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TEDxChennai stars are special invitees who have made achievements that are inspiring. You can nominate achievers below. If you have their contact details pls add them as well as it will help us contact them. A jury will decide on the achievers to invite as the TEDxChennai Stars. Just cick 'edit' and add the name below. '''Joshua Madan Samuel''' Co-founder of Covenant India , the Fastest Growing Staffing Firm in India accredited by ERA ( Executive Recruiters Association ) , Joshua is the Operations Head at Covenant. His resourcing experience in various verticals and his wide corporate network has stood Covenant in good stead with clients in India and abroad. An integral part of the Indian recruitment industry, Joshua’s skills lie in the identification of emerging industries, setting up of new systems and scaling up organizations. He is a visiting faculty in leading management schools and also juggles time as a Radio Jockey in the weekends. Joshua holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering and a Post Graduation in Management. '''Preethi Athreya ''' A Chennai-based contemporary dancer, Preethi Athreya trained in Bharatanatyam under the Dhananjayans. She holds a post-graduate degree in Dance Studies (Laban Centre, London, 2001). Preethi has been working with well-known choreographer, Padmini Chettur in Chennai since 1999. Her solo creations are Kamakshi (2003) Inhabit (2006) and Porcelain (2007). Her work has been seen at acclaimed festivals in Europe, including the Impulstanz festival in Vienna, 2009. A constant dialogue with existing form and content and possibilities of reframing them marks her approach. She is currentlyworking on a new project that questions the expressions of sorrow and loss. Preethi’s poetry in response to the paintings of Marion Lesage has been published in their collaborative book, L’Inde à fleur d’âmes by Editions La Martinière, Paris (2004). Her review of Belgian choreographer, Michel Laub’s work, Total Masala Slammer was published in the Dance Research Journal, New York, in 2004. ‘To get to know one’s own body is a meditative act. A wilful observation and acknowledgement of a particular kind of physicality that you begin to recognise. An unapologetic body – marked as much by what it knows as by what it keeps discovering.’ '''HARIPRIYA.M ''' Selected as British Council’s International Climate Champion Pursuing her Integrated Masters in Electronic Media from Anna University Chennai, she is passionate about ‘communication for development’ Hosts enrichment and social awareness shows for her college campus community radio Anna CR 90.4 MHz. Currently runs a project, training school children to script and produce radio programmes on environmental issues (Funded by CTDT, Anna University and supported by British Council’s International Climate Champion Programme) Strongly believes that media in any form, if used innovatively and sensibly, can catalyze a powerful movement towards combating climate change Fascinated by the power of the art of dramatics and street-plays '''Pavan Soni:''' Pavan Soni is an Innovation Evangelist at Wipro. He has over 20 papers and articles published on the subject in various national and international journals. Latest being at IEEE Journal on Innovation and Technology Management. He has been conferred with prestigious “On the Job Achiever” Award at Lakshya 2007 by CII at Mumbai. He is also a Visiting Faculty at some of the leading Management Institutes in India. He hosts a very popular blog- www.pavansoni.net; and is known for introducing innovative concepts such as WiCamp, Innovation Bazaar and Let Sparks Fly in India. He is a Post Graduate from NITIE Mumbai and a Gold Medalist in Electronics and Communication Engineering from MBM Engineering College Jodhpur. '''Vaijayanthi.K.M:''' Vaijayanthi KM (VJ) is the India Coordinator for Twestival, a Twitter Festival organized across the world to help raise funds for non profits and causes. She enabled Twestival Local India, which happened in six cities in September, raise over Rs.75,000 with the help of local organizers. A long time blogger, VJ is also an active volunteer organizing Startup Saturdays in Bangalore. '''Chitravina N Ravikiran''' Chitravina N Ravikiran made headlines as the world’s youngest prodigy at the age of two, in 1969. Entering the field as a vocalist at five years of age, he proceeded to playchitravina concerts by age 12. He has toured the world over many times and has been featured in several prestigious music festivals, top music labels, radio and TV networks and won numerous awards including the Presidents' Award (Govt of India), Millennium Award (Govt of UK), Harvard University Sangeet Award and Citations from City