January 21-23, 2018 – New Delhi, India · ties with India, Australian universities are turning to India for academic partnerships. This trend mirrors a ... central universities,

January 21-23, 2018 – New Delhi, India

Welcome

Welcome

Every effort has been made to ensure that this program is free from error or omissions. However, there may be modifications of participants, speakers and the program between publication and the Dialogue.

DO NOT PRINT

It is our pleasure to welcome you to the third annual Australia India Leadership Dialogue in New Delhi in January 2018.

The centre of the world’s economic and political gravity is shifting ever further towards the Indo-Pacific region. As it does so, new opportunities are being identified – and with them, new challenges.

Our countries, which face each other across the Indian Ocean, are ideally placed to develop a close, comprehensive partnership to take advantage of those opportunities and to confront those challenges.

Few countries in the Indo-Pacific have more in common than India and Australia. We speak the same language. We respect the same system of law. We are both multicultural, federal democracies. We even follow the same sports.

Our economic and strategic interests are converging strongly. India’s rapid economic growth and its burgeoning demand for energy, resources and education have made it one of Australia’s largest export markets. Today, Indians are welcomed as the largest national group among skilled migrants to Australia.

Beyond our joint economic interests, our countries have a shared strategic interest in ensuring a balance in the Indo-Pacific so that the region is not dominated by any one hegemonic power. This shared interest in regional security and stability is fundamental to our joint economic interests.

Welcome from the Co-Chairs

Relations between India and Australia have deepened dramatically over recent years.

The Australia India Leadership Dialogue brings together senior leaders from our nation’s government, business and civil society. We will be discussing the mutual interests that lie at the very heart of our relationship – economic priorities such as energy, education and skills, health, agriculture and agro-processing, and infrastructure; and our converging geostrategic and security interests.

Through the Dialogue, we seek to build deeper co-operation, closer friendships and stronger relationships based on trust between leaders in government, business and civil society from India and Australia. We will do this through the open discussion, which will now follow, and by identifying new ways and new opportunities to work together in coming years. We are delighted to host you in New Delhi, and we look forward to working with you all for the mutual benefit of our two great nations.

Ross Fitzgerald and Amitabh Mattoo Co-Chairs, Australia India Leadership Dialogue

Program

Program

Monday 22 January 2018: Dialogue Discussions8.45 am - 9.00 am

Diwan-I-Am Room Lower Lobby Taj Mahal Hotel

Arrival of Guests

9.00 am - 9.20 am Welcome and Introductory Remarks

Ross Fitzgerald Co-Chair, Australia India Leadership Dialogue

Amitabh Mattoo Co-Chair, Australia India Leadership Dialogue

Craig Jeffrey Director and CEO, Australia India Institute

9.20 am - 9.50 am Special Remarks on Behalf of Delegations

Hon David Littleproud Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Government of Australia

Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs Government of India

James McGrath Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister and Assistant Minister for Regulatory Reform Government of Australia

Shashi Tharoor MP for Thiruvananthapuram, Author and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

Penny Wong Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Government of Australia

DO NOT PRINT

Australia India Leadership Dialogue 2018Program

9.50 am - 11.00 am Report on Australia’s India Economic Strategy

Peter Varghese Chancellor, University of Queensland

Rajiv Kumar Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog - National Institution for Transforming India

Discussion Moderated by Co-Chairs

11.00 am - 11.10 am Break

11.10 am - 12.15 pm Increasing Australia India Economic Cooperation


12.15 pm - 1.15 pm Lunch Break

1.15 pm - 3.00 pm Evolving Security Architecture in the Region


3.00 pm - 3.30 pm Break

3.30 pm - 4.15 pm Domestic Politics and Bilateral Opportunities


4.15 pm - 5.00 pm Closing Session: Summary of Key Points and Next Steps

Closing Remarks: Mr Ajay Gondane Indian High Commissioner to Australia

Ms Harinder Sidhu Australian High Commissioner to India


5.00 pm End of Formal Dialogue Discussions 2018

Monday 22 January 2018: Closing Reception7.30 – 9.00 pm

Residence of the High Commissioner of Australia to India 1/50 G Shantipath Chanakyapuri New Delhi 110021

Hosted by: The Hon Harinder Sidhu Australian High Commissioner to India

Discussion Papers

Discussion Papers

DO NOT PRINT

Higher education represents a key point of engagement for Australian and Indian higher education institutions, both in terms of international mobility, research collaborations, and joint PhD programs. There is potential for Australian VET providers and enterprises operating in India to collaborate with Indian partners to pursue the Skill India agenda. Opportunities appear greatest in niche industry sectors outside the current capacity of India’s established skills system.

Growing engagement with India’s higher education system

Indian higher education institutions are increasingly engaged in internationalisation efforts. They are partnering with universities in the United Kingdom, North America, Europe, Japan, Korea and China. While legislation enabling foreign providers to establish stand-alone universities in India stalled, the Government of India’s support for higher education internationalisation has been demonstrated in the new National Education Policy. Support is evident for faculty exchanges, transnational education involving Indian partners, and collaborative research ventures, for example in engineering and technology, medicine, agriculture, law, and management.

Indian nationals comprise the second largest international higher education student group in Australia totalling nearly 45,000 in 2016. This market is of particular interest, as Australia’s export education sector seeks to reduce reliance on China. India’s large youth population are ambitious. India’s outbound higher education student population is projected to continue growing despite the in-country system burgeoning in recent years. Opportunities for higher education in India are constrained by persistent unmet demand and fierce competition for admission to elite institutions. The emergence of India’s elite independent school sector, with large numbers of graduates strongly motivated to study abroad, will also contribute to outward student mobility.

In addition to Australia’s longstanding international education and diaspora ties with India, Australian universities are turning to India for academic partnerships. This trend mirrors a global shift from a preoccupation with international education to broader forms of bilateral engagement. The number of Australian universities partnering with Indian higher education institutions is growing faster than any other country. Australian university’s Indian partners are concentrated in Delhi, the western

Knowledge: Increasing Engagement with India’s Higher Education, and Skill Development Sectors

state of Maharashtra, and the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka that accommodate India’s largest cities.

Skill development: opportunities for engagement

In recent years, the Government of India has adopted a more co-ordinated approach to skill development under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) and associated authorities such as the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC). At state/union territory level, there have also been endeavours to adopt a more co-ordinated approach. Unlike the high unmet demand that characterises India’s higher education system, there are major challenges for India’s skills system in recruiting students and securing skilled graduates’ employment. These challenges relate to social factors which constrain student participation and progression, poor labour market outcomes, a large informal sector, and a wage structure that frequently fails to adequately reward skilled workers.

The Skill India campaign has witnessed a consolidation of India’s skills system architecture (e.g., Sector Skill Councils, national occupational standards, qualifications packs, national skills qualifications framework), strengthening of the public skills system, and investment in public-private partnerships to rapidly expand skill development and employment placement services. The need to leverage India’s demographic dividend means that this agenda

is urgent. Coupled with India’s aspirations to operate as the global skills capital, foreign governments and VET providers have actively been encouraged to engage with this agenda.

The Government of India is actively pursuing foreign partners, with the NSDC prioritising international collaborations in targeted industry sectors (i.e., aviation, ports, mining, smart cities, agriculture). Multinational agencies are actively engaged (e.g., World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNESCO, European Union). Companies from the United States, Japan, South Korea, China, Germany and France with operations in India are dominant players in establishing skill development partnerships with Indian institutions in engineering and technology, healthcare/life science and food processing sectors. This includes foreign companies such as Ford, Toyota, Bosch, Samsung and Huawei. Unlike other Asian markets, there are few examples of foreign VET providers with a strong presence in India. The United Kingdom’s Manipal City and Guilds represents a leading notable exception.

Australian VET providers have made tentative forays into the Indian skill development markets, including several TAFE colleges (e.g., Kangan Institute), the Australian Retail College, UDAY (AVTEG Private Limited), AAMC Training Group and the Queensland Skills & Education Consortium Australia. Despite India’s large targets, providers have faced challenges including identifying niche markets, recruiting

students, and scalability/quality (i.e., operating in a high volume, low cost environment). There appears to be only limited interest in securing full Australian qualifications, other than for migration purposes (e.g., migration for employment in Gulf countries). Despite these challenges, Australia’s VET system remains well regarded, particularly with respect to its breadth of curriculum, high level of industry engagement, integration of on- and off-the-job training, competency-based approach, and high trainer and assessor standards.

Key issues to be addressed in enhancing bilateral education engagement

Higher education: Australian universities are well placed to position themselves as a bilateral or multilateral partner for India’s higher education institutions. Increasing Australia’s engagement requires addressing three key challenges:

1. Locating specialist, long term partners within India’s large and complex higher education system.

2. Consolidating existing and building new mutually beneficial, sustainable partnerships with leading autonomous research institutions, institutions of national importance, central universities, deemed universities (both public and private) and public state universities. These collaborations would focus on transnational education principally involving joint PhD programs and research collaborations in areas of mutual interest in both STEM and HASS disciplines.

3. Using trusted partnerships with elite institutions to build links with universities, institutions and colleges in provincial India. This could occur through Australian universities and their elite Indian counterparts collaborating in the provision of scholarships, mobility programmes, and research opportunities.

Skill development: While the Skill India agenda aims to provide skill development and entrepreneurship training and job placement for vast numbers of Indian nationals, foreign involvement appears best placed in three areas:

1. As India already has an established skills system, the best opportunities for Australian VET providers appear to be in niche industry sectors where India does not yet have the capacity to meet demand.

2. Australian companies operating in India are well placed to deliver company-specific vocational training, either with an Indian partner, or Australian VET provider.

3. There appear to be opportunities for value-added services where Australian VET systems or providers hold expertise (e.g., integration of on- and off-the-job training, work placement co-ordination, trainer and assessor training, and professional development for skills institute governing bodies, management, and administrators).

The health sector has the potential to lead to more vibrant future engagement between Australia and India. While both countries are at different stages of their socioeconomic development and epidemiologic transitions, there is increasing convergence in their disease trends, for example, the rapidly increasing disease burden associated with lifestyle-related chronic conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and cancers. There are also many complementaries between the Australian and Indian health sectors, with areas of strength in Australia matching areas of need in India and vice versa.

India has plans to rapidly expand its capacity for providing health care to its very large and diverse population. Its new National Health Policy (2017) is ambitious in seeking to universalise access to basic healthcare by making essential drugs and basic health services free at public hospitals. The NITI Aayog Performance on Health Outcomes Index will incentivise states to meet health outcomes and will support the implementation of the policy. There are also new measures to improve prevention and public health, including significantly improved tobacco controls. The rollout of the ‘Aadhar’ unique identifier scheme also introduces potential for exciting innovations in health service delivery in India and there will also important lessons for Australia to learn from this experience.

These developments, combined with increased consumer spending, have led to projections that the Indian healthcare market could almost double in size over the next three years.

Yet, India also faces a number of challenges in getting its health care system to an international standard. A major challenge is that, despite that fact that 70% of India’s population resides in rural areas, its health facilities are overwhelmingly concentrated in India’s metropolitan cities. Improving access to services in regional and remote locations – and the quality of those services – is a major priority which the Government of India is trying to address through its National Health Mission. An underdeveloped and underfunded primary health care and public health system reduces the ability to provide affordable and appropriate health care to a large proportion of the population.

The private health care system is also largely under-regulated, resulting in practices such as over prescribing of medications, unnecessary diagnostic tests and treatments. When combined with a heavy reliance on private and for-profit healthcare (67% of the total health spend), and very low levels of public health funding as a percentage of GDP, it is not surprising that between 30-55 million people are pushed into poverty each year from their healthcare expenditure.

Health

There has been a recent focus by the Government of India on disability and mental health as demonstrated by two Acts of Parliament and various campaigns (e.g. Inclusive India). However, these services have not reached the poorest and most marginalised, where levels of disability are greatest. The provision of mental health services, including suicide prevention programs, are still very under-developed.

Australia’s health care system ranks very highly according to most global comparisons. Australians enjoy universal access to high quality healthcare, a very successful Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and a diverse array of quality health care providers in both the public and private sectors. Innovative health and social insurance models including Medicare and, more recently, the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), underpin universal access. Australia has recently been working with India and the Department for Empowerment of people with disabilities to see how such approaches could be relevant for India.

Australia also has a reputation for world class health research and clinical trials and is able to conduct some clinical trials more quickly and cheaply than competitor countries such as the US. It also has world class systems for health surveillance and health data collection, which may be of great use in India in monitoring challenges such as antibiotic resistance. The state of Victoria is already a major exporter of health technologies and services and the state government of Victoria has undertaken policy measures to improve its export capacity.

There is great potential to leverage these comparative advantages of the Australian healthcare system to support India’s needs. Yet, there are also some key areas in which Australia stands to learn from India’s health system. India is a world-leader in generic pharmacy, which Australia may draw lessons from in order to lower costs of medications under its Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. India has also innovated to reduce the costs of traditionally expensive investigations, procedures and devices. India is also demonstrating how it is possible to use new mobile technologies to underpin the delivery of public health programs and health care services. These are areas where Australia can learn much from India’s experience.

Successful Collaborations

Australia and India already have a number of successful collaborations in the health sector and related health care and public health research. India has long looked to Australia for inspiration in its efforts at tobacco control, for example. The Australia-India Institute Tobacco Control Taskforce has brought together experts from India and Australia to promote effective tobacco control around graphic health warnings and plain packaging.

There are also a number of successful collaborations and exchanges between inf luential institutes in India and Australia. These have facilitated student mobility and have also led to research collaborations and outputs which have been successfully translated into health policy and health care

delivery. For example, through the University of Melbourne – exemplified by the recent ENCORE Program - has developed productive research and training partnerships with AIIMS, CMC Vellore, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute, the Public Health Foundation of India and the Catholic Health Association of India. Monash University also collaborates extensively on India’s response to trauma with AIIMS and Deakin has an active student recruitment and scholarship program for Indian students.

Another exciting area is the International Research Network for Development of Antibiotic Peptides at the University of Melbourne. This major Australia-India research collaboration seeks to address the problem of antibiotic resistant pathogens – a crucial area of concern for both Australia and India – and to develop a new generation of antibiotics.

In April 2017, Prime Ministers Modi and Turnbull signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote greater collaboration between Australia and India in the health sector. The Health MoU identifies areas where Australia and India can cooperate, including: communicable and non-communicable diseases, digital health, mental health and tobacco control.

Australia and India have much to share in the health sector and there is clearly scope and much to gain from deepening the bilateral relationship in health and related health research and higher education programs.

Pathways to Greater Engagement

Key areas that should be prioritised in order to improve Australia-India collaboration in the health sector include:

1. Systems approach for rural populations: Australia and India have similar issues in providing quality healthcare to rural areas. Engagement around effective primary health care strategies and other health system innovation to provide care to rural areas.

2. Focus on areas of joint interest: Disability, for example, has been a focus for the current Government in India. Australia is a world leader in disability inclusive development and financing of disability services. The Australian High Commission in New Delhi is currently running a disability engagement program under the DFAT Development4all strategy. There have already been preliminary discussions involving DFAT, University of Melbourne and the Department of Empowerment for People with Disability.

3. Focus on Education. India and Australia both have large education sectors. To date, relatively few Indian students have enrolled in medicine and other health degrees in Australia. This shows that despite the fact that Australian universities such as the University of Melbourne have long been world class providers of medical and other health education, their reputation in India has not yet been cemented.

4. Working to Scale. Australian exporters need to consider how they can deploy Australian health technology and expertise at a scale and price point that works for India.

5. Comprehensive Mapping. Although there is a basic understanding of the potential for a complementary relationship between Australia and India’s healthcare sectors, there remains a need for more detailed mapping of how Australia’s strengths in this sector can help to meet India’s most pressing needs and vice versa.

6. The role of mHealth and IT: India is a world leader in developing new technologies and Australia also has considerable experience in utilising IT solutions to improve health care delivery. However, both countries could learn a lot from each other about to do this more effectively and efficiently to improve population level health outcomes.

