment has led him to invest in renewable energy with the launch of a number of Hydro Electric Power projects in Punjab, Uttarakhand and Sikkim. He is an active member on the boards of various companies across different industries.

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Black-swan events, global warming, COVID-19 and a host of other natural and man-made disasters have tested the resilience of businesses across the world. Usually, blame for business failures is apportioned to external factors such as adverse business cycles, badly framed government regulations and lack of infrastructure. However, the causes often lie within -- short-term thinking, destruction of natural resources, exploitation of labour and poor management, to name a few.

To outlast their competition, build resilience, gain competitive advantage and achieve greater returns in the long run, businesses must improve their performance on material ESG metrics: Environmental impacts such as monitoring their consumption of natural resources, waste discharge and carbon emissions; Social factors such as ties with local communities, diversity and inclusion, and building a good reputation with stakeholders; and Governance, including board effectiveness protocols, approach to senior executive compensation and appropriate reliance on independent directors. The benefits from implementing ESG factors include more efficient use of resources, lower cost of operations, reduced risk, higher employee productivity and increased investor interest.

Outlast: How ESG Can Benefit Your Business is a clarion call to corporate leaders to follow the pathway of ESG. The authors, Mukund Rajan and Col. Rajeev Kumar, draw upon their considerable experience of working for some of India's largest organizations to present evidence and case studies that show that ESG is the mantra of the future. This is a timely must-read for all those who belong to, or aspire to be part of, the corporate world.

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Mridula Ramesh is the founder of the Sundaram Climate Institute, which focuses on waste and water solutions and education. She is a leading cleantech angel investor, with a portfolio of over fifteen start-ups, and is involved in multiple initiatives to build climate entrepreneurship.

The author of the critically acclaimed The Climate Solution: India’s Climate Change Crisis and What We Can Do About It, Mridula writes regularly on climate issues. She is involved in high-level policy discussions at national, state and municipal levels and is a part of India–US and India–UK Track II dialogues on climate change and energy and was the Co-Chair of the adaptation and resilience working group in the latest India–UK Track II dialogue. She is the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, National Institute of Technology, Andhra Pradesh; part of the Board of Trustees, World Wildlife Fund; and Member, Advisory Group, UNDP National Circular Economy Project and of the CII National Sub-Committee on Sustainable Textiles, among other memberships.

A graduate with distinction from Cornell University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Mridula worked at McKinsey in Silicon Valley before returning to India. She teaches a postgraduate class on climate change at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, regularly speaks at national/international forae on climate issues, and is a frequent jury member in climate-tech startup competitions.

She is the executive director of Sundaram Textiles and lives and experiments in Madurai in a net-zero-waste home with her husband and two children.

Follow her on Twitter@mimiramesh

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Key lessons: 

1. Fundamentals of building a decentralized, user-owned network
2. Unbundling of work from employment and emerging trends in the future of work
3. Bridging the talent-opportunity gap in the web 3.0 era

Adam Jackson is the Co-founder of Braintrust, the first user-controlled talent network that provides enterprises with the highly skilled technical and design talent they need.

Prior to founding Braintrust, Adam co-founded Doctor on Demand, the popular video telemedicine provider, with daytime talk show personality Dr. Phil. Other notable ventures include DriverSide, a marketplace that connects car owners with mechanics, which was acquired by Advance Auto Parts in September of 2011 and MarketSquare, the first online local shopping destination on the Internet which was acquired by Intuit in September of 2006. Adam is a passionate Angel investor in 100+ companies including LTSE, SuperHuman, Filecoin, Binance, BlockFi, Automatic, Apero Health, Zenefits, and more.

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In Leadership to Last, Geoffrey Jones and Tarun Khanna interview iconic leaders in India who have demonstrated leadership to last. There are leaders from South Asia and other emerging markets as well to illustrate that the ideas Indian entrepreneurs speak about are echoed by their counterparts in the Global South. All these magnates--Ratan Tata, Anu Aga, Adi Godrej, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Devi Shetty and Rahul Bajaj, to name a few--have built, to general acclaim and acknowledgement, organizations that are seen as forward-looking and innovative. They subscribe to a code of ethics and contribute to the betterment of society. The authors demonstrate that this is a lot harder to achieve than unicorn status.

​The authors corroborate how these stories are less about building a get-rich-quick organization and much more about triggering foundational and institutional change in society. These interviews, encapsulating the history of recent decades, eloquently lay out the opportunities and challenges of today and the future. The profiled leaders inspire awe by displaying audacity of intent, humility of demeanour and steadfastness of purpose.

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Dr. Christian Busch is an internationally known expert in the areas of innovation, purpose-driven leadership, and serendipity. He is the director of the CGA Global Economy Programme at New York University (NYU), and also teaches at the London School of Economics (LSE). A cofounder of Leaders on Purpose and the Sandbox Network - and a former director of LSE's Innovation Lab - he has worked with senior executives and governments around the world. He is member of the World Economic Forum's (WEF) Expert Forum, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and on the Thinkers50 Radar list of the 30 thinkers "most likely to shape the future." His work has been featured by outlets such as the Strategic Management Journal, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Guardian, and the BBC.

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Ravi Venkatesan is a business leader, writer and social entrepreneur. He is the Chairman of the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and UNICEF's Special Representative for Young People and Innovation. Ravi is also the founder of the Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and serves on the boards of Hitachi Ltd and Rockefeller Foundation. Ravi has served as the chairman of Microsoft India, Bank of Baroda and Cummins India. He has a B-Tech from IIT Bombay, an MS from Purdue University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Ravi is the author of Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere. He was voted as one of India's best management thinkers by Thinkers50 and as Microsoft's Alumni Hero 2020.

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Aarti and Aditya fell in love with water lily pops all the way back in school. This love for the snack followed them into college. The husband-and-wife team shared their ‘pop’ romance with their friends, classmates, and professors too. They’d pop ‘em at home and share the little goodies on campus. This was the start of it all.

​They were onto something… They started small. They kept it simple. Salted was the first flavor, but a lot more would follow.

​The aim was always to give people a wholesome snack that they’d love both while consuming it and later too, sans any guilt. After researching and examining numerous flavors and grades of water lily seeds, they finally identified five flavors and the best-quality ingredients that worked, and Taali was born.

​Since that moment, Aarti and Aditya have worked hard to ensure the Taali supply chain is sustainable and the ingredients are 100% natural. And given the fact that these two young founders have no prior food or entrepreneurship experience, we can imagine the effort they have had to put in to make Taali the delicious reality it is today.

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Neel Ghose is the founder of the the Robin Hood Army, (RHA) a volunteer organization which redistributes surplus food to the less fortunate. With a zero funds policy, the team has served meals to 83.9 million people across 255 cities through a family of Robins across the world - the RHA is now a Harvard case study. From a work front, Neel manages partnerships for Google Pay, he previously launched international markets and worked for Zomato from the seed stage.

​Neel has done his bachelors in Shri Ram College of Commerce and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. A passionate fan of cricket, Neel spends most of his free time struggling on the squash court, and procrastinating with friends and his 6 year old niece Tara. He believes the Robin Hood Army's work is just 1% Done.

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Devi Lockwood is the Ideas editor at Rest of World and the author of 1,001 VOICES ON CLIMATE CHANGE, a book published by Simon & Schuster (Tiller Press) on August 24, 2021. Previously she worked as an editor and writer at the New York Times Opinion section. She spent five years traveling in 20 countries on six continents to document 1,001 stories on water & climate change. As a 2018 National Geographic Explorer, she photographed and recorded audio with ArtCirq, an Inuit Arctic performance collective. In 2019 she completed the Graduate Program in Science Writing at MIT. In 2014 Devi graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude from Harvard where she studied Folklore & Mythology, earned a Language Citation in Arabic, and rowed for the Radcliffe Varsity Lightweight Women's Rowing team.

You can read her writing in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, The Washington Post, Bicycling Magazine, Yale Climate Connections, and elsewhere.

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Based in Los Angeles and a native of New York City, Kiran Gandhi, aka Madame Gandhi, is a singer, percussionist, activist and music industry thinker known for her electronic-based sound and fourth-wave feminist perspective. She began working under the stage name Madame Gandhi in 2015, while Alexia Riner — a Berklee College of Music graduate in sound design — became a key contributor to the project, providing electronic soundscapes and co-production.

Currently, Gandhi is working on her three-part electrofeminist solo EP series. Her debut EP, and the first in the series, Voices, was released in October 2016, featuring guest appearances from Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs and Alt-J guitarist Joe Newman. The second installment, Visions, is slated for July 2019. The third in the EP series will follow.

Prior to her solo work, Gandhi toured with forward-thinking, politically-minded rapper/electronic artist M.I.A. as the band’s drummer. She has also drummed for acts such as Krewella, Lizzo and Kehlani and is a prolific collaborator in the world of electrofeminist music and art.

Gandhi’s interests span music, politics and activism. She studied Political Science, Mathematics, and Women’s Studies at Georgetown University and received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. It was while at Georgetown that Gandhi‘s interests in music and politics fused — she met and began performing with boundary-pushing electronic duo Thievery Corporation, including an appearance at Bonnaroo in 2010, after they organized a protest over the closing of a local homeless shelter. While at Harvard, she juggled playing shows around the world with M.I.A. and taking classes.

Gandhi has been featured on Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list and her 2018 “Own Your Voice” TED Talk has been viewed 200,000+ times. She also previously served as the first digital analyst at Interscope Records in Los Angeles.

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India’s maharajahs have traditionally been cast as petty despots, consumed by lust and luxury. Bejewelled parasites, they cared more, we are told, for elephants and palaces than for schools and public works. The British cheerfully circulated the idea that brown royalty needed ‘enlightened’ white hands to guide it, and by the twentieth century many Indians too bought into the stereotype, viewing princely India as packed with imperial stooges. Indeed, even today the princes are either remembered with frothy nostalgia or dismissed as greedy fools, with no role in the making of contemporary India.

In this brilliantly researched book, Manu S. Pillai disputes this view. Tracking the travels of the iconic painter Ravi Varma through five princely states – from the 1860s to the early 1900s – he uncovers a picture far removed from the clichés in which the princes are trapped. The world we discover is not of dancing girls, but of sedition, legal battles, the defiance of imperial dictates, and resistance. We meet maharajahs obsessed with industrialization, and rulers who funded nationalists, these men anything but pushovers for the Raj to manipulate. Outward deference aside, the princes, Pillai shows, forever tested the Raj – from denying white officials the right to wear shoes in durbars to trying to surpass British administrative standards.

Good governance became a spectacularly subversive act, by which maharajahs and the ‘native statesmen’ assisting them refuted claims that Indians could not rule themselves. For decades this made the princes heroes in the eyes of nationalists and anti-colonial thinkers – a facet of history we have forgotten and ignored. By refocusing attention on princely India, False Allies takes us on an unforgettable journey and reminds us that the maharajahs were serious political actors – essential to knowing modern India.

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In this pathbreaking work, Shrayana Bhattacharya maps the economic and personal trajectories--the jobs, desires, prayers, love affairs and rivalries--of a diverse group of women. Divided by class but united in fandom, they remain steadfast in their search for intimacy, independence and fun. Embracing Hindi film idol Shah Rukh Khan allows them a small respite from an oppressive culture, a fillip to their fantasies of a friendlier masculinity in Indian men. Most struggle to find the freedom-or income-to follow their favourite actor.

Bobbing along in this stream of multiple lives for more than a decade-from Manju's boredom in 'rurban' Rampur and Gold's anger at having to compete with Western women for male attention in Delhi's nightclubs, to Zahira's break from domestic abuse in Ahmedabad-Bhattacharya gleans the details on what Indian women think about men, money, movies, beauty, helplessness, agency and love. A most unusual and compelling book on the female gaze, this is the story of how women have experienced post-liberalization India.

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Niel backs exceptional young entrepreneurs to find, buy & build enduring small to medium businesses globally as co-founder of Ambit Partners, a specialised Search Fund investor.

He is a guest lecturer in Entrepreneurship-via-Acquisition at the University of Cape Town's Graduate School of Business, has worked and studied in South Africa, France, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and is a member of the Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum.

Niel earned his MBA with distinction from INSEAD, where he was the Class of '75 Nelson Mandela Scholar, and his B.Com Honours with distinction from North-West University.

He speaks English and Afrikaans.

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In this podcast, we cover -

1. The art & science of designing for profitability
2. Insights on scaling yourself through words
3. Lessons in chasing personal passions for professional success

This is Sahil -

"It was 2011, and I was on top of the world. I was a 19-year-old solo founder with millions in the bank. At first, everything was great. We grew the team. We stayed focused on our product. Monthly revenues were climbing. But after four years, there was just one problem: our numbers weren’t doubling fast enough to satisfy the venture capitalists who had backed us in the first place. We tried everything, but eventually I had to lay off three-quarters of the staff - including many good friends.

I couldn’t stay in San Francisco, so I moved to Provo, Utah and kept Gumroad afloat on my own while I figured out what to do next. I went back to writing and painting, and that reminded me why I had built the business in the first place. I loved to create! When our lead investor offered to sell ownership back to Gumroad for $1, the future came into focus. I could start again and grow the kind of meaningful business focused on creators that we always should have been.

In February 2019, I published a Medium essay, “Reflecting on My Failure to Build a Billion-Dollar Company” that struck a chord with millions of entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs who, deep down, would much rather build a sustainable business like Gumroad than chase a VC-backed unicorn. I wrote The Minimalist Entrepreneur and created the course to help anyone design, build, and successfully grow their own right sized business. Now, let’s get to it!"

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Pride, Prejudice, and Punditry brings together the very best fiction, non-fiction, and poetry from his published books and journalism—as well as many pieces that have been written specially for this volume.