of Houston, Tulsa etc. Recognised for his novel world music concept‘Melharmony’, Ravikiran also has over 500 Indian classical compositions to his credit. '''Yotam Agam''' Yotam Agam is a co founder of EarthSync , A label, production house and home for cultural content , based in Chennai/Tel Aviv and London. The company involve in documenting and collaborating different cultures on various platforms , CD's , Films ,Live Shows , Software. In the last 6 years the comapny has produced Award winning products such as LAYA PROJECT and has been developing network for musicians and producers around the world. Yotam is from Israel , He studied Audio Engineering and production in NY In the last 20 years he has been an international traveller working on various project around the world. '''Reethika''' A Bachelors degree in Visual Communication. Masters Degree in Fine Arts and Art History. Assisted a leading director andCinematographer in Ad-Films. A Brief stint in Still Photography, and Advertising Graphic Designer with several advertisements published in the leading Dailies. A keen interest In Logo designing and Brand Identity. Worked in Commercial films as an Associate Director. Interested in Costume Designing, Hand Block-Printing and Textile Designing. '''Srinivas:''' Srinivas has sung in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada.He has sung for all leading music directors in India. In Hindi films, he bagged the A.V Max Award for the best playback singer for his splendid rendering of the song ‘Kaisi He Yeh Rut’ from ‘Dil Chahta Hai’. He made a foray into music direction too - he was one of the five music directors of the Tamil film ‘Ae Nee Romba Azhaga Irukke’. His composition ‘Ini naanum naanillai’ in that film was a runaway hit,establishing him as a music director also. Among his famous albums are Ussele Ussele’ and ‘Paarvai’.He has also done 2 Malayalam ventures for Rajiv Kumar titled ‘Seetha Kalyanam’ and ‘Ivar’ . He has also composed music for Rajiv Kumar for a Hindi venture titled ‘Free Kick’.Being a die-hard fan of Mehdi Hassan, he has also given a few Ghazal performances. Filled with dreams of becoming a singer and trained in Carnatic music, the greatest influences on his life were Kishore Kumar, R. D Burman, Ilayaraja, Pakistani ghazal singer Mehdi Hasan, S D Burman and M S Viswanathan. His aspiration to become a singer, however, took a long time to bear fruit and he instead became a chemical technologist.Having specialised in textile dyestuffs, hHHe worked for 10 years before his passion for music got the better of him. In those 10 years, he moved up in his career, got married and got shifted to Coimbatore. He approached music maestro Illayaraja, the numero uno in Tamil filmdom in the 80s, who offered him an opportunity. But there too, luck was against Srinivas as a severe throat infection left him with no choice but to decline the offer. The first chance that came his way was from Mahesh, the music director of ‘Nammavar’. The song ‘Sorgam enbathu namakku’ was a runaway hit and Srinivas’ career was successfully launched. By then, he had moved to Chennai to chase his dreams of becoming a playback singer.Then, A.R Rahman started to encourage this young singer. Srinivas’ career had a rousing start with ‘Oo...la la la’ (Minsara Kanavu and Sapne) and this peppy number had people taking note of the new singer. With ‘En Uyire’ (in Mani Ratnam’s ‘Uyire’), Srinivas was catapulted to fame. And since then, there has been no looking back for this talented singer.His song ‘Minsara Poove’ in ‘Padayappa’ won him the Tamilnadu Government’s Award for the best Playback Singer.A string of hits for A.R Rahman, Bharadwaj, Vidyasagar and others followed. He won the Cinema Express Award twice, the Dinakaran Award once, and the Film Fans Award twice for the best singer. He was also awarded the best playback singer at the International Tamil Film Awards held at Malaysia for the song ‘Apple Penne’ from Roja Kootam.He was recently honoured with the title ‘Kalaimamani’ by the government of Tamil Nadu.He was awarded the best singer by the Kerala government for his song in Raathri Mazha for the year 2006. Filled with dreams of becoming a singer and trained in Carnatic music, the greatest influences on his life were Kishore Kumar, R. D Burman, Ilayaraja, Pakistani ghazal singer Mehdi Hasan, S D Burman and M S Viswanathan. '''Vedanth Bharadwaj''' Vedanth Bharadwaj has been pursuing music as a full time career for the last eight years. He has formally learnt Carnatic classical music for over fifteen years from Sri Neyveli Santhanagopalan and currently under the tutelege of Sri Ramamoorthy Rao for advanced Carnatic and Hindustani vocal training for the last six years. He is a qualified guitarist from the Trinity