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Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla is the former Foreign Secretary of India and has been Chief Coordinator for India’s G20 Presidency in 2023. He joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1984. In the course of a diplomatic career spanning almost 40 years, he has held a variety of positions in New Delhi and abroad, Including as Ambassador of India to the United States of America, Bangladesh and Thailand. He has served in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi as Joint Secretary (Director General) responsible for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Maldives. He has also headed the United Nations Political and SAARC Divisions in the Ministry. During his long and distinguished career, he has worked on all major diplomatic issues. His focus, however, has been on India’s neighbours as head of division in the Ministry of External Affairs and later as Foreign Secretary. Additionally, he is an experienced multilateral diplomat, having worked in the UN Security Council and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. He has also served in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York from 2002-06.

Prof. Ashok Kumar Ganguli

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Professor Ganguli is currently the Director, IISER Berhampur and is on Lien from Department of Chemistry, IIT Delhi and was Deputy Director (Strategy & Planning) at IIT Delhi(2019-22). He is also the founding Director of Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali (Jan 2013- Jan 2018). He has been a visiting scientist at Dupont Company, USA (1990-91), Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, USA and visiting professor at EPFL, Lausanne in 2016. His areas of interest are in the design of nanostructured materials for applications in water purification, solar energy conversion and also high temperature superconductivity. He has published over 350 papers and has five patents. He is a recipient of the National Award of Nano Science and Nanotechnology given by DST, Government of India, the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Silver medal, Distinguished Materials Scientist of the year (2021)(MRSI)l, the C.N.R. Rao-CRSI National award, Chemical Excellence Award by Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists and the Bangalore India Nano award given by Karnataka Govt. He is a fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences (India), Royal Society of Chemistry, London and the Asia–Pacific Association of Materials. He is currently, Editorial Board member of several journals.