The 26th Annual Conference
Speakers | WAN-IFRA India 2018
WAN-IFRA India 2018
CEO, WAN-IFRA, France
Peyrègne took up duties as Chief Executive Officer of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) on 1 October 2012. Prior to joining WAN-IFRA, since the end of 2008 he worked in the office of the French minister of Culture and Communication where he was responsible for newspapers and new media as well as the “états généraux de la presse écrite,” the French government’s response to the economic difficulties facing the newspaper industry. From 2004 to 2008 he was head of development at Edipresse Publications SA in Lausanne, with responsibility for reader studies and marketing research.
Former Editor, The Hindu and Chairman, World Editors Forum, South Asia Chapter
Mukund Padmanabhan was the Editor of The Hindu. Earlier, he was the Editor of The Hindu Businessline. Currently, he is a Professor of Practice at the newly-established Krea University, north of Chennai. Mukund is an M-Phil in Philosophy and worked briefly as a lecturer in University of Delhi before switching to journalism. He is interested in and has written about politics, legal affairs, and literature. He was an adjunct faculty of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines, where he taught law and advanced writing to post-graduate students.
Executive President, Dainik Jagran, India.
Mr. Sandeep Gupta (54 years) is the Executive President of Jagran Prakashan Limited. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Ohio University, Athens, USA. Mr. Gupta joined Jagran Prakashan Limited in 1986.
For the Jagran Group, he leads a challenging task in day-to-day operations, Production, Purchase, Modernization and IT. He is also involved in daily newspaper Editorial matters. With more than 32 years of Newspaper experience, Mr. Gupta has witnessed the technological progress in printing and has kept his organization abreast of all developments, with an eye on the future. He keeps traveling worldwide to visit different media houses to know how the technological advances being adopted by them.
Sharad Saxena, Executive Director – Operations, HT Media Ltd, India
Mr. Sharad Saxena has rich and diverse experience of more than 35 years, spanning Research & Development, Operations, Supply Chain and Human Resources spread over different industry verticles – Railways, Automobiles, Food & Beverages and Media.
He has held key leadership roles in large MNCs and companies forming part of reputed Indian business houses.
Mr. Saxena graduated in Mechanical Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology (BIT), Mesra.
Editor - Director, Sakal Media Group, India
Shriram Pawar currently working as an Editor-Director for Sakal media group and responsible for content strategy of group.
Working as a Journalist for last 25 years in various capacities as: Reporter, Chief Reporter, Asst News Editor, Associate editor, Executive Editor, Dy. Chief Editor and Chief Editor.
Writer/columnist/TV panellist: Continuously writes on national politics and international affairs, Power Point and Current Undercurrent are the popular columns, Regular participant in prime time TV debates on politics
Covered major political happenings all over India during last 20 years. Conducted various opinion polls and political surveys before during and after elections. Lead launching of various print editions of Sakal in Maharashtra as well as various magazines
Conceptualise and executed various initiatives in digital space like Sarkarnama.in, which is first exclusive portal for political content in Marathi. Sakal money which is exclusive portal covering personal finance, focused on savings and investments. Covered UN general assembly/G20 meetings
Social initiatives through journalism: Organised and lead various social and environmental initiatives in state of Maharashtra like ‘Save baby girl campaign’; ‘River cleaning drive’ with massive people’s participation, Research based prog on water which leads drought free Maharashtra initiative
Research: Dissertation on Geopolitical status of Jammu and Kashmir/Presented Research papers on Journalism and Communication related topics/ ongoing project: Reflection of International content in Marathi newspapers
Books: Authored many books on contemporary politics and International affairs; Edited book on social networking
Associated with various Social, Cultural organisation as well as Press organisations.
He holds MA in Journalism and working on PhD in Journalism and communication.