College of Music, London. Vedanth makes music for films, documentaries, advertisements, albums, etc. Vedanth has produced and released his first album called Maati Kahe, which is a compilation of songs from the Bhakti Movement written by mystic saints such as Kabir, Namdev, Mirabai, Tulasidas, Surdas, and others. Vedanth has recorded and designed the sound for "This and the Other" and "Blue Divine" - music albums by Anil Srinivasan and Sikkil Gurucharan; "Flame of the Forest" - music album by Chitraveena Ravikiran, Anil Srinivasan and BS Purushotam; Anita Ratnam's "Faces", "Framing Five" and "Ma3ka". Vedanth has given concerts all over India and recently performed at prestigious venues such as the Ladakh Music Confluence '09, the TED India Conference '09 in Mysore and the Congo Square Jazz Festival '09 in Kolkata. Vedanth is a Post Graduate in Psychology and an MBA in Corporate Communication. '''Adhavan Umavathy Kesavamurthi''' Final Winner of Kalakkapovadhu yaaru Part 4( Vijay T V ). Radio Jockey in Radiomirchi 98.3 fm Leading FM station in india. Video Jockey in Adithya channel (Sun Network) hosting a show Vaanga sirikalaam. Assistant Director to Director Dharani (Dhill,Dhool,Gilli ....) '''Deepa Kudva Kamath''' For Deepa Kamath, the form and content of graphic communication has been a lifelong passion. Most of the design projects she has handled, both at an individual and team level have involved print and publishing. Presently a graphic design consultant based in Chennai and Mumbai, she has been working for over twenty years. Her experience includes managing design teams of upto twenty persons and delivering projects across geographies. An alumnus of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, Deepa has taught basic design, publishing design and design history courses at NIFT Chennai, The Srishti School of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore and at The DJ Academy of Design, Coimbatore. '''Rukhmini krishnan''' From Interior designing to a childhood passion, to be an actress,which, became a reality in mid life. Although,acting was for fun, costume designing, became a passion. Have done six period films ,in three languages. Was nominated for best costume designer for "Agni Varsha"( Hindi) and received the Tamilnadu State award for "Shringaram". '''RamakrishnaNK''' Ramakrishna is a software consultant by profession. He has 9 years of experience in the software industry. Prior to starting RangDe.Org, he worked as Principal Consultant for Vignette Europe Ltd. Ram firmly believes that entrepreneurship in the social space is at a very nascent stage in India and there is an urgent need to incubate social businesses with a focus on social returns. '''Tanya Kothari''' Young entrepreneur, a party planner with so much energy and ideas. '''Ashwin Krishna''' Founder of Mysooru Unplugged(http://mysooruunplugged.info), a unique event which brings together citizens, corporate and non-profits of Mysore City. Ashwin is an alumni of TATA Jagriti Yatra(http://jagritiyatrta.com) and was recently India head for Juniper Networks Foundation Fund. He is a volunteer for Divya Deepa(http://divyadeeepatrust.org), a grass roots Non-Profit working for empowerment of Rural Children. Currently working on an idea - Billion Beats(http://billionbeats.in), an online platform where Citizens, Funding Agencies, Non Profits, Social Entrepreneurs, Corporate and Government can collaborate for India's development. Ashwin dreams to set up an university, with a focus on Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation. He Wishes to empower a million rural youth by 2020. '''Raghav Rangarajan''' After working for leading automobile manufacturers and a top notch IT firm, Raghavfollowed his heart and started his dream garage ‘IgNite’ that caters to service, repair and performance modifications of cars. A TED Fellow, Raghav's love for cars is matched by his vision as an entrepreneur, taking lessons out of the lives of his heroes Steve Jobs and Lee Iacocca. Raghav is an avid Jeep enthusiast and represents India in the international off roading circuit. He enjoys music, is a fitness freak and a seasoned audiophile who builds amplifiers and turn tables for a hobby. His concern for the environment is reflected in his garage being India’s first Green Garage with zero impact to environment. '''Raja Manohar''' TED India fellow, Founder and Managing Director of Hexolabs, a mobile value-added services company with a focus on innovating multilingual, speech-based solutions for emerging markets. '''R.K.Radhakrishnan''' Deputy Editor and Dy.Chief of Bureau, THE HINDU, is an expert in Dravidian politics and comments on the emerging political scenarios since 2000. A trained War Correspondent, he specialises in new weapon