There are ten sections in the book, each devoted to a particular topic. ‘In the Company of Giants’ looks at some of the most important figures of modern Indian history; ‘Into the Maelstrom of Indian Politics’ contains work on the Indian political scene; ‘Our Unruly World’ covers international relations and diplomacy; ‘The Hindu Way’ examines various aspects of the faith; ‘Musings of a Cricket Tragic’ includes some of his finest writing on the sport; ‘You Cannot Be Serious!’ is a light-hearted take on sundry matters; ‘Fragments of an Autobiography’ has poignant essays about his parents and an evocative look at his Kerala heritage; ‘The Spoken Word’ is a selection of his most famous speeches; ‘The Writerly Life’ comprises ruminations on writing and writers; and ‘Selected Fiction and Poetry’ showcases his masterpieces of fiction and poetry.

This book will give those new to the author’s work a panoramic view of the range and depth of his writing. Long-time fans will find fresh material to delight them as also ageless pieces that continue to enchant. Dazzling, inventive, and exuberant, Pride, Prejudice, and Punditry presents readers with the essential work of a literary genius.

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Aditya Ghosh is a seasoned business leader with over 22 years of experience. Aditya currently sits on the Board of Directors of Fabindia - India’s largest retail platform; and OYO, one of the world’s leading hospitality chains with presence across 80 countries. Most recently, he was the CEO at OYO Hotels & Homes- India & South Asia.

Prior to this, Aditya was the President & Member of the Board of IndiGo, for ten years and turned it into India’s largest & most profitable airline.

Aditya was also a Board Member of InterGlobe Hotels and InterGlobe Technologies.

Aditya is currently involved with the management teams, boards & investors of companies across sectors, in transforming these businesses especially around challenges of scaling up; consumer focus; branding and marketing; financial sustainability; organisational culture and communication strategy.

Aditya is an active supporter of the start-up world and has made multiple investments through his investment venture - Homage Ventures. It has a positive bias towards supporting women led enterprises and diverse management teams. He has invested in companies such as Blue Tokai, an indigenous coffee roaster; Wholsum Foods, focussing on healthy & affordable food products made from super grains; SpeakIn a first-of-its kind expert platform; Vsync, a brand and digital consultancy; Juggernaut, an aspiring world-class Indian publishing company; Sarva Yoga; Genepath Diagnostics; & CreditEnable.

Aditya is also Member of the Advisory Board and Investor at the VC firm, Fireside Ventures.

Aditya has a keen interest in philanthropy and creating social impact in the areas of Education; Diversity & Inclusion; Health & Well-being; and Art & Culture.

He is one of the Founders of The Ashoka University and Member - Circle of Sponsors where he is actively involved. He is also Member of the Advisory Board at the Centre for Creative Leadership, the world’s leading provider of education in leadership development.

He also sits on the Board of Directors of Nani Palkhivala Arbitration Centre, which aims to transform the delivery of justice.

Aditya never went to business school and is a lawyer by training. Before his business roles, Aditya practised corporate law at the prestigious law firms, J. Sagar Associates and K&S Partners and thereafter, as the General Counsel at InterGlobe Enterprises.

Aditya is married with two children and currently resides in India. He is considered to be one of the fittest business leaders in India. He has many other interests and describes himself as being “ever curious”

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This podcast covers - 

1. The art of meaningful career transitions.
2. How to become a dreamer and a doer: Frameworks of ‘zooming in & zooming out’.
3. The importance of nurturing talent and empowering new leaders.
4. Insights on multi-generational leadership in managing work, home and society.

Indra K. Nooyi served as CEO and chairman of PepsiCo from 2006 to 2019. Her prescient strategic thinking, insight into consumer behaviour  and wisdom on managing a vast, global workforce make her one of the world’s most sought-after advisors to entrepreneurs, executives, and governments. She is also revered as a role model for women and immigrants, and celebrated for her empowering messages on inclusivity.

At PepsiCo, she was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, the company’s mission to deliver sustained growth by making more nutritious products, limiting the company’s environmental footprint, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. She has been awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour, the U.S. State Department’s award for Outstanding American by Choice, and 15 honorary degrees. She is married to Raj Nooyi and has two daughters, Preetha and Tara.

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This podcast covers - 

1. Insights from building a global company based out of india
2. The impact of making hard-work as muscle memory
3. Building your tribe of mentors and supporters

Ms. Farzana Haque is the Global Head of Large Accounts SBU at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). TCS is a leading global information technology company with over US$12 Billion in revenues. TCS is India’s most valued company with the country’s highest market capitalisation. Forbes magazine  voted TCS as the most admired company in India. Farzana began her career with the TATA Group in Mumbai as a management trainee and has worked there ever since.

In recognition of her leadership at TCS, Farzana was nominated to the World Economic Forum as a ‘Young Global Leader’. The Young Global Leader recognises the top 250 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, their commitment to society and their potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

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This podcast covers -

How giving advice to others helps us more than it helps them The importance of setting ‘flexible’ goals. Forgetfulness and the art of avoiding everyday errors. Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and the former president of the international Society for Judgment and Decision Making. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative, a research center with the mission of advancing the science of lasting behavior change whose work is being chronicled by Freakonomics Radio. Over the course of her career, she has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to spur positive change, including Google, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, 24 Hour Fitness, Walmart and Morningstar. An award-winning scholar and teacher, Katy writes frequently about behavioral science for major media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, and Scientific American.

Her bestselling book How to Change: The Science of Getting From Where You are to Where You Want to Be is now available. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (summa cum laude), where she studied Operations Research and American Studies and her PhD from Harvard University where, she studied Computer Science and Business.

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This podcast covers - 

Gen Z careers and the passion economy Bytedance’s quest to become “borderless as Google” TikTok product evolution and algorithm

Chris Stokel-Walker is a British journalist whose work regularly appears in WIRED, The Economist and Insider.

He is known for breaking major news about YouTube and TikTok and often reports on the site for television, radio and podcasts. His latest book, TikTok Boom, includes scores of interviews from the biggest names in front of and behind the camera.

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Mercedes’ path to VC is a true convergence of her life experiences — a childhood surrounded by inventors, studies at Harvard and Stanford, finance roles at the Federal Reserve and Goldman, and managing P&L at startups in VR and EdTech, and her long-term goal of empowering communities she cares about. She began her venture capital career at Owl Ventures before joining Lightspeed’s consumer investing team in 2019.

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Suneel Gupta is the author of the bestselling book "Backable". The book is rooted in Suneel’s journey from the "Face of Failure" for the New York Times to the "New Face of Innovation" for the New York Stock Exchange. Suneel is the founding CEO of RISE, which partnered with then first-Lady Michelle Obama to deliver low-cost healthcare services to people in need. Rise was named "App of the Year" by Apple and sold in a successful exist to One Medical (NASDAQ: ONEM). Suneel later ran for U.S. Congress and now serves on faculty at Harvard University and as an emissary for Gross National Happiness between the United States and the Kingdom of Bhutan. When a reporter once asked Suneel about his purpose, his response was to “find good people, and inspire them to do what inspires them.”

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Dr Shashi Tharoor, a third-term Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, is the bestselling author of twenty-two books, both fiction and non-fiction, besides being a former Under Secretary-General of the United Nations and a former Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. He has won numerous awards, including the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Crossword Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2019, Dr. Tharoor was also awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in the category of ‘English Non-Fiction’ for his book An Era of Darkness. He chairs Parliament’s Standing Committee on Information Technology.

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Jake is the Co-Founder and CEO of Pallet. Prior to this, we was an intern at Peloton. He is also a former Stanford wrestler. He is based in NYC.

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Suhani Jalota, from Mumbai, India, is pursuing a PhD in health policy at Stanford School of Medicine and an MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics and global health from Duke University, where she was a Baldwin Scholar and a Melissa & Doug Entrepreneurship fellow. She aspires to become a social health entrepreneur, creating self-sustaining health-related organizations managed entirely by the low income communities for which they exist. She worked as an associate at IDinsight in the Philippines, and interned at the Naandi Foundationin India, Dalberg Global Development Advisors in India, and Economic Policy Research Institute in South Africa. As an entrepreneur, she is the founder and CEO of the Myna Mahila Foundation in Mumbai, which produces affordable menstrual hygiene products. She received the Queen’s Young Leader award from Queen Elizabeth II, was selected as the grand prize winner of Glamour magazine’s College Women of the Year, and won a Woman Center Global Impact Award. Suhani was also named to Forbes’ list of the top social entrepreneurs in the world under the age of 30.

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Stephanie Wander is a technology and innovation strategist with a successful track record of launching large-scale projects to solve global grand challenges. Ms. Wander’s approaches integrate innovation best practices and mindsets including design thinking, behavior change strategies, foresight techniques, and expert and public crowdsourcing.

Previously, Stephanie Wander was a Lecturer at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work where she taught graduate Social Work professionals in Design, Innovation, and Disruptive Technology. She is also a former Senior Manager of Prize Development at the XPRIZE Foundation, where she led the design of IBM Watson AI XPRIZE and competitions for on-demand urban aviation and tissue engineering. Ms. Wander was also a contributing designer on the Wendy Schmidt Ocean Health XPRIZE and the Global Learning XPRIZE competitions.

Ms. Wander has written and spoken about disruptive technologies and processes, notably at NASA’s On-Demand Mobility Workshop, South by Southwest, and on CXOTalk. She co-authored the chapter “The Power of Prize Competitions” in the book What Matters: Investing in Results to Build Strong, Vibrant Communities. She has also been quoted by various publications including Sports Illustrated, Wired Germany, Vice, Engadget, Digitaltrends.com, Geekwire, Futurism, I Programmer, IFLscience, and The Verge.

Ms. Wander is a graduate of the UCLA Anderson School of Management and Northwestern University. Ms. Wander is passionate about collaborating with experts and teams to identify disruptive change, create meaningful opportunities, and deliver high-impact results through innovation.

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Faves is my second company. I’ve raised over $12.5 million from angels & VCs (including Mark Cuban and Pear VC, who gave DoorDash their first check). At my first startup, we set out to create a nail polish that detects date rape drugs. The product ended up becoming a keychain and has saved dozens of lives. I’m a member of the On Deck Fellowship and a graduate of Stanford Business School.

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In this world full of plastic and chemical waste, how can you help save the planet?

Did you know that there will be more plastic than fish in our seas by 2050? Did you know that it takes 20,000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans? Did you know that we have a massive food wastage problem, and yet millions die of hunger each day?

Bare Necessities is your one-stop guide on how to move towards a more sustainable lifestyle in India. Filled with activities, insights, recipes, tips and how-to guides, it is a must-read for anyone wanting to make a positive change in their life and to our environment.

Sahar Mansoor is founder and CEO of Bare Necessities, a zero-waste social enterprise, she is a circular economy nerd, voracious learner and curious traveller.

Sahar has gained accredited degrees on environmental topics in India, the US and England, becoming a University of Cambridge alumni. Moreover she has volunteered in Guatemala, Jamaica and the Democratic Republic of Congo on various humanitarian projects

Sahar has a 500 gram jar of waste that she brings to workshops that she runs on sustainable living, which is all the waste she has produced in the past 5 years. She is looking forward to sharing her tips on living a zero-waste lifestyle with you.

Tim de Ridder began his environmental career in Australia, prior to moving to South East and South Asia. He has organized a wide range of workshops on sustainability, with a focus on the circular economy, the creation of an online education course on waste in India and community engagement initiatives in Cambodia and Malaysia.

Bare Necessities is the second book he has authored after his self-published Tales from the Roadside, a memoir about a solo bicycle trip across Europe that connected him to the world in profound ways.

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Roberts is director and professor at the School of Public Policy. He writes extensively on problems of governance, law, and public policy. His most recent book, Strategies for Governing, was published by Cornell University Press in 2020.

Roberts was elected as a fellow of the US National Academy of Public Administration in 2007. From 2009 to 2017, he was co-editor of the journal Governance. He serves on the editorial boards of several other journals in the field of public administration.

He has a PhD in public policy and a master's of public policy from Harvard University and a JD from the University of Toronto.

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Rohan Pasricha is a US Army veteran currently working for Amazon as their Sr. Regional Manager for the South-West region. Rohan’s career path took a major shift when he ended up joining US Army after writing a blog in response to the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attacks. He was literally plucked out of the classroom on a US student visa and pulled into the US Army battlefield. He ended up doing his MBA from INSEAD after leaving the Army and ended up joining Amazon after graduation. Rohan had to go on medical leave after contracting Covid-19 in Feb 2020 and used this time to learn more about the stock market. He turned his initial $300k investment to over $14M by Jan 2021 by following some key steps in his investment strategy. Apart from stocks, Rohan loves spending time with his 2 kids and loves playing poker. Normal text.

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Ishan is an entrepreneur, global executive & team builder who loves creating and scaling up businesses. He is driven by the idea of democratising access across various dimensions and has spent all his professional life doing so through his work in the areas of education, finance & information.

Ishan is currently the Global Head of Operations at Udacity. In this capacity, he is responsible for driving successful outcomes for customers worldwide and across consumer, enterprise and government channels. Prior to heading global operations, Ishan built Udacity’s India business from the ground up.

Before joining Udacity, Ishan was VP of Services in the e-commerce division of Paytm, India’s largest fintech company. He was Founder & CEO of EduKart.com, which became India's largest education marketplace in only five years before it was acqui-hired by Paytm. He was also the first growth evangelist for Facebook in India. While still an undergraduate student, Ishan founded his first company delivering offline technology trainings across India and is a published co-author of a book on demystifying entrepreneurship.

Ishan earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from University of Delhi and a MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.

He has spoken on topics such as business, leadership, entrepreneurship, technology and education at many prestigious forums across the world. He is also a regular writer in leading publications of India and featured on prominent news channels.

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Ipshita is an incoming Stanford GSB MBA student, and is currently working with Nova Credit. Nova helps immigrants moving to the US start their financial journey on an equal footing, by helping them use their home country credit history, to access financial products in the US. Prior to Nova, Ipshita was the founder of a social-first content discovery platform for educational content. She also spent over three years in early-stage VC and impact investing in India. Ipshita believes in using technology as an equalising force, with a passion for education and financial inclusion.

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Inspired by the Socratic method, and a long tradition of philosophers who were interested in the practical side ofphilosophy, I am interested in working with people and enterprises to cultivate an action-driven, belief-disrupting,philosophical way of thinking.