Consulting and Training services, USA
Steve Yelvington was born into the news business, the son of a newspaper editor, and has worked as a photographer, reporter, editor and executive at news companies throughout the United States. He has served as VP/Audience, VP/Content and Strategy, Director of Publishing Systems, Executive Editor and in other roles for Morris Communications, Cox Interactive Media, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Before moving to the digital world in 1994, he worked in print journalism in Minnesota, Missouri and Illinois. He has won both the EPPy Outstanding Individual Achievement and NAA Online Innovator award.
Editor and Publisher, The Daily Star, Bangladesh
Mr. Mahfuz Anam is the Editor–Publisher of The Daily Star, the highest selling English newspaper in Bangladesh commanding 75 percent of the English newspaper market. During his Editorship (1993 - till date), The Daily Star has become the most respected and trusted English language newspaper of the country. He pursued a vigorous editorial policy of strengthening democracy, freedom of expression, freedom of media and fundamental rights. His occasional column "Commentary" has gained tremendous popularity among readers.
In 1998, Mr. Anam was made the Publisher and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Mediaworld Limited, the owning company of the paper.
Before co-founding The Daily Star in July 1991, he worked for 14 years with UNESCO from 1977 to December 1990 in various public affairs and media capacities in Paris, New York and Bangkok. His last position with UNESCO was in Thailand, Bangkok as “Regional Media & Public Affairs Representative” for Asia and the Pacific, covering 31 countries from which he resigned in December 1990, returned to Bangladesh, and started this paper.
Mr. Anam holds B. A. Honours and a Masters Degree in Economics from Dhaka University. During his student life, he was the winner of All Pakistan Debating Championship for 3 consecutive years, winning championship in Karachi, Dhaka and Lahore in 1967, 1968 and 1969 respectively.
He started his journalism career in March 1972 and worked as Staff Correspondent of Bangladesh Observer and Assistant Editor of Bangladesh Times before starting his overseas career in 1977. He was awarded Jefferson Fellowship in Journalism in 1976 by the Honolulu based East - West Center. He was given the “Courageous Journalism” Award, 2016, by the East-West Centre, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
He is the founding President of Newspapers Owners Association of Bangladesh (NOAB). He is presently Secretary General of the Editors’ Council of Bangladesh.
Founder & Editor-In-Chief, DataLEADS / CIJ, India
Syed Nazakat is an award-winning journalist, media entrepreneur, founder and Editor-In-Chief of DataLEADS, which is a data-driven Indian initiative aimed to create new platforms of data research and storytelling. Syed Nazakat leads DataLEADS in New Delhi, as well as overseeing its outreach across Asia with different partners including with Asia News Network (Thailand), a network of 22 leading Asian daily newspapers in 20 Asian countries, with a combined circulation of 14 million and a readership of more than 50 million.
He is also founder of the Centre for Investigative Journalism, a non-profit organization he founded to promote the cause of watchdog journalism in India. He has worked in senior positions at different media organisations and has over 18 years of experience as broadcast, print and online journalist. He has reported on wars, armed conflicts, human rights issues & security and developmental issues from more than 30 countries and has covered the war in Afghanistan, political turmoil in Nepal, developmental issues in Laos and Cambodia, unrest in Thailand, the conflict in India’s Kashmir region, the civil war in South Sudan, defence industry in Germany and Australia, unrest in Myanmar and political instability in Bangladesh. He was the first Indian journalist to report from an Al-Qaeda rehabilitation camp in Saudi Arabia and in 2013 he was given unprecedented access by the USA to the military detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to report about prison abuse cases.
Nazakat has been the recipient of several national and international journalism awards he has been judge for the Global Shining Light Award, a unique global award which honors investigative journalism in a developing or transitioning country.
Syed Nazakat is also President of Society of Asian Journalists (SAJ), an independent organisation of 400+ editors and journalists in 27+ Asian countries. He is member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (Washington) and represents Asia Pacific Region at Global Investigative Journalism Network, leading the GIJN’s mandate and media activities across Asia which include facilitating Asian Investigative Journalism Conference, recommending and short-listing panellists, identifying potential sponsors and participants and conducting training sessions.