systems of the Defence Research and Development Organisation; India's Main Battle Tank, The Arjun and the Indian Coast Guard. He takes a keen interest in issues of governance at the State and national level and writes about developments such as the issues in the allocation of spectrum, the framing of IT policies and problems relating to managing State finances. RK is also a very enthusiastic social dancer. '''Deepti Zachariah''' Principle Designer , Revolution by Design. Revolution by Design is a Chennai based design collective with a network of special- ized technicians and designers from around the world. We aim to produce effective and responsible design solutions using the latest digital technology. '''Garima Agarwal''' Proprietor Peekaboo Patterns Garima set her foot in chennai after her marriage ever since this city has become her home and a perfect base for her new business. A unique venture of customized home furnishings for kids of all ages was independently started by her. Needless to say that it gained tremendous response in a short span of a few years. Very creatively inclined Garima put together her passion for kids and skills to start something totally new and innovative. Interacting with kids gives her immense pleasure hence she interviews them too and loves working for them. '''Alisha Abdullah''' Bike Racer Am proud to be a girl achieving my dreams especially in a man sport. from a very young age my dream was to acheive something where everyone would look upto you and say i want to become like her one day, thats why i chose this sport, and i would be very happy if girls could come out and show how strong we are.. always rememer when i can do it being a girl, why not you !!! '''Yifat Agam''' Yifat Agam is the founder of Vanilla, A new concept for children and parents, an activity center and children furniture boutique. For the last 3 years vanilla has developed a new solution for young families in chennai and has been a model for many projects around India. Yifat is a graduate of "Bezalel" , the high Academy for art and design in Jerusalem, and has been developing projects for the last 15 years. '''Sunil Cherian''' : CEO - BurgerMan Foods India Pvt. Ltd I’m Sunil Cherian : CEO of BurgerMan Foods India Pvt. Ltd a company started in 2006 with 1 outlet and today having more than 50 outlets in Chennai. BurgerMan has started its franchising in June 2009 and till date sold more than 100 outlets throughout South India. BurgerMan will start operations in Bangalore with 25 outlets in December 2009 & in Hyderabad with 36 outlets in January 2010… BurgerMan has been awarded the best business idea by the Economic Times – The Power Of Ideas 2009. Today BurgerMan is one of the most successful franchised businesses in India expanding rapidly into all the metro and towns with its unique kiosk model franchised outlets… An idea to start a business happened when my MBA project got selected as the best business plan and so when an interest to take a college project out of papers became the dream to make a nationalized brand, and today, wanting to make the same brand one of the best fast food chains in India is what has brought me all the way to TEDxChennai 2009… '''Balaji Lakshmanan''' Balaji Lakshmanan is a senior MS by Research Scholar at Department of Computer Science, IIT Madars. He works in Robotics and Robot Learning. He was one of the selected students to attend Stanford Entrepreneurship summit at Stanford University, USA. Though technically a student, he sneaked into entrepreneurial world by starting up Geeky Technology & Consulting, a product development company in Robotics and Embedded Systems. His projects include intelligent robotic platform with multi sensor system to an embedded hand held device for improving rural health in India. He loves to interact with students and conducts seminars and hands on workshops in colleges and schools. '''Swapna''' In A Nutshell... Swapna is, The only person from India to bring out as many English records, be it in the Gospel or Secular Circuit. The Only representation from India all over the world, in the realm of Worship as much, Catholic or Non-Catholic. Also the first ever from India to do a Live Worship Album. A Worship Leader-Singer-Songwriter, who was also a Preacher and Teacher of God’s Word, interdenominational, welcomed in all Churches, without denominational differences, and continues to have an incredible outreach among young people despite her adverse personal circumstances, is still supported by the Church to keep God’s Mission entrusted to her going strong. '''vish – karaditales''' Enterpreneur, educator and Carnatic vocalist and mridangist. CEO and co-founder of Karadi Tales Company Pvt. Ltd. (www.karaditales.com) and Director of Pedagogy at