PRINCIPAL SECRETARY TO CM BIHAR AND ACS HOME AND CABINET, GOB
Dr S.Siddharth is a 1991 batch IAS officer. He obtained his Doctoral Degree in Information Technology from the IIT, Delhi. He had graduated in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Delhi (1987), and also an MBA to his credit from IIM, Ahmedabad (1989).
He is presently the Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Bihar. He also holds the additional charge of Principal Secretary, Industries Department and also Industrial Development Commissioner.
He has held various posts in his long career of more than 25 years as District Magistrate of Districts of Muzzafarpur, Bhojpur, Aurangabad and Lohardaga. He served in the Government of India as Director, Ministry of Heavy Industries. The officer also worked in the capacity of Secretary to Hon’ble Chief Minister, Bihar, Secretary Urban Development, Secretary Rural Works Department, Secretary Labour, Secretary Info & Tech Dept. and Principal Secretary Industries Department. He was responsible for drafting the Bihar Urban Planning and Development Act 2014, Bihar Urban Planning and Development Rules 2014, Bihar Building Bye-laws 2014. He was very instrumental in initiating the process of preparation of DPR for the Patna Metro and the master plan for Patna Metropolitan Area.
Dr Siddharth was the one who drafted the Bihar Industrial Policy 2016, Bihar Investment Act 2016, Bihar Investment Rules 2016 and Bihar Startup Policy 2017. The officer was also responsible for guiding Ease of Business reforms in all other departments which are responsible for giving clearances with respect to setting up of Industry.
The officer was also the Principal Secretary, Sugar Cane Department, Chairman BIADA, Chairman Bihar Khadi and Village Industries Commission and CEO Bihar Foundation.
Dr. Siddharth specializes in areas of Commerce, Industrial Investments and E-Governance.
He is also a professional wild life photographer, loves to play badminton, and has recently edited a book on Handicrafts in Bihar.
MD BLACKSTONE INDIA
DIRECTOR CIMP
DIRECTOR - CIMP, PROFESSOR AND DEAN ACADEMICS, PHD, MBA (GOLD MEDALIST)
Research Areas
Corporate Finance, Securities Analysis and Portfolio Management, Treasury and Forex Management, Strategic Finance, CSR, Financial Modeling
FOUNDER AND CEO, ROOTER
A marketing veteran, Piyush Kumar is the Founder and CEO of Rooter, India’s leading Game Streaming and eSports platform, designed to provide a rich community experience to the millions of gaming enthusiasts across the country.
A graduate in Computer Science from Delhi University, Piyush spent over 13 years working with a diverse portfolio of brands cutting across Media & Entertainment, Consumer technology and F&B like Dish TV, ITC, HCL, AB-InBev, including heading marketing for Rado (Swatch Group). During this time, he was responsible for developing Go-to-Market strategies, driving sales footprint, and actively building brand voices across a cross-section of marketing and branding channels.
Bitten by the entrepreneurial bug in 2016, he went on to launch Rooter as an exciting sports community platform, bringing together fans who wished to interact and engage over common interests. By 2020, Rooter had transitioned into the country's leading game streaming and Esports platform on the back of an exclusive and growing creator community and top content technology solutions. Today, with a sharp focus on building the commerce ecosystem in this space, Rooter is driving the gaming creator economy in India.
Piyush is an avid Tennis and Squash player who attributes his entrepreneurial vision to his lifelong love for sports. He likes to pen his thoughts on the confluence of sports, gaming, and technology on Twitter @writetopiyush. Piyush also has a philanthropic side and actively sponsors initiatives focusing on education for girls, wanting to make a long-term difference in this direction.
CEO, CARATLANE
Avnish is a CEO at CaratLane.
Avnish is passionate about building new businesses and has spent more than 15 years in the consumer internet space. In one of his previous roles at Times Internet, he built Code Gladiators, which is now the largest coding competition in the world.
He is a graduate of IIM Lucknow and Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Outside of work, he loves to read a wide range of topics and actively follows a lot of different sports. He writes about his interests from time to time.
