Eminent Speakers
Shri Uma Shanker Pandey
Member(S), DoT
Ministry of Communications∗
Shri Uma Shanker Pandey
Dr. R K Upadhyay
CEO, C-DOT
Chairman
BIF’s New Tech Committee
Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay
Chief Executive Officer & Chairman Board, C-DOT
An ITS officer, he has earlier served in key positions in Prasar Bharati, DoT, BSNL, DRDO and TRAI, having worked on various issues including Infrastructure, Spectrum Pricing, Broadband, NGN, Interconnection, Indigenous Telecom Equipment Manufacturing, etc. He is a winner of several awards including: JC Bose award by MoD, National e-Governance Award, CIO 100 Award by IDG, and Deepak C. Jain Award by IIM Bangalore. He holds a Ph.D. in Corporate Strategy & Policy and MBA from IIM Bangalore, M. Tech from IIT Roorkee and a certificate in International Public Policy from Syracuse University, USA. He is a Governing Council Member of TSDSI, BIF, TEPC and TCOE. He is the Chairman of New Technology Committee of BIF and member of the TSDSI Standing Committee on Standardization & Transposition.
Shri V J Christopher
WA, WPC, DoT
Ministry of Communications
Shri. V J Christopher
Wireless Advisor, WPC Wing, DoT
He has worked in WMO since 1991. He has worked at different Monitoring Stations, Satellite Monitoring Station, Jalna and Regional Headquarters, Mumbai. In 2006 was posted to WPC. Worked in different divisions in licensing. In 2018 promoted as JWA and posted at RLO Mumbai. In November 2022 was promoted as Wireless Adviser. He has experience of Spectrum Management Work at the Ministry in different divisions. He also played an active role in the spectrum auction held in 2016.
Ms. Aruna Sundararajan
Chairperson, BIF
Former Chairperson DCC & Former Secretary, DoT
Smt. Aruna Sundararajan
Former Secretary (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications
Chairperson, BIF
She is a retired officer of the Indian Administrative Service. She served as the Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministries of Steel, IT and Telecom; and retired as Chairperson of the Digital Communications Commission in July 2019. During her tenure, Ms Sundararajan played a pioneering role in steering various important tech policies and initiatives; across the domains of telecom and hardware manufacturing, e-governance, digital payments, data protection, cyber security and tech start-ups. Post her retirement, Ms Sundararajan serves on the Boards of leading companies including Delhivery, Infoedge and Bharat FIH, India’s National Bank of Infra Financing and Development (NabFID), Cochin International Airport and a neo-banking start-up Digi Vriddhi. She is also an active member of various tech mentoring and angel financing initiatives.
Shri A K Tiwari
Principal Advisor
BIF
Shri A K Tiwari
Honorary Principal Advisor, BIF
Shri A.K. Tiwari is an ITS officer of 1983 batch. He has superannuated as Member (Technology) of the Department of Telecommunications on 31 st October 2022. He joined the Department in 1985. He was responsible for implementation part of DoT policies in the field. He has mostly worked in the field units of DoT as TDE/TDM/Director (VTM)/DDG(TERM) and DDG (RTEC). Before joining as Member (Technology), he was Advisor (Technology) in UP East LSA and Sr. DDG in J&K LSA. He is well conversant in all the field activities of DoT as well as in Licensing, Security, National Broadband Mission, Disaster Management etc. He has represented India in NEAX61S workshop for consecutive 3 years in 1992-1994.
Shri. Vivek Narayan
DDG (DS), DoT
Ministry of Communications
Shri. Vivek Narayan
DDG (DS), Department of Telecommunications
An ITS officer, he has experience of 34 years in various fields which include Research and Development, installation, maintenance, policy formulation, monitoring of telecom services. He has worked as Director Sports, Government of India for five years and three years as Secretary, National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) which is the regulator of Auditors of large public interest entities in India. An Electronics Engineering Graduate from REC, Jaipur and an MBA in Finance from IGNOU, he has studied Taxation from Duke University, USA and Public Policy formulation from University of California, Berkely.
