WELLESLEY, MA– Babson College will host its 5th annual India Symposium on Saturday, Feb. 29, at the Olin Hall on its campus in Wellesley, MA. The theme of this year’s conference is “Road to a $5 Trillion Economy.”
Organized by Babson students, the day-long Indian symposium will host a number of speakers who will have discussions on topics such as Digitization, E-commerce, Startup Ecosystem, Family Businesses, Economic Policies, Retail, CPG, Food, Investment, Technology, Hospitality, and Media and Entertainment among others.
Click here to for more information and to register for the India Symposium.
Here are the basic information the event:
Venue: Olin Hall, Babson College, Wellesley, MA
Date: February 29th, 2020
Time: 9:00 am onwards.
An Indian Style Breakfast, Lunch, and Snacks will be provided.
Here are the bios of some of the speakers (Source: Babson India Symposium)
Anil Nair
MD, Country Digital Accelaration, Cisco
Anil Nair is Managing Director, Country Digitization, APJC at Cisco Systems.
Prior to this he was MD/CEO at AGC Networks Ltd, Securitas India, Aegis Consulting and Avaya GlobalConnect Ltd. His industry experience spans Business Automation, IT, Consulting and Services. He has led 4 turnarounds and 2 start-ups. He did his Advanced Management Program from ISB-Kellogg Business School, Chicago.
Anil has been the recipient of an Award for Professional Excellence by the Indian
Institution of Industrial Engineers and has won the Udyog Rattan Award from the
Institute of Economic Studies.
In his current role at Cisco, he is involved with government and Industry leaders to
accelerate national digitization strategies to drive GDP growth, create jobs and build innovative ecosystems to create an agile government and economy across India, China, Australia, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea.
Rohit Kapoor
CEO, India & South Asia, OYO
An ISB alumnus, Rohit Kapoor is the Chief Executive Officer – India & South Asia at Oyo, the world’s fastest-growing company & world’s 6th largest chain of operated hotels, homes, managed living and workspaces, present in 18 countries. Rohit is responsible for driving new real estate businesses for OYO, exploring new domains and categories and other strategic initiatives. He is growing OYO’s business in India as well as across international markets.
During his 20 years’ experience, Rohit has worked in various roles across sales and finance in several companies. Prior to joining OYO, Rohit was a consultant with McKinsey & Company for close to a decade. Rohit also serves on the board of Antara Senior Living, Max One Distribution and Crossley Remedies.
At Indian School of Business, Rohit was ranked in the top five students and was the recipient of the Young Leader Award. Rohit has recently been featured as one of ISB’s most influential alumni in the book “ISB Portraits.”
Sanjay Arora
Founder & MD, D’Decor
Sanjay Arora is the founder and Managing Director of D’Décor Exports Pvt Ltd,
which is the largest woven curtain and upholstery manufacturer in the world.
D’Decor annual sales have crossed $200 million out of which 60% sales are from
exports and 40% from domestic market.
Sanjay started D’Decor in 1999; setup one of the world’s largest manufacturing
facilities for curtain and upholstery fabrics. Today D’Decor exports fabrics to over
50 countries worldwide. D’Decor is the largest exporter from India receiving highest category export awards continuously from 2003 till date.
Keeping innovation as the core value, Sanjay believes in delivering value by
providing European quality products at Indian prices.
Sanjay has setup the brand D’Decor in India to connect with the end consumer in
2008 and created a deep distribution network in India. D’Decor products are
available across 1500 retail stores pan India.
Ankur Warikoo
Co-Founder, nearbuy.com
Ex-CEO, Groupon India
Ankur Warikoo is a man of many talents. He’s an entrepreneur, angel investor, public speaker and the Co-Founder and former CEO of nearbuy.com, a hyper local e-commerce company based in India which helps shoppers to discover and buy from merchants near them. He has also previously served as the CEO of Groupon in India where he setup Groupon’s India practice. He also co-founded Accentium Web which owns and operates several websites in the India consumer space. As you may have noticed, the entrepreneurial spirit runs deep within him and he’s going to share how he made it all happen!
Farah Khan
Director, Producer, Actor, Choreographer
Farah Khan, is an Indian film director, film producer, actress, dancer, and choreographer. Farah has been a very successful filmmaker and has won many prestigious awards, from national award to winning the Filmfare Best Choreography Award six times.
Farah has directed many movies such and became only the second female director to be nominated for Filmfare Best Director Award. As a director, her second movie Om Shanti Om starring Shah Rukh Khan and debutant Deepika Padukone became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time at its time of release. Farah has received plenty of international acclaim as well for Monsoon Wedding and Vanity Fair. She received a Tony award nomination for her work in the much acclaimed musical Bombay Dreams
Farah and her husband also started their own entrepreneurial journey with a production company called “Three’s Company”. They will soon have their highly anticipated thriller movie on Netflix called Mrs Serial Killer.
Apart from his entrepreneurial adventures, he’s also written a ‘Failure Resume’ in which he has listed his failings. It was brave of him to put this out in public and served to highlight his determination to triumph against all odds.