The Australian and Indian governments have recognised numerous pathways for cooperation on water management and water security. The opportunities for collaboration on this issue are ample given the extensive learning that both countries have experienced in response to significant water management challenges in the Indo-Pacific.

Shared Water Management Concerns

Australia and India share many points of mutual interest in sound water management. These include:

• Managing dwindling water reserves amid ever increasing water demands;

• Supplying ample water supplies to agricultural communities to safeguard food security and biosecurity;

• Meeting the requirements of urban populations for sustained economic growth;

• Reducing the number of people suffering from impaired access to potable water;

• Improving regional sanitation and hygiene metrics to safeguard public health;

• Leveraging new opportunities to improve infrastructure available through international financial institutions and government-sponsored ‘smart city’ initiatives.

Opportunities for Cooperation in Water Management

Several initiatives have recently been launched that demonstrate significant collaboration, though substantial scope remains for expanding the opportunities at hand.

In 2016, the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) received approval from the World Bank to provide technical support to the India National Hydrology Project (INHP). The INHP aims to augment institutional and technical capacity in the Indian water sector. Up to $1.15 Million of AWP funding will be spent over a period of two years under the scheme. Such collaborative efforts align with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s (DFAT’s) focus on enhancing Australia’s assistance for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH).

Several government-assisted organisations are actively involved in expanding Australia-India water partnerships. With funding from the Australian Government’s Sustainable Development Investment Portfolio (SDIP), the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is working nationally and internationally to inform strategies and policies to support effective water management. The emphasis

Water Resources and Management

is on improving the livelihoods and wellbeing of people living in river basins of the Indo-Pacific. A recent project has identified future challenges and opportunities in India’s Brahmani Baitarni Basin. The project also established a partnership between CSIRO and the Government of India.

With supplementary funding from SDIP, the International Centre of Excellence for Water Resources Management (ICE WaRM) has assisted India’s central and state governments to build capacity in water policy and water resource management. ICE WaRM has also worked with the Government of Rajasthan to help establish the Rajasthan Centre of Excellence on Water Resource Management (RACE WaRM) in Jaipur, India. ICE WaRM has also received SDIP funding to enhance gendered water management capacity and expertise. In 2018, ICE WaRM will bring eight women from Rajasthan to South Australia to demonstrate the ways that the state has tackled the region’s “wicked” water problems. The program will be followed with a reciprocal visit to Rajasthan of eight South Australian women.

The involvement of Australian universities in the Indian water sector is also growing with support from state governments. RMIT, a university based in Melbourne, is leading an Australia-India collaboration to address water scarcity and to promote sustainable integrated water management practices.

UNSW’s Global Water Institute, based in Sydney, is a key member of the aforementioned Australian Water Partnership. The University of Adelaide’s Centre for Global Food and Resources is working with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research for a project on water management in India that focuses on irrigation districts in Bihar and Assam. The University of Adelaide also recently completed a crowdfunding campaign that raised $32,000 AUD for a pilot project that aims to install 1,000 low cost water filtration technologies in Rajasthan.

State-level collaborations are evidenced in a “Sister State” agreement with the governments of South Australia and Rajasthan. The two states are working to provide technical support and resource sharing based on mutual knowledge of water management in arid zones. Under the Sister State agreement, the South Australian government will also be offering 12 water management fellowships that will place qualified water management experts from Rajasthan in South Australian research institutions. This effort is additionally associated with a South Australia-India Engagement Strategy. Several South Australian water industry experts joined an AWP trade mission to India for the 3rd Water Innovation Summit of 2017.

Key Issues to be addressed in 2018 and Beyond

Several important factors need to be addressed to continue Australia-India partnerships on water management in the coming years. These include:

• Strengthening the recognition of Australian and Indian contributions. Since the regional water market is highly competitive, there is a need to further value Australian and Indian water management expertise and project collaborations.

• Supporting WASH Innovations. Australia has specialist expertise in water supply and sanitation, and has developed innovative solutions to improve the safety of drinking water, which requires support to aid coordination, efficacy and deployment.

• Improving Industry Networks and Entrepreneurialism. While the state and federal efforts to enhance Australia-India water management cooperation is promising, significant opportunities remain to connect entrepreneurs and businesses to advance private sector contributions to sustainable water management.

• Expanding the Funding Base for Sustained Collaborations. Wherever possible, there is scope to help Australia-India water management partners to identify and apply to funding opportunities with national and international loans and grants.

Over the last decade, Australia and India have recognized each other as important partners with many shared interests in the security of the Indo-Pacific. The two countries now need to translate this into practical cooperation, including working together to build new security architecture in the region.

Shared security interests

Australia and India have many shared security interests, including:

• Concerns about maintenance of international norms, including freedom of navigation and overflight.

• Shared interests in security of sea lines of communication across the Indo-Pacific.

• A mutual recognition of the value of cooperation in Indian Ocean maritime security.

• Building institutions and a sense of regionalism in the Indian Ocean.

• Shared interests in peace and political stability in Southeast Asia.

• Opposition to violent extremism.

Growing cooperation in defence and security

Defence and security cooperation between India and Australia has been growing in recent years, although is still far from reaching its full potential. The two countries have entered into several security agreements, including the 2014 Framework for Security Cooperation which is intended to create a framework for cooperation to be pursued in specified areas.

There are numerous defence and security dialogues held at official and unofficial levels. The regular trilateral dialogue among Australian, Indian and Japanese foreign secretaries has been particularly successful in developing a shared understanding of regional security challenges. A quadrilateral dialogue among Australia, India, the United States and Japan (known as the ‘Quad’) has also been revived among officials from the four countries. This was initially proposed in 2007, but did not proceed in the face of objections from China.

Building Security Architecture in our Region

The Indian and Australian navies have been at the forefront of bilateral defence cooperation. The AUSINDEX bilateral naval exercises, first held in the Bay of Bengal in 2015, have now become a focus of the naval relationship. AUSINDEX 2017 was held off Western Australia in June with a focus on anti-submarine warfare, with the third iteration of the exercises due to be held in 2019 in the Bay of Bengal. There is also developing cooperation between the Australian and Indian armies and air forces.

India and Australia also have strong shared interests in improving maritime domain awareness. The huge size of the Indian Ocean means that surveillance of this space will require cooperation between Australia, and India and other partners. The signing of a ‘white shipping’ agreement between Australia and India to share information on commercial shipping (and similar agreement between India and the United States) may be a step towards broader information sharing arrangements. Information sharing may potentially also be bolstered by sharing of facilities, and there is scope for Australia and India to enter into logistics agreements in the nature of the India-US Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA).

Building security architecture in the Indian Ocean region

One of the big challenges for the Australia-India relationship is to work together to build security norms and institutions in the Indian Ocean. In the Pacific Ocean there are many groupings and forums to address security issues, but there is very little so-called ‘security architecture’ in the Indian Ocean. Regional institutions in the Indian Ocean are relatively weak and there is currently little regional identity.

The two main groupings in the Indian Ocean are the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS). Over the last decade, Australia and India have worked together to make these groupings more effective and substantive. There has been some progress, including the holding of an Indian Ocean Leaders Summit meeting in Jakarta in February 2017. This Summit had several important outcomes, including an Indian Ocean Concord and Action Plan and the IORA Declaration on Preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism.

Regional states are now looking to countries like Australia and India to take leadership in building a new Indian Ocean security architecture. Australia and India should consider potentially working together and with other interested countries to develop agreed ‘rules of the road’ for all countries that use the Indian Ocean.

It is important that these structures be put in place now, before the Indian Ocean becomes an arena for strategic competition.

Key issues to be addressed in a new architecture in the Indian Ocean

Any new security arrangements in the Indian Ocean need to cover several important areas:

• Freedom of navigation: A renewed regional commitment to maintaining international norms on freedom of navigation and overf light in the Indian Ocean.

• Reduction of strategic competition: Exploring ways of reducing strategic competition involving extra-regional powers.

• Transnational security issues: Practical cooperation in addressing maritime security issues that have a particular impact on Indian Ocean states, and particularly the smaller island states. These include piracy, illegal fishing and smuggling of drugs, people and arms.

• Capacity building: Building capacity among Indian Ocean states to improve their ability to provide for maritime security in their own waters.

As leading Indian Ocean states, India and Australia should take the lead in developing institutions and norms that ref lect the wishes and requirements of the region.

For much of the post 1947 period Australia and India were estranged from one another. Cold War divisions weighed heavily for much of that time but were by no means the only reason for the distance between Canberra and New Delhi. Differences on apartheid, nuclear weapons, economic governance and Australia’s ties with Washington were among the many issues that kept the two countries apart.

Over the past decade, however, Australia and India have moved from estrangement to engagement. In particular, Canberra has been much more assiduous in courting New Delhi than previously and its new-found enthusiasm for India has a strong bipartisan basis. In the late period of his prime ministership, John Howard began this movement which was carried on by the ALP governments of Rudd and Gillard that came after. Famously Julia Gillard faced down opponents in the Labor party to allow Australia to export uranium to the republic. The dual state visits in 2014, with PM Abbott visiting India and PM Modi coming to Australia symbolised the new closeness of ties.

The engagement of India has been driven by both economic and strategic interests. India is a huge and rapidly growing market – the fastest growing large economy in the world in recent years – and trade complementarities

provide very considerable potential. Strategic affairs have also played a role with a more ambitious India seen as an important potential partner to stabilise the Indo-Pacific region during a time of power transition and incipient great power rivalry. India and Australia have taken on an increasingly similar outlook to the region.

Australia and India now formally regard one another as strategic partners, and have an array of mechanisms with which to develop their relationship. These include annual Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, the Australia-India Joint Ministerial Commission focusing on trade policy, a 2+2 annual meeting of foreign and defence ministers to advance security cooperation as well as sectoral working groups on education, energy among others. A strong platform to develop the bilateral relationship has been established, habits of cooperation have been formed and the challenge now is to build on this foundation to realize the potential of the relationship.

Even though two-way trade and investment has grown considerably in recent years there is still a very long way to go to improve economic ties between the two countries. Ultimately, trade is a market driven process but governments can help. A trade agreement is in negotiation but the slow pace of its progress is discouraging and there is a

Australia-India Relations: Opportunities and Challenges

place for business leaders on both sides to put pressure on their political leaders to conclude a deal that would go a long way to boosting trading links that have plateaued in recent years. Meanwhile, governments could also work on trade facilitation measures. While not as high profile as tariff cutting agreements, measures to improve ‘behind the border’ issues relating to customs, regulation and standardisation can have significant positive effects and not have the same political sensitivities are large scale trade deals. Awareness of the possibilities of trade and investment opportunities in India is not widespread in Australia and improved understanding of the opportunities and help in realizing them is a clear priority.

As the Australian government’s recently released Foreign Policy White Paper makes clear, the international order is experiencing significant challenge with China and other emerging powers threatening the existing rules of the game and the underlying liberal values of the system. India and Australia have both an interest in and a capacity to collaborate to buttress the order from challenge. It is not just a shared interest in freedom of navigation or a stable balance of power that should motivate their collaborative work. They share liberal and democratic values and should be driven to protect and defend those at a time when those ideas face significant headwind. David Brewster’s primer for this Dialogue also details the important ways in which security collaboration can be advanced.

In the post 1945 world the creation and leadership of major international institutions came from the North Atlantic world and in particular from the United States. Plainly that leadership is not what it once was and as the world becomes more centred around Asia, Australia and India have the opportunity to lead and reform institutional architecture to better suit this new world and to advance their shared interests and values.

Even though considerable progress has been made in the Australia-India relationship, engagement can be fitful and uneven. For example, after a successful prime ministerial visit in April, the Australian government changed the 457 visa program creating considerable ill-will in India. Equally, for all the talk of shared interests and values, the convergence is not always as clear as many assume and there remain many issues on which the two do not always see eye to eye. Even though India is concerned about China and its behaviour, it cannot be assumed that Australia and India will have identical policies toward Beijing. Earlier in the year Delhi refused to allow Australian observers to a military exercise involving Japan, the US and India. This showed how India insists on being master of its own fate in relation to Beijing. Finally, India will always matter more to Australia that Australia will to India. The asymmetries are only going to get more obvious and thus a premium should be put on advancing ties as swiftly as possible.

The Australia India Institute would like to thank and acknowledge the following people for their time and assistance in preparing the discussion papers for key sectors in the Australia India economic relationship:

Water Resources and Management Dr Georgina Drew Senior Lecturer School of Social Sciences Faculty of Arts University of Adelaide

Knowledge: Increasing Engagement with India’s Higher Education and Skills Development Sectors Ms Brigid Freeman Research Associate Australia India Institute University of Melbourne

Health Professor Brian Oldenburg Chair of Noncommunicable Disease Control & Director, Centre for Health Equity Melbourne School of Population & Global Health University of Melbourne

Evolving Security Architecture in the Region Dr David Brewster National Security College Australian National University

Domestic Politics and Bi-Lateral Opportunities Professor Nick Bisley Executive Director La Trobe Asia La Trobe University

Delegates & Observers

Delegates & Observers

DELEGATES

Ms Frances Adamson Secretary Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Government of Australia

Mr Imran Reza Ansari Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education and Youth Services & Sport Jammu and Kashmir Government

Mr Pravir Arora Chief Marketing Officer ApTech Ltd

Professor Robin Batterham Kernot Professor of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne; Member, Australia India Council; Chair of the Advisory Panel of the Australia India Strategic Research Fund, Australia India Council

Mr Pratap Bhanu Mehta Vice Chancellor Ashoka University

Mr Richard Bolt Secretary

Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources State Government of Victoria

The Honourable Chris Bowen MP Shadow Treasurer Australian Labor Party

Dr Virander Singh Chauhan Chairman University Grants Commission

Dr Swapan Dasgupta MP Presidential Nominee for the Rajya Sabha Senior Journalist and Political Commentator

Professor Glyn Davis AC Vice-Chancellor The University of Melbourne

Professor Jane Den Hollander Vice-Chancellor Deakin University

Mr Shaurya Doval Board of Directors India Foundation

Mr Ross Fitzgerald Co-Chair Australia India Leadership Dialogue

DO NOT PRINT

Professor Dawn Freshwater Vice-Chancellor The University of Western Australia

Professor Margaret Gardner Vice-Chancellor and President Monash University’

Dr Arunabha Ghosh CEO Council on Energy, Environment and Water CEEW India

Dr Ajay M Gondane Indian High Commissioner to Australia

Mr Allan Gyngell National President Australian Institute of International Affairs; Honorary Professor in the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific

Professor Peter Høj Vice-Chancellor and President The University of Queensland

Mr Jeyakumar Janakaraj CEO and Country Head Adani Australia

Professor Craig Jeffrey CEO & Director Australia India Institute

Mr Robert Johanson Chairman Australia India Institute

Mr Rohit Kansal Secretary, Jammu and Kashmir Government Former Chief of Staff - Mining and Renewable Energy

Mr Jayant Krishna Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer National Skills Development Corporation NSDC India

Mr Rajiv Kumar Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog National Institution for Transforming India

Mr Vinay Kumar Joint Secretary (South) Ministry of External Affairs MEA Government of India

Mr Upendra Kushwaha Minister of State for Human Resource Development Government of India

Professor Sharon Lewin Director Doherty Institute


Mr Sajad Lone Minister for Social Welfare, Science & Technology Jammu & Kashmir Government

Professor Amitabh Mattoo Honorary Director, Australia India Institute @ Delhi and Co-Chair, Australia India Leadership Dialogue

Ms Sheba Nandkeolyar National Chair Australia India Business Council Board Member, Australia India Council

Senator the Hon James McGrath Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Assistant Minister for Regulatory Reform LNP Senator for Queensland Government of Australia

Ambassador Gopalaswami Parthasarathy Indian Diplomat and Author

Professor Ila Patnaik National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Mr Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Mr Girish Ramachandran President Asia Pacific Tata Consultancy Services

Mr Jang Bahadur Sangha Managing Director Sangha Group

Lt. Gen (Retd) Ravi Sawhney Dean - Centre for Defence Studies Vivekananda International Foundation