Mr. Tiago Rodrigues
CEO
Wireless Broadband Alliance
Mr. Tiago Rodrigues
President & CEO of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
He is responsible for leading the overall strategy, together with the WBA Board, and the operational planning for the WBA. As well as overseeing the day to day management, Tiago takes a leadership role in understanding industry challenges and working with membership to agree the key focus areas and programs that need to be developed to ensure the wireless industry optimises market opportunities for Wi-Fi and works to resolve any business issues that impede the success of the industry overall. Before he joined the WBA, Tiago spent 15 years at the Portugal Telecom Group. In his previous role as Head of Business Innovation, he collaborated with various departments within the company to identify and develop new business opportunities. Prior to this, he managed the Public Wi-Fi sector of Portugal Telecom Group where he was responsible for service management, evelopment, strategy and internationalisation of the Wi-Fi service. He was also involved in strategic marketing, regulatory affairs, pricing, product development and roaming.
Tiago holds an M.Sc. in Economics and Management of Science and Technology, and a degree in Business Administration from the Higher Institute of Economics and Management at The Technical University of Lisbon He also has a BA. Honors Degree in Business Administration from Humberside University, UK.
Mr. Vivek Dua
GM (FWA)
BSNL
Mr. Vivek Dua
General Manager, BSNL
He specializes in setting up IT and Telecom Networks involving mix of radio, optical and wired technologies, data center management, Product and Pricing for Wi-Fi and FTTH Programs, disaster management, amongst many others. He has earlier served in the Ministry of Communications & IT, and BSNL Data Center – South Zone.
Mr. Jayant Mandal
Group Leader
C-DOT
Mr. Jayant Mandal
Jayanta N Mandal is a Group Leader of New Technology in C-DOT, Delhi.
B.E in Electronics and Telecommunication from NIT Allahabad. The field of expertise includes support of legacy C-DOT switching system (MAX and RAX) and key role in the migration of all the legacy MAX and RAX system of BSNL to MAX-Next Generation (a VoIP based MAX-NG system).
In 2016, C-DOT has started the Wi-Fi Project and I was actively involved in the conceptualization of the project and done various types of trial in different terrain/conditions/requirements. Involved in the piloting of WANI framework for TRAI in 2016-17.
Currently active involvement in the public Wi-Fi proliferation through PM-WANI and facilitating PDOAs and APP Provider along with enhancement and maintenance of Central Registry portal for PM-WANI.
Received various award and accolades for C-DOT Wi-Fi including the Prestigious Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) Award at London for “Best Wireless Deployment in Rural and Remote Area through C- DOT Wi-Fi Solution” for the deployment at Rohta Block of Meerut District, along with Agies Graham Bell awards, IEEE Award, ELCINA Award and SKOCH Order-of-Merit Award.
Mr. Parag Kar
Vice President, BIF (Vice President, Government Affairs, India and South Asia, Qualcomm)
Dr. CS Rao
Chairman & Co-Founder, QuadGen Wireless Solutions Pvt. Ltd
Former President & CEO of Lucent India, he has a distinguished career in telecom. In addition to holding executive positions with BT India, Intel India, Tellabs India, CDOT and Reliance Communications, he was also President of AUSPI, Chairman of WiMAX Forum India and former Chairman of ASSOCHAM Telecom Committee.
Mr. Kevin Robinson
CEO
Wi-Fi Alliance
Mr. Kevin Robinson
CEO, Wi-Fi Alliance
He is a 15-year veteran of Wi-Fi Alliance and became CEO of the organization in October 2022. Kevin is focused on securing sufficient, harmonized global Wi-Fi spectrum, deepening engagement and cohesion across the Wi-Fi ecosystem, and evolving the organization to ensure it remains as nimble as the industry it serves.Serving as Wi-Fi Alliance’s Vice President of Marketing for the last seven years, Robinson has led many of the organization’s most transformative initiatives and has been a leading ambassador for promoting Wi‑Fi and Wi‑Fi Alliance as a collaboration forum worldwide. Kevin oversaw branding, communications, market development, product management, program marketing, and public relations for the organization. He was also responsible for driving the development of Wi-Fi Alliance corporate strategy. Before joining Wi-Fi Alliance in 2008, Kevin enjoyed working with early-stage technology startups on business strategy consulting and technology market research. Kevin is a veteran of the United States Army, where he served as a Captain in the Infantry. Kevin holds a BS in Computer Science from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA with a specialization in Entrepreneurship from The University of Texas at Austin. He lives with his family in Austin, Texas.