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Jed is a venture builder who has launched new tech businesses around the world. He's built and run the world's largest API Marketplace in partnership with A16Z-backed RapidAPI. He has been an angel investor and leads syndicate for 4 years. He recently launched Angel-School.co: A hands-on, fully-remote fellowship program to help emerging Angels invest via their own syndicates. He holds an MBA from INSEAD.

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Sanjeev Sanyal is the Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India.  An internationally acclaimed economist and best-selling author, he spent two decades in the financial sector and was Global Strategist & Managing Director at Deutsche Bank till 2015. He was named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2010. He is also a well-known environmentalist and urban theorist. In 2007, he was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship for his work on urban dynamics. He has been a Visiting Scholar at Oxford University, Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore and a Senior Fellow of the World Wide Fund for Nature. He has also served on the Future City Sub-Committee of the Singapore government tasked with building a long-term vision for the city-state. 

Sanjeev attended Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi and Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar (1992-95). His best-selling books include Land of the Seven Rivers, The Indian Renaissance and The Ocean of Churn, all published by Penguin. In addition, he had published around 200 articles, columns and reports in leading national/international publications. He was given the inaugural International Indian Achievers Award for contributions to Literature in 2014. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London and a Visiting Fellow of IDFC Institute, Mumbai.

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Mohini Gupta is currently a research scholar in language politics at the University of Oxford. She founded the multilingual digital collective Mother Tongue Twisters to promote Indian language poetry for young readers, and curate conversations on literary translation.

Mohini was the Charles Wallace India Trust Translator-Writer Fellow in 2017 for creative writing and translation, hosted by Literature Across Frontiers. An alumna of SOAS University of London, she has been a Research Fellow at Sarai, CSDS; and a translator-in-residence at the Sangam House international writers’ residency in Bangalore. She has written on languages, literature and translation for publications such as Huffington Post, The Caravan Magazine, TheWire.in, Scroll.in, Poetry Translation Centre, and the WorldKidLit Blog. Her English-Hindi translations have been published by Tulika Publishers. She is also a trained Indian Classical (Hindustani) vocalist and a Western Classical pianist.

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During his career spanning 38 years, Anil Swarup attempted to 'make it happen'. Before joining the IAS in 1981, he served the IPS for a year. He won Director's Gold Medal at the LBS National Academy of Administration amongst the officers of his batch. As a civil servant, he held various assignments within both the State (UP) and Central Govt. During the final years of his career, he served as Secretary in the Ministry of Coal where he handled the aftermath of the coal scam. Thereafter, he served as Secretary, School Education and Literacy where he attempted to foster public private partnership to improve quality of school education. As a strategic thinker and an innovative leader, he won several awards and nominations.

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Damon Centola is a Professor in the Annenberg School for Communication, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is Director of the Network Dynamics Group and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics.

His research addresses social networks and behavior change. His work has been published across several disciplines in journals such as Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, American Journal of Sociology, and Journal of Statistical Physics.

Before coming to Penn, Centola was an Assistant Professor at M.I.T. and a Robert Wood Johnson Fellow at Harvard University. His speaking and consulting clients include Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Cigna, the Smithsonian Institution, the American Heart Association, the National Academies, the U.S. Army, and the NBA. Popular accounts of his work have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Wired, TIME, The Atlantic, Scientific American, and CNN.

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Anisa Mirza is a software entrepreneur, passionate about the intersection of technology and social causes. A 2x founder, Mirza is a Y Combinator alum and named Forbes Top 30 Under 30 Social Innovators for 2016.

She is the Founder and President of Tiny Broadway, the leading education platform for arts and theatre experiences. Her first company, Giveffect, is the all-in-one software for nonprofits across North America, processing over $24 Million in donations annually. As Founder, and former CEO of Giveffect, Anisa turned a $120,000 investment into a company valued at $15 Million today. She continues to be a proud majority shareholder in Giveffect inc.

As an immigrant to America who is also the daughter of immigrants, Anisa hopes to inspire more women and minority founders to follow their passion and become creators of their own startups. She is a fierce voice for diversity in the startup community.

Originally from Canada, Anisa is Pakistani-Italian by heritage. She migrated to San Francisco, USA in 2015 after getting accepted into the prestigious Y Combinator program. In January 2020, Anisa moved to New York City where she currently lives with her boyfriend and two cats.

Anisa currently serves as an advisor and startup growth coach for business looking to tell better stories to enhance their sales. Anisa is a frequent public speaker and host of Startup Hour - a live stream show for founders, by founders.

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Prateek Kanwal is a World Bank Scholar and did his Master in Public Policy (MPP) from the Harvard Kennedy School in United States. He did his undergraduate studies in Finance & Accounting from NMIMS, Mumbai. Over a period of last 10 years, he has worked across government, private and non-profit sector both nationally and internationally. This experience has allowed him to plan and execute key policies in the education sector. He is an international speaker and is invited frequently to deliver keynotes and join panel discussions on social sector reforms.

He is also setting up a state of the art policy school called Kautilya School of Public Policy in Hyderabad on lines of Harvard Kennedy School. The school will offer 2 year full-time MPP from June 2021. He can be reached out via twitter at @prateekkanwal

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Dr. Christian Busch is the director of the Global Economy program at New York University's Center for Global Affairs, where he teaches on purpose-driven leadership, impact entrepreneurship, social innovation, and emerging markets. He is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the co-founder of Leaders on Purpose, an organization convening high-impact leaders, as well as the Sandbox Network, a global community of young innovators active in over 20 countries. Previously, he served on the faculty of the LSE's Department of Management and as the inaugural Deputy Director of the LSE’s Innovation Centre.

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Abhay Kumar or Abhay K. (born 1980) is an Indian poet-diplomat and India's 21st Ambassador to Madagascar and Ambassador to Comoros. He has served in different diplomatic capacities earlier in Russia, Nepal and Brazil. His published collections of poetry include The Seduction of Delhi, The Eight-Eyed Lord of Kathmandu, The Prophecy of Brasilia, The Alphabets of Latin America among others, while his edited books are CAPITALS, 100 Great Indian Poems, 100 More Great Indian Poems, New Brazilian Poems, The Bloomsbury Anthology of Great Indian Poems,The Bloomsbury Book of Great Indian Love Poems among others. He recorded his poems at the Library of Congress. His writings cover poetry, art, memoir, global democracy and digital diplomacy. His Earth Anthem has been translated into over 50 languages and was played at the United Nations to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Earth Day. He also wrote an anthem for SAARC spurring search for an official SAARC Anthem. He wrote a 'Moon Anthem' to celebrate the success of India's Moon Mission Chandrayaan-2. He has penned a 'Mars Anthem' to inspire the younger generation to explore our neighbouring red planet. He has also penned a Venus Anthem.

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In this podcast you will learn - 

1. Unpacking the fin-tech ecosystem in India and the opportunities that exist
2. Mental models for building effective products and teams
3. Experience of founding and scaling a startup amidst a pandemic
4. The Y Combinator experience and learnings from previous ventures

An IIT-graduate with over 6 years of experience in Fintech, Rohit founded Decentro in his pursuit to help businesses reduce integration time by ~10X and capital expenditure by ~80%. Rohit co-founded his first venture Mypoolin in 2015 which was the country’s first social payments platform and a payments infrastructure provider. After raising two rounds of funding, Mypoolin was acquired by a California-based global payments player Wibmo in 2017, which in turn was acquired by Naspers-backed PayU in 2019.

As the Director of Engineering, Rohit had encountered the same hurdles when leading the India and SEA markets in terms of their payment gateway and banking integrations, which inspired him to raise a solution.

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In this podcast you will learn - 

1. Mental models for building a career at the intersection of academia with entrepreneurship
2. Lessons on grit and perseverance while working on a PhD.
3. The importance of mentors in professional progression and the role of giving-back
4. Experience of pursing a multidisciplinary PhD. and finding the ‘right’ supervisor.

Xiangkun (Elvis) Cao (https://www.elviscao.com/) is an honoree by three 30 under 30 lists including Forbes’ 30 under 30 in Energy. His Ph.D. thesis at Cornell University centers around developing scalable photoreactors for solar fuel production, which is featured in the World Economic Forum's white paper as an energy innovation breakthrough of the past decade (2020). He was selected as a Young Scientist Attendee for the 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting in Lindau, Germany (2020), was chosen as a Young Investigator Attendee for the 3rd World Laureates Forum in Shanghai, China (2020).

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In this podcast you learn - 

1. The impact of nationality and gender of communication styles.
2. Mental models for ‘authentic’ communication
3. The difference between ‘bragging’ and 'effective communication'

Marie is a personal communication expert, author and TEDx speaker. She has been working at the intersection of communications and innovations for the past 10 years, with a career ranging from advertising to consulting and fashion. On a daily basis she helps managers and thought leaders transform their business and communicate better about themselves through consulting, training and a personal coaching practice. She is also a TEDx speaker and advocate for women empowerment and gender diversity. In addition to her work as a consultant, trainer and coach she teaches communications for startups at the Center for Entrepreneurship of Sciences Po Paris. Her first book was published in 2021 by French publisher Dunod: "I am the brand - personal communications for those who don't like to brag" (in French "La Marque, c'est moi - la communication personnelle pour celles et ceux qui n'aiment pas se mettre en avant.)

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Manal is the co-founder and CEO of Eat Offbeat, a refugee-driven food company that delivers authentic meals conceived and prepared by refugees who now call New York City home. Manal moved to NYC to pursue a career in environmental affairs, but the Hummus she found on supermarket shelves led her on a different journey. She co-founded Eat Offbeat to help New Yorkers discover authentic cuisines from around the world all the while creating quality jobs. Eat Offbeat has since served over 250,000 meals in NYC and has been featured in media outlets including Forbes, The Guardian, the Huffington Post, Newsweek, Fast Company and others.

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Dr. Marcus Ranney’s journey has led him from disease care, at the patient’s bed-side, to wellbeing, in some of the most extreme environments around the planet. Graduating from University College of London Medical School (UCL), his research has taken him to Mt. Everest, the Arctic Circle and the Alps. He has worked with fighter pilots whilst in the Royal Airforce and with astronauts whilst at NASA. Leaving the world of clinical medicine in 2010, his work now looks at the role of wellbeing in society and how technology can be crafted as a force for good. A keynote speaker and global health commentator, he has been a World Economic Forum’s Global Shaper, and more recently, appointed as a Senior Fellow to the Atlantic Council. Marcus is a keen athlete and long-distance marathon runner, also holding a Guinness Record for backwards running, and he most of all describes himself as a young hands-on father intent on making this world a better place for his two children.

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Rahul Rana is a venture builder and investor with specialties in finance and astrophysics. He works for Lux Capital, a $2.5bn deeptech venture capital firm.

He is the author of Making Moonshots—a deep dive into the mindsets, philosophies, and strategies conducive to building moonshot companies. "Moonshot company" entails three things: taking an advanced science or deep technology and using it in a radical solution to solve a big problem in the world.

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Lila Shroff is deeply interested in media innovation and is passionate about creating a healthier media ecosystem. Currently, Lila is on a gap year, working as a Research Analyst at Atelier Ventures and building Side Hustle Stack, before starting at Stanford University next fall. She is also spending her gap year as part of the initial cohort at Girlhood* (a new digital media organization by and for girls), working independently on a creative writing project, and was previously a fellow at Splice Beta (Asia's only media startup festival). In the past, Lila has spent her time exploring the intersecting worlds of media and business through internships with the Stanford Technology Ventures Program and Glow.fm (a podcast monetization startup). She has also worked in radio journalism as an Advanced Producer at KUOW's RadioActive, as Student General Manager of KMIH 88.9 The Bridge, and with the Northwest News Network. Learn more about Lila and her work at lilashroff.com.

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Ruha Shadab is a doctor turned public health professional turned social entrepreneur. She is the Founder of LedBy Foundation, a unique leadership incubator that works on improving equity in the workplace.

She is a recent graduate from Harvard University, where she received her Master in Public Policy on a full tuition scholarship. On graduation, she was awarded the Harvard Kennedy School Women’s Leadership Award: the first Indian to receive it. During her Master’s, she served as the Co-Chair of the India Conference at Harvard, worked at Yale University as first author for a medical ethics paper, and interned at the Gates Foundation on a global health strategy framework.

Prior to Harvard, Ruha worked at the Government of India’s policy think-tank: NITI Aayog, chaired by the Prime Minister. There, she was part of the roll out of the world’s largest government health insurance scheme. She has also worked with the international health NGO: the Clinton Health Access Initiative, where she prepared the ground for public health interventions for maternal and child health. Ruha is an alum of Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi. She is skilled in strategy development, project management, and stakeholder engagement.

Ruha cares about market-oriented solutions to accelerate the economy’s transition to a more cohesive, respectful, and inclusive model through eliminating entry and retention barriers for underrepresented women. When not working, Ruha can be found running, reading the Economist, or baking.

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This podcast covers -

1. Exploring India: self-reliant, resilient, reignited
2. Taking the 25 year old legacy forward and hosting the first virtual WIEF conference
3. Learnings and reflections from 2020 and a virtual MBA programme
4. Principles for curating a virtual experience and engineering serendipity

Register now - https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wharton-india-economic-forum-2021-virtual-conference-tickets-132689181915

Divya Kamerkar Divya Kamerkar is an Entrepreneurship and Innovation major at Wharton. She is also a Forté fellow and recipient of the Judith and William P Bollinger Fellowship, which covers her entire student cost of attendance. Currently, Divya is working to launch her reproductive health start-up called Pinky Promise. Prior to Wharton, Divya worked at The Bridgespan Group where she helped advise several governments and large nonprofits across India and the MENA region on their healthcare and early childhood strategies. She also worked for the Delhi Government as a Senior Consultant where she was tasked with implementing reforms to make Delhi safer for women. Divya holds a B.S from Yale University and is also a Yale Global Health Fellow.