Mr Ashvini Shekhar Managing Director Global Pacific Nominees Pty Ltd

Mr Greg Sheridan AO Foreign Editor The Australian

Her Excellency Harinder Sidhu High Commissioner of Australia to India Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Government of Australia

Senator the Hon. Lisa Singh Australian Senate for Tasmania Australian Labor Party

Mr Harsha Vardana Singh Executive Director Brookings India

Dr Shubnum Singh Dean Education MIHER (Max Institute of Health Education and Research)

Dr Shashi Tharoor Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Author and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

Ms Vicki Thomson Chief Executive Group of Eight Universities

Professor Yogesh Tyagi Vice Chancellor The University of Delhi

Mr Shankar Vanavarayar Executive Director Kumaraguru College of Technology

Mr Ram Madhav Varanasi Board of Directors India Foundation

Mr Peter Varghese AO Chancellor The University of Queensland

Ambassador Anil Wadhwa Former Senior Diplomat Government of India

Senator the Hon Penny Wong Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs; Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Australian Labor Party

OBSERVERS

Dr Karen Barker Executive Manager and Senior Advisor Engagement Australia India Institute

Mr Matthew Brown Deputy Chief Executive Group of Eight Universities Australia

Dr Alexander Davis New Generation Network Scholar Australia India Institute / La Trobe University

Professor Karen Day Dean, Faculty of Science The University of Melbourne

Ms Fiona Docherty Vice-President for External Relations University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Professor Simon Evans Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) Academic & International, Chancellery The University of Melbourne

Ms Brigid Freeman Research Associate Australia India Institute

Dr Amanda Gilbertson Lecturer in Youth & Contemporary India Australia India Institute

Dr Meenakshi Gopinath Founder & Director Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP)

Mr Alan Griffin Former Member of Parliament Government of Australia

Dr Nathan Grills Nossal Institute for Global Health The University of Melbourne

Mr Tony Huber Australian Consul General, Mumbai

Mr Rohit Manchanda Commissioner Trade and Investment India NSW Department of Industry

Ms Zoe McKenzie Principal Trade and Investment Advisory

Mr Vinod Mirchandani Deputy Director Australia India Institute @ Delhi

Mr Ameet Nivsarkar Vice President and Global Head of Corporate Affairs Tata Consultancy Services

Professor Brian Oldenburg Chair of Noncommunicable Disease Control & Director, Centre for Health Equity Melbourne School of Population & Global Health University of Melbourne

Ms Ravneet Pawha Associate Vice President, Global and Executive Director Asia Deakin University

Mr Harish Rao Global Head – Business Development Sundaram Business Services

Mr Darren Rudd Head of Corporate Affairs Australia and New Zealand Tata Consultancy Services

Dr Indu Shahani President and Chair The Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ISME)

Mr Anil Snehi Vice President Australia and New Zealand Tata Consultancy Services

Ms Sujata Sudarshan Regional Director, International Department (ASEAN and ANZ Desks) CII Confederation of Indian Industry

Mr Arjun Surapaneni CEO Victoria Institute of Technology

Dr Mark Vicol New Generation Network Scholar Australia India Institute / University of Sydney

Ms Michelle Wade Executive Director South Asia Victoria Government Business Office Bangalore

Mr Iain Watt Pro Vice Chancellor (International) University of Western Australia

Mrs Ameeta Wattal Principal Springdales School, New Delhi

Ms Wendy Were Executive Director of Strategic Development and Advocacy Australian Council for the Arts

DO NOT PRINT

DELEGATES

Mr Deepak Amitabh Chairman and Managing Director PTC India

Mr MV Rajiv Gowda Member of Parliament

Mr Derek O Brien Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha

Mr Daryl Quinlivan Secretary Department of Agriculture and Water Resources Government of Australia

OBSERVERS

Ms Lyndal Corbett A/g Counsellor (Education and Research) Australian High Commission Delhi

Mr Vivekanand Jha Executive Director The George Institute for Global Health India

Ms Joslyn Ma Australian Government New Colombo Plan Scholar 2018 Victorian Student of the Year Internationalisation 2015

Professor Parikshat Singh Manhas Director - School of Hospitality & Tourism Management Professor - The Business School Coordinator - Global Understanding Course University of Jammu, India

Professor Kadambot Siddique Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director / Professor The UWA Institute of Agriculture University of Western Australia

Bios

Bios

Delegates

DO NOT PRINT

Frances Adamson has led the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as Secretary since 25 August 2016.

Prior to her appointment as Secretary, Ms Adamson was International Adviser to the Prime Minister the Hon Malcolm Turnbull MP from November 2015.

From 2011 to 2015, Ms Adamson was Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China. She served in the Australian Consulate-General in Hong Kong in the late 1980s during the early years of China’s reform and opening. From 2001 to 2005, she was seconded as Representative to the Australian Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei.

Ms Adamson has twice served in the Australian High Commission in London, as Deputy High Commissioner from 2005 to 2008 and as Political Counsellor from 1993 to 1997.

She was Chief of Staff to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and then the Minister for Defence from 2009 to 2010.

Ms Adamson is President of the Institute of Public Administration Australia ACT Division. She is a member of the Efic Board, the Advisory Board of the Australian National University’s National Security College and the Asia Society Australia Advisory Council. Ms Adamson is a Special Adviser to the Male Champions of Change and a member of Chief Executive Women. She was awarded a Sir James Wolfensohn Public Service Scholarship in 2015.

Ms Adamson has a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Adelaide and was a recipient of a 2014 Distinguished Alumni Award. She joined the then Department of Foreign Affairs in 1985.

She is married with four children.

Ms Frances Adamson Secretary Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Government of Australia

Mr Imran Reza Ansari Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education

and Youth Services & Sports Jammu and Kashmir Government

Molvi Imran Reza Ansari is from the State of Jammu & Kashmir, India. He did his schooling from the Tyndale Biscoe missionary School, Srinagar, Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India and graduation & post graduation in Political Science from the University of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi in the year 1997. In the year 1998, Molvi Ansari proceeded to Syria for six years for pursuing Diploma in Arabic & Arabian languages and in the year 2002, he went to Iran for a course in theology and comparative religions.

Molvi Ansari has a rich religious and socio- political background. His grand -father and father were the spiritual leaders of the shia community of Jammu and Kashmir State and Molvi Ansari has inherited the legacy of his forefathers.

Molvi Ansari was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir State from Pattan Constituency in north Kashmir in the year 2014 after which he went on to become a Cabinet Minister in the State government.

As Minister for Information Technology, Technical Education and Youth Services & Sports, Molvi Ansari has a number of firsts to his credit. He has introduced the concept of e-governance in the State, is mentoring the youth of the Jammu and Kashmir State in taking up sports as a profession and is guiding his department in customizing (to the local needs) and implementing the national Skill Development Programme of the government of India with the objective of job creation and addressing the challenging issue of employability in the State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Mr Pravir Arora Chief Marketing Officer ApTech Ltd

Pravir Arora is Executive Vice President of Aptech Ltd., a global education company, which has trained more than 7 million students over the last 30 years and now operates 1300 plus centres worldwide. He was inducted into the Aptech family in the year 2011 as Head of International and EBG Business. He has recently taken responsibility as a Chief Marketing Officer. He is also responsible for Alliances and Aptech’s entry into the developed countries.

Mr Arora has over 23 years of domestic and international experience, having worked at various strategic level roles with leading multinational corporations such as Wipro, Digital Equipment, Compaq, CA and Sun Microsystems. He is an alumnus of RV College of Engineering, Bangalore (class of 1993).

Professor Robin Batterham Kernot Professor of Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Melbourne

Member, Australia India Council Chair of the Advisory Panel of the Australia India

Strategic Research Fund

2010-present Melbourne University: Member Council, leadership roles at the interface between the University and Industry and Government, research in mining, mineral processing, algal and energy systems.

Board Member or Technical Adviser to 5 companies.

1988-2009 Various senior roles in Rio Tinto, including Global Head of Innovation and VP Processing Developments: responsible for innovation, collaboration on technological development, R&D and the key technological aspects of major new projects and investments.

1999-2005 Dual appointment as Chief Scientist of Australia and Chief Technologist of Rio Tinto.

1970-1988 CSIRO. Various roles including Chief of Division of Mineral Engineering. Responsible for collaborative research with mining companies.

1996-2016 Organist. The Scot’s Church Melbourne.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta Vice Chancellor Ashoka University

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is an Indian academic. He was the president of the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi-based think tank and one of India’s most distinguished think tanks. He was a Professor at NYU Law School’s Global Faculty. He has previously Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University; Associate Professor of Government and of Social Studies at Harvard, and for a brief period, Professor of Philosophy and of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He became the Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University on July 1, 2017. He has been described as “one of India’s more thoughtful intellectuals.”

Pratap Mehta has also done extensive public policy work. He was Member-Convenor of the Prime Minister of India’s National Knowledge Commission; Member of the Supreme Court appointed Lyngdoh Committee on Indian Universities and has contributed to a number of reports for leading Government of India and International Agencies. He was on the Board of Governors of IDRC. He was Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Council on Global Governance. He has also served on the Board of NIPFP, NCAER and NIID. He is also on the Editorial Board of numerous journals including the American Political Science Review and Journal of Democracy.

Pratap Mehta has published widely in the fields of political theory, intellectual history,

constitutional law, politics and society in India and international politics. His scholarly articles have appeared in leading international referred journals in the field, as well as numerous edited volumes. His early work was on eighteenth century thought, particularly on Adam Smith and the Making of the Enlightenment. He has also written on issues of Cosmopolitanism, Liberalism, Rights, Judicial Review, International Governance and Democratic Theory. His most recent publications include, The Burden of Democracy and an edited volume India’s Public Institutions. He is also a member of the group that produced Non-Alignment 2.O (Penguin 2013) and co-editor of Shaping the Emerging World: India and the Multilateral Order (Brookings Press, 2013). He is also co-editor (with Niraja Jayal) of the Oxford Companion to Politics in India. He is a recipient of several awards. He won the Malcolm S. Adisheshiah Award for Social Sciences in 2010, the prestigious Infosys Prize in 2011 and the Amartya Sen Award for Social Science, 2013. Pratap Mehta is a participant in public debates in India and abroad and has written columns for national and international dailies, including the Indian Express, Hindu, Financial Times. Several leading dailies have named him amongst India’s most influential opinion maker. He is an Editorial Consultant to the Indian Express.

Mr Richard Bolt Secretary

Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources State Government of Victoria

As the secretary of the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources, Richard Bolt leads a team of more than 5,000 employees, who support and advise nine government ministers across transport, economic development, employment and innovation, agriculture and resources, and creative industries.

Richard Bolt is currently the Secretary of the Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR), where he leads more than 5,000 staff based in metropolitan Melbourne, regional Victoria and internationally. Richard supports and advises nine government ministers across five portfolio groups – transport; economic development, employment and innovation; agriculture and resources; and creative industries.

Prior to joining DEDJTR, Richard was Secretary of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD) (2011-14), and Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) (2006-11).

Richard has previously served on national committees advising ministerial councils on education and energy, including the Advisory Board to the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy. He was deputy chair of the state-territory National Emissions Trading Taskforce and has served as a director of Schools Connect Australia.

Richard holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the South Australian Institute of Technology (now the University of South Australia), a master’s degree in public policy and management from Monash University, and a Graduate Diploma in Company Directorship.

The Honourable Chris Bowen MP Shadow Treasurer Australian Labor Party

Chris Bowen entered Parliament in 2004 and has held a wide range of portfolios including serving as Treasurer, Minister for Human Services, Minister for Immigration, Minister for Financial Services, Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Competition Policy, Minister for Small Business and Minister for Tertiary Education. Chris has been responsible for a range of significant policy reform programs in these portfolios.

He served as Interim Leader of the Labor Party and Acting Leader of the Opposition following the 2013 Federal election and has been Shadow Treasurer since 2013.

Chris is served on Fairfield Council for nine years is a former Mayor and President of the Western Sydney Councils (WSROC).

He has a Bachelor of Economics degree, a Masters Degree in International Relations and is the final stages of completing a Diploma in Modern Languages (Bahasa Indonesia).

He lives in Smithfield with his wife (Rebecca), two children (Grace and Max) and Ollie the Labrador.

Professor Virander Singh Chauhan Chairman

University Grants Commission New Delhi

Prof. Virander Singh Chauhan obtained his Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate in Chemistry from Delhi University. In addition to a brilliant academic record, he has also been an outstanding sportsman and represented Delhi University and Oxford University in athletics and cross country. He won the prestigious Rhodes scholarship (1974) to study at Oxford University. Upon his return to India in 1979, he taught at St. Stephen’s College, IIT - Kanpur, and Delhi University. In 1988, he joined the International Centre for Genetic and Biotechnology (ICGEB) and became its Director in 1998, a position he held until 2014.

His major scientific contributions are in the fields of malaria vaccine and drug development and in study of peptides of biological importance. An experimental malaria vaccine that was developed entirely in India was taken to clinical trials in India. His current research is also focused on developing peptide based nanostructures for efficacious delivery of biomolecules. His scientific interests also include advocacy in infectious diseases like HIV and TB in India. He has published more than 250 research papers and guided more than 50 research students.

He is also deeply involved in human resource development through major involvement in selection processes of highly prestigious Rhodes scholarships, Inlaks Scholarships and Felix Scholarships for Indian students to study abroad. Prof. Chauhan has received several prestigious national and international awards including civil honour Padma Shri in 2012. He is elected member of all major National Science Academies - Indian National Science Academy (INSA); National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI); Indian Academy of Sciences (IASc); as well as Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS). He is Member of UGC and Chairman of the Executive Council of National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). He is also Chairman of the Pay Review Committee for the 7th Pay Commission for all government funded institutions of Higher Education. Currently, he is holding the post of Chairman, UGC.

Dr Swapan Dasgupta MP Presidential Nominee to the Rajya Sabha Senior Journalist and Political Commentator

Swapan Dasgupta is a political columnist and public policy analyst with 27 years’ experience based in New Delhi, India. His columns on contemporary India are published in The Telegraph, Sunday Times of India, Asian Age, Deccan Chronicle, Pioneer, Jagran and Free press Journal. In addition, he is a regular commentator on politics on Indian TV news channels, NDTV, CNN0IBN, Times Nowand Headlines Today. He has participated in roadshows on India’s political economy hosted by Deutsche Bank Equities and CLSA in Mumbai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Educated at La Martiniere College (Kolkata) and St Stephen’s College (Delhi), Swapan Dasgupta was awarded a PhD by the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) in 1980. Subsequently he was elected a Research Fellow at Nuffield College, University of Oxford from 1982 to 1985.

Swapan Dasgupta has occupied important editorial positions in major Indian newspapers and weeklies including Times of India, Telegraph, Indian Express and India Today. He was the London correspondent of Indian Express from 1995 to 1996. He was Managing Editor of India Today until 2003. In addition, he has been published in the Wall Street Journal, Tehelka, The Hindu and New Statesman, A specialist in Indian politics, Swapan has been on TV panels in every general election since 1998.

Professor Glyn Davis AC Vice-Chancellor

The University of Melbourne

Glyn Davis is Professor of Political Science and Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Melbourne.

Professor Davis was educated in political science at the University of New South Wales and the Australian National University, before undertaking post-doctoral appointments as a Harkness Fellow at the University of California Berkeley, the Brookings Institution in Washington DC and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Professor Davis teaches and researches in the field of public policy. His public sector service includes terms as the Director-General of the Department of Premier and Cabinet in Queensland, and as Foundation Chair of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and a Companion in the Order of Australia. He has served as Chair of the Group of Eight and Chair of Universities Australia.

In 2008 Professor Davis co-chaired the Australia 2020 Summit and, in the same year served as a member of the Innovation Taskforce, an expert group commissioned to review Australia’s research and innovation systems.

In 2010 Professor Davis presented the Boyer Lectures published as The Republic of Learning.

Professor Jane den Hollander President and Vice-Chancellor Deakin University

Professor Jane den Hollander AO has been President and Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University since July, 2010.

At Deakin, Professor den Hollander introduced LIVE the future, an aspiration for Deakin to drive the digital frontier in higher education, harnessing the power, opportunity and reach of new and emerging technologies in all that it does.