Isha Vidhya Rural Schools. '''Raghavan Jawahar''' Raghavan is co-founder and Director of Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd., India’s first employer sponsored childcare services provider. Raghavan is an experienced entrepreneur and successfully ran a trading firm in finished leather. Some of his clients were high-end fashion houses in Europe. Raghavan worked in Hong Kong managing the Far East operations of one of India’s largest leather product manufacturers. The idea of starting Amelio that would form the edge of change for early education in India drove him to move to India. Raghavan is passionate about antique cars and Jeeps and assembled his own 1942 Jeep. '''Sridevi Raghavan:''' Sridevi Raghavan is co-founder and CEO of Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd. Sridevi returned to India upon her graduation with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008 to start Amelio along with Raghavan. Sridevi has a diverse work experience which enriched her exposure and thinking along businesses in India. Having started her career in advertising, Sridevi shifted trajectory, and worked in a few non-profits in India before her MBA. A trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Sridevi also greatly enjoys travelling and reading. Sridevi and Raghavan started Amelio in 2008, and today Amelio has two centres of which one is associated with a Company. Amelio has created a well-planned and researched early education curriculum and has the honor of having India’s best minds in early education on their advisory board. Amelio has been recognized by NASSCOM as a futuristic and international daycare provider, and Amelio is currently working on a study on the status of childcare in India in partnership with NASSCOM. '''R.K.Radhakrishnan''' R.K.Radhakrishnan, Deputy Editor and Dy.Chief of Bureau, THE HINDU, is an expert in Dravidian politics and comments on the emerging political scenarios since 2000. A trained War Correspondent, he specialises in new weapon systems of the Defence Research and Development Organisation; India's Main Battle Tank, The Arjun and the Indian Coast Guard. He takes a keen interest in issues of governance at the State and national level and writes about developments such as the issues in the allocation of spectrum, the framing of IT policies and problems relating to managing State finances. RK is also a very enthusiastic social dancer. '''Karthikeyan''' Karthikeyan is the founder of Excedos, an emerging technology market research company. Excedos was nominated for the TATA NEN Hottest Startup Award in 2008. A firm believer in new technologies, he works at the intersection of technology and business. He co-founded Deepam to provide opportunities & access to the less-privileged through Internet /Computer literacy. Deepam currently reaches out to over 200 students through 5 centres every weekend, in Chennai. He is also a keen sportsman – Runs marathons , Plays ultimate Frisbee for Chakraa & Cricket . He has helped in spreading the running movement in Chennai through ‘Chennai Runners’, where he is core team member. Karthikeyan holds a degree in mechanical engineering from BITS, Pilani. He was awarded the BITS 30 under 30 award – Awarded to 30 BITS students or alumni for their extraordinary achievements before the age of 30. '''Anu Thampi''' I have been with the British Council for five years now. I am a very people’s person and have been thoroughly enjoying my time at the Council. Having worked in various departments, from Customer Service, Communications and now Projects, I currently lead on the International Climate Champions programme in India and Srilanka. This programme works very closely with young people who have a passion for the environment. We aim at nurturing and mentoring these Climate Champions and hope to play a small role in seeing them become ambassadors for the cause of making this planet a better place to live in. '''Haripriya . M''' Selected as British Council’s International Climate Champion. Pursuing her Integrated Masters in Electronic Media from Anna University Chennai, she is passionate about ‘communication for development’. Hosts enrichment and social awareness shows for her college campus community radio Anna CR 90.4 MHz. Currently runs a project, training school children to script and produce radio programmes on environmental issues (Funded by CTDT, Anna University and supported by British Council’s International Climate Champion Programme). Strongly believes that media in any form, if used innovatively and sensibly, can catalyze a powerful movement towards combating climate change. Fascinated by the power of the art of dramatics and street-plays '''Saiganesh Krishnamoorthy''' Ambitious, always into a new venture and