Gaurav Lulu Gaurav Lulu is a Co-Chair of Wharton India Economic Forum. He is a second year MBA student at Wharton, pursuing major in Finance and Operations. Prior to Wharton, he worked as Investment Associate with Baring Private Equity Asia where he evaluated and executed control investments in financials, technology, and services sectors. Before Baring, he was an investment banking analyst with Rothschild in Singapore where he advised infrastructure clients in SEA on M&A and fundraising. Gaurav holds a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay. He interned with CPPIB Direct Private Equity in London and with Amansa Capital in Singapore this summer.

Rishabh Jain Rishabh Jain is an "Entrepreneurship" and "Operations, Information & Decisions" double major at Wharton. Before Wharton he worked at Bharti Airtel, participating in the flagship rotational leadership program before working closely with senior management as part of Group Treasury on liquidity and mobile money across India and Africa. Prior to that he has worked in Gamezop and Ernst & Young. He's a Chartered Accountant and holds a B. Com (Hons.) degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce.

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In this podcast you learn -

• Combining data and curiosity to conduct micro-experiments
• The power of writing and clarity of thought
• The importance of cognitive diversity in hiring
• Advice for young professionals and students.

Sri Rajan is a partner in Bain & Company's San Francisco office. Prior to this, he was the chairman and managing director of Bain’s India offices. He is an active contributor to the firm's Customer Strategy & Marketing, Private Equity, Advanced Manufacturing & Services, Automotive and Telecommunications, Media & Technology (TMT) practices

He has over 20 years of management consulting experience across India and the United States. He has supported the creation and execution of turnaround strategies for multiple diversified firms and holds significant experience working with private equity firms in pre-deal diligence and post-deal strategy, as well as in operational engagements across sectors.

Sri serves on the board of Delhivery, a logistics startup in India, and is an investor in and advisor to many other startups and funds. He is also the chair of the Consultative Council of Akshaya Patra, an India-based NGO that serves meals to more than 1.75 million children every day.

Sri earned his MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where he was a Palmer Scholar. He graduated with a post-graduate degree in management from IIM, Calcutta.

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Stephen is CEO and co-founder of Exponent. He is a product management thought leader who has presented at Google, WeWork, Stanford GSB, Duke, Yale and more. Previously, Stephen was a product manager at Google.

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Pritika Mehta is a Data Scientist turned entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of SockSoho. SockSoho is India's fastest growing fashion tech brand for millennial men. It was recently backed by Y Combinator in the US. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies in the US like Bank of America, Tripadvisor, etc. before starting SockSoho.

Pritika holds a Masters in Artificial Intelligence from the State University of New York. In 2018, she was chosen on the advisory board of Queen Elizabeth’s Young Leaders to advise Commonwealth leaders on AI and tech innovation. She was chosen as a World Economic Forum Global Shaper. In 2020 she was chosen by TED talks as TEDx Ambassador. She was also invited to give a TEDx talk at TEDxWilmington(USA) on the future of work in the 21st century. You can watch her talk here - https://youtu.be/APPRZcGkFIU

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There are over a billion Indians alive today.

But are some Indians more Indian than others? To answer this question, one that is central to the identity of every man, woman, and child who belongs to the modern Republic of India, eminent thinker and bestselling writer Shashi Tharoor explores hotly contested ideas of nationalism, patriotism, citizenship, and belonging. In the course of his study, he explains what nationalism is, and can be, reveals who is anti-national, what patriotism actually means, and explores the nature and future of Indian nationhood. He gives us a clear-sighted view of the forces working to undermine the ‘idea of India’ (a phrase coined by Rabindranath Tagore) that has evolved through history and which, in its modern form, was enshrined in India’s Constitution by its founding fathers.

Divided into six sections, the book starts off by exploring historical and contemporary ideas of nationalism, patriotism, liberalism, democracy, and humanism, many of which emerged in the West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and quickly spread throughout the world. The author then summarizes India’s liberal constitutionalism, exploring the enlightened values that towering leaders and thinkers like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore, Ambedkar, Patel, Azad, and others invested the nation with. These are contrasted with the narrow-minded, divisive, sectarian, ‘us vs them’ alternatives formulated by Hindutva ideologues, and propagated by their followers who are now in office.

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In this podcast, you will learn -

1. How his leadership role and style evolved within Microsoft over 36 years.
2. Role of mentors and ways to build strong mentor-mentee relationships
3. Mental models to understand how corporate impact and social impact go hand in hand
4. Art of being a constructive contrarian and advice to his 18 year self
5. Nuances of cultural intelligence
6. Principles of work-life harmony As executive vice president and president, Global Sales, Marketing & Operations, Jean-Philippe Courtois leads Microsoft’s commercial business across 124 subsidiaries worldwide. From Cloud services to AI and mixed reality, Courtois is responsible for driving strategic planning, growth initiatives, national digital transformation partnerships and running Microsoft global commercial business. Courtois is passionate about enabling businesses to digitally transform with the right strategy, skills and technology to ignite new innovation, new ways of working, new business models and new revenue streams. He helps build vibrant ecosystems with small businesses, start-ups, public sector entities, partners all the way to global industry leaders.

Previously, Courtois served as president of Microsoft International where he led sales, marketing and services across all Microsoft subsidiaries outside of the United States and Canada. Before that he held the same role for the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa) as CEO and president of Microsoft EMEA, and was corporate vice president of Worldwide Customer Marketing, based out of Microsoft’s worldwide headquarters in Redmond, Washington.

Courtois joined Microsoft in 1984. His first role was as a partner sales representative and, after holding several leadership positions, he was promoted to general manager for Microsoft France in 1994.

Courtois holds a Diplôme des Etudes Commerciales Supérieures (DECS) from the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Nice (SKEMA). Outside of Microsoft, Courtois is chairman of the board of directors for SKEMA Business School, as well as a board member of Positive Planet, a worldwide leading NGO with a mission to help men and women across the world create the conditions for a better life for future generations.

Courtois is also on the board of directors of ManpowerGroup, the global workforce solutions organization. He has served as co-chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global Digital Divide Initiative Task Force, on the European Commission Information and Communication Technology task force and previously sat on the board of directors for AstraZeneca.

In 2015, he co-founded the Live for Good foundation, which aims to unlock the potential of young people from all walks of life through social entrepreneurship, driving societal innovation through a purpose led community

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This podcast covers -

• Throorosaurus: adventures and stories.
• The difference between ‘Mudita’ and ‘envy'
• How to become a ‘learn it all’.

Dr. Shashi Tharoor is a Member of Parliament, author and a wizard of words. In Tharoorosaurus, he shares fifty-three examples from his vocabulary: unusual words from every letter of the alphabet.

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This podcast covers - 

1. Scaling trust across cultures at Netflix 

2. The importance of constructive candour and talent density at Netflix 

3. What Sheryl Sandberg learned from Reed Hastings for a day and many other stories that are core to understanding Netflix

Erin Meyer is the author of The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business and co-author with Reed Hastings of No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. She is also a professor at INSEAD, one of the world's leading international business schools. Her work has appeared in Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, and Forbes.com. In 2019, Erin was selected by the Thinkers50 as one of the fifty most influential business thinkers in the world.

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In this podcast you learn - 

1. Mental models for making early career decisions.

2. Advice for cracking competitive examinations through smart planning and cognitive continuity.

3. Nuances of rapid experimentation and first principle thinking for learning and effective decision making.

Anagh Prasad was All India Rank – 1 in the first ever edition of JEE Main (2013). He joined IIT Delhi with AIR-66 in JEE Advanced and graduated from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering with the Gold Medal for All-Round Achievement. He is an Aditya Birla Scholar, an ACM published Computer Science author, and recipient of multiple other academic awards from India & abroad. After college and a one year stint at the New York based investment banking major Goldman Sachs, he joined Stellaris Venture Partners in 2019, a tech-focused venture fund in Bengaluru – where he currently looks into investments in early stage Indian startups.

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In this podcast you learn -

• Mental models for career pivots.
• Navigating the investment spectrum and breaking into private equity.
• The art of thinking like a contrarian.

Sahil Bloom is a Vice President at Altamont Capital Partners, a generalist private equity firm with over $2.5 billion in capital under management, where he focuses on investments in the consumer products and services sector. Sahil received an M.A. in Public Policy and a B.A. in Economics and Sociology from Stanford University, where he was also a member of the Stanford Baseball Team. During his time at Stanford, Sahil helped lead the baseball team to two NCAA Super Regional appearances, was a two-time PAC-12 All-Academic Team honoree, and twice received the Bruce Cameron Memorial Award for Excellence in Academics, Athletics, and Leadership. Sahil lives with his wife, Elizabeth, a fashion designer, in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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In this podcast you learn - 

1. The importance of being a deep-generalist. 

2. Nudging yourself to experiment and take calculated risks.

3. The power of incentives.

Laura-Marie is helping build WEF’s first AI-powered digital platform that connects best-in-class impact entrepreneurs with corporates, investors and policymakers to scale solutions globally. She is the Business Development & Strategy Lead responsible for helping design Uplink’s business model, fundraising & partnerships strategy with Microsoft LinkedIn, Salesforce & Deloitte.

Laura-Marie holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford on Chinese cross-border finance and has spoken at various conferences in China, Europe and the US. She is the author of several peer-reviewed publications on this topic and featured in international media outlets including the Huffington Post, the Berggruen Institute on Governance and the Berliner Zeitung.

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In this podcast you learn -

1. The nuances of taking a community approach to addressing mental health concerns.

2. Importance of building inclusive workplaces.

3. Augmenting personal wellbeing

For over a decade, Neha worked at the intersection of the creative and social sectors. Having founded India’s first international art fair, she ran it successfully for ten years before selling the business to MCH Basel and moving her focus to the marginalised sector of mental health.

Being a passionate social entrepreneur, Neha is focusing her entrepreneurial energies on building services and impact networks for mental health; motivated by her family’s struggle with schizophrenia for over 3 decades.

Neha’s full focus is now on InnerHour, a digital mental health platform with half a million users from over 100 cities globally. It provides for ease of access and delivery of early interventions with personalized self-help tools to support the mental health journey of users.

Her consulting venture, Librum Ltd, recently launched in the UK as the world’s first strategic think tank for mental health solutions; co-founded with leading global scientist Dr. Vikram Patel and policy expert Dr Shekhar Saxena.

Neha is a trained counsellor and mental health caregiver.

An Aspen fellow and an Eisenhower fellow, Neha is part of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders community and a recipient of the President of India’s prestigious Nari Shakti Award. She has been named amongst Fortune Magazine’s 40 under 40 and received the coveted Business Today’s India’s Most Powerful Women award for three consecutive years.

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In this Masterclass you learn -

1. Mental models for original and contrarian thinking. 

2. Principles of shaping meaningful careers in VC. 

3. Art of making great decisions.

4. Powerful productivity techniques.

Rahul Khanna is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Trifecta Capital, India’s first and largest Venture Debt Fund with assets of $210 million under management across two Funds. As of Dec 1, 2019, Trifecta Capital has provided Rs. 1200 crores of venture debt across 56 companies, several of them unicorns and market leaders - BigBasket, PaperBoat, LivSpace, UrbanClap, Curefit, UrbanLadder, Rivigo, BlackBuck, Pharmeasy, CarDekho, NinjaKart, Cars24, ZoomCars, Turtlemint, Chaipoint etc.

He was previously, Managing Director at Canaan Partners, a global venture capital fund with $3.5 Billion under management. Rahul has 24 years of operating and investing experience in Technology, Media and Telecoms.Having returned to India from Silicon Valley in 2005, Rahul has played a key role in the development of the venture capital ecosystem in India and is recognized as an active investor in several high growth companies. 

Rahul also supports the startup ecosystem by advising early stage companies and making angel investments as member of the Mumbai Angels (Delhi Chapter). Some of his angel investments include CarTrade, Unmetric, Zopper, Cocoberry, Wooplr, Zenatix and MediAssist.

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In this podcast you learn-

1. Reconciling multiple interest to follow your curiosity

2. Transitions from an Aerospace Engineer to a Fiction Author

3. Importance of discipline and consistency in writing

Amrita studied aerospace engineering at IIT Bombay and Stanford University. After spending over a decade in strategy, operations, and marketing roles at Google, BCG, Pocket Gems, and Good Earth, she now leads Wadhwani AI’s projects in the Maternal and Child Health space. Milk Teeth, her first novel which was is on many prominent literary lists, was published by Westland Context in November 2018. Amrita was part of the Sangam House writing residency in 2017-18 and her writing has appeared in Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Scroll, Himal Southasian and Brown Paper Bag.

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In this podcast, you will learn -

1. Insights from running a global information dissemination campaign

2. The importance of leveraging visual content in vernacular languages to fight the COVID pandemic

3. The role of youth leadership in bringing grassroots change with global impact

Irem Tumer is a former Youth Innovation Fellow and the current Focal Point for Youth Leadership and Participation at UNFPA HQ. She is passionate about reaching young leaders and youth-led organizations through leadership and participation programs of UNFPA. Irem is originally from Turkey is a member of the Istanbul Bar, where she had a legal practice focused on dispute resolution before joining UNFPA. Irem received a Master of Law degree from Istanbul Bilgi University, where she focused on youth participation in advancing SRHR through international human rights mechanisms for her thesis work. Beginning from her high school years, she has been interested in women's issues and HIV/AIDS and has taken part in a number of local and international projects. She is an alumna of the G(irls) 20 Summit and Women Deliver Young Leaders programmes, and the President of the 81st International Session of the European Youth Parliament.

Visual communication as we know it today is constantly changing, and there’s at least one Brazilian working hard to help define that: Igor Lacerdino. Though he has a background in software engineering, Igor decided to change his career to pursue his passion for designing product solutions. Currently residing in Hungary, Igor leads a team of world-class designers who are all working together to help shape visual communication for Prezi, the presentation platform that’s already changed the way millions of educators, students, and businesses share their ideas.

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In this masterclass, you will learn - 

1. Leveraging business studies and anthropology training to write a book on Kashmiri Folk Tales.

2. The art of nurturing and guiding your curiosity.

3. The art and discipline for research and writing.

Onaiza Drabu is a Kashmiri anthropologist. She writes about identity, nationalism and Islamophobia, and co-curates a newsletter called ‘Daak’, on South Asian literature and art. She has recently published The Legend of Himal and Nagrai: Greatest Kashmiri Folktales with Speaking Tiger.

