Guruswamy Kumaraswamy is the Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation Fellow and a Professor in the department of Chemical Engineering at IIT-Bombay, Mumbai, where he leads a group investigating sustainable technology through soft materials. He received his B. Tech. from IIT-Bombay in 1994, followed by an MS (1996) and PhD (2000) from Caltech, USA. After a year at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, he returned to the National Chemical Laboratory in India. He moved to IIT-Bombay in October 2019. Prof Guruswamy’s work is primarily in the area of soft materials including, polymers, composites, nanocomposites, colloids, nanoparticles, surfactants, etc. His work has resulted in the development of technology that has successfully been transferred to industry. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a Foreign Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Jayant Pai , Founder Director of Social Seva Initiatives, a Pune based Section 25 not for profit company focused on applying innovative technology solutions to enable social impact at the base of the pyramid. With over 30 years of entrepreneurial experience, Jayant also founded SETU, a group of software companies based in Boston, USA and Pune India. Jayant holds a BE in Electrical Engineering from MS University, Baroda and a MS in Computer Science from Syracuse University, New York, USA.