Ms. Martha Suarez
President
DSA
Ms. Martha Suarez
President, Dynamic Spectrum Alliance
She has over 15 years of experience in the telecommunications industry. In her current role at the DSA she advocates for laws and regulations that will lead to more efficient and effective spectrum utilization, which is essential to addressing key worldwide social and economic challenges. She spent over three years as General Director of the National Spectrum Agency in Colombia, having originally joined the ANE in 2013. Before that, she was awarded with a Marie Curie Fellowship and worked at the Instytut Technologii Elektronowej ITE in Poland for the Partnership for Cognitive Radio Par4CR European Project. Suarez is an electronics engineer, with a master degree in high frequency communication systems and is Doctor in electronics from the University Paris-Est.
Mr. Sai Manapragada
Chairman & CEO
Xi-Fi Networks
Mr. Sai Manapragada
Chairman & CEO, Xi-Fi Networks
He was recognized with the title of OUTSTANDING RESEARCHER, by the Department of Labor (DoL), USA, in December 2002. Sai’s vast experience spans over 28+ years of building secure and reliable carrier grade wireless infrastructure and mobile products; his extensive technology expertise spans two decades of innovating, designing, developing, and deploying various wireless and telecommunication products for carriers, enterprise markets, and consumer space. Sai served in many Executive technology and management positions (including VP and Director level positions in publicly traded companies). He is an accomplished and recognized wireless technology R&D expert with extensive hands-on experience in algorithm development, embedded processing, digital communications and digital signal processing (DSP) in technologies such as CDMA, GSM/GPRS, WiFi, IP, Mobile networks and Storage networks. Sai’s technology expertise includes Wireless Bandwidth Expansion, Wireless Digital Communications, Security/Authentication, Consumer/Enterprise Product Development, High Speed Wireless Protocols, Storage devices, Cloud computing, State-Of-The-Art Encryption, Encoding, and Modulation technology.
Mr. Srinivas Gudipudi
Founder & CEO
MatreComm Technologies
Mr. Srinivas Gudipudi
CEO, Matrecomm Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
He has over 24 years of experience in Consulting, Designing and Developing solutions for Governments, Service Providers and Enterprises across the globe with engagements in Performance Monitoring for Network, Applications, Business Services in Wireless and Wired Environments, and product development across LTE, Wi-Fi, IPv6 and Security.
Mr. Steve Namaseeveyum
VP, Industry Engagement
Wireless Broadband Alliance
Mr. Steve Namaseeveyum
Vice President, Industry Engagement, Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA).
Steve is an industry veteran having worked in the Wi-Fi ecosystem since 2003. In his current role in WBA, he is responsible for driving industry engagements with all types of organizations. These organizations include regulators, industry alliances, cities, enterprises and really any type of organizations that are stakeholders in Wi-Fi. Steve also heads up the WBA Membership team and is tasked with growing and developing the WBA membership ecosystem so it broadens its appeal to more industry partners. Finally, Membership Engagement and helping WBA members achieve their Wi-Fi goals is a key component of Steve’s role at the WBA. Prior to his time at the WBA, Steve held senior positions at iPass which is a software SaaS company and where Steve ran the Wi-Fi Roaming Business Unit.
Mr. Khetan Gajjar
Telecom Infra Project Lead OpenWifi
Mr. Khetan Gajjar
Telecom Infra Project OpenWiFi
Khetan Gajjar has recently joined the Telecom Infra Project (TIP), with a focus on accelerating the momentum around OpenWi-Fi. OpenWi-Fi is in excellent company with other TIP initiatives, including OpenRAN and OOPT. As a focal point for open, interoperable disaggregated technologies, TIP allows operators, vendors and developers to freely exchange their contributions and together build the next generation of Internet infrastructure. Khetan’s prior experience includes Meta Connectivity, Vodacom and VAST Networks, running Wi-Fi services for tens of millions of users in developing markets. He has been shortlisted multiple times for WBA awards.