throwing an affirmative nod to every positive change for the betterment of our dear planet 'Earth'. Well that's me, Saiganesh Krishnamoorthy. Currently aiming two targets in my life- One is a Computer Science Engg degree from MNMJEC, Chennai while the other is a project titled ‘WHITE ROOFS’ under the tutelage of British Council and TERI. It is aimed at turning black urban landscapes white to reflect enough sunlight and delay global warming, and grant us some precious breathing space in the global struggle to control carbon emissions. Could something as simple as white roofs actually make a dent in our carbon emissions and help curb global warming? Well that’s what I am up to figure out soon... '''Shruti KN''' I am Shruti.K.N doing my first year B.A. Journalism at M.O.P Vaishnav College also an International Climate champion from the British Council. Have been conducting various activities, to various age groups on the causes, effects and solutions of climate change. Also working with ITExnora to conduct eco camps to children in both schools and apartments. With the continuous support and encouragement from British Council and family members I have managed to reach the people at large with my messages and solutions on climate change. Keeping in mind my most inspiring expedition to the Arctic,also my motivation I tell the people to “Be the CHANGE we want to see.” '''Sruthi Chandrasekhar''' Sruthi Chandrasekhar, a student of economics at IIT Madras is working on replacing plastic bags with paper ones. Having tied up with a women’s self help group, she is also helping them impart the art of paper bag making to women groups in other villages. With help from other climate champions, she hopes to spread awareness about climate change to underprivileged children as well. She represented India in the Bayer UNEP Conference on Energy Sustainability in New Zealand in May 2009. '''R. Rahul''' Currently in 3rd year of Metallurgical Engineering at NIT – Trichy. Proliferation of new and efficient technologies to supplement and/or replace conventional fossil - based ones with the ultimate goal of reducing our carbon footprint. Interestes in reading, listening to music, playing table-tennis. Awarded the International Climate Champions Certificate by The British Council and TERI. Awarded the Certificate Of Innovation for innovation in sensor based railway warning system by The ECell, NIT Trichy and TRECSTEP. == NOMINEES == Please add the details of the persons you would like to nominate and why this person is special. '''Please add names at the bottom of the list only.''' Kindly refrain from adding personal attributes of character. We need clarity on accomplishments. '''Darius Sunawala''' : Pioneering radio-professional who started with AIR in 1997. Moved to Worldspace in 1999. Held powerful portfolios like Creative Director in Radiocity, Programming Director of Virgin Radio. Currently National head for programming solutions with Hindustan Times', Virgin Fever 104FM. Also an accomplished actor in Bangalore. Contact: darius.sunawala@fever.fm '''Dave Wallack''': A political campaigner from the US who moved to India three years ago and works with IFMR Trust (www.ifmr.co.in) where he is responsible for advocacy to improve access to financial services. Contact: dave.wallack@ifmr.co.in '''Sriram V. Ayer''' - Sriram is the founder and CEO of NalandaWay Foundation, a group of innovative thinkers who specialise in using media and arts to engage and motivate children, especially those in challenging situations. (http://nalandaway.org) '''Ramakrishna N.K.''' - Co-founder & CEO of [http://rangde.org RangDe.org], a Chennai based microcredit startup which aims to be accessible to every low income household by lowering loan interest rates through innovative means. Contact at ram<at>rangde.org or Mobile: 09790967649 '''Hrish Thota (@dhempe)''' - founder of [http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/film/film_details.asp?code=190&source=5 Bangalore Rooftop Film Festival] which gave Independent cinema a boost/ [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/5004371.cms Bangalore Twestival] which raised around Rs.40,000 in two events in Feb '09 & Sep '09. Also popular [http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnabangalore/newsview.aspx?eddate=9/23/2009&pageno=7&edition=9&prntid=8823&bxid=27964936&pgno=7 blogger] and [http://www.livemint.com/2009/03/04150439/Tweeting-with-Power.html tweep] from Bangalore. Contact at hrish.thota@gmail.com '''Shreyas Srinivasan''' - Founder of radioverve.com. Contact at shreyas@radioverve.com '''Atul Chitnis''' - Chief Products Officer and Senior Vice President at Geodesic Limited. Arguably one of India's best known technologists. Contact at atul@foss.in '''Sunanda