Professor den Hollander holds a BSc (Honours) First Class in Zoology and a Master of Science degree from Wits University, Johannesburg. Her PhD is from the University of Wales, Cardiff.

Professor den Hollander is a Board member of Education Australia Limited and UniSuper Limited. She is Trustee and Deputy Chair of the Geelong Performing Arts Council, Chair of Skilling the Bay (a Victorian Government initiative), a member of the Kardinia Park Trust and a member of the VERNet Board (Victorian Education and Research Network).

Prior to taking up her appointment as Vice-Chancellor of Deakin University, Professor den Hollander was Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) at Curtin University in Western Australia.

Professor den Hollander received an Order of Australia for her distinguished service to tertiary education in the 2017 Australia Day Honours awards.

Mr Shaurya Doval Director

India Foundation

Shaurya Doval is a Managing Director at Zeus Caps wherein he leads the investment business in India. He has over 20 years of international investment banking experience during which time he has worked for over a decade in London with the leveraged finance business of GE Capital and the Investment Banking Division of Morgan Stanley. He has also worked with Corporate Finance Advisory at Arthur Andersen in India. Mr. Doval is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA from London Business School. He is a recipient of the ‘Udyog Ratna Award’ in 2012 for his contribution to the growth of the Indian power sector.

Mr Doval is also a Director of India Foundation, a think tank based in New Delhi, with strong nationalistic credentials.

Mr. Doval was the Eisenhower Fellow from India for 2015.

Mr Ross Fitzgerald Co-Chair Australia India Leadership Dialogue

Ross Fitzgerald is a Director of Visy Industries, and the Founding CEO of Spectrum Venture Management. Ross is committed to promoting greater friendship, mutual understanding and co-operation between Australia and India. To this end he is:

Co-Chairman, the Australia India Leadership Dialogue; and the India Australia Israel Food and Water Security Dialogue; Board member of the Australia India Institute; the Australian Friends of ASHA; and the Indian Film Festival of Melbourne.

Ross was formerly a consultant with McKinsey & Co., and he has an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Professor Dawn Freshwater Vice-Chancellor

The University of Western Australia

Professor Dawn Freshwater became Vice-Chancellor of The University of Western Australia (UWA) in January 2017, having previously served for three years as Senior Deputy Vice-Chancellor (SDVC) and Registrar. She has led the design and implementation of a modernised academic structure, with the aim of optimising UWA’s world class research, and further cultivating exceptional educational outcomes and student experience. Professor Freshwater continues to lead UWA through this significant new phase of growth and reform.

Born in England, Professor Freshwater was awarded her PhD at the University of Nottingham in 1998. She is a highly experienced and driven supporter of translational research and research-led teaching. Her contribution to the fields of Public Health (specifically Mental Health and Forensic Mental Health) and in researching Leadership practices won her the highest honour in her field - the Fellowship of the Royal College of Nursing (FRCN). In 2016, she was invited to act as Chair of the Institutional Research Review Panel (IRRP) for Research Assessment and

Impact Case Measurement in Ireland. Prior to this she was a panel member for the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) (UK), the first full research assessment using impact measures to assess the quality of research in UK higher education institutions. She continues to provide supervision to PhD students, and has contributed to almost 200 publications.

Since moving to Australia, Professor Freshwater has been appointed a Member of the National Health and Research Medical Council’s Women in Health Science Committee; Inspector of Health Services with the Office of Corrective Health Services in Perth; Board member of the WA Health Translation Network; Director of the Perth USAsia Centre; and Board member of the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Professor Freshwater is an active member of the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN).

Professor Margaret Gardner Vice-Chancellor and President Monash University

Professor Margaret Gardner became President and Vice-Chancellor of Monash University on September 1, 2014.

Prior to joining Monash, Professor Gardner was Vice-Chancellor and President of RMIT from April 2005 until August 2014. She has extensive academic experience, having held various leadership positions in Australian universities throughout her career, including at the University of Queensland and Griffith University.

Armed with a first class honours degree in Economics and a PhD from the University of Sydney, in 1988 she was a Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow spending time at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, and the University of California, Berkeley.

Professor Gardner was appointed Chair of Universities Australia in 2017 and she is a Director of the Group of Eight Universities. She is also a Director of Infrastructure Victoria and the Australia and New Zealand School of Government (ANZSOG), and was recently made a member of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Inclusion and Diversity Committee.

Professor Gardner has previously been chair of Museum Victoria and chaired the Strategic Advisory Committee and the Expert Panel of the Office of Learning and Teaching (Federal Government Department of Education and Training). She has also been a member of various other boards and committees, including the Australian-American Fulbright Commission, the ANZAC Centenary Advisory Board and the International Education Advisory Committee, which led to the Chaney Report. In 2007, Professor Gardner was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of service to tertiary education, particularly in the areas of university governance and gender equity, and to industrial relations in Queensland.

Dr Arunabha Ghosh CEO

Council on Energy, Environment and Water CEEW India

DR ARUNABHA GHOSH is a public policy professional, adviser, author, columnist, and institution builder. He is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), consistently ranked (four years running) as one of South Asia’s leading policy research institutions; and among the world’s 20 best climate think-tanks in 2016. With experience in 41 countries, he previously worked at Princeton, Oxford, UNDP (New York), and WTO (Geneva). Arunabha advises governments, industry, civil society and international organisations around the world. He is the co-author/editor of four books and dozens of research papers and reports. He is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, appointed to WEF’s Global Future Council on Energy. He is an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader, and fellow of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.

Dr Ghosh led CEEW into a leading think-tank soon after its founding in August 2010. He has been actively involved in the design of the International Solar Alliance since inception. He conceptualised and is a founding board member of the Clean Energy Access Network (CLEAN), an industry body for hundreds of decentralised energy entrepreneurs. He is board member of the

International Centre for Trade & Sustainable Development, Geneva.

Dr Ghosh has advised India’s Prime Minister’s Office, several ministries, state governments and international organisations on a range of subjects. He was invited by the Government of France as a Personnalité d’Avenir to advise on the COP21 climate negotiations. He also advised on HFC negotiations under the Montreal Protocol. He is a member of Track II dialogues with seven countries; and formulated the Maharashtra-Guangdong Partnership on Sustainability. He serves on the Executive Committee of the India-U.S. PACEsetter Fund. He has presented to heads of state and legislatures across the world on varied topics including global governance, international relations and human development, climate, energy, natural resources and water, trade and intellectual property, development assistance, conflict and extremism.

He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford (Clarendon Scholar; Marvin Bower Scholar), an M.A. (First Class) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (Balliol College, Oxford; Radhakrishnan Scholar); and topped Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi.

Dr Ajay M Gondane Indian High Commissioner Designate to Australia High Commission of India to Australia

Dr. A.M. Gondane joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1985. He worked in various capacities in the Indian Embassies & Consulates including in Damascus, Baghdad, Vienna, Ankara and New York. He was High Commissioner of India to Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands & Vanuatu. He also worked earlier in SAARC, West Asia North Africa, Bangladesh-Myanmar Divisions. He was the Coordinator for the XIV SAARC Summit in New Delhi, 2007.

Dr Gondane was Officer on Special Duty with Dy. Speaker, Lok Sabha and a Research Fellow at the Stimson Centre, Washington D.C. He is a Doctorate in Sociology.

Dr. A.M. Gondane, is presently India High Commissioner designate to Australia.

Mr Allan Gyngell National President Australian Institute

of International Affairs Honorary Professor in the Australian National

University’s College of Asia and the Pacific

Allan Gyngell is National President of the Australian Institute of International Affairs and an Honorary Professor in the Australian National University’s College of Asia and the Pacific.

His long career in Australian foreign and national security policy included appointments as Director-General of the Office of National Assessments, the inaugural Executive Director of the Lowy Institute for International Policy and to senior positions in the Prime Minister’s Office and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

His most recent book, Fear of Abandonment: Australia in the World Since 1942, was published in April 2017 by La Trobe University Press.

He is an Officer in the Order of Australia.

Professor Peter Høj Vice-Chancellor and President The University of Queensland

Professor Peter Høj commenced as Vice Chancellor and President of The University of Queensland on 8 October 2012. Prior to this appointment he was Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of South Australia from June 2007. Before that, he was CEO of the Australian Research Council (2004-2007) and Managing Director of the Australian Wine Research Institute (1997-2004).

He was educated at the University of Copenhagen, majoring in biochemistry and chemistry, has a Master of Science degree in biochemistry and genetics, a PhD in photosynthesis, an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Copenhagen and the University of South Australia.

Professor Høj is the chair of the Board of Group of Eight (Go8) Universities in 2017, a member of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB) from 2016 and a member of the Queensland State Government’s International Education and Training Advisory Group (IETAG) from 2016. He is a member of the Council of the Confucius Institute Headquarters since December 2017.

He is a Fellow of ATSE and a Foreign Member of The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Mr Jeyakumar Janakaraj CEO and Country Head

Adani Australia

Jeyakumar Janakaraj, better known as JJ, serves as the Chief Executive Officer and Country Head of Adani Group’s Australian operations. JJ joined the Adani Group in 2013 and is responsible for Adani’s business in Australia including the Carmichael coal mine, rail and port projects. JJ has a Mechanical Engineering degree from PSG College of Technology, in Coimbatore and a rich experience of 25 years in the mining industry; building and developing world-class mining projects and resource companies.

JJ began his career in the steel sector in India as a mechanical maintenance engineer before joining Sterlite Industries, where he remained and progressed for 18 years. During this tenure he held a number of executive roles, including CEO and Director of Konkola Copper Mines in Zambia, at Copper Mines of Tasmania and also President of Hindustan Zinc. JJ has proven that hard work, dedication and the right attitude are key traits that have facilitated him to thrive in his professional career and grow through the ranks.

He was responsible for the concept to completion of all the expansion projects of Hindustan Zinc and greatly supported the company to achieve excellence in business.

In 2006, JJ was awarded the Gold Medal by the Indian Institute of Metals for his significant contribution to the non-ferrous metallurgical industry and is also listed by the International Who’s Who of Professionals (2009). In 2008 he was awarded the DEMAG Gold medal for innovative leadership by the Indian Institute of Metals. He also is a member of the Global Mining Executive Council of Accenture. He is on the Board of CIAB of IEA.

Professor Craig Jeffrey CEO & Director Australia India Institute

Professor Craig Jeffrey is Director and CEO of the Australia India Institute, Professor of Geography at the University of Melbourne, and former Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford where he was also an Official Fellow of St. John’s College. He works on contemporary India, youth, politics and development across the disciplines of geography, anthropology, Asian Studies, and education.

Building on long-term social research in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Professor Jeffrey has made a major contribution to scholarly and popular understanding of India. He has written eight books related to India, including Timepass: Youth, Class and the Politics of Waiting in India (Stanford University Press 2010), which is one of the most highly cited research monographs published on India during the past ten years; India Today: Economy, Society and Politics (with Stuart Corbridge and John Harriss; Polity 2012), a second edition of which is appearing in 2018; and India: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2017), part of Oxford University Press’s prestigious Very Short Introduction series.

Professor Jeffrey works regularly for the BBC and his scholarship has influenced the thinking of organisations such as the United Nations, World Bank, Department of International Development (UK), and Commonwealth Government of Australia. In 2014 he became a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (UK) in recognition of “the outstanding impact of his work”. In 2017 he was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia. Professor Jeffrey has advised numerous PhD researchers in Seattle, Oxford, and Melbourne.,many of whom are now working in top universities worldwide. He has also recently developed a New Generation Network of post-doctoral scholars conducting applied research on contemporary India.

Mr Robert Johanson Chairman

Australia India Institute

Robert Johanson is the Chair of Australia India Institute Board; Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, MBD Energy, and Australian Friends of Asha; as well as Director of Neuclone Ltd and Robert Salzer Foundation. He was the Deputy Chancellor of University of Melbourne (2007-2017) and member of Takeovers Panel. He worked at corporate advisory firm Grant Samuel and since 1993 was responsible for its Melbourne office. Robert has 30 years’ experience in corporate finance and investment banking, including

the corporate division of Macquarie Bank, and has been involved in a wide variety of capital markets transactions for leading corporations. Previously he worked as a solicitor, a law lecturer and as a consultant to mining and finance businesses. He is also a sheep farmer.

Rohit Kansal Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Government Former Chief of Staff Mining and Renewable Energy

Rohit Kansal is a senior civil servant with India’s permanent bureaucracy. A member of the Class of 1995 of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), he has held a variety of diverse and challenging assignments in the last 2 decades of his service. As head of the public works department in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in India, he is currently responsible for overseeing annual public investment of over US $ 500 million in diverse road and infrastructure projects. His assignment with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in the federal government saw him keenly involved with a number of path breaking initiatives in cleantech in India including the policy framework of the ambitious Indian solar initiative-the National Solar Mission. He has also previously headed the office of the (then) Federal Finance Minister in India where his key position gave him a ringside and close-up view of many of the critical financial issues facing us today. As District Magistrate and Collector in some of the most difficult areas in Jammu and Kashmir, India, he oversaw the relief and temporary resettlement of over a quarter of a million villagers displaced by the massive security build-up on the international border and was in-charge of the logistics of the historic Indo-Pak peace initiative-the Srinagar-Muzzaffarbad bus service. As Additional Chief Executive Officer (ACEO) of the highly revered Shri Mata

Vaishno Devi Shrine (Board) at Katra, India he attempted to marry tradition with technology resulting in a significant up gradation of processes and facilities at the Holy Shrine.

Rohit Kansal has been trained at the London school of Economics, the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata and the Thapar University in Punjab, India. He is a fellow of the India leadership Initiative (ILI) of the Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN), the Australia-India Institute at the University of Melbourne as well as a Chevening Gurukul fellow. He has been invited as an expert on renewable energy and energy access by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and has served as a Sherpa in the UN Secretary-General’s High-level Group on Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL), as well as an expert in the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM). In February 2014, he spent 8 weeks at the Australia-India Institute looking closely at the challenges facing the scalability of the decentralised energy-access models in energy poor areas around the world. Besides renewable energy, he has also published case studies and newspaper articles on administrative and strategic issues. He volunteers his time and skills for a number of social causes. Widely travelled, he has been published in travel journals too. He lives with his wife and son in Jammu, India.

Dr Rajiv Kumar Economist

Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog National Institution for Transforming India

Dr. Rajiv Kumar is a leading Indian economist and has recently been appointed, the Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog by the government of India. He is the author of several books on India’s economy and national security. His latest books are Modi & His Challenges (2016), Resurgent India: Ideas and Priorities (2015) and Exploding Aspirations: Unlocking India’s Future (2014). He is a widely recognized economic columnist and a leading speaker on issues in Indian political economy.

Presently, he is: (i) Founding Director of Pahle India Foundation (PIF), Delhi; (ii) Chancellor of the Gokhale Institute of Economics and Politics (A Deemed University, Pune). PIF, a non-profit think tank focuses on facilitating economic policy change based on objective and rigorous research.

He concurrently serves as: (i) Government of India nominated Independent Director on Central

Board of the Reserve Bank of India; (ii) Member of the International Board of Management of King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center, Riyadh, chaired by the Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Petroleum and Energy; (iii) Director, Institute of Human Development, Delhi; (iv) Director, Giri Institute of Development Studies, Lucknow; (v) Independent Director on the Board of DHFL; and (vi) Member, Advisory Board of CISCO, India.

In the past he served as the Government of India nominee on the Boards of: (i) Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and Asia (ERIA) Jakarta; (ii) Central Board of the State Bank of India, Mumbai; (iii) Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi; (iv) Part Time Member, National Security Advisory Board (2006-2008); (v) Part Time Member Economics, TRAI, New Delhi (2007-2010).

Mr Jayant Krishna Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer National Skills Development Corporation NSDC India

Jayant represents the voice of industry in the skill development sector and supports various initiatives such as reforms, capacity building and operational effectiveness in NSDC’s skilling eco system. Jayant is also responsible for optimum utilization and efficient monitoring of various resources available within the organization. Jayant represents NSDC at domestic and international fora and is also the official spokesperson for NSDC.