Mr. Amol Kulkarni
Director (Research)
CUTS International
Mr. Amol Kulkarn
Director (Research) CUTS International
Amol Kulkarni is Director (Research) at CUTS International, a global non-profit, promoting consumer welfare, through pursuit of optimal regulation, good governance, and rules based trade.
He has led several initiatives to collect and analyse quantitative and qualitative evidence, and design targeted interventions to inform policies and practices. These include in-depth interactions with consumers, businesses, and other stakeholders, at scale, in communications, technology, finance, competitiveness, and other areas.
Amol is adept in use of tools like cost-benefit and cost-effective analyses. He has studied law and management, has several publications to his credit, and regularly makes representations to government and other agencies.
Mr. Bhuvnesh Sachdeva
Senior Vice President
HFCL
Mr. Bhuvnesh Sachdeva
Senior Vice President – HFCL
Bhuvnesh Sachdeva, Senior Vice President – Business Development Head for communication business vertical at HFCL limited. In his more than 24 years of experience, he has led multiple product lines & held various leadership positions. Mr. Sachdeva specializes in architecting new-age connectivity solutions and is instrumental in setting up the IO product brand within HFCL. What sets him apart from other leaders is his vision and customer-first approach.
Mr. Sachdeva is well-versed in the ever-evolving market dynamics and can quickly steer the team for maximizing results. If the situation demands, he will not shy from rolling up his sleeves to get in the thick of things making him a very involved leader. He believes in leading by example, thereby instilling confidence in the team for performance. Being a Multi-faceted leader, he is able to juggle multiple tasks with ease and grace. One of his strong points is building, managing, and scaling partnerships to a completely new level.
Mr. Sachdeva holds two master’s degrees, one in Information Technology and the other in Business Management. He started his career as a hardware engineer at HFCL in 2000 and occupied various positions before establishing himself as the Senior Vice President at HFCL.
Mr. Mark Grayson
Cisco Fellow
Cisco Networks
Mr. Mark Grayson
Cisco Fellow, Cisco Networks
Distinguished Consulting Engineer, Cisco’s Emerging Technologies & Innovation Group Leads Cisco’s 5G strategy, including defining the role of Wi-Fi based access, leading Cisco’s multi-vendor RAN virtualization program as well as supporting Cisco’s enterprise team defining systems for supporting 5G enterprise use cases. He has over 25 years of experience in the wireless industry.
Mr. Sandeep Agrawal
Team Leader(Wi-Fi Solutions)
C-DOT
Mr. Sandeep Agrawal
Team Leader (Wi-Fi Solutions), C-DOT
Prof Himanshu Tyagi
Associate Professor
IISc
Prof Himanshu Tyagi
IISc, iSpirit
Himanshu Tyagi is an Associate Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He received his B.Tech. and M.Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Ph.D. from University of Maryland, College Park. He was also a postdoctoral researcher at Univesity of California San Diego and has been a long term visitor at various academic institutions including the Institut Henri Poincaré at Paris, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Simons Institute at Berkeley. Himanshu is a Senior Member of IEEE and served as an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Information Theory. He was awarded the Indian National Science Academy’s Young Scientist Medal for the year 2020 and work from his research group has been won the Best Student Paper Awards at the IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory twice, in the years 2018 and 2021.
Himanshu’s research interests are in information theory and its applications in cryptography, blockchains, machine learning and privacy. He is a co-author for the book titled Information Theoretic Cryptography published with Cambridge University Press and is a co-founder for two startups in blockchain and AI. He has served as an advisor for various government agencies in India on topics related to communication, privacy and COVID-19 mangement.
Mr. Paramjit Singh Puri
Global Director of Membership
Wi-Fi Alliance
Mr. Paramjit Singh Puri
Global Director – Membership, Wi-Fi Alliance
Paramjit Singh Puri is the Global Director of Membership for Wi-Fi Alliance, a global organization driving Wi-Fi adoption and evolution. Wi-Fi Alliance has more than 900 members from all spheres of the communications, wireless, and Wi-Fi Industry including IoT, automotive, and smart home. Wi-Fi Alliance work includes the development of innovative technologies, requirements, and test programs that help ensure Wi-Fi provides users the interoperability, security, and reliability they have come to expect.
