Grand Jury Gallery

The Manthan Award South Asia Grand Jury 2011 was held at the India Islamic Cultural Center, New Delhi, India on October 14th & 15th , 2011. Here we share the brief Profiles of the Grand Jurors for Manthan Award 2011.

N. Ravi Shanker
Joint Secretary, DIT
He is currently Joint Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India. He is heading the the core areas of e-Infrastructure and e-Learning overseeing key projects across India. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Ravi Shanker was Principal Secretary IT in Govt. of Uttarakhand.

Rini Simon Khanna
Broadcast Media Professional
Rini Simon Khanna, has majored in English literature from Delhi University and has done her post graduation in History. She also has a post-graduate diploma in Journalism from the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi Her interest in the performing arts and related fields was recognised very early and her skills were honed at school and college. With a career that spans three decades now, Rini began producing and hosting programmes and interviews on India’s National Radio at 13 and was soon selected to read the Prime time National News on All India Radio. In addition she does commentary on prestigious occasions such as Independence day, Republic day etc for television and radio.

She was handpicked from Radio to anchor the National news on Delhi Doordarshan, the premier Indian television channel. those days. In addition to presenting news, Rini is an experienced Voice talent, rendering commentary and voiceovers for documentaries, ad films and feature-films. She also anchors international and national conferences, classical dance and music shows and seminars for prestigious organisations, UN agencies, corporate groups and Government ministries.

Desi S Valli
COO, Net 4 India Ltd.
Desi S Valli is one among the most successful Internet executives in India. He started his professional career in a small start-up organization in Delhi, his initial interest in network design and integration gave him a chance to get involved in modern, developing technologies, and specifically Internet technologies. His contribution to the Networking industry gave him an opportunity to join Net4 India Ltd, as a founding member, in the year 1999. Today, Net4, a BSE listed Company, is one of India’s leading players in IP Communications Services providing a wide range of quality, customer-focused and reliable Internet related services. He is the secretary of the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI). He is a member of Technical advisory committee of NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India, which is a government funded company with a mandate for optimally utilizing the Internet infrastructure within the country). Through his expertise and exposure to internal ICT markets, he is an active participant in the discussion forums of TRAI, on its policy formation processes.

Rajen Varada
Founder, Technology for the people
Rajen Varada is a ICT practioner since 1995 and continues to be actively engaged in designing and implementing proff of concept solutions for rural development using technology and in particular ICT. He has beeen at the forefront of developing solutions for health, early childhood care,( sisu samrakshak) disaster,( SMS4help), district administration (Parishkaram) and most recently ‘Labnet” a migrant labour tracking and servces portal. Technology for the people and NGo of which he is the founder continues to research on ICTsolutions for the social sector. Rajen has been the founding of movements like public sector software and actively supports community ownership of technology, from community radio, community Tv and open source use. He has worked in UNICEF as a project manager to design a health dissemination package for rural communities called ‘Sisu Samrakshak’. Which broke new ground in designing icons in collaboration with the rural communities.

Mr. Rajen subsequently worked as Resource Person of the United Nations Solution Exchange ICT for development Unit.

Dr. Madan Mohan Rao
Research Project Director, Mobile Monday
He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology at Bombay and completed his advanced studies from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is M.S. in computer science and a Ph.D. in communications.He works as a consultant and author from Bangalore, in knowledge management and new media. He was formerly the Communications Director at the United Nations Inter Press Service bureau in New York, and vice president at IndiaWorld Communications in Bombay. He is the Research Projects Director of Mobile Monday and co-founder of the Bangalore K-Community. He is editor-at-large of Destination KM, world music editor for Rave magazine, RJ for world music at WorldSpace Radio.

He. is a frequent speaker on the international conference circuit, and has giventalks and lectures in over 60 countries around the world. He is the editor of three book series The Asia Pacific Internet Handbook, The Knowledge Management Chronicles, and AfricaDotEdu.