He holds B.Sc degree from India and Master’s degree in Journalism and Mass communication from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
Executive Director & CEO,Sakshi Media Group, India
Vinay Maheshwari, Sr. VP (SMD & Brand Marketing), DB Corp Ltd.
Seasoned professional with over 22 years of diverse industry experience in the field of Strategy, Sales, Market Development & Brand Management with Global and Indian Firms
Led businesses, large-scale operations, successfully managed P&Ls and Brands of different sizes, different audiences, and at different stages in their life cycle.
Strategizing and developing new Revenue Streams, Incubating new business models
Managing Channel and Retail Sales, Led Strategic Alliances, Re- designing business processes and building consumer connect. Top Strengths – Learner, Focused, Strategic, Achiever & Relator
President, Innovation Media Consulting Group, UK
As a Partner at Innovation, Juan Senor has directed projects all over the world helping news operations to re-invent their products and stay relevant with shifting audiences. He has worked and advised hundreds of media companies on every continent. He serves on the Advisory Board of several media companies around the world.
He has been listed as one of 'The World's Leading Innovators' in Journalism and Media' by Journalism UK Site.
Mr Señor is a highly-sought commentator on the media industry, speaking at global forums and quoted frequently in leading publications such as The Economist and The Financial Times.
He is also the co-editor of two annuals books; Innovation in NewsMedia and Innovation in MagazineMedia, written on behalf of WAN-IFRA and the FIPP respectively.
He is a former journalist and presenter for PBS's NewsHour, EBN-Wall Street Journal TV, CNBC Europe. And he served as London correspondent of International Herald Tribune Television. His work has been nominated for an Emmy Award and his television programme, Media Report, was voted by viewers as Europe’s Best Business Programme. He continues to work as a live events and television host and presenter globally.
CEO & Editor-In-Chief, Svenska Dagbladt, Sweden
South Asia Director, AFP, India
Tim is currently the South Asia Director for AFP bureaux in Delhi, Mumbai, Dhaka, Colombo and Kathmandu. He is responsible for AFP's editorial and commercial work in the region. Prior to this, he was International Sports Editor for AFP from 2014 until 2017, where he was organizing coverage of major events, such as Olympics and FIFA World Cup, at the time when agency was launching a strategic switch into video production with increased focus on sport. He started his career as a reporter/news desk editor of Southern Evening Echo in 1980 in Southampton.
Resident Editor, Times of India, India
K R Sreenivas has the habit of turning around newspapers. In his 21-month stint as Resident Editor of TOI, Hyderabad, he has rejigged the Hyderabad, Vizag and Vijayawada editions to make it more impactful, brought in a qualitative change in content, layouts and design of the newspaper, and made the editions more impactful. Under his stewardship, The Times of India recently launched Times Connect, the first of which was conducted at Marredpally, which brought residents and authorities face-to-face to deal with citizen issues. Apart from making the newspaper snippety and news-centric, Sreenivas has brought in interactive initiatives, making TOI most readable. Focussed coverage, carpet bombing of issues, detailed infographics have all become part of parcel of the coverage.
Prior to this stint, Sreenivas was Resident Editor of TOI, Goa, packing in soulful stories in the edition that hit national headlines. Goa was a different market from his previous experiences, but he brought around a change that made TOI the most loved newspaper in the market.
Sreenivas has also the distinction of being the launch editor of Bangalore Mirror, a compact newspaper of the Times Group. During his three-and-a-half year stint as the young newspaper’s editor, he made it such a habit for Bangaloreans that they got addicted to the style and play of stories.
Sreenivas joined The Times of India at Bangalore in 2000 and as Bureau Chief, brought in content that made local coverage interesting and would make people sit up and notice.
His career started with The Indian Express at Chennai where he rose to be its Chief Reporter, and in 1997 the youngest in the country holding the sensitive post. As a reporter in his formative years in journalism, he broke the big stories of the 1990s – that of Jayalalithaa’s corruption, non-filing of income Tax returns, and Hyderabad’s grape gardens which she owned, and many more. Then Railway Minister C K Jaffer Sharief had to quit as Railway Minister following Sreenivas’s story on misuse of Ircon aircraft and the furore that followed in parliament.