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In this podcast you will learn
1. Mental models for building a meaningful second career
2. Art of being a contrarian
3. How to combine distinct strands of thought and create something unique
4. Deep-dive into India's education challenge along with implementable ideas to bring about change
5. Critical importance of human capital development
6. Nuances of building a career in the development sector
7. The difference between important and urgent

Ashish Dhawan is the Founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation (CSF). He worked for twenty years in the investment management business and ran one of India's leading private equity funds, ChrysCapital. In June 2012, he left his full time role at ChrysCapital to start CSF. Ashish is an M.B.A. with distinction from Harvard University and a dual bachelor's (B.S./ B.A.) holder with Magna Cum Laude honours from Yale University. He is on the India Advisory Board of Harvard and a member of Yale's Development Council.

Ashish serves on the board of several non-profits including Akanksha Foundation, 3.2.1 Education Foundation, Teach For India, Centre for Civil Society, Janaagraha and GiveLife. As Founder and CEO of CSF, Ashish hopes to bring a fresh impact-based approach to philanthropy in India. He was recently recognised as the NextGen Leader in Philanthropy by Forbes India.

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Key insights and mental models:
1. The real story behind the term ‘FOMO’
2. Negotiating with the ‘Fear of Better Opportunity’.
3. Navigating through global crisis by pivoting and reimagining career paths
4. The power of sharing interesting ideas

Patrick J,. McGinnis is an international venture capitalist and the author of Fear of Missing Out: Practical Decision-Making in a World of Overwhelming Choice (out May 5, 2020). Patrick coined the term FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), as well as the related term FOBO (Fear of Missing Out) in a 2004 article in the student newspaper of Harvard Business School. FOMO has since been added to the dictionary and FOBO has become an increasingly popular framework to describe choice paralysis.

Patrick is the host of the hit podcast, FOMO Sapiens, which is distributed by Harvard Business Review, and the author of international bestseller The 10% Entrepreneur: Live Your Startup Dream Without Quitting Your Day Job. He has been featured in The New York Times, Politico, The Financial Times, The Guardian, and Inc, and gave a popular 2019 TED Talk on FOBO and decision-making. Originally from Maine, he has visited 103 countries and now lives in NYC. More at patrickmcginnis.com.

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Key insights and mental models:
1. Pivoting to unconventional and unchartered career paths
2. Understanding the governance consulting models and landscape in India
3. Unit and scale of change in the context of governance in India

Gaurav Goel is the Founder & CEO of Samagra | Transforming Governance, a mission-driven governance consulting firm. Gaurav holds a dual degree in Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Delhi and an MBA from IIM Calcutta. After graduating from IIM Calcutta, he joined McKinsey & Company as a Management Consultant where he worked across sectors and geographies, solving diverse corporate problem statements. While he was enjoying his stint at McKinsey, he knew that eventually he wanted to use his skills towards improving the lives of Indian citizens by engaging with the governance process. In 2012, he set up Samagra so that he could translate his passion into reality and create impact at scale. Samagra is currently driving 9 state-wide transformations across diverse domains, while also working with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and NITI Aayog at the Centre. Through its engagements, Samagra is impacting the lives of more than 65 million citizens. Gaurav's path-breaking efforts to tackle intractable governance challenges led him to be recognized in BusinessWorld’s 40 Under 40 list of changemakers in India in 2019.

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Key insights and mental models:
1. The power of being an outsider
2. Balancing between being liked and being a contrarian
3. The process of research, story-building and writing
4. Making your weirdness work for you

Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic, covering health, gender, and science. Prior to that, she was The Atlantic’s Global editor. She has also written for the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Forbes, and other publications. She is a two-time recipient of the International Reporting Project’s Journalism Fellowship and winner of the 2017 National Headliner Awards for Magazine Online Writing.

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In this podcast you will learn -
1. Defying social and gender norms to build a deep-tech company.
2. Humanising technology through Artificial Emotional Intelligence and ethical AI.
3. Importance of data diversity and ethics for building inclusive technology.
4. Negotiating with criticism and failure to augment long term success.

Rana el Kaliouby, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, and author of the forthcoming book Girl Decoded, which is available for pre-order now. Rana is the pioneer of artificial emotional intelligence—Emotion AI. The next frontier of Artificial Intelligence, Emotion AI is projected to become a multi-billion dollar industry. Rana led the innovation of the company’s award winning technology, which uses deep learning and massive amounts of data to analyze complex and nuanced emotions and cognitive states from face and voice. And, she raised over $50 million in venture capital for Affectiva.

Rana’s PhD research at the University of Cambridge developed one of the earliest prototypes of facial emotion recognition technology. Later, as a research scientist at MIT Media Lab, she spearheaded the applications of emotion recognition technology in a variety of fields, including mental health and autism research.

Rana holds a BSc and MSc in Computer Science from the American University in Cairo, a PhD from the Computer Laboratory at the University of Cambridge and a Post Doctorate at MIT.

Rana is one of few women leading a disruptive AI company. A Muslim-American and passionate advocate, she frequently speaks in press and on stage, about innovation, women in technology, ethics in AI and leadership. Forbes recently included Rana in their list of America’s Top 50 Women In Tech, and Fortune Magazine included her in their 40 under 40, 2018 edition. She is also a Young Global Leader in the World Economic Forum.

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In this episode you will learn the following:
1. Leveraging diplomacy to navigate through high-pressure scenarios.
2. The importance of maintaining diverse networks and nurturing old relationships.
3. Nuances of negotiating the non-negotiable.
4. Role of ingenuity, trust and commitment in politics.

An author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan’s leadership of the organisation.

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In this episode you will learn the following:

1. The art of contextually relevant learning and unlearning

2. Evolution of social responsibility, sustainability and governance in Indian corporates

3. Principles of negotiating the non-negotiable

Dr. Mukund Rajan, is the Chairman of ECube Investment Advisors Private Limited, which focusses on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) issues in India. ECube announced a partnership in 2019 with Quantum Advisors to invest in the mid-market space in the Indian public markets.

Prior to ECube, Dr. Rajan served for 23 years with the Tata group, where he held a number of senior executive positions. These included the first Brand Custodian of the Tata group, Chief Ethics Officer of the group, Chair of the Tata Global Sustainability Council, Member of the Group Executive Council at Tata Sons Limited, Head of Private Equity at Tata Capital, Founding Managing Partner of the Tata Opportunities Fund, and Managing Director of one of the group's listed telecom businesses, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited. He served on the boards of various Tata companies including Tata Teleservices, Tata Communications, Roots Corporation, Piem Hotels, Tata SIA Airlines, Tata AIG, and the TCS Foundation.

Dr Rajan serves as the Chairperson of the Environment Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He has also served as the Chair of the India@75 Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Chair of the CII Core Group on China.

In 2007, the World Economic Forum honoured Dr. Rajan as a Young Global Leader.

Dr. Rajan graduated from the Bachelor of Technology program at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1989. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University, where he completed a Masters and Doctorate in International Relations. His doctoral dissertation titled "Global Environmental Politics - India and the North-South Politics of Global Environmental Issues" was published by Oxford University Press in 1996. His second book, "The Brand Custodian", was published by HarperCollins in 2019.

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In this episode you will learn the following:
1. Building transferable skills - lessons from an author, diplomat and politican
2. Peacekeepking and negotiations in the Cold War era
3. The mental models required to work in an international, multi-cultural and complex environment like the UN.

An author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan’s leadership of the organisation.

In his second episode of the exclusive multi-part Network Capital podcast, Dr. Tharoor reflects on his days in the UN. He shares anecdotes and learnings from his career as an international diplomat.

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In this podcast you will learn –
1. How AI and facial recognition technologies are changing how students learn
2. The role of poets in a world obsessed with quants
3. Practical ways of augmenting learning by combining deep tech and teacher training
4. Specific interventions by different counties such as Finland, China, South Korea to make students ready for the 21st century

Alex has worked in education for a decade. After starting out as an English teacher in a London comprehensive, he completed his MA at the Institute of Education before joining Teach For All, a growing global network of organizations working to ensure that the next generation fulfil their potential. He is fortunate to spend his time travelling the world in search of the practices that will shape the future of learning and has written about his experiences for the Guardian, Financial Times, Evening Standard, Independent and Wired. His book Natural Born Learners is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century, taking readers on a dazzling global tour into the future of education, from Silicon Valley to Seoul, Helsinki to Hounslow.

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In this episode you will learn the following:

1. The importance of conducting micro-experiments towards shaping a meaningful career

2. The art of being a contrarian

3. The power of multi-disciplinary learning and clear thinking

An author, politician, and former international civil servant, Shashi Tharoor straddles several worlds of experience. Currently a third-term Lok Sabha MP representing the Thiruvananthapuram constituency and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has previously served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long prior career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan's leadership of the organisation.

In the first episode of this exclusive multi-part Network Capital podcast, Dr. Tharoor shares how he followed his curiosity, defied conventional norms and chose to pursue a career in international relations.

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In this podcast you will learn –

1. How to choose a career in social sciences?

2. What might politics without politicians look like

3. Practical ways to make democracy more inclusive

Hélène Landemore is Associate Professor of Political Science, with Tenure. Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory, political epistemology, theories of justice, the philosophy of social sciences (particularly economics), constitutional processes and theories, and workplace democracy.

Her first book (in French) Hume. Probabilité et Choix Raisonnable (PUF: 2004) was a philosophical investigation of David Hume’s theory of decision-making. Her second book (in English) Democratic Reason won the Montreal Manuscript Workshop Award in 2011; the Elaine and David Spitz Prize in 2015; and the 2018 APSA “Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics” section book award. Hélène’s third book–Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century (under contract with Princeton University Press)–develops a new paradigm of democracy in which the exercise of power is as little gated as possible, even as it depends on representative structures to make it possible. In this version of popular rule, power is equally open to all, as opposed to just those who happen to stand out in the eyes of others (as in electoral democracies). The book centrally defends the use of non-electoral yet democratic forms of representation, including “lottocratic,” “self-selected,” and “liquid” representation.

Hélène is also co-editor with Jon Elster of Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms (Cambridge University Press 2012), and is currently working on a new edited volume project on Digital Technology and Democratic Theory, together with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz at Stanford.

You can check this episode out on our website, YouTube, Apple, Google and Spotify.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit networkcapital.substack.com

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In this podcast you will learn -
1. How to choose a career in social sciences?
2. What might politics without politicians look like
3. Practical ways to make democracy more inclusive

Hélène Landemore is Associate Professor of Political Science, with Tenure. Her research and teaching interests include democratic theory, political epistemology, theories of justice, the philosophy of social sciences (particularly economics), constitutional processes and theories, and workplace democracy.

Her first book (in French) Hume. Probabilité et Choix Raisonnable (PUF: 2004) was a philosophical investigation of David Hume’s theory of decision-making. Her second book (in English) Democratic Reason won the Montreal Manuscript Workshop Award in 2011; the Elaine and David Spitz Prize in 2015; and the 2018 APSA “Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics” section book award. Hélène’s third book–Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century (under contract with Princeton University Press)–develops a new paradigm of democracy in which the exercise of power is as little gated as possible, even as it depends on representative structures to make it possible. In this version of popular rule, power is equally open to all, as opposed to just those who happen to stand out in the eyes of others (as in electoral democracies). The book centrally defends the use of non-electoral yet democratic forms of representation, including “lottocratic,” “self-selected,” and “liquid” representation.

Hélène is also co-editor with Jon Elster of Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms (Cambridge University Press 2012), and is currently working on a new edited volume project on Digital Technology and Democratic Theory, together with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz at Stanford.

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In this podcast you will learn:
1. How to understand education inequity in India from a holistic lens
2. How to work with different stakeholders in the education space
3. How to carve out a meaningful career doing something you truly care about

As the Adhyayan Foundation CEO and founding team member, Anushri is responsible for creating the strategic vision for the organization, developing and overseeing implementation of programmes across 827 government schools in Goa and 5000+ schools in Delhi, building relationships with potential donors and partners, and overseeing the overall functioning of the organization.

She has been an educator for the past 10 years. Having completed a Master’s in Education from Columbia University, she has a wide range of experience in education. She developed and headed the education program at Sanctuary for Families in New York, working with the New York City Government on supporting survivors of gender violence become economically independent.

Having a keen interest in education in the context of violence, she has worked with refugees populations as well as students in areas of violence through her work with the International Rescue Committee and Global Nomads Group in New York. Anushri also coordinated the Working Group on Peace, Conflict and Education, an interdisciplinary research consortium at Columbia University in New York. She worked as a Teach for India Fellow in 2010, teaching grades 3 and 4 in an underserved community in Pune.

Anushri has been a Co-Chair for Human Rights and Education Colloquium: A collaborative project connecting scholars from Columbia University and New York University.
She is the Co-Founder of Burma Connect, an Independent Student Group now known as Connecting Myanmar at the University of Hong Kong.

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In this podcast you will learn

1. How to create your own luck
2. How to figure out your next career move
3. Art of connecting the dots

Luis Miranda is Chairman of the Centre for Civil Society and CORO. He has been involved in setting up 2 highly successful companies - HDFC Bank and IDFC Private Equity. He is a Co-Founder of the Indian School of Public Policy. Luis spends his time, with his wife, connecting dots; using their networks to help the organisations they are connected with. He is also on the board of Educate Girls and SBI Foundation and co-founded, Take Charge, a mentoring programme for Catholic youth in Mumbai. Luis is also Chairman of ManipalCigna Health Insurance and Senior Advisor at Morgan Stanley. He is a Trustee of the UChicago Trust in India and a member of the Advisory Council of the Rustandy Center for Social Sector Innovation at Chicago Booth. Luis blogs for Forbes, Thrive Global and Spontaneous Order and teaches at the Accelerated Development Program of Chicago Booth. Luis received an MBA from the Booth School of Business at The University of Chicago and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

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HBS Professor | INSEAD MBA | Author of Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage

In this podcast you will learn

1.Specific suggestions to transform negative perceptions, bias and adversity into competitive advantage

2.How to make a super awkward meeting with Elon Musk into one of the most productive discussions

3.Unexplored nuances of gender and accent when it comes to promotion and career advancement

Laura Huang is a Professor at Harvard Business School. She has spent her academic career studying interpersonal relationships and implicit bias in entrepreneurship and in the workplace. Her research has been featured in the Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, and Nature, and she was named one of the 40 Best Business School Professors Under the Age of 40 by Poets & Quants. She is the author of Edge: Turning Adversity into Advantage, and the creator of the Princess Heroes book series for young girls.