Dr. Subho Ray
President, IAMAI
Currently he is working as the president of Internet & Mobile Association India (IAMAI). In his current role, has been instrumental in some crucial steps for the development of the digital industry. The main among these are instituting an accreditation process for interactive agencies, a credit recovery process for online publishers, organizing and getting recognition for the mobile value added services industry and for opening up the pre-paid instruments industry. Under Mr Subho Ray’s leadership, IAMAI has also been recognized as the leader in all Internet and mobile value added services research in India. IAMAI has grown seven-fold in terms of membership and has been at the forefront of the advocacy for ecommerce, online advertisement, ICT for SMEs, internet penetration and an equitable business regime for mobile value added services industry.Before joining IAMAI, Subho was director for the ICT vertical at the Confederation of Indian Industry (India’s largest industry body) in New Delhi where he worked since 1998 with a 2 year stint at the Confederation’s London office.

Asif Syed
Editor, Current Newspaper
He is currently working as an Editor & Publisher for Current Newspaper. Current is a weekly newspaper about the business of politics and the politics of business. Every week Current gives its readers an insider’s view of government, political and business activity from around the country. Before that He was the Director at Current Publications Pvt. Ltd. Current Publications Pvt. Ltd. is the company that owns the ‘Current’ weekly newspaper and other titles like Real Estate and Vibes. The company is headquartered in Mumbai with editorial and commercial offices in Mumbai and Delhi. He has also been a Senior Correspondent and Chief Content Manager at The Asian Age. After completing his Masters of Arts in Journalism from Northeastern University, Boston he joined as an Editorial Director at Current Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Amitabh Singhal
Telecom Expert & Former CEO,NIXI; Telxess consulting pvt. Ltd.
Amitabh currently sits on the Board of .ORG, the Public Interest Registry, based in Reston, Virginia. He is the Director of Telxess Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd. and Vcon Services Ltd. He was a Founder and former President of Internet Service Providers Association of India. He also was a founder, Board Director and CEO of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). He helped conceptualize and set up NIXI as a public private partnership between ISPAI and Department of Information Technology, Government of India and was involved in restructuring NIXI as an autonomous Registry and Regulator of the .IN Domain (Indian ccTLD), including its commercial launch, drafting and implementing the INDRP, and appointment of Registrars, etc. He is also associated with Internet Governance Group of the Department of IT.

He represented and was the spokesperson of India’s ISP industry, since the time of inception to well over a decade. He contributed many articles over the years in various publications and journals, and was a speaker & presenter at various forums, including the IGF, INET and other national, regional and international forums. He helped shape public policies in the telecommunication sphere as a member of various governmental and industry committees, expert groups and panels.

Chitranganie Mubarak
Program Director, ICTA
Chitranganie Mubarak is the Senior Programme Head of the e-Society Programme of the ICTA. The key goal of the e-Society Programme is to improve the daily lives of ordinary people by leveraging on the latest developments in information and communication technologies. She has a great passion for ICT4D and plays a key role in facilitating access to ICT amongst the most vulnerable groups in Sri Lanka thereby ensuring a more balanced access to information within Sri Lankan society and reducing the ICT development divide between urban and rural areas. . Chitranganie has spear-headed several key ICT initiatives in Sri Lanka while implementing over 250 community based ICT for development project. She also contributes to ICT4D at a regional and international level through her active participation in several regional initiatives and as the regional representative for the World Summit Award. Chitranganie serves as a Grand Juror for both the WSA and the WSA Mobile. Prior to joining the ICTA she has over 20 years’ experience in formulating and implementing national programmes for export development and promotion in the Sri Lanka Export Development Board. As Director, TradenetSL, the e- commerce arm of the Sri Lanka Export Development, Chitranganie was responsible for introducing several ICT solutions for facilitating the rural entrepreneur and has played a key role in launching the country’s pioneering on-line trading platform. She holds a Second Class (Upper) in Chemistry from the University of Colombo.