Sreenivas was educated in Chennai, went to Loyola College and Kendriya Vidyalaya in IIT campus, Madras.
He loves sports, listens to music and loves his friends he has cultivated over a period of time.
AI Entrepreneur
Parankusha is a Tech entrepreneur helping enterprises and startups adopt disruptive technologies like AI at an early stage. Previously, he was VP-R&D focussing on AI and automation at Ninestars, a digitization company. While at Wipro Technologies, he co-conceptualized HOLMES AI platform in 2014, a pioneering initiative among the top IT services companies in India. He was the head of engineering of its flagship program - HOLMES EKYC. He also brings a wealth of experience in multiple domains across Banking, Capital Markets and Media. Parankusha has a Master’s degree in Management from I.I.M Lucknow and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science & Engineering from N.I.T Jamshedpur.
CEO, Lodestar UM, India.
Nandini Dias is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Lodestar UM and she leads one of most talented and capable teams in the country. She is also part of the global FCB Media board.
Nandini has the distinction of having launched over 400 brands in media and has managed media investments for over 175 clients like Samsung, Johnson and Johnson, Accenture, Cadburys, Tata, Mahindra, Birla, Amul, Marico. She has set up various skilled practices like Brand Experiences, Content, Celebrity management etc. In addition, she has been part of the team identified to set up the creative agency FCB Interface Communications. Known for her strategic acumen she has developed several research based tools for better media investments.
Touted as the Most Influential Woman in the advertising and media industry by the prestigious Economics Times, Nandini has probably won the maximum number of media awards in the country. She has lead Lodestar UM to the Media Agency of the Year title several times in the biggest Indian award shows like Goafest and AAAI. She has been a consistently been winning at all levels. She won the Media Planner of the year award in her early years and in the last two years (2016 and 2017) recognized as Agency CEO of the year. In between those awards she has also been recognised at Cannes and Spikes on more than one occasion, World Leadership Congress , Lady CEO of the year by Navabharat , Times Power Woman etc.
She is a long serving jury member at the Emvies, Effies, Goafest, Cannes, Spikes, Festival of media, Press Club of India, and many more.
Nandini also ranks consistently among “Most influential media people”,” Woman Achievers” in all the prestigious industry rankings. In the last Economic Times Brand Equity Survey, she was the highest ranked woman in Advertising & Media in the country. Her position among the industry's top women leaders has seen her being invited as a speaker on several industry platforms and in business schools in India and overseas.
Besides being passionate about the media business Nandini is passionate about sports and doing philanthropic. She has won a number of awards in the sport of badminton. A mother of two sons Nandini is a strong advocate of work- life balance
Group Head - Communications, Reliance Industries Ltd. India
Rohit Bansal is a group leader with RIL, India’s most valuable company. He is an expert at the intersect of media strategy, reputation and digital disruption. Rohit is a TEDx speaker - the talk can be accessed on the hashtag #PowerOfOneVote.
Rohit is a Distinguished Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (Asia’s highest rated think tank from India), a Fellow at the Institute of Competitiveness (a knot of Prof Michael E Porter’s work at Harvard) and a Mentor at JioGenNext, a startup scalerator incubated by RIL.
Rohit read history at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi (1988) and completed the Advanced Management Program (AMP) from Harvard Business School (Fall 2009, alumni status). He is a British Chevening scholar and an executive education alumna of the University of Westminster, The Times Centre for Media Studies, and the European Journalism Centre, Maastricht.
Rohit served on the Board of News Broadcasters Association in India and is/was on some media boards like TV18, Network 18, Viacom 18, IBN Lokmat and HomeShop 18. He has been Resident Editor of The Financial Express, New Delhi; Managing Editor (and later COO) of India TV; Editor-Business, Zee News; Special Correspondent, Television 18; and Senior Business Correspondent, The Times of India. Among philanthropies and volunteering, Rohit has served on the Trust of St Stephen’s Alumni Foundation and Sankalp, dedicated to eyecare. He is connected to the cause of wildlife and livelihoods.