Mr Vinay Kumar Joint Secretary (South)

Ministry of External Affairs MEA Government of India

Mr Vinay Kumar took over as Joint Secretary in charge of Southern Division in the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India in August 2017.

At the Ministry of External Affairs, he has handled the Eastern Europe and Russia desks and administrative matters. He was Joint Secretary for East & Southern Africa from 2013-15 and in-charge of India’s Africa Policy and India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) mechanism.

Mr Kumar has served in Indian missions at Tashkent (1994-95), Bishkek (1995-98), Ottawa (1998-2001), Warsaw (2003-06), Tehran (2006-09), New York (2010-13) and Kathmandu (2015-17). Has handled political, economic, educational, cultural and administrative & financial matters in these missions. Was also Charge d’ Affaires of the Indian Missions at Warsaw, Tehran and Kathmandu for extended periods.

During his tour of service at Permanent Mission of India in New York (2010-13), he was India’s Political Coordinator in the UN Security Council when India was a non-permanent member of UNSC during 2011-12. During 2013, he served as a member of the UN’s Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1992.

Mr Upendra Kushwaha Minister of State for Human Resource Development (School Education and Literacy) Government of India

Mr Upendra Kushwaha is Minister of State for Human Resource Development (School Education & Literacy) in the Government of India. He is a Member of Parliament from the Karakat Lok Sabha constituency in Rohtas district of Bihar and formerly has been a member of Rajya Sabha. He also worked as

university professor in the Department of Political Science, Samta College (currently known as Muneshwar Singh Muneshwari Samta College) since 1985.

Professor Sharon Lewin Director

Doherty Institute

Sharon Lewin is the inaugural director of the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Royal Melbourne Hospital; Professor of Medicine, The University of Melbourne; consultant infectious diseases physician, Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia; and an National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia Practitioner Fellow. She is an infectious diseases physician and basic scientist and was previously Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Alfred Hospital and Monash University (2003-2014) and co-head of the Centre for Biomdecial Research, Burnet Institute (2011-2014).

She leads a large multi-disciplinary research team that focuses on understanding why HIV persists on treatment and developing clinical trials aimed at ultimately finding a cure for HIV infection. Her other research and clinical interests include understanding how the immune system recovers following treatment of HIV and the interaction between HIV and other important co-infections including

hepatitis B virus. She is widely recognized for her innovative work in understanding how HIV hides on treatment using novel laboratory models and leading several early phase clinical trials of cancer drugs that alter HIV genes.

She was the local co-chair of the XXth International AIDS Conference (AIDS2014), the largest health conference ever held in Australia. She is a member of the council of the NHMRC and chairs the NHMRC Health Translation Advisory Committee. In 2014 she was named Melburnian of the Year.


David Littleproud was elected in July 2016 as the federal member for the electorate of Maranoa in the state of Queensland, in the lower house (House of Representatives) of the Australian Parliament. He is a member of the National Party, the main Australian political party representing rural and regional Australia. In December 2017, he was appointed the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources.

The federal electorate of Maranoa is one of the largest by area in Australia, covering 731,000 square kilometres in south-western Queensland. Its main economic industries are agriculture (cattle, sheep, grain and horticulture) and mining.

David Littleproud was born and raised in Chinchilla, rural Queensland, and comes from a political family. His father Brian Littleproud was a

member of the Queensland State Parliament (Legislative Assembly) from 1983 to 2001, serving as Minister for Education, Youth and Sport (1987-89), and Minister for Environment (1995-98), when the National Party was in government.

David Littleproud was educated at Chinchilla State High School and Toowoomba Grammar School. From 1994 to 2016 he worked in banking and finance, specialising in agribusiness banking.

David Littleproud is married to Sarah, and they have three sons: Tom, Hugh and Harry.

Mr Sajad Gani Lone Minister for Social Welfare, Science and Technology

Jammu and Kashmir Government

Mr. Sajad Gani Lone is from the State of Jammu & Kashmir, India. He did his schooling from the Burn Hall Missionary School, Srinagar, Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir, India. After graduating with BSc (Hons) in Economics from Cardiff University, UK, in the year 1986, Mr Lone dabbled with business for a few years in Dubai until he decided to join active politics in India in the year 2002.

A prolific writer Mr. Lone has authored the much debated (in India and Pakistan), document on “Achievable Nationhood”. The said document dwells at length the Kashmir issue with Pakistan, India and the people of Kashmir as Mr Lone has described in his document, as its stakeholders as also the road forward to the Kashmir issue’s lasting solution.

Mr. Lone also takes part in national TV debates in India which are centered around international relations and political affairs. His presence on prime TV channels at the national level in panel discussions has earned him the sobriquet of vociferous panelist, especially on the political issues concerning India’s stand vis-à-vis Kashmir issue.

In the year 2014, Mr Lone was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir State from the Handwara Constituency in north Kashmir after which he went on become a Cabinet Minister in the State government. As a Minister of Animal/Sheep Husbandry, Fisheries and Science & Technology Departments in his first stint, Mr. Lone has chartered several vision documents for the departments under his portfolio. His efforts in transforming the dairy and animal husbandry sectors in Jammu and Kashmir State from a non-revenue earning sector to substantial revenue earning one were widely hailed in the State.

At present Mr. Lone is a Minister in the Jammu & Kashmir government and handles the portfolios of Social Welfare and Science & Technology Departments. Mr. Lone has a dream to transform the Social Welfare Department of Jammu and Kashmir from the supposedly charity organization into an empowering organization. He is also a Renewable Energy enthusiast with passion for development of solar & small hydro power sectors and has a fixed a target for himself to make the state of Jammu & Kashmir self sufficient in energy through large scale intervention of solar and small hydro power energy.

Professor Amitabh Mattoo Co-Chair Australia India Leadership Dialogue Honorary Director Australia India Institute @ Delhi

Professor Mattoo is a Professor of Disarmament Studies at the Centre for International Politics, Organisation and Disarmament at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.

He is also the honorary Director at Aii@Delhi and honorary Professor of International Relations in the Faculty of Arts, University of Melbourne.

Professor Mattoo is currently the Advisor to the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir with the status of a Cabinet Minister.

Professor Mattoo has been the CEO and Inaugural Director of the Australia India Institute (2011-2015), a Member of the National Knowledge Commission, a high-level advisory group to the Prime Minister of India and the National Security Council’s Advisory Board. He was the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Jammu from 2002-2008. He received his Doctorate from the University of Oxford and has been a visiting Professor

at Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, the University of Illinois, and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Paris. He has published extensively including eight books and more than a hundred articles. He was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian awards, for his contribution to education and public life.

Ms Sheba Nandkeolyar National Chair, Australia India Business Council

Board Member, Australia India Council

Sheba Nandkeolyar is the National Chair of the Australia India Business Council (AIBC) and a board member of the Australia India Council. She actively advises Government and Industry on trade and business matters pertaining to India and Asia. She promotes bi-lateral business and trade, and people-to-people connections between Australia and India.

Sheba is on the forefront of organising trade missions to and from India and other Asian countries. Sheba accompanied Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott in his historic visit to India in 2014. She was also actively involved in the business leaders address by visiting Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, in November 2014.

Sheba set up the AIBC Women in Business Chapter with the purpose of actively linking women in business across Australia and India.

Sheba previously held CEO positions with the McCann World Group, Interpublic, and the WPP Group.

She set up her own company in 2006 and is today an accomplished Australian Indian business woman. She is CEO and Co-Founder of MultiConnexions, a leading Australian integrated marketing and advertising services company and CEO Founder of Global Connexions, a leading global marketing and cross-cultural services company as well as President and Chair of India HR. She is a Board Member of the International Advertising Association - Australia Chapter (IAA).

Sheba was recently awarded the IAA Inspire Champion Award – an International Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Global Communications by IAA in London.

Senator the Hon James McGrath Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Government of Australia

James grew up on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, where his family had been growing sugar cane for many generations around Bli Bli and Yandina.

After finishing school, James completed a Bachelor of Commerce/Laws at Griffith University and went on to complete a Master of Laws at Queensland University of Technology.

In 1996 he started work as a Solicitor at Bennett Carroll and Gibbons in Brisbane, before taking on the role as Investigating Officer for the Queensland Parliamentary Ombudsman.

In 2001 James took a new path, and started work as a Ministerial Advisor for the South Australian Government. With politics in his blood, James found his niche and never looked back.

Since then, James has worked on political campaigns around Australia and overseas. He was instrumental in the campaign to elect Boris Johnson the Mayor of London and he was the National Presidential Campaign Director for the Maldivian Democratic Party in 2008.

In 2010 James returned to Queensland as the State Campaign Director for the Liberal National Party (LNP). In 2012, the Queensland LNP won the state election in a landslide.

In 2013 James put himself forward as a candidate for the Australian Senate. In September of that year he was elected as a Liberal National Party Senator for Queensland. He took up the position in July 2014 and has based his office in Nambour, on the Sunshine Coast.

In 2015 Senator McGrath was appointed the Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister in the Turnbull Ministry and in 2016 he was appointed the Assistant Minister for Regulatory Reform.

He also briefly served as the Assistant Minister to the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection.

When he is not in Canberra or travelling around Queensland, James spends as much time as possible at his home in Warwick on the Southern Downs region of Queensland.

Ambassador Gopalaswami Parthasarathy Indian Diplomat and Author

Born on May 13, 1940, Mr. Gopalaswami Parthasarathy is a career Foreign Service Officer who retired from Service on May 31, 2000. Prior to his entry to the Indian Foreign Service Mr. Parthasarathy was a Commissioned Officer in the Indian Army (1963-1968), after having graduated with a B.E. Degree in Electrical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy, Madras in 1962 He has served as Ambassador of India to Myanmar, 1992-95, High Commissioner of India to Australia 1995-98, High Commissioner of India to Pakistan 1998-2000 and High Commissioner of India, Cyprus 1990-92. He also served in Indian Missions abroad as Second/First Secretary, Embassy of India, Moscow (1969-1973), Deputy High Commissioner to Tanzania (1974-1976), Counsellor, (Political and Press), Embassy of India, Washington D.C., (1978- 1981); and Consul General of India, Karachi (1982-1985).

In New Delhi, Mr. Parthasarathy was Deputy Secretary in the Foreign Secretary’s Office (1976-1978). He has served as Spokesman, Ministry

of External Affairs and Information Adviser and Spokesman in the Prime Minister’s Office with Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi (1985-90). He has been a member of Indian Delegations in several international conferences including summits at United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement and SAARC.

Mr. Parthasarathy is presently Visiting Professor in the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi. He is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Centre for Air Power Studies in New Delhi. He was a Member of the Government of India’s Task Force to Review National Security Structures in India. His main areas of interest are developments in India’s neighbourhood and issues of economic integration, energy and national security and terrorism. Ambassador Parthasarathy is a widely read Columnist, writing for a number of newspapers and news agencies in India and abroad on foreign policy and national security issues. He is on the Panel of Experts from India for Track 2 Dialogue with ASEAN and a Director of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation.

Professor Ila Patnaik Professor, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy

Dr Ila Patnaik serves as a professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, New Delhi. Prior to this, she was the Principal Economic Advisor to the Government of India. Other former positions include Non-Resident Senior Associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and regular columnist at the Indian Express. She holds a BA (Economics) from Delhi University, an MA (Economics) from Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a Ph.D.(Economics) from the University of Surrey. Her research interests include international macroeconomics, finance and emerging economy business cycles. Her research on these topics has been published in scholarly journals such as the Journal of International Money and Finance, the World Bank Economic Review, International Finance, and in collected volumes.

Dr Patnaik served on various working groups and task forces of the Ministry of Finance, such as those on taxation of financial products, and those to create agencies, including the independent Public Debt Management Agency, the Resolution Corporation, the Financial Redress Agency and the Financial Data Management Centre.

Mr Hardeep Singh Puri Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs

Government of India

Hardeep Singh Puri was inducted into the Council of Ministers, Government of India, as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Housing and Urban Affairs on 3 September, 2017.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs is the apex authority of Government of India at the national level to formulate policies, sponsor and support programme, coordinate the activities of various Central Ministries, State Governments and other nodal authorities and monitor the programmes concerning all the issues of housing and urban affairs in the country.

The Ministry is the part of the government where three of the Prime Minister’s flagship programmes are anchored – Swachh Bharat Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana and Smart Cities. These programmes are bold and ambitious and when implemented, individually and collectively, will have a transformative effect and involve a paradigmatic shift.

He has had a distinguished four-decade career in diplomacy spanning the multilateral arena, having held Ambassadorial posts in London, Brazil and as India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in both Geneva (2002-2005) and New York (2009-2013). He is one of the few Indians to preside over the United Nations Security Council and the only one to have chaired its Counter-terrorism Committee. He served as Vice President at the International Peace Institute and as Secretary-General of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism in New York.

He is the author of the book ‘Perilous Interventions: The Security Council & The Politics of Chaos, a Harper Collins publication (September 2016).

Mr Girish Ramachandran President, Asia Pacific Tata Consultancy Services

Girish Ramachandran is President, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Asia Pacific, responsible for business operations in 12 countries in the regions of Australia & New Zealand, ASEAN, Greater China and Korea. Girish is based in Singapore, the Headquarters of TCS Asia Pacific, where he oversees over 25,000 employees covering the region.

Girish joined TCS in 1994 and has held a number of key portfolios in the organization. Prior to TCS Asia Pacific, he served as Corporate Vice President in the CEO’s office at TCS House in Mumbai, where he was responsible for global strategic business initiatives. Before that, he was Head of TCS Europe (9 years), and TCS Middle East, Africa and Mediterranean (2 years), where he grew the business multifold and was instrumental in developing many key customer relationships with leading global brands. Other roles have included Head of TCS Business Intelligence Practice worldwide as well as Executive Sponsor of numerous global customer relationships.

Girish serves on a number of executive boards, including at the Europe-India Institute and International Business Foundation Amsterdam, Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industries’ Benelux chapter, and is a board member of Kooh Sports.

Girish holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Technology from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, and a Master’s degree in Management from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. He is a recipient of the Frans Banninck Cocq Medal from the Mayor of Amsterdam. He is a frequent guest lecturer at universities across Europe and Asia Pacific.

Mr Jang Bahadur Sangha Managing Director

Sangha Group

Mr Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha is the Director of Sangha Group based in the state of Punjab in India. The state is also known as food bowl of India for its high agricultural output and inclination towards world class agricultural technologies.

The Sangha group has been the largest producer of seed and table potatoes in Asia since 40 years. It is located at Jalandhar in the state of Punjab, an area known for the highest quality of seed production in India. The group is producing over 55,000 tons of high quality potato seed annually which is the largest volume produced by a single group in India. The disease-free seed potatoes are produced under a limited generation seed program on an area of about 5000 acres in Punjab which is leased from farmers. In addition to potato, Sangha group is one of the major producers of maize in the country.

Mr. Sangha, has a Bachelor’s Degree in Agriculture (Honours) from Punjab Agricultural University, India & a Master of Science degree from Cornell University, USA in Fruit & Vegetable Science with specialization in Biotechnology based seed-potato production. He is a renowned businessman & a progressive farmer who sits on various Boards in advisory capacity.

Lt. Gen (Retd) Ravi Sawhney Dean – Centre for Defence Studies Vivekananda International Foundation

Lt Gen Ravi Sawhney retired as the Deputy Chief of the Army Staff. He is a post graduate in Defence and Security Planning from the Royal College of Defence Studies, London prior to which he attended Defence Services Staff College at Wellington and Long Defence Service Management Course at the College of Defence Management, India.

He has commanded an Infantry Battalion, Division and a Corps during his military career and subsequently served as the Director General of Military Intelligence. During the Army service of approximately 40 years, he has held important appointments in staff and command of different combat units and field formations including 4 corps in Assam. Duties encompassed management and planning for different types of situations in varied terrain conditions with special emphasis on counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations. He was involved in conceptual development of strategies at senior levels as the Director of Military Intelligence and was subsequently responsible for the overall coordination of the deployment

of Indian Army troops at various UN missions as a Deputy Chief of Army Staff. He has been awarded the PVSM and AVSM for exceptional devotion to his duties.