INVESTMENT MANAGER, JAFCO ASIA
Current Designation – Investment Manager, JAFCO Asia (JAFCO Asia is a leading venture capital firm with more than $2B – INR 16000Cr in assets)
Aishwary is an Investment Manager at JAFCO Asia where he looks at Seed to Series-B stage investments across sectors. He is managing end-to-end investments in the Indian geography and is responsible for JAFCO Asia's Investment in India, together with the South Asia team. Prior to joining JAFCO Asia, Aishwary worked at WaterBridge Ventures where he was doing Seed and Series A stage investments.
Prior to his investing career, Aishwary was a part of the Healthcare consulting team at ZS Associates, consulting the one of the biggest pharma companies in the world. He has also been an entrepreneur building out his own startup in the rental economy space.
As a Venture Capitalist, Aishwary seeks to partner with game changing entrepreneurs who think big and are ready to challenge the status quo
EX- CURATOR, SHARK TANK INDIA & INDIA REPRESENTATIVE, ROYAL FAMILY OF DUBAI
Ex- Curator & Business Advisor Shark Tank India
India Representative for Royal Family of Dubai
Government Advisor (Entrepreneurship)
Entrepreneurship Evangelist
HEAD OF VENTURES DIVISION FOR DIAGEO INDIA
I head the Ventures division for Diageo India. I am a CVC who happens to be a woman. Have been a 3-time founder/ member of the founding team in the startup industry. Learnt the hard way that there is never a secret to sauce to success, but you figure out success by failing enough times till the fear of failure leaves you. Passionate about the start up industry hence my personal circle is also all about founders and VC’s whom I try to constantly learn from.
PUBLIC POLICY AND COMMUNICATIONS PROFESSIONAL
Shri Vivek Singh is a public policy and communications professional. He has served as OSD (Officer on Special Duty) to the Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister from May 2019 till July 2023. He has been a part of the FM's team in the last 5 Union Budgets and also worked in the Raksha Mantri’s office from November 2018 to May 2019. He was a corporate banker before joining the government.
He is an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), ICAI and a gold Medalist from IIM Shillong. Vivek is a guest faculty in leading business schools and a regular contributor of articles and opinion pieces in leading business dailies (ET, Mint) where he writes on macro-economy and policy-related topics. He is a part of the Board of Governors of IIM Shillong as a distinguished Alumni.
FOUNDING PARTNER, RICEBERG VENTURES
Ankit Anand is a Founding Partner at Riceberg Ventures, a Zurich-based early-stage deep tech venture capital firm. His academic foundation in Physics from ETH Zurich, coupled with his experience as a researcher in the Nobel Prize-winning LIGO-Virgo collaboration project for gravitational wave observation, lays a solid ground for his scientific expertise.
Ankit's entrepreneurial journey spans across various sectors in India and Europe, having founded and operated multiple startups. This gives him a hands-on entrepreneurial experience that he seamlessly weaves together with his scientific acumen, providing more than just capital to the startups in Riceberg Ventures' portfolio. Notable investments of Riceberg Ventures include companies like Signatur Biosciences, Manastu Space, and EtherealX. He grew up in Bihar and did his schooling at JNV Saran and Patna Science College; he started his career in Patna as a physics teacher.
FOUNDER- NIROGSTREET
Ram's connection with Ayurveda was ignited when he personally experienced the curative capabilities of Ayurvedic treatments during his battle with hepatitis. This life-altering experience fueled his mission to bridge the technological gap within the Ayurvedic realm, culminating in the establishment of NirogStreet. Ram's profound belief in collaborative competition is paralleled by his unwavering passion for integrative medicine, rural healthcare and the preservation of indigenous healthcare systems across the globe including African, Japanese and south-east Asian systems of medicine.
Policies can be thought of as ‘rules of the game’ of everyday life. These rules affect
the way people choose to pursue their goals and thus influence the combined,
overall, and unintended results of everyone’s actions