WAN-IFRA
Manfred Werfel was WAN-IFRA’s Deputy CEO until he retired on 1 June 2019. He was responsible for the Expo business of the association. He also managed the World Printers Forum, the print community within WAN-IFRA.
Since 1996 Werfel was part of WAN-IFRA’s management team. Over time he was responsible for Research, WAN-IFRA Reports, Expert Committees, Consulting, Training, Print Quality Projects, Events, Innovation Projects, World Press Trends, World News Media Congress, World Printers Forum and Expo. In 2012 he acted as Interim CEO.
Managing Director, Pressens Fællesinkob, Denmark
Thomas Isaksen is a board member of the WAN-IFRA World Printers Forum. He holds a Master’s Degree in Economics, an MBA and a Master’s Degree in Negotiation.
Chief General Manager - Operations, Telangana Publications Pvt Ltd
Srinivas Ch is General Manager-Operations of Telangana Publications Group.
He primarily heads the Operations of the Group, which publish NAMASTHE TELANGANA Telugu and TELANGANA TODAY English dailies. The Group recently owned ManRoland’s Double-width Press Cromoman and Ferag’s Mailroom system under Srinivas’s leadership. In this role, he oversees Company’s Production, Prepress and IT departments includes QC at various stages.
Srinivas is also a Journalist, who writes about Scientific and Technological developments across the Globe. He also serves as Content Editor for the Group’s Telugu Portal NTNEWS.COM
Prior to Telangana Group, Mr. Srinivas served as DGM-Technical of Telugu Daily SURYA. At this position, he headed IT, Prepress and Digital Edition departments. Started his career with Eenadu as an Engineer, Srinivas is one of the few Onlookers who experienced various generations in Offset Printing Technology since 1990.
Deputy General Manager, Transcraft Ltd., Bangladesh
Sarwar Amin. At present serving as Deputy GM at Transcraft Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh, country’s largest newspaper printing house. Transcraft prints the Daily Prothom Alo (vernacular), The Daily Star (English language) newspapers, own by Transcom Group, a conglomerate of the country. Both the Dailies are number one in circulation and objectiveness in their respective field.
After completing graduation and a Diploma in Printing Technology locally, he has studied a special Diploma Program in printing technology at GMDC-SDU, Netherlands under DenHaag Varsity in 1993 having a Dutch Govt. Fellowship. Also participated in a post-graduate program at London College of Printing, South London in 1994.
Mr. Amin had the opportunity to take part in on-the-job training programs in Japan, Singapore, Korea, China etc. on various purposes of newspaper printing system to boost his knowledge and experience. He is a 5 times participator in Drupa Print Fair in Düsseldorf, Germany.
Research Engineer, WAN-IFRA, South Asia.
Prabhu Natrajan is a Printing Technologist, with a graduate degree from Chennai’s Anna University. His area of expertise is Newspaper Production and holds 10 years’ technical experience with The Times of India.
Natrajan is currently working with WAN-IFRA where he is a project manager for the International Color Quality Competition. He is also responsible Research and Material Testing Center (RMTC) activities. RMTC, owned by WAN-IFRA, offers newsprint and news ink testing, print quality evaluation, press simulator training and ISO 12647-3 certification.
Chief Operating Officer, Wijeya Newspapers Ltd, Sri Lanka
Chief General Manager-Operations, Jagati Publications Ltd, India
T.K.Suresh working as Chief General Manager-Operations in Jagati Publications Ltd, India having 26 yrs of experience in news paper printing.
He is looking after all Production operations in Jagati.
He started his career as a Mechanical Engineer and he mastered in printing. He previously associated with Dinamalar , Singapore Press Holdings and many other publications.
General Manager-Quality and Prepress, Jagati Publications Ltd, India.