Narayan''' - Young entrepreneur from Chennai who co-founded design consultancy firm Fantic art. Design professional and fashion photographer, she is also lending her expertise to refining local search for Yahoo in Chennai. http://www.fanticart.com/ & Twitter: @sunandanarayan '''Pavan Soni''' - Innovation guru at Wipro, organiser of WiCamp. Contact at pavan.soni@wipro.com '''Akshay Cherian''' - Founder of People First. Bangalore's #1 youth organization. Contact at akshay.cherian2010@gmail.com '''Amit Singh''' - Founder of HeadStart. Contact at amit@headstart.In '''Balaji Pasumarthy'''- Founder of BusinessGyan magazine. Contact at balajispark@gmail.com '''Sunil Vishnu''' - Founder of Evam. Contact at teamevam@gmail.com '''Anand Bala''' - Ex Oracle, currently evangelist at EcoMantra. Harcore political activist and eco tourism specialist. Contact at balasubramanyan@gmail.com '''Sultan Syed''' - Founder of WhizKids. He does the only program from India in Pakistan. Contact at sultan@edumediaindia.com '''MP Hariharan''' - Founder of Rezonant Designs. Contact at hariharan@rezonant.net '''Harish Bijoor'''- Bangalore's best brand guru. Contact at harishbijoor@hotmail.com '''Ram Ganesh Kamatham''' - India's youngest and most promising global playwright. Youngest to qualify for BBC's playwright programme. Works closely with Nagesh Kukunoor and Co. Contact at ramgankam@hotmail.com '''Raghu Dixit''' - Founder of Antaragni and now a successful soloist with his band, 'The Raghu Dixit Project'.. Contact at www.raghudixitproject.com '''Nikhil Velanpur''' - founder of letshead.to . Also a TED India fellow. '''Pastor Ashish Raichur''' - Founder of All Peoples Church movement in Bangalore. This is the #1 church movement for the youth in Bangalore, which is related to social work as well. Powerful speaker. Contact at contact@apcwo.com '''Rohan Kini''' - Founder of www.bumsonthesaddle.com. Contact at rkini@thoughtworks.com '''Arul Mani''' - Quiz master/ Writer. '''Ashvin Mathew''' - Bangalore's Standup Comedian. Contact ashvinam@gmail.com '''Dr. Anil Abraham''' - Dermatologist who is a playwrite, who wrote the Indian version of the "Vagina Monologues", which was titled "Gentlemen". '''Ramesh Ramanathan''' - Founder of Jaanagraha. Contact at jaanagraha.org '''Arundhuti Nag''' - Founder of Rangashankara, a performing space in Bangalore that is modeled after Mumbai's Prithvi. A brilliant actress in her own right, she acted along with Shah Rukh Khan in Dil Se. Works closely with playwright Girish Karnad on his works. Contact at www.rangashankara.org '''Sean Blagsvedst''' - Founder of babajob.com, a job portal that is designed for people in the unorganized sector. Also a TED India fellow. '''Sonya Mazumdar''' is the CEO of EarthSync. EarthSync India is a record label and audio-visual production company, with a passion for music and unique collaborative projects. http://earthsync.com '''Sunil Cherian''' - Founder & CEO, BurgerMan Foods India Pvt Ltd http://burgerman.in/ '''Deepti Zachariah''' Revolution by Design, contact deepti.zacharia@gmail.com '''Dr A Annamalai''' Gandhian and Director at Gandhi Study Centre. http://gandhistudycentre.org/ '''Raghav Rangarajan''' Owner of IgNite garage. TED India Fellow. http://www.ignitethegarage.com/ '''Milind Jadhav''' Personal Branding Trainer and Advertising veteran. http://milindjadhav.com/ writetomilind@gmail.com '''Rajamanohar''' TED India Fellow, Managing director of Hexolabs, Voice applications innovation for Rural India http://hexolabs.com/ contact: mano@hexolabs.com '''B Nandakumar''' CEO, Trends in Vogue, a CavinKare company. [nanduk.b@gmail.com]www.shreevarma.com '''Shreekumar Verma''' Writer, Poet, Playwright. [varma@shreevarma.com] '''Jyothi Menon''', Head of HR at Scope International, Author of 4 books. http://www.jyothimenon.in '''Achal Prabhala''' On the Advisory Board at Wikimedia Foundation. The only Indian to be on the global Wikimedia Advisory Board. '''Adel Anwar''' - Student at NID, Ahmedabad. Passionate about simple design principles. '''Amit Somani''', Head of Search at Google India '''Venkatesh Chandrasekaran''', Founder, Schools For India, Head of Research at Mahindra Satyam. '''Kamla Bhatt''', Podcaster, Host, www.KamlaShow.com '''Ram Viswanathan''' - Marathoner, Distinguished Engineer at IBM, CoFounder of Deepam, a non-profit that helps with education for the under-privileged, http://ram.viswanathan.in. '''Sanjay Pinto''' - NDTV Journalist, Radio Show Host. '''Vishal Talreja''' - Director, Dream a Dream, Social Entrepreneur, Ashoka fellow. http://www.dreamadream.org '''Subroto Bagchi''', Cofounder, MindTree -- An inspiration and his 3 books are sure to drive people to achieve more. Will get contact details soon. ''' Gautam Shiknis and Mohan Polamar''', Founders, Palador