Profile of Speakers 1 Prof. Jagdish Mukhi Hon’ble Governor, Government of Assam Prof. Jagdish Mukhi is the 30th Governor of Assam and he assumed his office on 10th October 2017. Prior to his appointment as the Governor of Assam, Shri Mukhi was the Lieutenant Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Jagdish Mukhi earlier held the portfolios of finance, planning, excise & taxation and higher education in Delhi Government. He is credited with working extensively for the welfare of the people of Delhi. Some of the notable achievements credited to Jagdish Mukhi’s name were banning of lottery trade etc in Delhi in 1994, when he was the minister of finance. He also worked towards persuading people to abstain from consuming alcohol. As minister of excise, he declared record number of dry days in a year. He was also instrumental in establishing Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University a professional university which was self funded, as a minister of higher education. He was also honoured as the best finance minister of the nation and also received best MLA award in Delhi Vidhan Sabha for two times. He represented Janak Puri constituency continuously from 1980 and won seven times from the same constituency. Jagdish Mukhi was born to Late J.R Mukhi and Late Laxi Devi Mukhi on 1st December 1942. Shri Seshadri Chari Member, Governing Council, RIS Mr. Seshadri Chari, is the Former Consultant (2006-2009) UNDP, Southern Sudan, Project: Facilitation of participation of women in post-conflict democratic set up and capacity building of political parties in Southern Sudan. Presently he is Member, RIS Governing Council and Joint Director, (International Affairs) Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). He is also Secretary General, Forum for Integrated National Security (FINS). Presently working on land and maritime security challenges. Some of his publications are A New Era in Indian Polity,’Jananayak’ a Pictorial Biography of the then Prime Minister Mr. A B Vajpayee, “Nepal Emerging Republic”2008, Economic Federalism” Issues before Smaller States, Need to revisit India’s Nuclear Doctrine, Anagharika Dharmapala Dhamma Dharma Confluence. Shri Manab Majumdar Deputy Secretary General, FICCI With a background of 30 years of research and professional experience in WTO matters, Regional Integration, FTAs, Trade Policy, Globalization, Investment and Industry-related issues, Manab Majumdar is currently working as Deputy Secretary General of FICCI, the premier apex business Chamber of India. He also serves as Team Lead of the WTO, FTA, Trade Policy and Trade Facilitation Division of the Federation. Manab has been closely involved in the negotiation and industry 3 consultation processes for a number of FTAs involving India. He participated in several WTO Ministerial Conferences as a member of the Indian official delegation. Mr Majumdar represented the Indian private sector in a large number of national & international conferences and High-Level Policy Dialogues on Trade and WTO-related issues. He was invited as a Fellow at the prestigious Salzburg Global Seminar on ‘New Dynamics in Global Trade Architecture: WTO, G20 and Regional Agreements’. He also served as an invited speaker in the consultative meeting of Commonwealth Expert Group on Trade. Manab attended an Advanced Trade Training Course organized by DFID and another training programme on trade issues under a Swiss Government Fellowship. An alumnus of Presidency College-Calcutta and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)-New Delhi, Manab has earlier worked extensively on promotion of India’s trade relations and investment cooperation with South-East and North-East Asian countries. Ms Laurel Ostfield Head of Communications, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank Laurel is responsible for overseeing AIIB’s global brand and communications strategy, which includes media relations, civil society engagement, internal communications, sponsorship and digital communications. She is also accountable for the Bank’s commitment to transparency through its information disclosure policy. Prior to joining AIIB, Laurel led the communications team at Capital One Canada, covering external communications, internal communications and corporate social responsibility. Shri Ravi Capoor Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Assam Mr. Ravi Capoor, IAS, served as Chairman of the Board for Assam Petrochemicals Ltd. since October 01, 2016. Mr. Capoor serves as Director of Petroleum Conservation Research Association of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. Mr. Capoor is Commissioner & Secretary to the Govt. of Assam, Industries & Commerce Department. He is a senior IAS Officer belonging to the 1986 Batch of Assam Meghalaya Cadre. He has worked in various capacities under the Govt. of