Previously, she held positions in investment banking, consulting, and management, for organizations such as Standard Chartered Bank, IBM Global Services, and Johnson & Johnson. She received an MS and BSE in electrical engineering, both from Duke University, an MBA from INSEAD, and a PhD from the University of California, Irvine.

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Radio broadcasting, advertising agencies, Google, Amazon,... Christian Schoepke's career path has almost as much variety as his latest product focus: donuts. He left the sexy world of film licensing at Amazon's Prime Video service in 2019, only to find himself in-midst of barrels of hot frying oil on a London street food market. Holding an undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and an MBA from INSEAD, Christian now combines his experience in marketing (agencies), negotiation (Amazon) and product development (own media company/Google/Amazon) to try himself on building a food brand, Little Didi's Donuts. Born in Germany, he moved to Canada at the age of 17. In 2002, he founded a Web-based agency with the world's largest roster of multi-lingual voiceover talent. In 2006, he co-founded a media production company that pioneered social media platforms and interactive video experiences. His work with Toronto agencies was featured on CNN, Buzzfeed and TechCrunch. And in-between the lines for when things didn't go as planned in his career, Christian dedicated himself to cleaning toilets and worked in construction.

In this podcast, Christian shares his journey that led him to make such a drastic life change, the shift in mindset required to move from a 'fun activity' to a 'business-building,' as well as how he approached risk in setting up his venture.

In this podcast you will learn:

1. Practical insights from the INSEAD MBA experience
2. What is it actually like to work at Amazon
3. How and when should you leave a job you love to do something you are passionate about

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In this podcast you will learn:

1. What happens at Davos

2. How you can build a career attempting to solve climate change

3. Learn the advantages of living abroad and challenging oneself

Karolina is a Global Shaper based in the Stockholm Hub. She is employed at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)’s program for Climate Change and Risk, focusing on institutional responses to climate-related security risks. There, she is situated between academia and policy, where the translation of scientific findings to decision-making is at heart. Karolina is also a a regional member of the Climate and Environment Action Steering Committee of the Global Shapers Community, and a Future Thinker for the think tank Global Challenges (Global Utmaning) in Stockholm, advising the Council for Economy and Governance. As a Shaper, Karolina was selected to attend the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2020. She has gathered professional experience from China, Australia, Spain, Colombia, Washington D.C and New York as a student, intern and researcher.

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Miguel Angel Centeno was born in Cuba and by a miraculous set of adventures escaped to
Spain and then landed up in the United States. He was raised by a single mom and spent most of his teenage years in housing projects. With grit, relentless efforts and determination to escape poverty, Miguel graduated from Yale with scholarship. Among other degrees, he also got an MBA and worked in advertising for a while. He soon realized that the business world was not for him. He was far more inspired by deeper issues and abstract ideas. Today he is Vice Dean; Musgrave Professor of Sociology; Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University

In this riveting podcast you will
1. Explore the nuances of privilege
2. Understand the principles of building a meaningful career in social sciences
3. Learn what Marx and Adam Smith might say if they took a walk in the 21st century

This is Dr. Centeno in his own words

Born in Cuba. Came to the US at 10 and lived in Erie PA with a single mom. Got financial aid to Yale and then worked in business for several years as my mom became quite sick…… not sure what more!!

Academic Bio:

Miguel Centeno has published many articles, chapters, and books. His latest publications are War and Society (Polity 2016), Global Capitalism (Polity 2010), States in the Developing World (Cambridge UP, 2017) and State and Nation Making in the Iberian World (Cambridge UP , Vol 1, 2013; Vol. II 2018). He is the founder of the Research Community on Global Systemic Risk funded by PIIRS from 2013 (http://risk.princeton.edu. He is also working on book on the sociology of discipline. In 2000, he founded the Princeton University Preparatory Program, which provides intensive supplemental training for lower income students in local high schools. (http://pupp.princeton.edu/) He currently serves as Vice-Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School. From 2003 to 2007, he served as the founding Director of the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies. From 1997-2004 he also served as Head of Wilson College at Princeton. From 2012 to 2017 he served as Chair of the Sociology Department.

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In this podcast you will learn:

1. How to break into the world of investing
2. What are the most important skills required to excel as a VC
3. The importance of being a giver

Alexander is a partner of a San-Francisco based deep-tech venture capital fund Ruvento Ventures. There, he specialises on growth-stage AI, robotics and mobility investments in emerging markets and is responsible for late-stage portfolio development and fundraising from European and Asian corporations. Alexander is also an active startup mentor at Techstars, Founder Institute and Skolkovo Foundation.

Previously, he studied finance at Cambridge, worked in pan-European tech-focused investment banking and cross-border private equity funds, where he was involved primarily in arranging exits from portfolio and structuring M&A deals. Alexander has also founded his own business importing exotic wines into British hotels, restaurants and bars and in spare time is an amateur archeologist and a water sports enthusiast.

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In this podcast you will learn the following:
1.Art of shaping your career by following your curiosity and conviction
2.Balancing growth and impact
3.Practical ways to build a zero-waste world empathetic to the environment

Sahar is the founder of Bare Necessities, a zero-waste personal care and home care brand that has recently raised funds from Social Alpha and other distinguished investors. She is a Cambridge alumna and her prior experience includes environmental planning, policy and law. Sahar formerly worked at the World Health Organization in Geneva and SELCO Foundation on decentralized energy policy. She is also a freelancer for Huffington Post UK and India.

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In this podcast you will learn the following:

1. The art of pivoting your career. Silvana went from being a lawyer to the founder of a deep tech company after MIT
2. What it takes to conduct experiments with your professional goals and arrive at a journey that matters to you and makes a difference
3. Nuances of diversity of all kinds

Silvana López is the CEO & Co-founder of The Blockchain Challenge Inc., a Boston-based startup with technology and methodology inspired at MIT and focused on building a global community of Blockchain developers and enthusiasts. With a background in law and a graduate degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management, she is a senior executive with expertise in technology transfer and intellectual property. Leader and entrepreneur, with over 14 years of global experience in innovation, knowledge management and technology licensing for global clients.

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In this podcast you will learn:

1. How to break into VC without having prior experience
2. Honing the art of learning - reading, writing, thinking - on the job and outside
3. Nuances of pitching effectively

Aviral helps lead Guild's India investments. He has led Guild's investments into Wink&Nod, MegaExams, Qrius, NurseryLive etc.

Aviral graduated with an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad (Director's List for top 3%) and IIT Bombay. He runs a fascinating blog ajuniorvc.com focused on startup and investing trends.

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In this podcast you will learn:

1. Mental models for building a career across technology, finance and public policy
2. Principles of institution building
3. Understanding nuances of working in the government

Arnab Kumar is Program Director at NITI Aayog, and drives NITI Aayog's strategy, policy and implementation initiatives in Artificial Intelligence, FinTech, Blockchain and Digital Economy. Arnab has contributed to India's Strategy for Artificial Intelligence (released in 2018) and has been driving the architecture of the proposed National Programme on AI. His key projects include Imaging BioBank for Cancer, India UK Healthcare AI Catalyst, Blockchain and IoT based Fertiliser Supply Chain solution. Arnab joined NITI Aayog as Founding Manager for Atal Innovation Mission, and developed strategy for AIM’s key initiatives including tinkering labs and early-stage technology fund, before setting up the Frontier Technologies practice.

An ex-investment banker, Arnab has worked for Deutsche Bank’s New York, Hong Kong and Singapore offices and has raised more than USD20bn in M&A, equity and debt transactions, primarily in FinTech, Financial Institutions and Technology deals. Arnab has also previously led product teams across 3 global locations for Oracle. Arnab is an alumnus of Indian School of Business, Columbia Business School, and Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, is a Chartered Financial Analyst and Chevening CRISP Fellow (2019).

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In this podcast you can expect to learn the following:

1.Art of following your curiosity

2.Core challenges plaguing the policy landscape

3.Shaping meaningful careers in public policy

Arunabha Ghosh is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. As the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, since 2010, he has led CEEW to the top ranks as one of South Asia’s leading policy research institutions (six years in a row); and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2016. He has been actively involved in the design of the International Solar Alliance since inception. He conceptualized and is founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN). With experience in 45 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). In 2018, the UN Secretary-General nominated him to the UN’s Committee for Development Policy. In 2018, the Government of India appointed him as a member of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority for the National Capital Region. His 2019 TED Talk on air quality (Mission 80-80-80) crossed 100,000 views within three weeks of release.

He is the co-author/editor of four books: The Palgrave Handbook of the International Political Economy of Energy (2016); Energizing India: Towards a Resilient and Equitable Energy System (SAGE, 2016); Human Development and Global Institutions (Routledge, 2016); and Climate Change: A Risk Assessment (FCO, 2015).

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In this podcast you can expect to learn the following:

1. The philosophy of the Young India Fellowship and how it prepares students for careers of tomorrow
2. The art of applying for specialized Masters such as the one at Harvard Graduate School of Education
3. How to commit oneself to solving a complex problem long-term

Karan Bhola is a higher education, leadership development and institution building professional. He is currently the Director of Graduate (YIF) Outreach and Admissions at Ashoka University. He has previously worked on several initiatives in higher education, including a project to establish India's first university for the transportation sector, as well as projects in ed-tech. He was the founding President of the Ashoka University Alumni Association.

Karan is an alumnus of Harvard University (where he was a Fulbright Scholar), Ashoka University (where he was a Young India Fellow), and Loyola College (where he received an undergraduate degree in Economics).

Karan bears a lifelong commitment towards contributing to higher education transformation in India and is fascinated by the power of collaboration.

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In this podcast, you will learn:

1. Principles of career pivoting: fire-fighting to law to investing

2. Actionable advice for cracking Harvard Business School MBA admissions

3. Art of reaching out and writing effectively

Chia Jeng Yang 谢征阳 is a Principal at Saison Capital, a Japanese-backed fintech-focused fund (early-late stage, debt, fund of funds) that invests globally and in any vertical, but especially in emerging markets: Southeast Asia, India, LATAM, etc.

Previously, he was the 5th employee (Investment Manager/Country Launcher) for Antler, an early-stage VC/pre-team accelerator, and helped built Daraz, an e-commerce company that was acquired by Alibaba, in Pakistan/Sri Lanka for Rocket Internet. He is a consumer angel investor, with portfolio companies in Indonesia, Bangladesh, Egypt, London and the US, and founded Shaper Impact Capital, a global platform for impact dealflow and startup support, currently in 20 countries.

His educational background includes a law undergraduate from Cambridge, and a deferred Harvard MBA. His previous work and writing (including topics on consumer investing) has been featured by CNBC, e27, Yahoo!, TechinAsia, etc.

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In this podcast, you can expect to learn:
1. What Stanford looks for in their MBA applicants and what distinguishes successful applications
2. Framework for formulating career goals
3. Art of decision making and the importance of saying no

Rohan is a student at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Prior to Stanford, Rohan was on secondment to the Government of India, working at the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. A chemical engineering graduate from BITS Pilani, Rohan worked with Accenture Strategy and volunteered with his university's startup network. He likes humor, running, and random trivia

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In this podcast, you will learn:

1. Principles of investing that optimizes both market returns and social impact
2. Constructs of building meaningful partnerships
3. Core elements of innovative organizational cultures

Manoj’s three decade long career has included roles as an entrepreneur, an investor, as well as a corporate leader spanning multiple sectors and geographies.

Manoj is the Founder and Chairman of Social Alpha, a unique initiative to strengthen the Science and Technology start-up ecosystem in India with a focus on “lab to market” enablement. Since its inception in 2016, Social Alpha has evolved as an integrated incubation and investment platform for high impact start-ups that aim to solve the most critical social, economic and environmental challenges faced by humanity. It has incubated and nurtured more than 60 start-ups, making 30+ seed investments and 2 exits. Some very promising start-ups in the Social Alpha portfolio include Voxelgrids, a New Generation MRI machine; Bionic Yantra, a Medical Robotics company with innovative exoskeletons for Locomotor Rehabilitation; Help Us Green, a circular economy company; and Hasiru Dala, a solid waste management start-up. (more at https://www.socialalpha.org/our-portfolio/)

Manoj is also a Senior Advisor to Tata Trusts, leading Tata Trusts’ engagements with R&D Institutions globally, as well as all their initiatives to promote Innovation and Entrepreneurship in India. Besides this, Manoj manages the India Health Fund, an initiative seeded by Tata Trusts to fight the huge burden of public health challenges in TB, Malaria and other communicable diseases.

Prior to founding Social Alpha, Manoj co-founded Malgharia Advisors, a boutique investing and consulting vehicle focused on Enterprise Software and Fintech businesses. Manoj has also worked for over two decades in investment banking and financial technology firms, holding global leadership roles in the areas of Corporate Strategy, M&A, Product Management and R&D.

Manoj is a founding trustee of Tata Institute for Genetics and Society (TIGS) and serves on the advisory and governing boards of a number of companies, non-profits and research institutions.

Manoj is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and lives in Bangalore, India.

