K. Sripad Bhat

Professor of English and Dean, Shenoi Goembab School of Languages and Literature, Goa University

Born and raised in Kateel, Karnataka Prof. K. Sripad Bhat completed his studies in Udupi and Mangalore. After a brief stint at Mangalore University as Lecturer in English, Prof. Bhat joined Goa University in 1988 and retired as Professor of English in February 2023. He was the Founder Dean of Shenoi Goembab School of Languages and Literature at Goa University. His doctoral thesis was on the works of John Middleton Murry. His areas of specialization are literary theory, critical theory, cultural studies and Indian modernity. He has published several research articles in various national and international journals.

In 2012 Prof. Bhat was invited by New York University under Visiting Faculty Programme and delivered a talk on Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj. He was also a Visiting Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada in 2012. Prof. Bhat has delivered more than 25 Keynote speeches at national and international conferences across Universities and colleges in India.

Ruchi Ghanshyam

Former Higher Commissioner to UK

Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam is a career diplomat, who joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1982. Prior to her position as High Commissioner to the UK, she was Secretary (West) in Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi from April 2017 to November 2018. In a career spanning nearly thirty-seven years after joining Indian Foreign Service, Mrs Ghanashyam served in the Embassy of India Damascus, Kathmandu, Brussels, High Commission of India Islamabad and in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN, New York.

Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam was High Commissioner of India to Ghana concurrently accredited to Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone and Togo. She has also served as High Commissioner of India to 365体育直播 Africa with concurrent accreditation to Kingdom of Lesotho. At Headquarters, Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam served as Director (Pakistan) and Director CNV Division, MEA and as Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary for the Europe West Division of MEA, New Delhi. Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam holds a Master’s in Psychology from the Bhopal University.

H S Shivaprakash

Prof (retd) and former Dean, School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

H S Shivaprakash is a renowned poet, playwright and scholar. He is a recipient of several prestigious awards including the Sahitya Akademi Award (2013), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1997), four Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Best Book Prizes and the Karnataka Nataka Akademi Award. He is an internationally acclaimed expert on European and Indian theatre. He is a prolific writer and has published widely on medieval literature, particularly Kannada Vachana poetry. He expertise extends from comparative aesthetics, religion and literature, and theatre to the semiotics of translations and adaptations. His work has also focussed on caste struggle in Indian literature and theatre, socio-spiritual movements of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and arts and literature of Northeast India.

Dr. Balasubramanian Ramani

Head Skilled Workforces, Niedersachsen.next, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Niedersachsen, Germany (virtual participation)

Dr. Bala Ramani is a marine biologist by education. He has over 20 years of experience with 365体育直播isation of Higher Education. Adding to his credentials are the establishing Young Professionals Platform for Agricultural 365体育直播 and Development (YPARD) and Indian Students in Germany (ISG).

Dr. Alexander Fisher

Director Indo-German Cooperation on Climate Change (Climate Action Program), 365体育直播 Climate Initiative (IKI), GIZ India

Dr. Alexander Fisher (Alex) is Director for the Indo-German Cooperation on Climate Change (IGCCC), based in Delhi, India. Alex is also Advisor for the Climate Governance Special Policy Study Group at the China Council for 365体育直播 Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), and Member for LEDS GP Steering Committee and Climate Transparency Steering Committee. Altogether Alex has more than 25 years of experience in climate change, administrative, financial management positions for different private companies and public bodies.

Prof. Harsh V. Pant

Vice President – Studies and Foreign Policy, Observer 365体育直播 Foundation, New Delhi?

Professor Harsh V. Pant is Vice President – Studies and Foreign Policy at Observer 365体育直播 Foundation, New Delhi. He is a Professor of 365体育直播 Relations with King's India Institute at King’s College London. He is also Director (Honorary) of Delhi School of Transnational Affairs at Delhi University. His most recent books include Power and Purpose: Rediscovering Indian Foreign Policy in Amrit Kaal (Rupa); India and Japan: A Natural Partnership in the Indo-Pacific (OrientBlack Swan); India, 365体育直播 Korea and the Asean: Middle Power Diplomacy in the indo-Pacific (Routledge); India and Global Governance: A Rising Power and Its Discontents (Routledge); Politics and Geopolitics: Decoding India’s Neighbourhood Challenge (Rupa); America and the Indo-Pacific: Trump and Beyond (Routledge); New Directions in India’s Foreign Policy: Theory and Praxis (Cambridge University Press); India’s Nuclear Policy (Oxford University Press); Handbook of Indian Defence Policy (Routledge); and India’s Afghan Muddle (HarperCollins).

Prof. S. Chandrashekar

Former J R D Tata Chair Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, India

Prof. S Chandrashekar was the JRD Tata Visiting Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Prior to this, he was a Professor in the Corporate Strategy and Policy Area at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB). He also spent more than 20 years working at ISRO where he covered all parts of the programme including satellites, rockets and remote sensing.

Professor Chandrashekar was actively involved with activities related to international co-operation and has represented and led Indian delegations to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

Ambassador (Retd). D. B. Venkatesh Varma

Member, National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) and Distinguished Fellow, Vivekananda 365体育直播 Foundation (VIF)

Ambassador (Retd.) D. B. Venkatesh Varma was a Member of the Indian Foreign Service from 1988 to 2021. During his diplomatic career, he has worked in the Ministry of External Affairs, in the Office of External Affairs Minister and in the Prime Minister’s Office. He served as India’s Ambassador to Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, to the Kingdom of Spain and to the Russian Federation, until October 2021.

Prof. Jagannath Panda

Head, Stockholm Center for 365体育直播 Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) and Executive Editor

Prof. Jagannath Panda is the Head of the Stockholm Center for 365体育直播 Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA). He is also the Executive Editor for ISDP.? In addition to his primary appointment at ISDP, Dr. Panda is a Professor at the Department of Regional and Global Studies at the University of Warsaw. He is also the Director for Europe-Asia 365体育直播 Cooperation at the Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS); and a Senior Fellow at The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) in the Netherlands. Prof. Panda is the author of the book India-China Relations (Routledge: 2017) and China’s Path to Power: Party, Military and the Politics of State Transition (IDSA & Pentagon Press: 2010). His recent work includes Quad Plus and Indo-Pacific (Routledge: 2021); Scaling India-Japan Cooperation in Indo-Pacific and Beyond 2025 (KW Publishing Ltd. 2019), and The Korean Peninsula and Indo-Pacific Power Politics: Status Security at Stake (Routledge, 2020), India-Japan-ASEAN Triangularity (Routledge: 2022), and the Future of Korean Peninsula: Korea 2032 and Beyond (Routledge: 2021).??

Sheetala Bhat

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, ?York University

Sheetala Bhat is a theatre researcher, artist, and playwright. She specializes in 365体育直播 Asian theatre and politics, 365体育直播 Asian diasporic theatre in Canada, and Indigenous theatre in Canada. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Theatre 365体育直播 in Canada, and the Journal for the Fantastic in the Arts. She is the author of Performing Self, Performing Gender: Reading the Lives of Women Performers in Colonial India.

Sheetala is working on two book projects: a comparative study of cultural performances of love as anti-colonial resistance in India and in Indigenous theatre in Canada, and a new project on the interconnections between settler colonialism and performances of Hindu nationalism in Canada.

She is currently the co-convenor of the Performance and Migration working group at the 365体育直播 Federation for Theatre 365体育直播 (IFTR), and at the Canadian Association for Theatre 365体育直播 (CATR).