Navroz K Dubash is Visiting Senior Fellow and Chair of the Advisory Council at the Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC), an independent research and action group working on climate, energy and environment, and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Prior to joining SFC, he was a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, an Associate Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Senior Fellow at the World Resources Institute. Navroz has been actively engaged in global and national debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years. He helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator from 1990 to 1992. He has advised Indian government policymaking over the last decade as a member of advisory committees on climate change, energy, and air and water policy. He also coordinated a team that served as lead anchor institution for India’s Long-Term Low Emissions Development Strategy. Navroz was a Coordinating Lead Author for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a Lead Author and Synthesis Report Author for the Fifth Assessment Report, serves on the steering committee for the UNEP Emissions Gap Report, and has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group of the UN Climate Action Summit. He currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Climate Policy Journal. He is also a member of the editorial boards of Global Environmental Politics, Energy Research in Social Science, Environmental Policy and Governance, and the Journal of Environment and Development. He has written widely on climate change, energy and the environment in Indian and global media, and contributes a regular ‘Expert Voices’ column to Science. In 2015, he was conferred the T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on Indian climate change policy and the international discourse on global climate governance, and in 2018, his co-authored paper on interpreting model scenarios was awarded the Emerging Nations Award by Environmental Research Letters.

Aparna Uppaluri is a global executive and a senior philanthropy advisor. She serves on the global advisory body of Equal Measures 2030 and is Special Advisor to the Grow for Climate Fund. Until recently, she was the Chief Operating Officer, leading philanthropic programs at the Tata Trusts with operational and strategic planning oversight over all thematic areas including livelihoods, health, nutrition, WaSH as well as Arts & Culture. In her previous role, she served as Senior Global Program Officer at the Ford Foundation and acting Program Director of the Foundation’s India, Nepal, Sri Lanka office. She is an interdisciplinary professional in the fields of philanthropy, women’s rights, public health, education, arts, and culture. Her work has focused on addressing issues of inequality and building gender justice across sectors. Her global work has included nurturing philanthropic collaboratives, intergovernmental partnerships, and strategic field building across thematic areas. She has managed large collaborative funds with global teams across the world. She trained as an epidemiologist and worked in public health and health systems research for over 14 years in Canada and India where she worked at the University Health Network (Toronto) and McMaster University. She led the Science and Society Program at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, India from 2014 to 2017. She was also Founder-Director of the 
Antara Collective, Bangalore – a performing arts collective in Bangalore which she ran for 10 years. Through this engagement, she worked closely with artist and artisan communities across the country and worked to promote conservation, adaptation and livelihoods. She was educated in Canada at Queen’s University (in Life Sciences) and the University of Toronto (in Community Health and Epidemiology).

Working across South Asia, independent photographer, writer, and National Geographic Explorer Arati Kumar-Rao documents environmental degradation that has reached cataclysmic levels. She chronicles how drastically depleting groundwater, habitat destruction, and land acquisition for industry devastates biodiversity and shrinks common lands, displacing millions and pushing species towards extinction. Arati was named in BBC’s list of 100 Influential & Inspiring Women of 2023 and her first book is ‘Marginlands: India’s Landscapes on the Brink’, published by PanMacmillan (Picador) in 2023, won the Publishing Next Book Of The Year Award, 2024. Arati’s work has also appeared in the National Geographic Magazine, Emergence Magazine, BBC World Service, and in leading Indian newspapers, among other outlets. When not on assignment, she splits her time between a biodiversity hotspot — the Western Ghats — and Bangalore in India, where she plays a happy mother to three rescued cats.

Harald Winkler is a Professor in PRISM, School of Economics at the University of Cape Town (UCT). His research interests are at the intersection of development, climate, social justice and economics. Specific focus areas for future research include equity and inequality between and within countries; just (energy) transitions and just resilience; implications of the global stock-take; and low emission development strategies and nationally determined contributions. Academic publications can be accessed on Scopus. Harald is a member of the South African and African Academies of Science, and a member of the SA delegation to the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. He has recently served as joint Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Climate Policy, a coordinating lead author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and one of two co-facilitators of the technical dialogue of the Global Stocktake under the Paris Agreement. Details: https://commerce.uct.ac.za/prism/people/researchers

Dr Mukund Rajan is the Chairperson of ECube Investment Advisors, a platform that catalyses ESG changes in corporate India. Dr Rajan serves as Mentor of the Environment and Climate Change Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and is a member of the ESG Advisory Committee constituted by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). He also serves as Vice President of the Council of Management of the Forum of Free Enterprise and is a member of the KPMG India ESG Council. He completed a Doctorate in International Relations on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University.

