Dr. Ajai Kumar, currently Senior Director and HoD of Applied Artificial Intelligence Group & Graphic and Intelligence based Script Technology (GIST) group, C-DAC, Pune, has long-standing highly productive administrative acumen for project proposals submission to project completion and deployment, feasibility studies, requirement analysis, organization of Workshops, Seminars and Technical Exhibitions. As a seasoned business and technology leader with more than 20 years of experience, he is passionate about technology and IT application in business transformation. His research vision and contribution also encompass into many fields having published various technical papers on Speech Technologies, Search Technologies, Translation and Transliteration in IEEE, Scopus, Springer and other major publications/conferences besides attending various International and National level conferences.

Dr Jatinder Kaur Arora is the Executive Director of Punjab State Council for Science & Technology. She advises State Govt. on all matters pertaining to promotion of Science Technology & Innovation in the State of Punjab. She is also the Member Secretary of Punjab Biodiversity Board.
She is recipient of several prestigious awards, to mention a few, the President of India conferred upon her 'National Award for Women's Development through application of Science & Technology' instituted by Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. The Govt. of Punjab has awarded her ‘Punjab Sarkar Parmaan Patra' for exemplary service in the field of Science & Technology. The Indian Television Academy has honored her with ‘Great Women Award, in Science & Technology’ category. She is steering several initiatives for supporting tech led startups and innovators in the State of Punjab. She has formulated State Action Plan on Climate Change 2.0. She is also vigorously engaged in promoting cleaner technologies in the State.

Professor (Dr.) Renu Vig is discharging the responsibilities of Vice-Chancellor of Panjab University since Jan 16, 2023. Prior to this, she has held several key positions at Panjab University-Dean University Instruction, Dean Research, Dean Faculty of Engineering & Technology, and Director UIET. With a teaching and research experience of more than 35 years, Professor Renu Vig holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Technology in the area of Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks.
She has a stellar academic record having been awarded Gold Medal by Panjab University for standing first in B.E. across all departments in Punjab Engineering College and other affiliated colleges, and Roll of Honour for standing third in Pre-Engineering, Panjab University. Her research contributions have won her accolades such as The N K Iyengar Memorial Prize for research paper on Fuzzy Modelling for Ignition Timing Control, The Corps of Engineers Prize for research paper on Fuzzy Diagnostic System for Coronary Artery Disease, to name a few.

Mr. Umesh Vithalkar presently holds the position of Associate Director within the Graphic and Intelligence based Script Technology (GIST) group at C-DAC, Pune. With a dedicated focus on Research and Development (R&D) spanning over two decades, he specializes in Indian language and embedded system initiatives. His extensive expertise has led to the successful delivery of Indian language solutions across various mobile and printer platforms. Notably, Mr. Vithalkar has secured two patents, one in India and another in the US, for his ground-breaking work in Indian language text data compression and decompression. Beyond his inventive achievements, he plays a pivotal role in the Centre of Excellence in Intellectual Property (CoE-IP) and the Image Processing and Computer Vision (IPCV) group, actively contributing to several nationally significant projects and standards. Proficient in project planning and execution, he encompasses a broad spectrum of activities in his role, showcasing a comprehensive skill set.

She is amongst the top 2% most cited scientists across the globe as per Stanford University, USA (2019- 20 to 2022-23). Her research forte is enhancing bioperformance of drugs, plant extracts/phytochemicals and biomolecules viz. siRNA, proteins, peptides, and probiotics using active-tailored solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs), nano vesicles, and electrospun scaffolds. Her group has worked extensively on novel platform nanotechnologies to overcome delivery challenges of molecules like antifungals, antituberculars, retinoids, antiglaucoma medications and posterior eye delivery for AMD and Diabetic retinopathy.
She has produced 22 (+7 currently guiding) PhDs and 65 (+4 currently guiding) postgraduates and has received funding of around 100 million INR from Government and Industry. She has delivered > 75 Invited Talks and published around 155 articles with h-index of 52, 8 books, 4 journal volumes and > 25 book chapters to her credit

Dr. Nalin K. Srivastava is handing innovation and entrepreneurial activities in the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India as Joint Director. Dr. Srivastava is passionate about promoting startup-entrepreneurial ecosystem especially in the realm of emerging technologies in the country. He has recently evolved the contours of ‘MeitY Startup Hub’ - a dynamic, singular and collaborative platform for tech startup community towards building meaningful synergies in the Indian startup space. He has institutionalized several ‘Accelerators and Scale-up programme’ to further convert the emerging startups into next level.

Vidisha Garg is a partner at Anand and Anand and has been actively involved in the field of Patents for over nineteen years now. She joined Anand and Anand in February 2004 and became a patent agent the same year. She has contributed immensely to the growth of firm’s patent prosecution and contentious practice since.
Vidisha is an active member of several international bodies, whose primary goal is to create harmonization of IP laws worldwide. She is the actively involved with AIPPI (Association Internationale pour la Protection de la Propriété Intellectuelle) and has been instrumental in developing a couple of white papers and report regarding issues inter alia, data exclusivity, working requirements of patents, diagnostic methods, etc.

Ankita is responsible for promoting innovation, bilateral co-operation and market access in the Indian-Europe business corridor by identifying and liaising with relevant stakeholders through collaborations. She has 14+ years of experience in IP, startup ecosystem and innovation ecosystem as an Expert. She is responsible for international trade and development industry in Negotiation, Patent Filing, Business Development, and Strategic Planning. She promotes public awareness, education and policy on issues related to using of Intellectual Property in the promotion of Science and innovation. She also leads public projects with government engagement. Along side being the project co-ordinator of Living Lab to create Proof of Concept and scaling up of projects in IIIT Hyderabad with MeitY, Smart City Mission and Amsterdam Innovation Arena. She is also the Data Protection Officer (DPO) at EBTC. She holds an Applied sciences Bachelor in Instrumentation, Masters in Bioinformatics, Post grad diploma in IPR and advanced certifications in Data Management and SDG’s from the University of Illinois and the University of Michigan, respectively.

Dr. Prashant Kumar is a Principal Scientist in Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh which is a national laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Govt. of India. He holds a BTech. in Computer Science & Engineering, MTech. in Advanced Instrumentation Engineering and Ph.D. in Faculty of Engineering Sciences from AcSIR (in collaboration with ISRO-IIRS Dehradun). He has been a PGRPE (Post Graduate Research Programme in Engineering) fellow of CSIR, India.His research interests are agri-informatics, image processing, soft computing techniques, and remote sensing. He has published several research articles and books in international journals/ international publishers of repute. He has supervised various graduate & post-graduate students in electronics, instrumentation and computer science, and environmental applications. He obtained merit in CSIR Leadership Development Programme for middle to senior scientists in 2016.