Assam as well as Government of India. He has more than two decades of multi-sectoral experience in the areas of Energy, Handicrafts industry, Tourism development and Education. He serves as Director of India Carbon Limited. (ICL), Assam Hydrocarbon Energy Limited (AHEL), Assam Tea Corporation Limited (ATCL), Tea Board of India (TBOI), Mandakini B’Coal Co. Limited (MBCCL) and Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL). He serves as a Director on the Board of Engineers India Limited. He serves as Part-Time Ex-Officio Director of Numaligarh Refinery Limited. He serves as a Director of Assam Industrial Development Corporation Ltd. He served as a Director of Assam Petrochemicals Ltd. from January 2009 to June 30, 2011. Mr. Capoor served as Director of Numaligarh Refinery Limited since January 29, 2009. to April 13,2011. He served as a Director of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd., from February 22, 2006 to November 5, 2007. He is a graduate in Commerce and Post Graduate in Business Administration. 4 Prof. Amitabh Kundu Distinguished Fellow, RIS Dr. Amitabh Kundu is currently Distinguished Fellow at the Research and Information System for Developing Countries. He is chairing the Committee overvieing the survey for Swatch Bharat Mission (Rural) He was Regional Advisor on Poverty at UNESCWA, Beirut during 2017 and Consultant to the Government of Sri Lanka during 2016. Until January 2014, he was Professor at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has been the Dean of the School of Social Sciences and has served as a member of National Statistical Commission during 2006-08. He has been chairperson of the post Sachar Evaluation Committee, set up by the Ministry of Minority Affairs and was a Visiting Professor at the University of Amsterdam, Sciences Po and Maison des Sciences de L’homme in Paris, University of Kaiserslautern and University of Wuerzburg in Germany. He has worked as Director at various institutes in India and is in the Editorial Board of Manpower Journal, Urban India, Journal of Educational Planning and Administration, Indian Journal of Labour Economics. He has about thirty five books and three hundred research articles, published in India and abroad, to his credit. Shri P D Sona Parliamentary Secretary (Tourism), Government of Arunachal Pradesh Mr. Sona has been the Chairma, Legal cell, APCC, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. Elected Mber of Legislative assembly, 2009 and was Chairman Arunachal Agricultural marketing board, Government of Arunachal Pradesh. Chairman Hydro Power development cooperation of Arunachal Pradesh. Prof. Sebastian Morris Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) Prof. Sebastian Morris is on the faculty of IIM, Ahmedabad since June 1992. Earlier, he was on the faculty of Institute of Public Enterprise, Hyderabad for about eight years. His current research is on Study of Determinants of Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and strategies to attract FDI to Gujarat, Strategy for restructuring of the electricity transmission, distribution and trading businesses in Haryana in context of the changes brought about by the Electricity Act 2003, Role of Small Scale Industries in the Age of Liberalisation and Pricing and Financing of Water, for Country Water Resources Sector Strategy, (World Bank). He has worked on several high powered committees appointed by the Planning Commission, Government of India, Government of Gujarat, state and central public sector enterprises and Confederation of Indian Industry. He is M.Sc. (five year integrated in Physics), of the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and fellow of IIM Calcutta. His doctoral dissertation was titled: Direct Foreign Investments from India (1964 83). 5 Dr. Kavita Iyengar Economist, Asian Development Bank Dr. Kavita Iyengar is an economist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), New Delhi where she works on regional cooperation in South Asia and knowledge management. She works with the team in project design, monitoring, and implementation for regional and sub-regional economic cooperation projects in South Asia in key identified areas which include trade and investment, transport, and information and communications technology. She is also responsible for knowledge-sharing activities including the content development and generation of economic reports, research papers, and other publications; and interactions with academia. As part of the economics unit, she liaises with the government on various programs and technical assistance projects. After her B.A. (Honours) in Economics, Kavita obtained her M.A. Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and Ph.D. Economics from Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts. She has had varied work experience in India and the US the