Deepak Maheshwari
Director, Corporate Affairs, MICROSOFT
Deepak Maheshwari is Director – Corporate Affairs with Microsoft in India and responsible for interactions with the policymakers & regulators as well as with industry associations & the civil society organizations. An active participant and a keen observer of the interplay between technological innovation and socio-economic development, he has been closely associated with development & evolution of Information & Communication Technology policy, law & regulation for more than a decade and is often invited as a speaker and a contributor of articles & opinions in the media.

At ties mistaken as a lawyer, he was actually awarded degree in engineering by one of India’s leading technical institute IT-BHU. His professional experience of more than 2 decades spans functional responsibilities across sales, marketing, operations and last but not the least, corporate affairs.

Pravin Prashant
Editor, Voice & Data, CyberMedia
He is working as Editor, Voice & Data, India’s number one magazine focusing on telecom vertical. The magazine is published by CyberMedia, the largest speciality media house in South Asia. He Worked at Elets Technomedia as Vice President – Strategy for Elets Technomedia, a publisher focusing on Government, Education and Health (GEH) vertical. The company publishes egov, digital learning and eHealth magazines.

He also Worked at iGovernment and IT Next as Executive Director & Editor, iGovernment, India’s first comprehensive portal on government vertical, owned by Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Pvt Ltd, one of the country’s leading IT publishers. Also contributed as Consulting Editor, IT Next, India’s first magazine for Senior IT Managers.

Dilip T Ittyera
Founder & CEO, Aikon Labs
He is the Founder of Aikon Labs. Aikon Labs has built a product for Idea management and incubation among a community of employees, partners & customers. The product is available for corporates in a hosted/SaaS model for their internal idea generation & management. He was a Chief Innovation Evangelist for Zensar Technologies Ltd.He was at the position of Associate Vice President at Aptech Ltd.

Nandita Rao
Lawyer & Activist
She is a lawyer and activist, who has been practicing at the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court of India since 1998. She has been associated with the Delhi High Court legal Services Authority and with NGO’S including CHILDLINE ( a national helpline for children), Swanchetan ( an NGO that works on women’s mental health issues) and the Lawyers Collective ( Civil Liberties Unit- which has worked extensively on cases arising from the Gujarat Genocide in 2002).

Nandita completed her LLB from Symbiosis Societies Law College Pune and her LLM (Development) from School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London, UK as a Chevening Scholar. Apart from writing on current legal issues, including the Bhopal Verdict and judicial delay in National Dailies including the Asian Age, her publication include ;

“The mirage of justice and International Law (case study of Gujarat)” presentation at the International Law Association Conference, entitled “Tower of Babel” 2006, London, UK. Directory of Supreme Court & High Court Judgments on issues of Women and Children ( Co- Editor) Manual – Copy rights and patent rights for tribal and traditional Artists for Social Action Forum for Manav Adhikar.

Dr. Rajendra Kumar
Director, NeGD, DIT
Dr. Rajendra Kumar, I.A.S., is a senior officer in the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) and is currently working as the Director (Projects) in the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) of the Department of Information Technology (DIT) in Government of India. He is in-charge of the National Population Register (NPR) project within DIT and is also heading the new Mobile Governance and e-Authentication initiatives in DIT.

Dr. Kumar holds a PhD in international economic development and regional planning and an MCP from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, an MTech from the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi, and a BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. He has published a book and several articles in international journals.

Kishor Panth
Vice President, CAN, Nepal
With the work experience of more then ten years in the field of information technology, especially in the field of Data Communication and Networking.

Currently working as a Territory Manager for Nepal at Cisco Systems. Cisco Systems is the one of the worlds largest networking company. Along with this as the social contribution currently the First Vice President of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN). CAN is the supreme body in Nepal working in the development of IT sector in Nepal.

Along with this I am also the Board Member of Nepal Internet Exchange Point, the national Internet exchange of Nepal. Executive Director at Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN). NREN provides the connectivity between the academic researchers in Nepal and around the globe with the high speed Network connectivity called National Research and Education Network.