Post retirement, he was deputed by the Government of India to monitor the situation in Afghanistan, a country which he has visited every year since 2002. Considered an area specialist on this country, he has shared his thoughts and indepth knowledge of Afghan crisis as well as other strategic issues with a number of think tanks and in different seminars, the world over.

He is presently a Dean of Defence Studies in Vivekananda International Foundation, an important ‘think tank’ in New Delhi, comprising retired senior officers of Armed Forces, diplomats, intelligence officers and civil servants. He has been associated with this prestigious institution since its inception in 2009.

Mr Ashvini Shekhar Managing Director

Global Pacific Nominees Pty Ltd

Ashvini Shekhar is founder and CEO of Ascent Yarns, a leading speciality yarns manufacturer with operations in Australia, Sri Lanka and India. Ascent has pioneered new technology to provide global fashion houses with branding and security solutions. Ascent is the world’s largest supplier of yarns for branding and the first company to recycle plastic waste to make woven labels. Ashvini, an engineer by training, has also successfully started and exited businesses in renewable energy and consumer electronics. Outside work, Ashvini is a husband, a father, and a student of Buddhism.

Mr Greg Sheridan AO Foreign Editor The Australian

Greg Sheridan AO, The Australian’s foreign editor, is the most influential foreign affairs commentator in Australia. He is the author of six books on international relations and has been foreign editor since 1992. He entered journalism in 1979 as a staff writer for The Bulletin and joined The Australian newspaper in 1984 as an editorial writer and in 1985 was appointed the paper’s first ever Beijing correspondent. After postings to Washington and Canberra he took up the position of Foreign Editor in 1992.

Greg Sheridan’s work has appeared in newspapers and journals around the world, including the Sunday Times, The Wall Street Journal, the South China Morning Post, the Jakarta Post and the Hindustan Times. In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary of Federation medal by the Australian Government for services to journalism. In 2015 he was appointed as an Officer in the Order of Australia.

Sheridan has interviewed Presidents and Prime Ministers in the Republic of Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, New Zealand and Israel, and cabinet secretaries and vice presidents in China, the United States and numerous countries in the Middle East and Europe. He is a frequent commentator on TV and radio and a sought after speaker at regional conferences. His work has been anthologised in many books and has been translated into many other languages.

Greg has written six books, most of them on Asian politics and foreign affairs. His most recent book is a memoir, When We Were Young and Foolish, and he has a new book scheduled for publication in September.

Her Excellency Harinder Sidhu High Commissioner of Australia to India Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Government of Australia

Harinder Sidhu is Australia’s High Commissioner to India. She also holds non-resident accreditation to the Kingdom of Bhutan.

Ms Sidhu is a career officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Her most recent role was as head of the Multilateral Policy Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. There, she was responsible for relationships with the UN and UN agencies, the UN Security Council and the Commonwealth, as well as for issues such as human rights, climate change and people smuggling.

Ms Sidhu has held several senior roles in government, most recently as a Division Head in the Department of Climate Change (2008 – 2013). Ms Sidhu was Assistant Director-General in the Office of National Assessments from 2004. Between 1999 and 2004, she worked in senior economic and defence adviser roles in the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

Ms Sidhu began her career as a diplomat with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, where she was posted to Cairo, Damascus and Moscow. She holds degrees in Economics and Law from the University of Sydney.

Senator the Hon Lisa Singh Australian Senate for Tasmania Australian Labor Party

Lisa Singh was first elected to the Australian Senate in 2010, representing the state of Tasmania. She was re-elected for a second term at the 2016 Federal election.

During her term in the Senate Lisa has served as the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney-General and the Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment, Climate Change and Water.

Lisa is considered the first woman of South Asian descent to be elected to the Australian Parliament. She follows in the political footsteps of her grandfather Ram Jati Singh, a member of the Fijian Parliament in the 1960s.

As the only person of Indian origin in the Australian parliament, she has continued to build Australia’s relationship with India. She participated in the Australia-India Leadership Dialogue in New Dehli in 2015, the Lowy Institute’s Australia-India Roundtables in 2012

and 2014, and the Australia-India Youth Dialogue. Also in 2012 she was caucus liaison for the Gillard Labor Government’s engagement in the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper. She has visited India several times on issues including foreign affairs, aid and development, human rights, environment, energy and workplace health and safety.

In 2014, the President of India awarded her a Pravasi Bharatiya Samman award for her exceptional and meritorious public service as a person of Indian heritage in fostering friendly relations between India and Australia.

Lisa has a long history in advocacy for human rights and international development. She is a member of the Australian TB Caucus and the Asia-Pacific TB Caucus. She is also co-chair of the Parliamentary Friendship Groups of UNICEF and for HIV/AIDS, Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmitted Infections.

In 2016 Lisa was seconded to the United Nations General Assembly in New York as a delegate from the Australian parliament. While attending the UN Lisa engaged with the Refugee Summit, Sustainable Development Goals, and Women’s Empowerment.

In 2016 Senator Singh was appointed as a Member of the International Board of Advisors for the Centre for India Australia Studies (CIAS) at O.P. Jindal Global University in New Dehli.

Prior to being elected to the Australian Senate, Lisa served in the Tasmanian Parliament as a Labor Member for Denison from 2006 to 2010 and was a Minister in the Tasmanian Labor Government from 2008.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours, a Masters of International Relations and was ‘Hobart Citizen of the Year’ in 2004.

Dr Harsha Vardhana Singh Executive Director Brookings India

Dr. Harsha Vardhana Singh has worked for over three decades on international trade policy, development, infrastructure regulation and global governance. He is Executive Director, Brookings India, and Senior Fellow of the Council on Emerging Market Enterprises (Fletcher School). Dr. Singh was Deputy Director-General at World Trade Organization for eight years till 30th September 2013. His direct areas of responsibility included trade in agriculture, services, trade and environment, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, and electronic commerce.

In India, Dr. Singh was economic advisor and then secretary of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. Earlier, from mid-1985 he worked in GATT/WTO Secretariat for twelve years. He has taught at SIPA (Columbia University), Fletcher School (Tufts University), and Nan Kai University in China; been Senior Associate at International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Senior Fellow at International Institute

for Sustainable Development (IISD), member of Global Agenda Council on Trade and FDI 2014-2016 (WEF), chair/member of high level policy committees, chair of WTO dispute settlement panels, and visiting faculty at research institutes on trade and regulation. He is a Ph.D. in Economics from Oxford University, where he went as a Rhodes Scholar from India.

Dr Shubnum Singh Dean Education MIHER

Max Institute of Health Education and Research

Dr. Shubnum is an alumnus of Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi and has 38 years of experience in the medical profession ranging from a Pathologist, Allergist, and Administrator to Health care Policy Framework and Strategy.

A founder member of Max Healthcare Institute Ltd. She has been actively involved in strategizing and developing different verticals of the business. As CEO of Max Institute of Health Education & Research, she was actively engaged in developing the educational and skilling vertical for the group. Currently as Advisor Healthcare Framework she provides strategic guidance to the group in various projects.

As a pivotal member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Healthcare Council for the last 15 years she has spearheaded, and led numerous initiatives and interventions that positively impact the healthcare sector at large. These include multi-stakeholder policy deliberations, developing and building strong industry linkages on pricing of healthcare services in India, Health insurance and reimbursements mechanisms, remodelling higher

medical education, catalysing public private partnership opportunities as well as skilling of healthcare/paramedical workers in India.

She is a founder member of the Healthcare Sector Skill Council (HSSC) and Life Sciences Sector Skills Development Council which create a robust and vibrant eco-system for quality vocational skill development in the Healthcare space in India.

As a Clinical Allergist her vision is to grow the discipline, build research capabilities within the scientific community in India by jointly conducting epidemiological research on childhood food allergy and atopy prevalence with Indian and overseas bodies.

She is a Life Member of the South Asia Association of Allergy, Asthma, Clinical Immunology (SAAAACI), Indian College of Allergy, Asthma & Applied Immunology (ICAAAI), American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (AAAAI), Indian Academy of Allergy (IAA) & European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI).

Dr Shashi Tharoor Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Author and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs

Dr Shashi Tharoor is an award-winning author of 16 books of fiction and non-fiction, including The Great Indian Novel, Pax Indica: India and the World of the 21st Century and the latest An Era of Darkness: The British Empire in India. He has won numerous literary awards, including a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. A second-term Member of Parliament representing Thiruvananthapuram, and Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, he has served as Minister of State for Human Resource Development and for External Affairs in the Government of India. During his nearly three-decade long career at the United Nations, he served as a peacekeeper, refugee worker, and administrator at the highest levels, serving as Under-Secretary General during Kofi Annan’s leadership.

Vicki Thomson is the Chief Executive of the Group of Eight, taking up the role in January 2015.

Prior to this role she was Executive Director of the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN).

Ms Thomson’s diverse background covers print and electronic journalism, politics, issues management and the higher education sector. She has an extensive media, political and policy background and was Chief of Staff to a South Australian Premier.

She is a Board member of the European Australian Business Council and is a member of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Steering Group.

She is a former Board member of the Australia-China Business Council. She is also a member of MS Research Australia’s Leadership Council, a small national group of people intended to help keep MS Research Australia’s strategy contemporary and relevant. This passion is driven by her own personal experience of having a sister with the debilitating disease.

She has extensive experience in building relationships between business, industry and universities, and supporting increased access to university for people from all backgrounds.

In 2016 she was named in The Australian Newspaper’s Top 30 most influential people in Higher Education.

Ms Vicki Thomson Chief Executive

Group of Eight Universities

Professor Yogesh Tyagi (LLM, Columbia University; MPhil and PhD, JNU) is Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University. He is Member of l’Institut de Droit International; General Assembly, ICCR; International Advisory Panel, American Law Institute. He is on Editorial Boards of Chinese Journal of International Law (Oxford) and Human Rights and International Legal Discourse (Brussels).

He was Dean, Faculty of Law, South Asian University; Dean, School of International Studies, JNU; Director, Human Rights Teaching and Research Centre, JNU; Professor, City University of Hong Kong; Member, Law Commission of India; Director, Research Centre, The Hague Academy of International Law; Executive Editor, Indian Journal of International Law.

He held visiting appointments at London School of Economics, Max Planck Institute for International Law, University of Tokyo, East China University, University of Georgia at Athens, etc. Besides his book, The UN Human Rights Committee (Cambridge University Press), he published in British Yearbook of International Law, Cambridge Journal of International Law, Journal of World Trade, Michigan Journal of International Law, Social Science and Medicine, Texas International Law Journal, etc.

Professor Yogesh Tyagi Vice Chancellor University of Delhi

Shankar Vanavarayar is an inspired educationist, business and organization leader, a spirited patron of arts, history and heritage, and a successful entrepreneur. In a highly dynamic and diversified professional career spread over 15 years he has held leadership positions in businesses, education institutions, social development organizations and programs within The Sakthi Group, and in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

As President/Jt Correspondent of Kumaraguru college of Technology, a premier institution founded in the year 1984, KCT is committed to provide quality Education and Training in Engineering and Technology to prepare students for life and work equipping them to contribute to the technological, economic and social development of India.

Also as a president of Suddha Sanmarga Nilayam Institutions, established in 1951, with over 5000 Students enrolled, the nilayam has 15 institutions and situated in Neyveli road, Vadaloor, Suddha Sanmarga Nilayam is dedicated to proliferate and follow the values upheld by Vallalar Ramalinga

Adigalar and Mahatma Gandhiji to attain spiritual perfection, wisdom, education and to render service to humanity. O.P.R. Memorial Educational Institutions are synonymous with spiritual based quality education. Shankar aims at transforming the Indian higher education system through path-breaking reforms in governance, learner-centric academic programs and infrastructure, research & innovation oriented industry partnership, international collaboration among others. Shankar has led strategy, events and policy making within Yi and the national level in areas such as higher education, entrepreneurship, family business and skill building in CII.

Shankar has a proven track record in building teams, strategic planning, managing programs and operations in multiple domains spanning business (automotive, financial services, agri-foods, retail), education (arts, science & technology), culture and heritage, community and social development, international youth affairs, cross-national institutions and alliances etc.

Shankar Vanavarayar Executive Director

Kumaraguru College of Technology

As the National Chairman of Young Indians (YI) in 2011-2012, Shankar played a key role in the creation of the Commonwealth Asia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAAYE). He also led Indian delegations and has represented India as the Global Young Leader in the BOAO Forum in Hong Kong (2011) and China (2012) and has delivered keynote speeches at the Commonwealth Business Forum London, CHOGM Perth summit (2011), G20 France, and Aspen Institute Seminar, Italy (2010).

Shankar is a Fellow of The Aspen Institute’s, Aspen Global Leadership Network- Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellowship and looks at personal transformation as an integral ingredient to impacting change in the larger world.

He is also passionate about the heritage of the land and works for the cause of preservation through INTACH. He founded The Vanavarayar Foundation to work in the areas of history, architecture, culture and heritage.

Ram Madhav Varanasi has been the Member of the National Executive and in charge of the media and public relations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

Presently, he has been appointed as the National General Secretary of the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).

Ram Madhav Varanasi Board of Directors India Foundation

Mr Varghese took up his position as the fourteenth Chancellor at The University of Queensland on 11 July 2016.

Prior to this appointment Mr Varghese was Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 3 December 2012 to 1 July 2016. His diplomatic appointments include High Commissioner to India (2009-12), High Commissioner to Malaysia (2000-02) and postings to Tokyo, Washington and Vienna.

From 2004-09, Mr Varghese was Director General of the Office of National Assessments, a statutory office which reports directly to the Prime Minister and also coordinates the Australian intelligence community. In 2003, Mr Varghese was the senior international adviser in the office of Prime Minister John Howard. He also headed up the international division of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 1998-99.

In 1996-97, Mr Varghese headed up the secretariat which drafted Australia’s first White Paper on foreign and trade policy.

Mr Varghese was appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) in 2010 for distinguished service to public administration, particularly in leading reform in the Australian intelligence community and as an adviser in the areas of foreign policy and international security. He was awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa by The University of Queensland in July 2013 in recognition of his distinguished service to diplomacy and Australian public service.

In October 2016 Mr Varghese took up the position of non-Executive Director on the Board of AMP.

Mr Varghese is a graduate and university medalist in history from The University of Queensland. He is married to Margaret Varghese. They have one adult son and a grandson.

Mr Peter Varghese AO Chancellor The University of Queensland

Ambassador Anil Wadhwa has been a member of the Indian foreign service from July 1979 till May 2017. In this 37-year career with the Indian foreign service he has been ambassador of India to Italy & San Marino, Thailand, Oman and Poland & Lithuania and has served in Hong Kong, Beijing (twice), Permanent Mission of India in Geneva and worked on deputation with the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons in The Hague where he headed their media and public affairs and government relations branches.

Ambassador Wadhwa was head of the East Europe division in the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi and looked after relations with Russia and Eastern European countries. As Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs he oversaw relations with ASEAN, South East Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, the GCC, Middle East and West Asia. He has attended a host of international conferences and was Indian delegate to the conference on disarmament in Geneva, first committee in New York as well as to the ASEAN, ASEM, ADMM, and small island states

meetings like FIPIC. Ambassador Wadhwa has contributed to a number of articles on foreign policy, disarmament and international security. He is fluent in Chinese and knows French. His wife ambassador Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa has also been the Indian ambassador to Japan, Qatar, Sweden and Latvia.

Ambassador Anil Wadhwa Former Senior Diplomat

Government of India

Penny is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

Penny was born in Malaysia and moved to Adelaide with her family as an eight year old where she now lives with her partner and their two daughters.

Before entering politics Penny worked for a union, as a ministerial adviser in the NSW Labor Government, and as a lawyer.

Penny was elected to the Senate in 2001 and took her seat in 2002.

Following the election of the Labor Government in 2007 Penny was appointed the Minister for Climate Change and Water and later served as Minister for Finance and Deregulation.

