Panel discussion: Opportunities for Collaboration between Industry and Research Institutes in India

Yogesh is CEO of Technology Services Business Unit and is founder member of Kalyani Technologies. He has overall 20 years’ experience in IT & related technologies. His Key focus is on creating business value with Business Technology Strategy, Customer Satisfaction, and Technology lead business innovation and transformation. He also held role of Group CIO for the Kalyani Group Companies & is responsible to drive strategic IT within Kalyani Group.
He has won several prestigious recognitions including CIO100 for consecutive three years, multiple EDGE Awards, TOPCISO 100 Award, BEST CIO of India Award. He has been Voted “The Most Respected CIO in India” by peer CIOs, conducted by CIO Association of India, 2012. He is member of various national organisations like ACMA IT Committee, CIO Association, SAP India User Group (INDUS). He presently chairs the Pune Chapter of CIO Association’s CIO Klub. He is Speaker on varied topics on IT and business nationally.

Dr. Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh is the Director of the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR-NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, India and is a Professor and the Dean of Chemical Sciences, Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR).He was the Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Plank Institute for Strahlen Chemie, Germany (1994-96) and a visiting faculty to many universities and research institutions abroad.
His research contributions are in the interdisciplinary areas of organic photoresponsive materials, supramolecular chemistry, molecular self-assembly, organogels and molecular probes and sensors. He has developed a new class of functional soft materials namely pi-gels having potential applications in energy harvesting, sensing and security materials. He has developed several fluorescent probes for sensing and imaging of biological specimen. His scientific contributions are recognized with the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Chemical Sciences (2007), the Infosys Science Prize (2012), Â the Silver Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India (2013), the TWAS Prize for Chemistry (2013) and the J. C. Bose National Fellowship (2015). He is the first chemist to receive the Infosys Science Prize.

In her 22 years of experience in the field of Technology Cooperation and R&D, the focus has been on transnational cooperation, with Industry and Institutes between India and Europe. In her earlier stints she lead and forged many technology partnerships and thereby gain an extensive network of Industry, Research and Govt contacts. She has a deep understanding of diverse fields such as Biotechnology, Manufacturing, Renewable Energy, Electronics, New Materials and Food Technology. Her skills are in Project Management, Communication, Strategy, Marketing and interpersonal capabilities.
In her tenure at Fraunhofer India she has lead Fraunhofer to win research contracts to the tune of several million and has won awards such as “Outstanding Women Achiever 2014” by Public Relations Council of India and ISBR, as well as “51 Global Smart City Innovator”.

Dr P V Lalitha joined the newly set up Indo-German Science& Technology Centre (IGSTC) in August 2011 as Scientific Officer. IGSTC is set up between Govt. of India (through DST) and Govt. of Germany (through BMBF) for promoting Indo-German collaborations and programmes. Before joining IGSTC, she was Grants Manager at the Wellcome Trust/DBT India Alliance doing science / grants management. As part of the job, she underwent six months training at Wellcome Trust, London that enriched her with experience in science administration and management. Before moving to science administration, she had a prior 16 years post PhD research experience in diverse fields. With a PhD in Chemistry from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras in1993, she moved to life sciences field and received experience from some of the best laboratories in India (IISc, Bangalore, ICGEB and JNU, New Delhi) and abroad (Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington DC). She has been in active research for several years either as a team member or team leader. She has been awarded independent grants by Department of Science and Technology, India and the National Research Council (Senior Fellowship), Washington DC.

Dr. Ramasubbu Sunder is the founder, of Bangalore Integrated System Solutions (P) Ltd (BISS), a developer and manufacturer of mechanical test systems. BISS is presently an independent business unit of Illinois Tool Works (ITW), USA and operates as an amalgamated Division of Instron, a world-leader in mechanical test systems. Since 1992, he has been the Director, Research and Mentor at BISS Labs at Instron Centre of Excellence, Bangalore, which is the largest materials fatigue and fracture test laboratory in India. He holds an MTech, PhD in Aeronautical Engineering (1978) from the Kiev Institute of Civil Aviation. His research areas include – aeronautical fatigue and airframe residual strength at the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore, India (1978-1993) and elevated temperature fatigue crack growth in nickel-base superalloys at Air Force Materials Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio (1986-88 and as consulting scientist on Ageing Aircraft Programmes at UDRI, 1990-2001). He is Fellow, Indian Academy of Sciences; President, Indian Structural Integrity Society and has about 70 peer reviews publications to his credit. He is also the recipient of CSIR Technology Award & CSIR Technology Shield 1990.

Dr Katja Lasch joined as the Director of the German Centre for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New Delhi in October 2019 and is responsible for its strategic management. At the same time, she heads the DAAD Regional Office in India. Prior to her work in India, she headed the DAAD’s International Research Marketing division at the head office in Bonn and the DAAD Information Centre in Bucharest (Romania). Previously, she has also worked in international cultural exchange. Her professional focus and interests lie in the field of international university and research cooperation as well as entrepreneurship.
Katja Lasch holds a doctorate in history. She has studied Eastern European history, political science and Romanian linguistics and is also qualified in business administration.