Mr.B.Gouri Sankar working as General Manager-Quality and Prepress in Jagati Publications Ltd having 23yrs of experience in Newspaper Quality and Prepress.
He is looking after all Quality and Prepress departments in Jagati. He started his career as Electronics engineer and mastered in Quality. He previously associated with Dinamalar and other Publications
Deputy Chief Manager - Engineering, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, India
Rajiv Sen has more than 19 years of experience in the Printing Industry with extensive exposure to latest maintenance practices, preventive & predictive maintenance approach & “Hands-On” maintenance methods for effective trouble shooting of plant assets.He started his career with BCCL as a trainee engineer in Kolkata branch & is currently heading the asset management function under Mechanical Engineering Department at Kolkata.
He is Mechanical Engineering Graduate from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar.
Ravi Saini, Deputy Chief Manager - Production, Bennett Coleman & Co Ltd, India
Ravi Saini has more than 18 years of Industrial experience. He started his career with Web Machine Manufacturing Industry and has been working with BCCL for past 16 years in production department. He joined BCCL as a Production Officer in its New Delhi branch and is currently heading the Pre-press Department in its Sahibabad branch. He is also associated with Central Quality Group and led his team to won QCI National D L Shah Quality Award 2016.
He is a Printing Technologist & Graduate from University of Delhi.
CEO, Suddeutscher Verlag Zeitungsdruck, Germany
Mr. Josef Schiessl studied at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich with a degree in printing and media as a graduate engineer. Since then, he has accumulated over 36 years of experience in the printing industry, starting as an operational project manager, Controller and predominantly in management.
Mr. Schiessl has been the managing director of the printing company of the Süddeutsche Zeitung for 5 years. He focuses on topics such as quality, increased efficiency in industrial production and developing new business areas as services, as well as new technologies such as 3D printing.
Vice President, Marketing, Ad Sales, Malayala Manorama, India
Varghese Chandy is the Vice President of Marketing, Ad sales, at Malayala Manorama. With over 2.4 million copies and more than 15 million readers, Malayala Manorama is the largest circulated regional language daily in India.
Chandy is credited with founding of Junction K, the integrated media solutions platform of the group. He has also served as chairperson for the coordination committee of the National Readership Survey.
He has won awards such as Media Marketer of the Year 2003 at ‘Emvies’, Mumbai Ad Club and Best Research Paper award at Worldwide Readership Research Symposium 2009 in Spain.
Senior Dy. General Manager, THG Publishing, India
Venkatesan currently holds Senior Deputy General Manager position in THG Publishing, publisher of The Hindu newspaper in India. He is having nearly 25 years of industrial experience and worked in various levels at supply chain management, commercial & administration.
Venkatesan holds a degree in mechanical engineering.
Director, WAN-IFRA South Asia & Director, The Printers Mysore Ltd., India.
Shanth Kumar has been a printing technologist, editor and director with The Printers Mysore since 1983. He has driven the editorial coverage at Prajavani and helped it retain a leadership position in Karnataka over the last decade. Under him, the daily has seen several developments, including a redesign and new supplements. Shanth is a director of the Press Trust of India, where he recently completed his term as chairman and Wan-Ifra India. He is a former chairman of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. He has covered the last eight Olympics as a photojournalist for Deccan Herald and Prajavani. Shanth oversees the Nettakallappa Sports Foundation, a charitable trust started by his father K A Nettakallappa, that promotes the Deccan Athletic Club and provides scholarships to athletes. He was a former board member of the Indian Golf Union (IGU) where he promoted junior golf in India. He has the distinction of representing India in golf as a non-playing captain at the Asian Games in 2002.
Advisor, Eenadu, India
Associated with Eenadu in the capacity of Advisor, I am part of the leadership team working on various business initiatives and oversee the Ad Marketing function. Prior to this I was Director in Management Consulting Division of A.F. Ferguson & Co., (A member firm of Deloitte)
Deputy Director - Technical, Bennet, Coleman & Company Ltd., India
Shashank Chavan is currently holding the Deputy Director - Technical position in Bennett, Coleman and Company Ltd. He has been with BCCL for 24 years. He hold bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering from Mumbai University and Management certification from Indian School of Business (ISB).