In 2013 Penny was appointed Leader of the Government in the Senate. After the change of Government she was appointed Leader of the Opposition in the Senate. Penny is the first woman to hold both these roles.

Senator the Hon Penny Wong Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Australian Labor Party

Observers

Dr Karen Barker has over ten years’ experience working in Australia’s international higher education sector. She is currently Executive Manager and Senior Adviser Engagement at the Australia India Institute, based at the University of Melbourne. She has held senior roles in the University of Melbourne’s international portfolio since the first Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International) was appointed in 2006, most recently leading the team of International Relations Advisers in the International Relations Office.

She has a professional background as a government solicitor with expertise in contract law and negotiation. She holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Australian National University, and a PhD and a Master in Tertiary Education Management from the University of Melbourne.

Dr Karen Barker Executive Manager and Senior Advisor Engagement Australia India Institute

Dr Matthew Brown has worked in Higher Education in academic and professional roles for 15 years, both in Australia and Europe. He is committed to advancing the understanding of the national benefits that a world class university system can deliver and in developing policy solutions that support this.

He is currently the Deputy Chief Executive of the Group of Eight Universities taking up the role in May 2016 after having been Senior Director, Policy at the Group of Eight since September 2015.

As part of his role at the Go8 he has been centrally involved in the establishment of the Westpac – Go8 STEM PhD trial that commenced in 2017.

Dr Brown’s background includes a PhD in Pure Mathematics (Combinatorics and Finite Geometry) from a Group of Eight university - the University of Adelaide - and research positions at the University of Adelaide, the University of Western Australian and Ghent University, Belgium.

He has also worked at the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN) in research policy and as the Director of Australia’s first Doctoral Training Centre (in Mathematics and Statistics).

Dr Matthew Brown Deputy Chief Executive

Group of Eight Universities Australia

Dr Alex Davis is from Hobart, Australia, where he studied history and international relations at the University of Tasmania. He became particularly interested in colonial history and its effects on contemporary politics, especially in India. He moved to the University of Adelaide to pursue a PhD, studying India’s relationship with the English-speaking world. After completing, he worked at the University of Johannesburg, studying the colonial foundations of the discipline of international Relations across India

and the ‘Old Commonwealth’. With La Trobe University and the Australia-India Institute, he is focused on viewing Indian foreign policy through its states, viewing them as international political spaces with unique histories, identities and perspectives on international affairs.

Dr Alexander Davis New Generation Network Scholar Australia India Institute / La Trobe University

Karen Day is a distinguished malaria geneticist dedicated to improving global health using her scientific training. Born in Melbourne, she was educated at the University of Melbourne and completed her PhD studies at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. She had the “life changing” opportunity of studying the public health problems of Papua New Guineans as a young postdoctoral researcher. This experience led her to strengthen her computational biology training as applied to public health at Imperial College and the University of Oxford.

She has had a diverse career as a scholar and academic administrator in both science and medicine in the UK, US and Australia. Highlights include being recruited to University of Oxford in 1993 where she was soon promoted to Professor for her scholarship and leadership. She was appointed Fellow of Hertford College becoming one of the

few women “dons” in science at Oxford. In 2004 Professor Day moved to New York University School of Medicine where she held several senior academic administrative roles including Chair of the Department of Medical Parasitology; Director of the Institute of Urban and Global Health, and Director of a Masters Program in Global Public Health. She joined the University of Melbourne in 2014 as Dean of Science to lead Australia’s premier Science Faculty. In addition, she continues to run a malaria research group based in the Bio21 Institute and School of BioSciences.

Professor Day is an expert on higher education as well as malaria. She is passionate about science and solving problems in global health.

Professor Karen Day Dean, Faculty of Science

The University of Melbourne

Fiona is responsible for UNSW’s International, Marketing & Communications Service. As Vice-President, Fiona leads this evolving service, supporting the President and Vice Chancellor to deliver UNSW’s 2025 Strategic Plan and providing leadership across the following areas:

• Recruitment of future students to UNSW full degree and alliance programs, ensuring UNSW becomes ‘Australia’s Global University’

• Development of strategic international partnerships

• Strengthening of the University’s branding, communications and marketing strategy

Graduating from the University of Glasgow in 1990, Fiona worked for a progressive family business, Betty’s & Taylors of Harrogate, becoming the company’s youngest Director.

In 2004, Fiona took on the challenge of developing a commercial and customer service strategy for Historic Scotland’s network of properties.

Before joining UNSW, Fiona moved to her alma mater to shape a new portfolio at the University of Glasgow. In 2012 Fiona became Pro-Vice Chancellor, International at UNSW.

Ms Fiona Docherty Vice-President for External Relations University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Professor Simon Evans was appointed as the University’s first Pro Vice-Chancellor (International) in 2010, with primary responsibilities to provide:

• high-level strategic support to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in leading the international portfolio

• oversight of the International Relations Office and

• high-level international representation.

As PVCI, among other things, he has led development of the University’s international strategies and implementation plans; prosecuted development of international relationships, particularly in Asia; provided high level strategic and operational advice on partnerships, projects and proposals across all domains of University activity; and served on the Alumni Council and the Campaign Asia Advisory Board.

He is a full Professor in the Melbourne Law School where he served as Deputy Dean, Director of Teaching and Director of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. He has held ARC Discovery Project grants, including one as sole investigator, and has published widely in the top journals in his field, in Australia and internationally. He has been a finalist in national teaching awards.

Professor Simon Evans Pro Vice-Chancellor (International)

and Professor, Melbourne Law School The University of Melbourne

Brigid Freeman is a research associate with the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne specializing in international comparative research focused on higher education, vocational education and training, and internationalisation. Brigid has undertaken research regarding science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) policies and programs globally, and humanities research in the Asia region. Brigid has presented her research to international forums in India, Australasia, the United States, Japan, China and the United Kingdom. She has consulted for UNESCO on international systems for university admissions, and Australasian universities regarding institutional policymaking and delegations.

Brigid was a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and American Council of Education. She has a Masters of Education Policy (International) and is completing a PhD exploring institutional policy in Australian universities.

Ms Brigid Freeman Research Associate Australia India Institute

Dr Amanda Gilbertson is Lecturer in Youth and Contemporary India at the Australia India Institute, University of Melbourne. She has DPhil in Anthropology from the University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Prior to joining the Aii, she was a McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Amanda’s research interests lie in the anthropology of

class, gender and youth in urban India. Her current projects explore the gender justice work of young people in Delhi, reporting on gendered violence in Indian print media, and equity in the Indian education system. Her book Within the Limits: Moral Boundaries of Class and Gender in Urban India was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Dr Amanda Gilbertson Lecturer in Youth and Contemporary India

Australia India Institute

Meenakshi Gopinath is Founder and Director WISCOMP, an initiative begun in 1999 to promote the leadership of South Asian women in the areas of international politics, peace, security and diplomacy. In addition to her work on education, her research and publications also focus on issues of security, peacebuilding, gender and politics.

Meenakshi envisions WISCOMP as a pulsating centre of engagements with efforts to build and sustain Cultures of Peace at local, national, regional, and global levels. WISCOMP’s partnerships with schools and colleges in training young people into a new vocabulary of leadership and active coexistence through the education and civil society space in several parts of the country, reflects this aspiration.

Dr. Gopinath has piloted and fostered confidence building measures through regular conflict transformation workshops and collaborative projects among intellectuals of the SAARC region and especially between young Pakistani and Indians. An innovative

program in Kashmir, which networks and trains women and youth and peacebuilding developed by her is acknowledged as an adaptable model for sustained dialogue in areas of conflict. Meenakshi Gopinath is a member of multi-track peace initiatives such as the longest sustaining Track II Neemrana Initiative, between India and Pakistan and the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy and the Chaophraya Dialogue.

Meenakshi has written and lectured extensively on issues of Conflict Transformation, Peace building and Education for Peace in South Asia and internationally.

The first woman to serve on the National Security Advisory Board of India (2004 – 2006), Meenakshi sought to mainstream gender and human security concerns. She serves on the governing boards of research institutes, think tanks, NGOs and educational institutions and has developed programs and curricula for educating for peace, in universities, colleges and schools.

Dr Meenakshi Gopinath Founder & Director Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace (WISCOMP)

Meenakshi is an active participant in national and international civil society initiatives on fostering coexistence between communities and foregrounding women’s roles in building peace. Her work in the area of enhancing excellence and equity in education spans over three decades. In recognition of her contribution to the field of women’s education and empowerment, she has received several awards including: Padma Shri Award, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Award, Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Education, Mahila Shiromani Award, Delhi Citizen Forum Award, Qimpro Platinum Standard Award for Education, Celebrating Womanhood South Asian Recognition Award for Social Harmony, International Lifetime Achievement Award – 2009 for her outstanding work in the field of justice, Equity, Peace and Progress, M. Singhvi Fellowship Award at the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies (DDMI),University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Award of Honorary Doctorate Degree for significant contribution to the education of women and the commitment to

fostering global peace through Conflict Resolution, La Trobe University, Australia, Distinguished Alumna Award, by Lady Shri Ram College for Women, for meritorious contribution in the field of Education.

She is an Honorary Adjunct Professor, La Trobe Asia, La Trobe University, Australia and Visiting Distinguished Scholar, School of Social Sciences 2015, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia.

Associate Professor Nathan Grills’s extensive international engagement has generated various international research collaborations, 37 peer reviewed journal articles 2 books and 12 book chapters. As a Public Health Physician he is involved in public health training, research and advocacy and is a regular media commentator on public health issues. Nathan’s research expertise relates to the areas of non-communicable diseases, disability inclusion, community health evaluation/monitoring, primary health care systems and understanding faith based development agencies and programs. In tobacco control Nathan has worked extensively in India to inform the development of preventative tobacco packaging interventions. In the disability field Nathan has led the implementation of the RAD tool in India. The research methods

that Nathan has utilised include realist methodologies, social network analysis, participatory methods, qualitative evaluations and large scale prevalence surveys. Nathan has supervised and hosted more than 40 students and volunteers through his research programs in India. Nathan also helped establish five health and development focused NGOs and undertakes applied research with these projects. Although India has been the focus for much of his work he has also worked in international health and development in Africa, Fiji, East Timor, PNG, Bangladesh and Nepal. Nathan obtained his MPH and DPhil at Oxford University under a Rhodes Scholarship and also completed a DPH on the impact of public health partnerships.

Dr Nathan Grills Nossal Institute for Global Health The University of Melbourne

Mr. Huber is an experienced career officer with the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). Before being appointed Consul General with Consular responsibility for Western India, Mr Huber served in a range of strategic policy roles in DFAT from 2007 to 2016 to advance Australia’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region. He was Director of India Economic and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Section 2013-2016, including through Australia’s term as IORA Chair. As Director Pacific Bilateral Section from 2007, Mr. Huber managed Australia’s sensitive relationships with 19 countries and territories, including over the 2009 Pacific Islands Forum year, which Australia chaired, and in the lead-up to Australia’s successful bid for election to the UN Security Council.

Mr. Huber earlier served overseas as Australia’s Deputy High Commissioner to Canada, in Ottawa 2003-2007 and as First Secretary at the Australian High Commission to India, New Delhi 1996-1999. He was seconded from DFAT to the US Congress Committee on Ways and Means staff in Washington DC as a policy adviser 1989-90. In Canberra, Mr. Huber was Director, Regional Trade Policy Section and as a services/investment trade negotiator on the Australia-Thailand Free Trade Agreement negotiation 2002-2003, and Director Consular Information and Crisis Management Section 2000-2002.

Mr. Huber holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Canberra and Graduate Diploma in Foreign Affairs and Trade from the Australian National University. Mr Rohit

Mr Tony Huber Australian Consul General

Mumbai

Mr Rohit Manchanda Trade & Investment Commissioner, India New South Wales Government

Manchanda has been the NSW Trade & Investment Commissioner for India since October 2009. He is responsible for attracting foreign direct investment, promoting trade and maintaining high-level government and business relationships for NSW.

Rohit’s career of over 23 years has included roles in both the public and the private sector. Prior to his current role, Rohit was the Chief Representative in India for the Mayor of London’s Office and the London Development Agency (LDA). From 2002 to 2007, Rohit worked for the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) in Mumbai and was awarded the ‘Global Austrader Award’ in 2006.

Rohit started his career in marketing roles with Jindal South West (JSW), a leading Indian steel company. He then joined Expopoint Software, specialising in software and direct marketing activities for business events.

Rohit established the Singapore office of Expopoint, leading the South-East Asian operations of the company through markets in India, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.

Rohit holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing.

Zoe McKenzie is Principal of Trade and Investment Advisory, a firm which advises Australian and international entities on their market expansion into Australia or into one of Australia’s current or future Free Trade Agreement partners.

Prior to this role, Zoe was Chief of Staff to the Hon Andrew Robb AO, former Trade and Investment Minister, where she worked on the China, Japan, South Korea and Singaporean trade deals, as well as the Trans Pacific Partnership and lead-in work on future FTAs with Europe and Indonesia. She has also held policy development roles in education, the arts and the law.

Before working in Government, Zoe practiced as a commercial lawyer in one of Australia’s largest law firms, and was a strategic adviser to the CEO of a major professional services firm.

Zoe is a board member of the Australia Council for the Arts, the French Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the University of Melbourne Humanities Foundation.

Ms Zoe McKenzie Principal

Trade and Investment Advisory

Mr Vinod Mirchandani is Deputy Director at the Australia India Institute @Delhi. He is responsible for programs, management & operations of the Institute. Vinod has over ten years of industry experience in Banking, Telecom & Travel. Vinod has been responsible for the University of Melbourne’s Engagement in India since its inception in April 2007. His role entails student recruitment, industry collaborations, student services, academic & research partnerships and alumni engagement. Vinod has a Masters in Service Management from the University of Buckingham and has completed the first year of his PhD in Marketing at the University of Melbourne.

Mr Vinod Mirchandani Deputy Director Australia India Institute @ Delhi

Brian Oldenburg is Professor of Noncommunicable Disease Control in the School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia. He researches health policy, global health and how to improve the health outcomes of low and middle income countries. He also researches new technologies and m-Health

interventions to improve health. He has long established partnerships and collaboration with India and he coordinates a public health research collaboration and exchange program between the University of Melbourne and research institutions in India, called the ENCORE program.

Professor Brian Oldenburg Chair of Noncommunicable Disease Control &

Director, Centre for Health Equity Melbourne School of Population & Global Health

University of Melbourne

Ravneet has over 24 years of experience in the International Education sector. She has been instrumental in establishing partnerships in South Asia. She has developed Australian Education collaborations specifically for Deakin University in India and has contributed to the immense success across the Region.

Currently, she manages the office of Deakin University based in New Delhi which was established 22 years ago. This was the first ever international ‘University office’ in India of any foreign University. The office has been responsible for establishing holistic engagement across Government, academia, industry and research.

The office currently manages activities including strategic partnerships, recruitment, business development, admissions, academic collaborations, research engagement graduate employment and mobility in India and South Asia region for Deakin University.

She has been instrumental in establishing over 20 strong industry / academic collaborations including the $8 million world class TERI-Deakin Nano-Bio research facility in India.

Prior to her current appointment she worked as Chief Executive Officer (South Asia and Middle East) for Education and Training Pty Ltd. She held senior management positions with IDP Education Australia, British Council and Franchise Asia, a US based company where she was responsible to establish and manage the network of offices across India for education and training purposes.

She brings with her varied international experience. She is a board member at various national and international associations and forums including the Confederation of Indian Industry, Australia India Business Council, Indian Sports Council, ANZBA to name a few.

Ms Ravneet Pawha Associate Vice President, Global and Executive Director Asia Deakin University

Harish attended Melbourne Grammar School before completing higher studies at the Australian National University (BCommerce & BScience) and Monash University (Grad Dip Asian Business, MBA (Finance)).