Avin Agarwal
Director, Haldiram’s
There are some brands that are just synonymous with a particular type of product that, upon mentioning the name to anyone, no further explanation is necessary. Haldiram’s has a place in this hallowed ground, the name almost entirely associated with traditional Indian snack foods. A fifth-generation descendant of the company’s founder, Avin Agarwal is the Director of Haldiram Foods International and is leading their charge to become a dominant global player in the competitive Indian Snack market.
Avin believes that there are certain techniques and values required to run a family business and places high importance on maintaining long term supplier relationships. He aims to increase Haldiram’s global presence by expanding retail outlets worldwide and exploring new dimensions of global snacking and confectionery.
Mrigank Singh
CEO, Atal Incubation Centre, ISB, by Niti Aayog
Mrigank Singh is a passionate, dynamic & result oriented leader with proven track record of building new businesses across diverse industries by providing strategic & operational leadership, solid business acumen, analytical skills and ability to operate both at macro and micro levels. He did his MBA from Indian School of Business (ISB) and B.E Electronics &Communications from Thapar Engineering College. Currently he is CEO of the Atal Incubation Center (AIC) at Indian School of Business(ISB) and heads the practice of entrepreneurship and innovation at ISB, Mohali.
Mrigank Singh, has been instrumental in shaping the Drone Policy of India and Beyond Visual Line Of Sight Experiments. He has been a member of various high-level committees formed by Ministry of Civil Aviation, GOI, such as – Committee on Airspace Management, UAS Task Force, Committee on Design, Development and Production of Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, BVLOS Experiment Assessment and Monitoring Committee (BEAM), BVLOS Committee. Mrigank has been invited as a panelist on multiple forums -CNBC Awaz, for discussing ‘Drones and its future applications’ , World Economic Forum on ‘Drones and Data Utility’ , Ananta Aspen Centre – ‘NextGen Network AI’ and Drone Federation Of India on ‘UAS Traffic Management Systems as the Backbone of the Drone Industry’. He was featured in the ‘Open’ magazine article, ‘The Day of the Drone’s’ and ‘A&S India’ magazine article ‘“ Drones will strengthen India’s Safety and Security’.
Mrigank founded Sensebird Solutions, an Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) company pioneering in aerial data based analytics and decision support systems and 5i Technology, a technology-driven company focusing on smart city infrastructure. He has worked on multiple publications as well – ‘Drones and Its Applications In Agriculture’ at Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), Article in the RITES Journal titled ‘Transforming Cities Through Digitization’, Article ‘Civic Rights: Soft Wiring The Nation’, at UGC National Conference on Improving Quality of Life.
Priti Rathi Gupta
MD, Anand Rathi Share & Stock Brokers Ltd, Founder, LXME
Awarded as the “Women Leader of the Year” by NDTV in 2011, Priti Rathi Gupta redefines the role women play in family businesses and reverses gender stereotypes that have been upheld by the industry. She has led the Anand Rathi group to its position among the top 5 Financial Services companies in India in her last 15 years of working with the company. She is also the founder of LXME, an investment platform for women.
Vikas Khanna
Michelin Star Chef, Author, Filmmaker, Entrepreneur
An Indian culinary legend, celebrity chef Vikas Khanna is a pioneer in the world of food, film, and art. With a résumé that includes a Michelin star-winning restaurant, being a judge on MasterChef India and cooking for the Obamas, the Dalai Lama, and Narendra Modi, Khanna has emerged, arguably, as India’s food ambassador to the world. His humble beginnings have proved to be the stepping stones of his success in the food and beverage industry, encouraging him to spread his wings, and dabble into the world of film and writing as well. His recently launched restaurant Kinara (Dubai) has redefined Indian Food.
He has an interesting take on food and believes that the unselfish desire to share food is the strongest point of Indian food. He’s here at Babson to talk about his journey and share his insights about what the future trends in the Indian food industry would look like.
Ankit Mehta
Co-Founder & CEO, ideaForge
Ankit Mehta is a co-founder and CEO at ideaForge. Ankit completed his B.Tech and M.Tech (Dual Degree, Specialization: Computer Aided Design and Automation) in 2005, from IIT-Bombay. An innovator at heart, he loves to solve problems and believes in implementing the right solution, no matter the origin.
Ankit co-founded ideaForge in 2007, India’s largest manufacturer of drones for defense, homeland security, and industrial applications. ideaForge is a pioneer in research, development, production and operation of compact, cost effective and user friendly Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in India. He is an example of the Babson philosophy in action, as ideaForge is not only a successful business but also focuses on sustainable technology. His organization has multiple IPs to its credit, including the then world’s lightest autopilot in 2009. Ankit has won a lot of awards for himself and the organization, one of them being the Marico Innovation Foundation Award and Best Product Design Company by IESA.
Zakka Jacob
Anchor and Executive Editor, CNN-News 18
Jacob is an Award-winning anchor and Deputy Executive Editor at CNN-News18. For more than 15 years, he has been anchoring and covering some of the most definitive news stories across the globe. He was voted twice as the Best News Presenter at the Asian Television Awards – The only Indian to have won it twice.
Zakka is known for standing for secularism and has been a big advocate for LGBTQ rights on his award-winning shows – FaceOff@9 and Brass Tracks. He’s here at Babson to talk about his journey and share his most exciting experiences as a journalist.
Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for entrepreneurship of all kinds. The top-ranked college for entrepreneurship education, Babson is a dynamic living and learning laboratory where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society.