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In this Network Capital podcast, you can expect to learn the following:

1. The pros and cons of a career plan, especially a deep-dive on whether you need an overarching plan to succeed
2. The principles of risk taking when it comes to career choices
3. The art of following curiosity with diligence and a sense of wonder

Siddharth Jhawar works at Disney. He was a management consultant at Bain and a former Director at the Government of India, He is an alumnus of IIT Delhi, a CFA charter holder and Harvard Business School. You should also check out his standup comedy and his Harbus article "You Are Not Eligible: International Recruiting at HBS" - https://harbus.org/2017/23106/

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In this podcast, you will learn:

1. Principles of building a sustainable, financially viable social enterprise
2. Mental models for building a homegrown business to consumer fashion brand
3. Stories of personal transformation

Fashion entrepreneur Gayatri Jolly’s brainchild MasterG, is a design and skill development eco system based out of Delhi, UP and Haryana. She is a qualified Fashion Designer from Parsons, New York and a Business Graduate from Babson College, Boston. She worked for two years in the fashion industry in New York with companies such as Armani, Diane Von Furstenberg, Dennis Basso and has worked on costume design for Lady Gaga at Diane Von Furstenberg. She divides her time between designing and training of individuals who aspire but lack access to quality training and opportunities. MasterG enables women from low-income communities to question the baggage of societal norms and to empower themselves financially through the vocation of fashion design. Through its emphasis on safe and labor laws-compliant factory space and wages, and an empathetic and equitable gender dynamic, MasterG aims to humanize the garment manufacturing supply chain and uphold dignity in the industry through a three-pronged approach – MasterG Training Centers, the MasterG Contract Manufacturing, and the in-house womenswear brand, HEIMAT.

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Through this podcast, you can learn the following:

1. Mental models for addressing the climate change challenge
2. Insights on building meaningful careers in public policy
3. Connecting the career dots, especially if you are interested in pursuing multiple things

Shloka Nath currently leads the Sustainability and Special Projects portfolio at the Tata Trusts, one of India’s leading philanthropic foundations. In this role she is focused on the organization’s work on climate, energy and environment, implementing and funding sustainable and scalable solutions that help both people and nature thrive through India. She is also the Executive Director of the India Climate Collaborative, an India-led platform founded in 2018 by a group of philanthropies interested in continuing to accelerate India’s development, while also exceeding its climate goals. Prior to this, Shloka co-founded and was the Managing Partner of Sankhya Women Impact Funds, a gender lens fund with a focus on sustainability. Shloka is also an active angel investor in social enterprises and has mentored organizations across sectors. She has spent over a decade in journalism with the BBC in London, as a news anchor with New Delhi Television (NDTV) and Principal Correspondent with Forbes in Mumbai, with a special emphasis on financial inclusion, sustainability and public policy. In 2010, Shloka was nominated for India's highest awards in journalism for her reportage on microfinance in India.
In 2014, Shloka served as Campaign Manager for Meera Sanyal, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Candidate for Mumbai (South), for India's General Elections. She was also formerly a speechwriter at the House of Lords (UK) and founded the Research and Studies Programme for Gateway House, a foreign policy think tank in Mumbai. Shloka has a Master's in Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a BSc in Government from The London School of Economics and Political Science. She is also the author of the book, "Hidden India: Journey to Where the Wild Things Are" (April 2018), a compendium of photographs and writing about Indian wildlife and landscapes.

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In this podcast, we will learn about Pranav's path to Harvard Business School and explore why he decided to repivot his career after consulting, private equity and an MBA.

Pranav is the Domain Architect and Vice President of the Large Scale Education Programmes at Educational Initiatives. He was a member of the development team of the Mindspark product, which is a technology-based, personalized and adaptive learning tool for Mathematics and Language. He led the operations of the Mindspark Centres in urban slums of Delhi and Mindspark’s subsequent deployment in government schools of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.

At EI, Pranav has also overseen various large scale student assessments done in Bihar, Haryana and Tamil Nadu and was invited by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to be part of the RMSA’s Joint Review Mission. Pranav has spoken extensively on various panels in India and the USA on various subjects such as student assessments, educational technology, and the critical need for a ‘Science of Learning’ as a pre-requisite to ensure students learn with understanding.

Prior to EI, Pranav studied Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and and finished an MBA at the Harvard Business School, after working at Boston Consulting Group and GTI Private Equity in USA and India.

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Learn how Dr. Albert Lin collaborated with his mentor Dr. Ramesh to transform a personal tragedy into a viable solution for more than 40 million amputees. INK talks played a major role. Listen on

Today, the majority of the world’s 40 million amputees live without access to a prosthesis. Albert Lin, a materials scientist and researcher with the Qualcomm Institute (QI) at UC San Diego, has created a project to change that.

With the help of students and multidisciplinary experts at QI, Lin launched “Project Lim[b]itless,” an initiative that leverages cellphone and 3D printing technology to significantly reduce the cost and time it takes to produce the custom sockets of a prosthetic limb. The team’s ultimate goal is to make prostheses more accessible, particularly for people in rural communities and developing countries.

For Lin, helping amputees regain their mobility and re-master the physicality of life is very personal. In 2016, he lost his right leg below the knee to a vehicle accident. With the help of state-of-the-art prosthetic shaping, Lin has been able to maintain an incredibly active lifestyle and pursue dream projects across the globe.

Speaker Profile

Dr. Ramesh R. Rao. Dr. Rao has been a faculty member at UC San Diego since 1984, and Director of the Qualcomm Institute, UCSD division of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), since 2001. He holds the Qualcomm Endowed Chair in Telecommunications and Information Technologies in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD, and is a member of the school’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department.

Prior to QI (Calit2), Professor Rao served as the Director of UCSD’s Center for Wireless Communications (CWC). Dr. Rao is involved on a day-to-day basis with a wide variety of research initiatives at QI. He leads several major interdisciplinary and collaborative projects and has been a PI on dozens of federal-, state-, foundation- and industry-funded grants. Dr. Rao is an IEEE Fellow and Senior Fellow of the California Council on Science and Technology. He was named a Member of the Board of the Academy of Neurosciences for Architecture, a Member of the Rady Children’s Hospital and Health Center Board IT Task Force and serves on the Board of Directors of CONNECT. Dr. Rao has been a long time member of the San Diego Indian American Society and currently serves as the Vice President for the Board of Governors.

Dr. Rao earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1984, after receiving his M.S. from the same institution in 1982. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in 1980 from the University of Madras (the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli). Dr. Rao received the distinguished alumnus award from the National Institute of Technology in 2010, the ECE Distinguished alumni award from the University of Maryland in 2012, the Professional Gordon Engineering Leadership Award from UCSD’s Gordon Engineering Leadership Center in 2010. He also received the 2011 Casa Familiar Abrazo Award for engagement with underprivileged area of San Diego.

Albert Yu-Min Lin

Dr. Lin is an award winning scientist, technologist, explorer, and adventurer with a knack for storytelling both on stage and the big screen. As a problem solver, he has reinvented how we explore and has made headlines around the world for his expansive work combining technology with exploration. His projects range from an effort to search for the tomb of Genghis Khan in Mongolia (using satellites, crowdsourcing, drones, and ground penetrating radar) to expeditions remapping major sites in China and Guatemala (using satellites and Lidar) to his most recent efforts to redefine human bionic capabilities with bio-monitors and 'flow' experiments.

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Jennifer Petriglieri is an Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD and the author of Couples That Work: How Dual-Career Couples Can Thrive In Love and Work. Jennifer was shortlisted for the Thinkers50 New Thinker and Talent awards and named one of the world’s best 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets & Quants. Jennifer earned a PhD in Organisational Behaviour from INSEAD. She also holds an MBA from IMD, Switzerland, and a BSc in genetics from Nottingham University, UK. Prior to joining INSEAD, she was a Post-Doctoral Fellow of Organisational Behavior at the Harvard Business School.

In this episode, Jennifer shares the changing dynamics of modern day relationships and offers design principles for couples to thrive in love and work. This is particularly important as people are marrying later, working longer and don't have many relatable role models when it comes to balancing work and personal life. Unlike popular media articles and other books that talk about celebrities and power couples, Dr. Jennifer Petriglieri's research reveals practical insights applicable to most of us.

Among other things, listen to this episode to appreciate the nuances of long-distance relationships, learn more about multi-cultural couples, mull over the impact of money on relationships and see whether it makes sense to be practical in matters of the heart.

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Benjamin F. Jones is the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor of Entrepreneurship, a Professor of Strategy, and the faculty director of the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. An economist by training, Professor Jones studies the sources of economic growth in advanced economies, with an emphasis innovation, entrepreneurship, and scientific progress. He also studies global economic development, including the roles of education, climate, and national leadership in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations. His research has appeared in journals such as Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the American Economic Review, and has been profiled in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and The New Yorker.

A former Rhodes Scholar, Professor Jones served in 2010-2011 as the senior economist for macroeconomics for the White House Council of Economic Advisers and earlier served in the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Professor Jones is a non-resident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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UPSC is probably the world's most competitive examination. Athar Aamir Khan got All India Rank 2 in UPSC and serves as an IAS officer. He graduated from IIT Mandi and a pivotal conversation with his grandfather in the final year changed the course of his entire career.

This podcast is divided into three parts. In the first section, Athar shares about growing up in Kashmir, his school and journey to IIT. In the second section, he discusses how and why he prepared for UPSC and talks at length about best practices for preparing for the examination. In the last section, Athar talks about his work as a civil servant.

This podcast is essential content for anyone interested in preparing for the UPSC examination, getting more productive as a professional and also for understanding how policy making works in India.

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Mihir Dalal is an long-form writer with Mint who recently wrote The Big Billion Startup: The Untold Flipkart Story. In this Network Capital podcast, Mihir reflects on how and why he started working on the book, how he researched such a complex subject and how he balanced his demanding job at Mint with the rigors of writing a book.

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In this Network Capital podcast, Ronnie Screwvala, the founder of Upgrad, discusses how to grapple with failure and reinvent oneself. He talks about the role of serendipity in his life and what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

Ronnie is a first generation entrepreneur who failed his Bachelor of Commerce in college but that did not deter his intent to start up on his own at a time where there was no eco-system for PE Funding or bank debt to start ups. His first foray was Cable TV in India and for the first two years of that journey he found no takers and only advise to treat it as a failed start up and move on, but with him staying at it he was credited with having pioneered Cable TV for all of India.

Entrepreneurship is about finding and seizing opportunities and moving on from failures and Ronnie saw an opportunity in toothbrush manufacturing and after many setbacks went on to build one of the largest toothbrush operations in India. The other opportunity was TV Home Shopping but it was well before its time and was a big failure, but not enough for him to question if he should stick it out as an entrepreneur.

Ronnie went on to build a media and entertainment company – UTV, where post many pivots and four almost near bankruptcies and 15 years of focussed work with strong co-founders and a large team, it scaled to a size spanning all aspects of Content and Platform and then he divested UTV to The Walt Disney Co in 2012.

Perception in most cases is larger than reality and so in spite of so many failures, Newsweek termed him the Jack Warner of India, Esquire rated him one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century and Fortune as Asia’s 25 most powerful.

Having lived it and seen the misconception that it’s all about quick success and that failure is to frown on - he authored a book Dream With Your Eyes Open as his commitment to champion entrepreneurship and evangelize failure.

Ronnie got the term “cat with nine lives” attached to him by colleagues and peers for the number of times he had failed, but reflecting on his setbacks and counting on his main virtue that success can never be timed and staying the course is the only option, Ronnie in his second innings decided to deepen his commitment to making India a better place through a focus on two of the largest sunrise sectors - Online Education & the not for profit Rural/Social space. He is Co-Founder & Chairman of upGrad which zeros in on the massive Online Education market and the fact that Learning for every working professional is now a lifelong commitment. He, along with his wife Zarina, are the Co-Founders of The Swades Foundation, which is committed to empower one million lives in rural India every 5-7 years through a 360 degree model spanning Water, Sanitation, Health, Education and Livelihood to lift them out of poverty permanently.

As a hobby and passion Ronnie loves to tell stories that must to told via movies with his new brand RSVP and he owns 3 sports teams under the brand U Mumba in Kabaddi, Volleyball and Football even though he has never played any of the sports himself.

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Dr Maha Hosain Aziz is an NYU professor (MA International Relations Program) and LSE fellow (Institute of Globe Affairs) focused on global risk & prediction. In this podcast, she shares how to build meaningful careers in international relations. Her points of view on the new global order bring to bare key questions on identity, politics and technology. Check out her new book - Future World Order - here http://www.futureworldorder.org/

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Aditi Gupta is a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Menstrupedia, working towards spreading awareness about menstruation. While studying at the National Institute of Design, as a Ford Foundation research Scholar she has conducted extensive research in understanding the scenario of menstrual unawareness in India and its impact on a girl’s life. She has designed effective educational tools for girls and schools using storytelling and sequential art for educating young girls about periods in a society where the subject is a major taboo.

Aditi was named Forbes India 30 under 30, 2014 for her work towards breaking the taboo around menstruation. She is a TED speaker and also an International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni. Aditi was named as" Most Influential Women" by BW Business World Magazine.

Her work has been featured in TIME Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Channel 4 News, Forbes India, India Today, Vogue, Cosmopolitan and Femina Magazines. She is also a Global Shaper alumni at the World Economic Forum. Aditi aspires to create a future where menstruation is not a taboo but a welcoming change in a girl’s life.

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In this podcast with the International Innovation Corps, we discuss what the unique fellowship entails, the experience of being an IIC fellow and how can you be a part of
the social impact fellowship in India. The International Innovation Corps (IIC) is a social impact program of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy that operates out of the University of Chicago Trust in India. As an IIC Fellow, you will work directly with the government, address gaps in development policy and programs and hone your core competencies through mentorship and training sessions at the UChicago Center in Delhi.

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This is a very special podcast with Harvard Business School alums, Shruti and Azeez. Both of them met each other through debating at IIT Delhi. They have been inspiring and supporting each other to push the contours of excellence and impact ever since.

Shruti is an entrepreneur launching Sair, a venture in the travel-tech and heritage space. She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and the Director's Gold Medal from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She worked at Bain and Omidyar Network before business school.

Azeez is the National Head of Strategic Initiatives at Pratham, one of India’s most reputed education non-profits impacting 5 million children annually. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and IIT Delhi, and was formerly a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. e was selected as Education Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Institute for Learning and Teaching, and nominated to the Social Enterprise Initiative Advisory Board at HBS. Azeez is a recipient of the Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowship for social entrepreneurship at HBS and was awarded institute prizes for all-round excellence at IIT-Delhi.