Harish has had extensive experience in doing business in India having been involved with the import & licensing of generic pharmaceuticals as well as setting up India’s first herbal facility approved by the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration. With a background in chartered accounting, Harish saw the opportunity in 2001 to pioneer the offshoring model for accountants in Australia and then partnered with Sundaram Business Services Limited (SBSL) in 2004 to develop the largest offshore processing centre for Self Managed Superannuation Funds. SBSL is part of the Sundaram Finance Group, a US$4billion conglomerate, based in Chennai, India. SBSL now offers a wide range of back

office financial services to Australian corporates and Harish continues as the face of the group in Australia, and through this role continues to foster the Australia-India relationship.

Harish has been very active in the Australia India space over the last 15 years, has led numerous delegations to India, and was formerly the Australia India Business Council (AIBC) National Chairman (2010 & 2011), President AIBC (Vic) 2005 – 2009 inclusive and President Australia India Chamber of Commerce (2003-2005). He was recently awarded Life Membership of the AIBC for services rendered.

Harish is currently a Patron of the Australian World Orchestra, Board Member of Friends of Asha Australia, Advisory Board Member for the India Australia Business Community Awards & Advisory Panel Member for the Australia India Institute.

Mr Harish Rao Global Head – Business Development

Sundaram Business Services

Darren Rudd is Head of Corporate Affairs and Public Policy ANZ for Tata Consultancy Services, a global leader in IT services, consulting, technology and digital solutions.

He manages the company’s corporate reputation and relationships across Australasia and has carriage of improvements in operational initiatives.

Darren has lived and worked in Hong Kong and China and his career spans management positions at AT&T, IBM and BHP. Immediately prior to joining TCS, he held lead corporate affairs roles with Australia’s largest national infrastructure company, the National Broadband Network, and operations roles at Alcatel-Lucent in Asia.

Darren is a member of the State Library of NSW Foundation Board and the advisory boards of Asia Society Australia and the Australia India Youth Dialogue. He was President of the Australian Business School (AGSM) Alumni in Sydney for eight years, and a member of the University of New South Wales Business School Alumni Advisory Board.

Mr Darren Rudd Head of Corporate Affairs Australia and New Zealand Tata Consultancy Services

Dr Indu Shahani is the President & Chair of the Indian School of Design & Innovation (ISDI), ISDI | WPP School of Communication and the Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ISME); and is the Founding Dean of ISME.

Dr Indu Shahani has been acknowledged worldwide as a visionary thought leader for her significant contribution to education and value-based leadership. She has over four decades of teaching experience at the college and university level.

Dr Indu Shahani was appointed Sheriff of Mumbai in 2008 and the one year term was extended to an additional term in 2009. Dr Shahani was also the first Indian to be appointed Vice-Chair on the Board of the Governors of the International Baccalaureate and has over a decade of experience with the IB worldwide 2001-2010.

Dr Indu Shahani has been nominated on leading boards of large national and global companies that has provided an impetus for ‘academia - industry collaborations’ the subject of her PhD from University of Mumbai.

She was awarded the Honorary Doctor of Letters degree by the University of Westminster in London on November 16, 2009. As a tribute to Dr Shahani, the University had instituted the Sheriff of Mumbai’s Scholarships for Women from Mumbai to study a Master’s programme in the years 2009 and 2010 in London.

Dr Shahani is a Visiting Faculty Member at the UC Berkeley, NYU Stern, USA and she is a Lead Speaker at various conferences in India and abroad. She has also developed many linkages for student and faculty exchanges with leading universities in USA, UK, Europe, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Dr Shahani has received many awards, prominent among them are ‘Women of the Decade Achievers Award’ by ASSOCHAM; ‘Citizen of Mumbai Award’ by Rotary Club of Bombay and ‘Excellence in Education Award’ by the FICCI FLO.

Dr Indu Shahani President and Chair

The Indian School of Management & Entrepreneurship (ISME)

Anil Snehi is the Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services, Australia and New Zealand, a global leader in IT services, consulting, technology and digital solutions.

Responsible for formulating the company’s Australasian strategy, he assumed his current role in 2016 after more than a decade at TCS’s APAC headquarters in Singapore and its ASEAN headquarters in Malaysia.

Anil joined TCS APAC in 2005 and was instrumental in transforming the regional business by focusing on acquiring and maturing large customer relationships. He led TCS APAC’s sales and large customer strategy from 2006 to 2009.

As P&L owner of TCS’s ASEAN operations, he was the architect of quantum growth in TCS’s business in South East Asia and was responsible for many strategic new business initiatives Prior to joining TCS, Anil was a manager at IT companies including Tech Mahindra (Satyam) and Mastek Limited.

Mr Anil Snehi Vice President Australia and New Zealand Tata Consultancy Services

In her current profile, her mandate is to enhance economic engagement through bilateral trade and investment between India and various countries in the two regions.

Her activities include to facilitate Indian industry to connect with stakeholders in relevant economies and understand opportunities to partner / collaborate and contribute to growth and development of the two countries.

To achieve this, she is involved in project management which includes handling visits of Head of States, organizing industry interactions, inward and outbound industry delegations, regional conclaves, trade and investment forums and summits. She also liaises with the Ministry of Commerce for trade and investment related issues of the Indian Industry.

She further facilitates industry by providing them with market insight, identifying business partners, understanding of local market requirements and in addressing their trade related issues.

Sujata has been with CII since 2006 and has worked with the organisation in various capacities. Prior to this assignment, she was the CEO of the overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) a public-private partnership between the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs set up to facilitate the Indian diaspora across the globe.

Her earlier activities included organising business exhibitions in the sectors of Defence and Aerospace, Hospitality, Space Technology, Automotive, Home Textiles, etc.

Sujata has specialised in Nutrition from Delhi University.

Ms Sujata Sudarshan Head, South East Asia and ANZ International Department

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

Arjun has extensive education, technology and commercial experience with over 28 years’ experience in senior executive and Chief Executive Officer roles. His expertise straddles strategy, business growth, international business development, marketing, technology commercialisation, business transformation, change management and sustainability. Arjun has coordinated IT project implementation and training with organisations such as: Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Covansys, IBM Global Services, Ernst & Young, Computer Science Corporation, WA Police Services, Metropolitan Fire Brigade, Telstra, Health for Aged (Australian Federal Government) & Dresdner Bank (UK) and BHP Australia. Although a third-generation educator, Arjun become a dedicated educator in 1998 after he chanced up on a research paper published in USA. It stated that when many of the near dead, or people who were thought to be dead, ‘came back to

life’ were questioned “what was their first thought when they came back to consciousness?” An amazing 87% said they wish they studied/learned more.

Arjun is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of VIT (Victorian Institute of Technology) since 1998. For more information on our courses, please visit our web site at www.vit.edu.au.

Arjun is appointed as Member of Multicultural Business Ministerial Council (MBMC) by the Baillieu Government in Victoria from 24 October 2011 to 23 October 2013 and further extended till October 2015 by Dr. Napthine Government, Arjun is also former the Chair of Export and Human Capital (Including Education) working groups of the MBMC.

Mr Arjun Surapaneni CEO Victoria Institute of Technology

Dr Mark Vicol is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney. He was awarded his PhD in human geography at the University of Sydney in 2016, for a thesis that explores the implications of contract farming for rural livelihoods and agrarian change in Maharashtra, India. Mark’s research focuses on the changing relationships between land, agriculture and rural livelihoods in South and Southeast Asia, with a particular focus on food and nutrition security. Since completing his PhD, he has been involved in research projects in Myanmar and Indonesia. He has published articles in journals

including Geoforum and the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, as well as media articles for the New Mandala. Mark is currently researching the impacts of local institutional and livelihood contexts on the uptake of high-quality diets in India, with a particular focus on the role of the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Dr Mark Vicol New Generation Network Scholar

Australia India Institute / University of Sydney

Michelle Wade is a highly experienced international trade official and has held senior diplomatic postings for the Australian government in Italy, Malaysia and Spain.

Michelle commenced her role as Commissioner to South Asia for the Victorian government based in Bangalore in September 2017. Immediately prior to this, Michelle managed the global network of offices and the Business and Skilled Migration program for the State Government of Queensland, Australia.

Michelle’s trade and investment career highlights have been around international investment in infrastructure and renewable energy, and also growing and deepening Australia’s education relationship in Spain, Italy and ASEAN region.

Michelle’s early career was in classical music management with Sydney Symphony and Queensland Symphony Orchestras throughout the 1990s. Until her departure for Bangalore,

Michelle was on the board of Musica Viva Australia, one of Australia’s major performing arts organisations and Australia’s leading provider of music education into Australian schools.

Michelle has a Bachelor of Arts from University of Queensland and Postgraduate qualifications in Applied Law (UQ) and Business Communications (QUT) and speaks Spanish and Italian.

Michelle is married with three teenage children. She grew up in the small town of Woolgoolga, home to Australia’s first Sikh community.

Ms Michelle Wade Executive Director South Asia Victoria Government Business Office Bangalore

Iain Watt has been leading The University of Western Australia’s (UWA) international engagement since 2013 when he took up his appointment as Pro Vice-Chancellor (International). Mr Watt has extensive international experience and a record of significant and successful leadership in international education.

Prior to joining UWA, he was Director of International Operations and Student Recruitment at the Australian National University (ANU), where he led international and domestic student recruitment and admissions, and was responsible for international strategic alliances and partnerships.

Mr Watt also lived and worked in Taipei for six years, and spent eight years in Beijing at the Australian Embassy. While at the embassy he held positions of Counsellor (Education) for four years and later, Minister-Counsellor (Education). In both positions he was the Australian Government’s senior education representative in China.

Mr Watt holds a Bachelor of Science (Mathematics and Statistics) from ANU and completed postgraduate studies in Chinese language, economy and culture. Mr Watt is fluent in Mandarin.

Mr Iain Watt Pro Vice Chancellor (International)

University of Western Australia

She has worked in the sphere of Education for over four decades. She specialized in a variety of fields ranging from Creative Arts, special needs, Curriculum Development and Peace Studies. She has held several posts in India and abroad, at both school and university level.

She is a recipient of the prestigious National Teachers Award 2005 from the President of India, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam and the Endeavour Award 2009 – 10, from the Australian government for her work in the area of Asia Literacy along with innumerable awards nationally and internationally. She was a member of the panel of experts at the Oslo Coalition. She was on the UNESCO committee in Geneva for education of peace and human rights.

She has conceived and produced the material for the school reforms in Continuous Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE), the Value Education Kit and Gender Manual for SCERT.

Mrs Wattal is on several expert committees both Nationally and Internationally:

Lead member of Global Education Leaders Program (G.E.L.P), 63 countries are a part of the collaboration sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, the Asian Education Foundation, ACER and CISCO.

Member, Board of Advisors for the Australia India Institute.

Member of the Council for National Council of Teacher Education.

Member of the Executive Council of NCERT, Government of India and former member, Governing Body of the Board of Central Board of Secondary Education.

Member of the Delhi School Education Advisory Board, Government of New Delhi.

Mrs Ameeta Wattal Principal Springdales School, New Delhi

Dr. Wendy Were is Executive Director, Strategic Development and Advocacy at the Australia Council for the Arts. She has wide-ranging experience in arts management and curation, with prior roles including Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Sydney Writers’ Festival; CEO of West Australian Music; and Producer at the Perth International Arts Festival.

Ms Wendy Were Executive Director of Strategic Development and Advocacy

Australian Council for the Arts

DO NOT PRINT

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

Partners

DO NOT PRINT

The Australia India Institute (Aii) is Australia’s only national centre for the study of contemporary India and the Australia-India relationship.

The Aii was founded in 2008, and is currently supported by the Commonwealth Government of Australia, the State Government of Victoria and the University of Melbourne with the University of New South Wales and La Trobe University as partners Universities.

In less than a decade, it has established itself as a place where students, academics, policymakers and business can learn about the grand challenges facing the Indo-Pacific.

The Aii is positioned to become the premier centre for the study of contemporary India globally. The Aii’s approach to the study of India and the Australia-India relationship is different from that of other organisations: it is more networked across universities, it is more reciprocal, in the sense of involving Indian collaborators, and it is more concerned with engaging outside the Academy.

AII@Delhi is a proud signature partner of the Australia India Leadership Dialogue.

AII@Delhi, the first centre of the Australia India Institute’s network to be established in India, opened in February 2015. The Institute’s plans to expand its operations to India with a centre in Delhi were announced by Australia’s prime Minister at the time, the Hon. Tony Abbott MP, during his trip to India in September 2014.

By promoting public policy dialogue and academic debate, the new centre will facilitate research partnerships and serve as a resource hub for academics, policy makers and businesses.

The AII@Delhi will work closely with the Government of India, the Australian High Commission, and Indian universities and think tanks to expand the work of the Melbourne-based Australia India Institute. The Institute is committed to deepening and enriching the strategic relationship between Australia and India, a relationship that is emerging as one of the most significant Asian partnerships of the 21st century.

Visy is a proud signature partner of the Australia India Leadership Dialogue. Visy Global Chairman, Anthony Pratt, is also the Patron of the Dialogue.

Visy is a leading, privately owned packaging and resource recovery company, with more than 120 sites across Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Vietnam and trading offices across Asia, Europe and the USA.

It also plays a major role in the India- Australia-Israel Track II Trilateral Dialogue, which seeks to improve food and water security in India.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes.

CII engages closely with Government on policy issues and interfaces with thought leaders to enhance efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a wide portfolio of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues. Extending its agenda beyond business, CII facilitates corporate initiatives for integrated and inclusive development across diverse domains.

The CII theme for 2017-18, India@75: Inclusive. Ahead. Responsible emphasizes Industry’s role in partnering Government to accelerate India’s growth and development. The focus will be on key enablers such as job creation; skill development and training; affirmative action; women parity; new models of development; sustainability; corporate social responsibility, governance and transparency.

Founded in 1895, India’s premier business association has over 8,500 members, from the private as well as public sectors, and an indirect membership of over 200,000 enterprises from around 250 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. With 67 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 11 overseas offices in Australia, Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Singapore, South Africa, UK, and USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 344 counterpart organizations in 129 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community.

At PwC Australia our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems.

We’re a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services.

DO NOT PRINT

General Info

General Info

DO NOT PRINT

The Australia India Leadership Dialogue will take place in the Lower Lobby of the Hotel Taj Mahal in the Diwaan-i-Am Room.

A help desk will be available in the foyer should you require any assistance during the day of the conference on Monday 22 January 2018.

Main Contacts for AILD:

Marianna Sarris AILD Coordinator Australia India Institute m: +61 401 098 520 e: [email protected]

Karen Barker Australia India Institute m: +61 478 403 957 e: [email protected]

Vinod Mirchandani Australia India Institute @ Delhi m: +91 98202 94705 e: [email protected]

Sujata Sudarshan CII Confederation of Indian Industry m: +91 99101 59917 e: [email protected]

Other contact details and information:

Hotel Taj Mahal Number One, Man Singh Road New Delhi India 110011 Tel: +91 11 6656 6162

Australian High Commission 1/50 G, Shantipath, Chanakyapuri New Delhi, India 110021 Tel: +91 11 4139 9900 www.india.embassy.gov.au DFAT Emergency Number + 61 2 6261 3305

Australia India Institute @ Delhi B3/70 Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi, India 110029 Tel: +91-9910404076

Australian Consulate-General (Mumbai) Plot C 38-39, Bandra Kurla Complex, Opp MCA Cricket Club, Level 10, A Wing, Crescenzo Building, G Block, Mumbai - 400 051 INDIA Tel: +91 022 6757 4900

Australian Consulate General (Chennai) 49/50L,9th Floor, Express Chambers Express Avenue Estate Whites Road Royapettah, Chennai 600014 Tamil Nadu, India Tel: +91-44 4592 1300

India’s country code is 91 For calls from India to Australia dial: 00 + 61 + area code + telephone number For calls to India from Australia dial: 0011 + 91 + area code + telephone number

Currency Indian rupee (INR) Exchange Rate: AUD $1 = 50 INR (approximately)

General Emergency in India:

112 - Emergency Helpline 100 - Police 102 - Ambulance 101 - Fire 108 - Disaster Management 181 - Women’s Helpline

Documents

January 21-23, 2018 – New Delhi, India · ties with India, Australian universities are turning to India for academic partnerships. This trend mirrors a ... central universities,