For IIM candidates
Mr. Ishat Hussain, Executive Director, Tata Sons Ltd.

Ishaat Hussain took over as finance director of Tata Sons in July 2000. Earlier, he joined the board of Tata Sons as executive director in July 1999. He is also a director of several Tata Group companies including Tata Industries, Tata Steel and Voltas. Besides being Chairman of Voltas and the National Institute of Advanced Studies, Mr Hussain is a member of the Tata Group Executive Office, which formulates strategy at the Group level.

Mr Hussain is a member of the SEBI committees on insider trading and primary capital markets. He is also a member of the CII finance committee.

Prior to joining Tata Sons, Mr Hussain was the senior vice president and executive director of finance at Tata Steel for almost 10 years.

Mr Hussain graduated in economics from St Stephens College, New Delhi. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA). Mr Hussain joined the board of the Indian Tube Company (a Tata Steel associate company) in 1979. He moved to Tata Steel in 1981, after Indian Tube was merged with Tata Steel.

Mr. T.N. Ninan, Editor and Publisher, Business Standard

Mr. T N Ninan is editor and publisher of Business Standard, India's second largest business daily. He was previously editor of The Economic Times and was responsible for establishing it as a leading financial daily, setting new trends in business journalism that can still be seen today.

A Masters in Economics from Madras University Mr Ninan today is one of the country's most respected economic editors. His sharp and incisive commentaries on the Budget are a much-awaited feature of the annual business calendar. His weekly column "Weekend Ruminations" is widely read among the business community and senior economists and economic bureaucrats.

Former Editor: The Economic Times; Business World Magazine. Former Executive Editor, India Today. Commentator on economic issues, National Television. Member, Executive Committee, Editors' Guild of India. He is a recipient of several awards.

Mr. Nishith Desai, Nishith Desai Associates

Mr. Desai is the founder of Nishith Desai Associates, an international law firm, specializing in niche areas of globalization, international finance and tax laws, corporate laws, and high technology & infrastructure laws. The clientele of the firm includes several Fortune 500 companies engaged in, inter-alia, finance, software, media and entertainment. The firm acted as legal counsel for underwriters to the ADR listings of Infosys Technologies and Satyam Infoway on the NASDAQ and advises WorldTel, a billion dollar fund set up by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) for investing and developing telecom projects in India.

Nishith is an international lawyer, researcher and lecturer and is on the Advisory Board of the New York State Bar Association's International Law Review. He is the Chairperson of Taxation Committee of LAWASIA and a senior country correspondent for "Tax Notes International", US. He is a member of the International Bar Association, American Bar Association, Inter Pacific Bar Association, LAWASIA, International Tax Planning Association, and Supreme Court Bar Association.



For IIT & BITS (Pilani) candidates
Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Director General, CSIR and Secretary, Government of India, Department of Scientific & Industrial Research, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research.

Dr. R.A. Mashelkar is the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the largest chain of publicly funded industrial research and development institutions in the world, with thirty-eight laboratories and about 22,000 employees.

He is also the President of Indian National Science Academy (INSA). He is the third Indian engineer to have been elected as Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), London in the twentieth century. He was elected Foreign Fellow of US National Academy of Science (2005), being only the eighth Indian to have been elected after 1863. He was also elected Foreign Fellow of US National Academy of Engineering (2003), Fellow of Third World Academy of Engineering, U.K. (1996), and Fellow of World Academy of Art & Science, USA (2000). Twenty universities have honoured him with honorary doctorates, which include the Universities of London, Salford, Pretoria, Wisconsin, and Delhi.

The President of India honoured Dr. Mashelkar with Padmashri (1991) and with Padmabhushan (2000) two of the highest civilian honours in recognition of his contribution to nation building.

Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO Head Quarters

Dr. Kastururirangan is the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO. He is also a member of Rajya Sabha. He has also been a member of International Academy of Astronautics Sub-Committee on Mars Exploration (1992-1993), he was the Indian Representative, IEEE Space Panel (1992). He also served as the Chairman, COSPAR Panel on Space Research in Developing Countries (1994-2000).

Dr. Kasturirangan has written more than 200 papers, and he has also been decorated with three of the most prestigious awards given by the Government of India, Padma Vibhushan (2000), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Shri (1982).

Prof. Arvind Kumar, Director, Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research

Prof. Arvind Kumar did Ph.D. in theoretical physics in 1969 at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the European Centre for Nuclear Research, Geneva (1969-70) and at the University of London (1970-71). He taught for nearly 12 years at the University Department of Physics, Mumbai. In 1984 he joined the Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, a National Centre of TIFR devoted to R & D work in science and mathematics education. He was appointed the Director of the Centre in 1994.

He played a central role in launching the science Olympiad movement in the country in 1997 and is currently Chairman of the Steering Committees for science and astronomy Olympiads. Under his leadership, HBCSE has become the nodal Centre of the country for olympiad activity in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and astronomy. His efforts led the Centre to organize the 33rd International Chemistry Olympiad hosted by India in July 2001.

Prof. Arvind Kumar has been a member of the Programme Advisory Board of the NCERT, Steering Committee on Secondary education of the Planning Commission for the IX and X Plans, Academic Advisory Committee of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and the National Council of Teacher Education.

He is on the Governing Council of the Atomic Energy Education Society and is Chairman, Planning and Programming Committee of Nehru Science Centre, Mumbai.

Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy

Dr Anil Kakodkar joined the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) in 1964. He became the Director of BARC in 1996 and took over as the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy, in 2000.

Dr Kakodkar obtained his BE (Mech. Engineering) degree from Bombay University in 1963 and an MSc in experimental stress analysis from Nottingham University in 1969. He joined the Reactor Engineering Division of Atomic Energy Establishment, Trombay, in 1964 and since then he has been associated with the research and development work related to nuclear reactors.

Dr Kakodkar is actively involved in programmes related to augmentation of thorium utilisation in nuclear power programme and leads the team engaged in the design of the Advanced Heavy Water Reactor. He has, over the years, built competent teams of highly specialised scientists and engineers in the reactor engineering programme. He has brought out more than 250 scientific papers and reports on various aspects of his work.