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Bindi works as the Deputy Director with the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University. Prior to that she worked with Tata Trusts leading their Grant Relationship Management and with the Piramal Foundation for Education Leadership as their program director for Technology. She graduated from Harvard Business School, with a focus in social enterprise. Her experience before HBS is with ArcelorMittal in the space of engineering and operations. She also has an engineering masters from the University of Michigan.

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Nicole Schwab is author of The Heart of the Labyrinth, an evocative spiritual parable; and co-founder of EDGE Certified Foundation, a global certification system for gender equality at work. She works with National Geographic and her book is now being made into a movie.

A Swiss native with a rigorous scientific background (degrees from Cambridge University and Harvard Kennedy School), Nicole spent several years working on public health in the Andes, before returning to Geneva to co-found The Forum of Young Global Leaders at the World Economic Forum, and facilitate the nascent community’s exchanges around a vision for the world in 2020. In 2009, she went on to co-found The Gender Equality Project – now EDGE Certified Foundation – a global scheme that certifies companies for closing the gender gap in the workplace.

More recently, deepening her engagement on behalf of a world that values and honors the feminine principle and is rooted in our connection to the Earth as a living being, she wrote The Heart of the Labyrinth, acclaimed as a "beautiful, exploration of deep mind and the meaning of our existence, offering a message of Earth-centered wisdom reuniting us with the divine feminine."

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In this podcast, Azeez shares his journey to Harvard Business School and explains why he decided to come back to Pratham (one of India's most reputed non-profits) after graduation. Among other things we discuss career intelligence, diversity quotient and committing to solving problems over the long term. Take notes as you listen!

This is a bit about Azeez

Azeez Gupta is the National Head of Strategic Initiatives at Pratham, one of India's most reputed education non-profits impacting 5 million children annually. He is a graduate of the Harvard Business School and IIT Delhi, and was formerly a management consultant at McKinsey and Company. Azeez's responsibilities include scaling the digital learning initiative (reaching 100k children presently) and key organisational functions. Before his current role, he led Pratham's award-winning skills development program, providing livelihoods to 25,000 youth annually.

Azeez is a published opinion writer and speaker in prominent publications and institutions. He was selected as Education Innovation Fellow at the Harvard Institute for Learning and Teaching, and nominated to the Social Enterprise Initiative Advisory Board at HBS. Azeez is a recipient of the Horace W. Goldsmith Fellowship for social entrepreneurship at HBS and was awarded institute prizes for all-round excellence at IIT-Delhi. He is a social impact geek, voracious reader, and plays and follows multiple sports

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Rich Horgan is the Founder and President of Cure Rare Disease. Rich is also a Blavatnik Fellow at Harvard Business School with a deep passion for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and other rare diseases. With a younger brother impacted by the disease, Rich has a strong interest in accelerating promising treatments for the disease. He formed a collaboration with world-class researchers and clinicians to pioneer the development of customized therapies for Duchenne and other rare diseases. He also launched a company, Myofinity Biosciences, to focus on the commercialization of effective therapies for DMD and is working in collaboration with leading scientists in the field. Prior to making his foray into biotech, Rich had extensive experience working in new business development at Corning Incorporated where he led the successful launch of a new Willow® Glass product. He also launched a successful car washing business in upstate New York. He holds a BS from Cornell University where he graduated as summa cum laude and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

We encourage you to donate using this link: https://cureraredisease.org/support-us/one-time-donation/

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Arjun Vaidya is the CEO at Dr. Vaidya's: New Age Ayurveda. Prior to his entrepreneurial stint, Arjun graduated from Brown University, USA with a BA in International Relations and Economics. He then worked in private equity at a consumer sector focused fund, L Capital Asia (the private equity arm of the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy Group). In October 2016, Arjun quit his job to take on his 150-year-old family legacy of Ayurvedic formulations that his grandfather left behind. Dr. Vaidya’s aims to take the traditional science of Ayurveda to the 21st century by using innovative packaging, branding and new formats of products. Arjun was recently the first Ayurvedic Entrepreneur to be featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List for 2019! With innovative concepts like LIVitup (Hangover Shield) and Chakaash (Herbal Health Toffees), Dr. Vaidya’s has captured the imagination of thousands of consumers to become India’s largest digital Ayurveda brand. In June 2019, Dr. Vaidya’s raised ~USD 5m (~INR 35 Cr) from the RP Sanjiv Goenka Group for the brand’s next leg of growth. Outside of work, Arjun is an advisor to football focused NGO, Just for Kicks, is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a Mentor at the Atal Innovation Mission.

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This episode is brought to you by World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution which is a hub for global, multistakeholder cooperation to develop policy frameworks and advance collaborations that accelerate the benefits of science and technology.

Aaina Agarwal is an AI specialist at the World Economic Forum and Amanda Russo is the Public Engagement Lead, World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Through this association with the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Network Capital will share a series of episodes that discuss nuances of deep tech on business, government and society.

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Sanjay Kumar currently serves as the India Country Director of The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University. It is an entity dedicated to connecting the University with all the countries of South Asia, prompting two-way intellectual exchange and knowledge creation.

Prior to this, he was involved at leadership positions with SEWA Movement for about two decades that organizes poor self-employed women workers in the informal economy in India. Handling twin task of establishing SEWA in Delhi and overseeing the work of SEWA Bharat, National Federation of SEWA organizations, as its Director, he led several programs including advocacy, microfinance, livelihoods, waste-management, government linkages and skills for youth, to name a few.

As a keen photographer, his inspiring images on the lives of women workers in India was exhibited at the House of Commons, London and other locations.

He is voluntarily leading Edjustice People’s Campaign to rejuvenate the state-run educational institutions.
He has been also writing Op-eds on social issues in the National Dailies.

Sanjay Kumar holds a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, a Masters in Political Science from University of Delhi, and a Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration as a Mason Fellow from the Harvard Kennedy School. Alongside, he also holds an exhaustive PG diploma in ’Social Security for the Poor’ from ISS, The Hague.

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Being a knowledge-driven generalist with a passion for cultural exchange, Jakob is currently Trade and Invest Advisor at Business Sweden c/o Embassy of Sweden in New Delhi. In his professional capacity, Jakob is driving market-oriented R&D-projects together with leading Swedish Industry and institutional Indian partners. Holding a double degree in engineering and international business, Jakob is working in the intersection of business development, technological transformation and international relations. Jakob is also an ambassador of the European Forum Alpbach and a Global Shaper in association with the World Economic Forum. Starting October 2019, Jakob will join the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, for further postgraduate studies.

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R Ramanan is the Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) - a flagship national Innovation initiative of the Prime Minister and the Government of India of India under the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). AIM’s goals are to establish and promote a vibrant culture of innovation and entrepreneurship nationwide.

He was previously Managing Director & CEO of CMC Ltd, a subsidiary of the globally acclaimed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). Ramanan led CMC’s rapid transformation from a domestic government organization to a global IT private sector organization. Under his leadership CMC share price grew over 2100% between October 2001 to 2014, its operating profits over 1338%, 72% of its business coming from the overseas markets and leading to its successful amalgamation into TCS in 2015

Ramanan’s joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Mumbai in Electrical Engg and played an instrumental role in the growth of TCS with a variety of responsibilities ranging from product development, technical marketing, global business development, and general management of large centers of TCS.

In this Network Capital podcast, Mr. Ramanan reflects on the key inflection points of his career and shares why he joined to lead the Atal Innovation Mission. He has a special message for all the mentors part of the "Mentor of Change" initiative, a key component of Atal Innovation Mission, where Network Capital serves as a partner

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Vineet is the founder and Managing Director of AVMS and has over 17 years of experience in early stage investing, small business incubation, and microfinance.

Vineet has led the setting up of Aavishkaar I and II and Aavishkaar Goodwell I & II funds. He provides overall leadership to the fund team with key focus on fund raising and post investment mentoring and exits.

Vineet is also the Co-founder and Director of Intellecap, a pioneer and leader in the multiple bottom line investment advisory industry and also chairs the board of Intellecash, a Non Banking Finance Company.

He also serves as the Director of Villgro, a rural business incubator that creates networks for rural innovations. Vineet is an Ashoka Fellow.

In this podcast, Vineet shares insights from his leadership journey, the myriad challenges of helping create and shape the impact investing space. He also shares how young professionals should think about careers in investing.

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Rwitwika is the CEO of Swaniti Initiative, a social enterprise that delivers public services to the base of the pyramid. As CEO her role focuses on developing long-term growth strategies and formulating key partnerships with central and state government bodies. Prior to Swaniti, Bhattacharya was working at the World Bank as an Associate on on Labor Market Issues. Her work experience includes working in firms like UNFPA and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. She is a Master’s in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School and a Bachelor’s in Economics and Political Science from Wake Forest University.
In this podcast, she shares her journey to Harvard Kennedy School, key lessons learned and building Swaniti from the ground-up. This is essential content for anyone thikning about applying to policy schools and building high impact careers in public policy.

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Samar is an MBA candidate at Harvard Business School. His professional experience spans banking, film making and entrepreneurship.

He produced Nanak Shah Fakir (NSF), a first-of-its-kind film on the life and teachings of Guru Nanak, the
founder of the Sikh faith. NSF was awarded three National awards including the Best Feature Film on National Integration by the Hon’ble President of India. Samar has worked extensively with Academy award & Grammy award winners in producing NSF, which has been critically acclaimed worldwide including at the Cannes, Los Angeles and Toronto Film Festivals.

Post NSF, Samar co-founded Arteree, a startup at the intersection of entertainment, media &
technology, focused on creating a global collaborative platform for the discovery & promotion of Indian performing arts and artists.

Samar started his career in banking working with BNP Paribas, Barclays and Yes Bank before exploring the entrepreneurial path. He is a keen technology & new media enthusiast with a vision to pioneer community driven learning models spanning the arts, education and technology.

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Aayush cracked 750 in his 4th GMAT attempt and made it to Columbia Business School. His journey to business school is one of grit and resilience coupled with clarity of thought. Hear from Aayush in his own words.

""I was born in Madhya Pradesh and grew up in a middle class home in Gurgaon. I went for high school to DPS Vasant Kunj (New Delhi) where my aptitude for Science and Mathematics led me to a formal education in Engineering. I graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology (Karnataka) in 2012, but since I was more interested in the business side of things, I ended up working in sales (B2B) at Philips from 2012-15. Here, I formulated and delivered on a two year business roadmap for a previously underperforming territory, resulting in 40% sales CAGR and 80% growth in market share. I absolutely loved my experience of stakeholder management and building new partnerships, but my passion for learning new disciplines brought me to Ashoka University where I studied Liberal Arts (Young India Fellowship), graduating in 2016. The Fellowship was the turning point of my life (both professionally and personally). As a part of the curriculum, I worked on a year-long project in rural India to uplift a low-cost school. By partnering with several education organizations to bring about a meaningful change in the school's curriculum, I learned how the private sector can play an equally significant role as the government in driving social change. This brought me to FSG (US based impact consulting firm) where I spearheaded the fundraising, marketing, and dissemination of a $16 million program to improve education in 300K low cost schools in India. Through pitching our program to 100+ funders and interacting with several key players in education, I learned about the challenges and opportunities in the Indian education system. Driven by my passion and experience of the transformative capacity of education, my ultimate goal is to start my own consulting firm that will help education based social enterprises in India address ecosystem barriers so that they can focus on affordable, quality education for low-income schools. I am currently headed to Columbia Business School for an MBA to hone my strategic thinking and problem solving skillset and to get a global perspective on the education space. Outside of professional setting, I am an avid fan of Tennis, which I enjoy both playing and watching. I have also been recently bitten by the travel bug, having traveled to 34 cities in 8 countries in the past 9 months."

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Abhilasha is currently the VP of Strategy and Operations at Elucidata, a Delhi & Cambridge based startup, building an AI-enabled platform for the biopharma industry to enhance drug development. Prior to this, she worked at a strategy & innovation consulting firm, Innosight, advising Fortunate 100 clients in the healthcare sector. Earlier in her career, she was part of the founding team of Avanti Learning Centres, where she built and led teams across product and operations to deliver high-quality and affordable math and science programs across the country.

She graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelors degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Delhi.

In this podcast, she talks about the key inflection points in her career, journey to Harvard Business School and life after graduation. It is essential content for anyone thinking about business school and exploring how meaningful career choices are made.

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This is the recording of the MBA panel with alums from Harvard Business School, Chicago Booth, INSEAD, LBS and Wharton.

It covers the following:

1. What is an MBA and who is it for?
2. What is the right time to apply?
3. GMAT preparation strategy
4. Essay writing strategy
5. Cracking the interview
6. Thinking about life post MBA

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Manu S Pillai is the author of the critically acclaimed The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore (2015) and Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (2018). Formerly chief of staff to Shashi Tharoor MP, he is also a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar (2017). His other essays and writings have appeared in Mint Lounge, The Hindu, Hindustan Times, Open Magazine, The New Statesman, and other publications. The Courtesan, the Mahatma & the Italian Brahmin is Manu's third book, and a collection of essays on Indian history. 

In this Network Capital podcast, Manu reflects on his journey as a writer, key inflection points in his career and the art of making your passion your profession. Riddled with historical anecdotes and colorful stories, this podcast is essential for anyone interested in history, public policy and writing.

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In this podcast, two Columbia Business School alumni - Prateek and Neha, share their application strategy and demystify the MBA experience.

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Mishaal is a lawyer by profession and an entrepreneur by nature. He is the Co-Founder and CEO of Plane Crazy, a full-service creative consulting agency, and the CEO and Founder of 405 Analytics that harnesses the full potential of data and uses analytics to boost revenues by providing valuable insights into markets and consumers. He is extremely interested in technology and currently leads the technology team at Plane Crazy with a focus on web development and augmented reality. In 2018, he was admitted to the Harvard Business School 2+2 program for the MBA program.

In this podcast, Mishaal shares how he cracked the HBS 2+2 MBA program. Listen carefully and make notes as he talks about GMAT, essays and interview preparation. You will also learn about the guiding principles of Mishaal's career, his entrepreneurial journey and vision for future.