Geeta Malhotra
Director, READ India
Geeta has been working with READ India since June 2008 and has helped bring Seven Community Library Resource Centers to life with 2 centers in Manipur, 2 in Rajasthan, One each in Haryana, Delhi and West Bengal. Geeta constantly performs networking and outreach activities to bring the best training and capacity-building programs to READ centers while overseeing all operations in India. Geeta uses her strong experience and professional/academic connections to create new opportunities for READ India. Since 1981, she has been actively working in the social sector to implement grass-roots programs across India. This includes work for One World South Asia, Open Knowledge Network, Digital Empowerment Foundation & Population Foundation of India. Dr. Malhotra holds multiple degrees from Delhi University, Annamali University as well as Deemed University and has just completed a PhD on Elected Women’s Roles in Reproductive and Child Health.

Soumya Sarkar
News Editor, Mint
Soumya Sarkar is News Editor in Mint, a sister publication of the Hindustan Times published in partnership with the Wall Street Journal. He has been working in Media and Communications for over two decades and was previously with the The Times of India, The Indian Express Group, the Telegraph and the Down to Earth magazine. He has also worked as development and communications consultant with organizations that include the World Bank and the Aga Khan Development Network. Besides working in the areas of environment, rural livelihoods, energy and water resources, Soumya is keenly interested in science and technology issues.

Maarten Botterman
Chairman, PIR.ORG
Maarten Botterman is Chairman of the Board of the Public Interest Registry (www.pir.org) and Director of GNKS Consult BV. He is an expert in Information Society policy issues with extensive international experience, with emphasis on the impact of technology on society and governance issues, and global information security and privacy issues. He is currently also Member of the Permanent Stakeholders Group of the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA). GNKS stands for understanding the impact of the emerging Global Networked Knowledge Society (www.gnksconsult.com), and he works with other top researchers to develop policy insights relevant to decision makers in public and private sectors, that take the interests of multiple stakeholders into account and are robust towards the future that is by definition uncertain.

For his work he relies on his knowledge and experience from his work as former CEO of the Information Assurance Advisory Council (2003 -2006), Information Society Director at RAND Corporation in Europe (1999 – 2006), Scientific Officer for DG Information Society of the European Commission (1995 – 1999), Senior Telework Consultant at the Dutch Ministry for Transport (1992 – 1995), Public Works and Water Management, and Head of ICT at the North Sea Directorate of the same Ministry (1987 – 1992). He holds an advanced degree in business economics from Erasmus University.

Mosharrof Hossain
Deputy director, D.Net, Bangladesh
Mohammod Mosharrof Hossain is the Deputy Director of D.Net, Bangladesh. Currently he is leading the INFOLADY program. Hossain has completed his M.S.S (Sociology) in 2000 from Jagannath University. He also obtained his DYDW (Diploma in Youth in Development Works) under the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) from the University of Huddersfield and BOU. Hossain has a background in ICT-oriented project planning and implementation and worked on a project under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs as an Assistant Programmer (2004-2007). He has worked on a Computer Cell for the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (1997-2004). He has also served at Channel F2 Events as a consultant (IT and Creative). Hossain is the Co-planner of Pallitathya: What, Why and How; a Digital training manual for Infomediaries. He is the Researcher and Coordinator of regular TV Show, CONNECTING BANGLADESH.

Shruti Verma Singh
Consulting Editor & Anchor; NDTV Profit
She has 16 years of experience in the media as a reporter & news anchor. Specialized in Legal and Education sectors. Many reports have resulted in policy changes especially in the area of disability, trafficking of women and the education sector in India.

Now consulting editor & anchor for ALL ABOUT ADS , a show on advertising, marketing & branding on NDTV PROFIT. The show has been on for almost 8 years.

She has been regularly moderating and speaking at events related to advertising , marketing , digital, retail and media forums. Other than that, among the founding members of THE DELHI ALTERNATIVE – a not-for-profit organisation for COMMUNICATION.