Param was previously heading Industry development and membership for the Wireless Broadband Alliance Ltd. He is a seasoned veteran of the ICT Industry having worked in organizations like AT&T, Cisco, Siemens, Compaq, and Epson in senior positions including MD of Epson India. He has been promoting and working in the area of Wi-Fi and Unlicensed from the last 12 years and is closely involved with FICCI and interacting with TRAI and DOT in the area of Wi-Fi and Unlicensed spectrum.
Ms. Sindhu Verma
Master Engineer
Broadcom
Ms. Sindhu Verma
Master Engineer, Broadcom
Sindhu Verma has worked on standardization of various generations of 802.11 alongside performance modeling, evaluation and design of corresponding features in 802.11 products. Previously, she has worked on standardization of WiMAX, LTE and LAA-LTE and NR-Unlicensed. Sindhu Verma received her Bachelors and Masters in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Mr Shubhodeep Adhikari
Broadcom
Mr Shubhodeep Adhikari
Broadcom
Shubhodeep Adhikari works on the standardization and design of 802.11 products. Prior to that he has worked on the benchmarking 802.11ax performance vis-a-vis IMT-2020 (aka 5G), on the coexistence of 802.11 and LAA-LTE/NR-Unlicensed and on the standardization and design of LTE, EVDO and CDMA at both the handset and base station. Shubhodeep Adhikari received his Masters in Advanced Probability and Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.
Mr. Pramod Gummaraj
Founder & CEO
Aprecomm Private Limited
Mr. Pramod Gummaraj
Founder & CEO, Aprecomm Private Limited
Ms. Nishtha Vashishta
Strategic Engagement Advisor
Saksham
Ms. Nishtha Vashishta
Strategic Engagement Advisor and Project Coordinator, Saksham
She is a certified project management professional with a MSc. in Human Rights from London School of Economics. She has worked in various capacities in the disability and development sector over the last 8 years, including project management, research, communications, and advocacy for organizations such as UN Women, Amnesty International, Ministry of External Affairs, UNESCO, Saksham, International Disability Alliance, and CBM Global Disability Inclusion. She has authored several reports and papers, most recently the Global Disability Summit Report 2022. She currently serves as Strategic Engagement Advisor and Project Coordinator for Saksham's "Leveraging Social Media Accessibility" campaign, supported by Meta.
Dr SN Gupta
Chairman of the Board Bluetown India, BIMSTEC and South Asia
Dr SN Gupta
Chairman of the Board, Bluetown India, BIMSTEC and South Asia
An International expert in NGN technologies, Regulation, Interconnection and Broadband with 40+ years of experience, he is popularly known as ‘NGN Guru’. Author of “Long Tail – Walking Extra Mile on Rural Broadband Business”, he is the first Indian recipient of IPv6 Hall of Fame – 2019 and also the Chairman of India IPv6 Council. He has earlier served in the Ministries of Communications and Railways, and TRAI.
Mr. TV Ramachandran
President
BIF
Mr. T.V. Ramachandran
President, Broadband India Forum
An esteemed industry veteran, TV has been part of the mobile telephony sector in India since its very inception; as the first CEO of Sterling Cellular, Delhi; and having established and led COAI for 12 years. Recipient of the Voice & Data Lifetime Contribution Award for his Mobile Telephony in India, he is also an Honorary Fellow of IET (London, UK), and IETE (India).
Mr. Debashish Bhattacharya
Sr. DDG
BIF
Mr. Debashish Bhattacharya
Sr. DDG, Broadband India Forum
Involved in Advocacy & Consulting for the past three decades with expertise in the fields of Technology, Public Policy, Regulation, Markets, and Business Development in the Digital Communications, Satellite Communications and Broadcasting domains. He has earlier worked with several reputed tech organisations and business houses in India.
EVENT VENUE
Le Meridien New Delhi, Le Meridien, Windsor Pl, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Delhi 110001