General Manager - Production, The Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing, India
Managing Director, pme maurer GmbH, Germany
Hans Jörg Maurer, born 1964 is certified engineer. His first contacts to newspaper presses were as child, his grandfather and father worked at manroland where he also started as service engineer. 1996 he founded his own company with proactive maintenance engineering which leads to pme maurer GmbH. He got proven records of success with his methods for technical diagnostics on printing machines based on different technologies like infrared ultrasound and vibration to describe the situation of electrical and mechanical components.
Head- Large Partner Solutions, Google
Rahul is Head of Large Partnerships at Google in India. In his role, he brings together the best of Google to partners working closely with leading publishers, developers and platforms to help build profitable digital business. Rahul is a seasoned Googler and has worked across functions starting with sales for tech and telecom verticals, to driving Google Ad Manager stack adoption with top publishers in the county.
Rahul began his career with Hindustan Times and moved to lead sales for National Geographic Channel and History Channel. He made the switch to digital with Yahoo! India leading sales for key verticals. With over 17 years in the Industry, Rahul is an expert in building cross media strategy for brands and is passionate about helping companies go digital.
Assistant Editor, The Quint, India
Garvita Khybri is an Assistant Editor with The Quint who specializes in gender. She along with Vakasha Sachdev, Associate Editor - Legal, spearheaded a campaign called #TalkingStalking which aimed at bringing about a policy level change in the country's stalking law: to make it a non-bailable offence. She worked closely with Varnika Kundu, a Chandigarh-based DJ who was stalked by an influential politician's son, Laxmi an acid attack survivor and other stalking survivors, to make their stories heard.
On 3 August, 2018, Dr Tharoor presented a Private Member's Bill co-drafted with The Quint to make stalking a non-bailable offence in the Monsoon Session of Parliament. The proposal is also under consideration by Home Minister Rajnath Singh after meeting with Dr Tharoor to discuss our proposal to amend the law in March 2018. In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party also took cognizance of The Quint's Talking Stalking campaign and passed a resolution in favour of making stalking a non-bailable offence.
In 2016, she represented the country at ICFJ’s ‘South and Central Asia Digital Media Co-op’. She was embedded with AJ+, San Francisco, in their videos and social media team to bring out stories of the Indian diaspora. She was later invited by the Online News Association to participate in a discussion on digital media in Denver.
AI Entrepreneur
Parankusha is a Tech entrepreneur helping enterprises and startups adopt disruptive technologies like AI at an early stage. Previously, he was VP-R&D focussing on AI and automation at Ninestars, a digitization company. While at Wipro Technologies, he co-conceptualized HOLMES AI platform in 2014, a pioneering initiative among the top IT services companies in India. He was the head of engineering of its flagship program - HOLMES EKYC. He also brings a wealth of experience in multiple domains across Banking, Capital Markets and Media. Parankusha has a Master’s degree in Management from I.I.M Lucknow and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science & Engineering from N.I.T Jamshedpur.
Head of News Partnerships, Facebook, India
Manish Khanduri is head of news partnerships in India for Facebook. Manish has worked in leadership positions in the media industry in India and the United States in the online, mobile, television and print platforms. He was a senior business journalist in India leading corporate and stock market reportage for the Business Standard newspaper and the Businessworld magazine in Delhi and Mumbai. As Director, Strategic Planning at Turner Broadcasting in the US, Manish helped CNN’s digital properties (CNN.com and CNN Mobile) strategize and execute a number of growth initiatives including the launch of one of the first citizen reporting tools developed by a news media company. As Director, Consulting, at Cognizant, Manish was responsible for helping drive large scale IT transformations for Digital and Broadcasting clients in India and ANZ region.
Manish is a graduate of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A passionate supporter of animal rights causes, he has volunteered at various animal shelters in the United States and India.