Nyrika Holkar is Executive Director of Godrej & Boyce (‘G&B’), and drives key decisions related to talent management and corporate governance. Additionally, she leads the company’s digital and global legal strategies. As the Brand Custodian, she works closely with the Sustainability, Design, Marketing, Communications and Service functions across G&B. She is on the Board of Godrej Infotech, and drives key decisions relating to IT and technology platforms and is working to improve the digital ecosystem for G&B businesses. As Chairperson of the G&B CSR Committee and Sustainability Council, Nyrika is actively involved in G&B’s community development efforts, skilling and the protection of wetlands in India. She graduated with a BA in Philosophy and Economics from Colorado College, USA and obtained LL.B and LL.M degrees from University College London, UK. She is a qualified Solicitor in the United Kingdom and is a member of the Bar Association of India. Nyrika is on the Boards of the Centre for the Advancement of Philanthropy and the United World Colleges Committee (UWC) India. She is a Fellow of the Ananta Aspen Centre’s Fellowship and a member of Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Shantanu Dixit is one of the founding members of Prayas (Energy Group) and was the Coordinator of the Group from 2012 to 2021. He has worked on a range of power sector-related issues from techno-economic, legal, and broader public interest perspectives. His research covers resource planning, power purchase agreements, agricultural electricity consumption, tariff and financial aspects of distribution companies, electricity markets, restructuring, and regulation. He contributes to the development of the Indian energy sector and the protection of consumer interests through research, extensive policy, and regulatory engagement in many states and at the National level. He has been part of many official committees formed by Central and state governments and regulatory commissions. He is an Electrical Engineer and has an MBA from Pune University (PUMBA).

Dr Sharachchandra Lele is a Distinguished Fellow in Environmental Policy & Governance at the Centre for Environment & Development, ATREE. He is also Adjunct Professor at Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, Pune. His research interests include conceptual issues in sustainable development and sustainability and the analysis of institutional, economic, ecological and technological issues in forest, energy and water resource management. He attempts to incorporate strong interdisciplinarity in his research and teaching, which straddles ecology, economics and political science. Dr Lele’s interests lie in understanding the interactions between the nature of environmental problems and the structures of governance used to address them and exploring the questions of law, science and bureaucratic accountability in the functioning of these structures. He holds a PhD in Energy & Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.

Shloka Nath is the CEO of the India Climate Collaborative, a non-profit focused on mobilising philanthropic capital to accelerate climate action in India. The ICC connects funders to high-impact solutions that restore our planet and build a healthy and equitable future for all, while continuing to help India meet its development goals. Prior to this, she led the Sustainability and Policy & Advocacy portfolios at the Tata Trusts, one of India’s leading philanthropic foundations. She also co-founded and was the Managing Partner of Sankhya Women Impact Funds, a gender lens fund with a focus on sustainability. She started her career as a journalist, with a decade of experience at the BBC in London, as a news anchor with NDTV and a Principal Correspondent with Forbes in Mumbai.  She is currently a Trustee at the CSMVS, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum of India, the Vice President of the Bombay Natural History Society, a board member of IIT Madras’ Energy Consortium, and Climate Catalyst, Alliance magazine’s Editorial Advisory Board, and a member of the Advisory Board to IUCN’s Nature-based Recovery initiative, among numerous other positions. Shloka received an MPP 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.

Soumya Swaminathan is the Chairperson of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). She was most recently the Chief Scientist and before that, Deputy Director-General for Programmes at the World Health Organisation (WHO). A paediatrician from India and a globally recognised researcher on tuberculosis and HIV, she brings with her 40 years of experience in clinical care and research and has worked throughout her career to translate research into impactful programmes. She is a Fellow of the US National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Medical Sciences of the UK and a Fellow of all the science academies in India. She has received several honorary doctorates, including from Karolinska Institute, École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne and the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. She serves on several national and global advisory bodies and committees. She is an Adjunct Professor at Karolinska Institute, Sweden and Tufts University, Boston.