Topic 1: “Putting an Indian on the Moon seems easier than keeping an Indian street clean”

CROSSFIRE PANELISTS

Mr. M. Chandra Dathan : Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, Thiruvanathapuram
Madhavan Chandradathan is an Indian space scientist and the head of the launch authorization board of the Chandrayaan-1 space project. The Government of India honoured him, in 2014, by awarding him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for his contributions to the fields of science and technology.

Mr. Shyam Chetty : Director, National Aerospace Laboratories Ltd., Bangalore
Mr. Shyam Chetty is currently the Director at the CSIR National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore and holds additional responsibilities as Project Director of the National Control Law team for LCA and Chairman of the Systems Engineering Cluster of NAL. He has over 35 years of experience in the field of Aircraft Flight Mechanics & Control.

Dr. Damodar Tripathi : M.D of D.J Research and Consultancy
He was inscribed as prestigious Fellow, Economic Development Institute, World Bank, USA in 1983, joined as an Honorary Consultant in Reserve Bank of India’s S.R. Sen Committee, was selected as the first Indian Officer to join African Development Bank of which India is a Member since 1983. He has worked for the World Bank, ILO, FAO, UNDP, WFP, AfDB, IFAD, BADEA,OPEC Fund, Kuwait Fund, Swed Fund, AfDF as Consultant or adviser at various points of his career.

Mr. T.S. Krishnamuthy : Ex-Chief Election Commisioner of India
He is a former Indian Revenue Service officer and was the Chief Election Commissioner(C.E.C) of India (February 2004 - May 2005). His main assignment as C.E.C was to oversee the 2004 elections to the Lok Sabha.

Abdul Ghani, Social Activist
Fighting against combating Global Warming for last 6year as social activist from Chennai. Organized more than 1,200 “Save Planet Earth” events all over India. Got the Award “GEM of Tamilnadu” by Ex Deputy CM Mr. Stalin.

Topic 2: “WAS IT ALL WORTH IT?”

With an average of 1.5 million engineering students graduating per year, India seems to be a production unit of engineers. On one hand, we have students who are truly passionate about engineering and its intricacies. On the other, there are those to whom the years of study in college was just the next thing to do, before finding their true calling in life. What to pursue as a career after college is often a confusing decision. It all starts with asking the right questions. Was it all worth it? For the first time in Pragyan, an Alumni Crossfire to answer this question.

PANELISTS

Sharon Koshy : Teach for India Fellow

Shyam HN: Founder, Snowman Branding

Shankar: Head, Marketing, MindTickle. Founder, HuntShire

G.Naveen: Architect | Designer - ( Startup ) neoverge architects and planners, Trichy & Bangalore Visiting faculty at NIT-T architecture department

Sri Ram Shankar: PhD in Instrumentation and Applied physics, IISc Bangalore