Pictures -- bringing new wave world cinema to Indian market. http://www.mypalador.com '''Prof. R. Ananthan''' - Founder & President of The Physics Society, India. He is conducting weekly meetings of the Society since 1971 in Chennai where he creates a 'learning atmosphere' for the students since he doesn't believe that 'teaching' is possible. More details about why this Society was started, etc available here: [http://www.physicssociety.com/?page_id=2] Contact at prof.ananthan@yahoo.com (+91) 9840847872 '''KaviRaj Kaliamoorthy''' : Founder @ Areapal.com .He is a M.tech Graduate.He left his Job at IBM to start up a neighborhood networking and information sharing site . he is really passionate and enthusiastic about it . http://www.areapal.com . Contact : kaviraj.it@gmail.com ; +91-9841306104 '''Vaijayanthi K M''' - Twestival India Coordinator - raised over Rs.75,000 across six cities in India in Sep 2009 for charity. Also active volunteer at Startup Saturday Bangalore Contact at vaijayanthi at gmail.com Article about her - http://www.outlookmoney.com/article.aspx?261540 '''Tariq Hyder''' : Maverick Young Entrepreneur, Designer, Marketeer & Green Activist. Founder/CEO of Ross Fortune:Ideasonic - an internationally recognized Multidisciplinary Creative Syndicate [http://www.ideasonic.com] and Founder of Green Coalition Network - a Environmental NGO [http://www.greencoalition.net]. Mentor, Writer, Blogger. contact : tariq@ideasonic.com ; +91 9940103435 '''Capt. Venkata Ramana Rao''' : An ex-armed forces veteran.He wanted to do something for the burgeoning Fauji community in India and started http://www.faujnet.com - An exclusive social network for Ex-Armed forces people. contact : venkat@bridgehead.in ; +91 9848872296 '''Ashwin Krishna''' - Founder of Mysooru Unplugged(http://mysooruunplugged.info), a unique event which brings together citizens, corporate and non-profits of Mysore City. He is also the Director, Fund raising and Strategy at Divya Deepa Trust(http://divyadeepatrust.org) and a featured writer and Curator at NGO Post - http://ngopost.org. In short he is a budding social entrepreneur who wishes to build scalable and sustainable solutions for India. Contact: ashwin [dot] kadur [at] gmail [dot] com, +91 9886165220 '''Niranjan Subbarao'''-"Founder - (http://www.DontSpendJustSend.com). Contact niranjan.subbarao@gmail.com" '''S.Varuna''' - child artist. She has held 10 painting exhibitions at the age of 9. Her 4th show was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Governor Shri Surjit Singh Barnala on the occasion of World Peace day. From all over India only two children have been invited by the Nehru Centre Art Gallery, Worli to exhibit their works on children’s day this year – one is a boy from Pune and another is Varuna! To meet this young and cheerful artist, visit her blog at http://artistvarunastudio.blogspot.com/ She has won two international awards for her paintings and she is the youngest corel certified designer. '''Chandrasekar S'''-"youngest to ace MTech from IIT ... http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Meet_17-yr-old_wizkid_from_IIT-Madras/articleshow/3266998.cms. Contact sekarnet@gmail.com" '''Vinoj P Selvam''' Executice Director, The Checkers Hotel, Chennai is a very dynamic person. He is also the Publisher of Sizzle Chennai, a lifestyle related tabloid(to be launched).Vinoj is also the President of The Tamil Nadu SIlambam Association that strives to popularis ethe martial art. contacts: ed@thecheckershotel.com '''Manasi Subramaniam'''-" MA Renaissance Literature,Editor at Karadi Tales Company,Artistic Director Landing Stage Youth Theatre Group, Journalist, Story & screenplay writer....http://www.hindu.com/mp/2009/10/14/stories/2009101450250900.htm . www.manasis.blogspot.com '''Dr Vijay Nagaswami''' - Columnist in The Hindu, very articulate writer and speaker on matters relating to modern marriages, and all psychological issues pertaining to contemporary living. vijay.nagaswami@gmail.com '''Shobha Viswanath''' - Creative director of Karadi Tales audio books. Effervescent, lively. Fun to listen to."Shobha" <shobha@karaditales.com> '''Iravatham Mahadevan''' - World's foremost expert on the Indus Valley script (as yet undeciphered fully). Google him and you'll find reams of amazing facts. Don't know how to reach him. '''Ranvir Shah''' - Founder of Prakriti Foundation, philanthropist, patron of arts, curator of huge numbers of events. "ranvir shah" <ranvirshah@hotmail.com> '''V Ramnarayan''' - Editor-in-Chief, Sruti,a magazine on the performing arts, former first class cricketer and cricket writer, author, translator, adjunct faculty-Asian College of Journalism. "Ram Ramnarayan" <vramnarayan@gmail.com>. '''Rathi Jaffer''' - Head of InKo Centre (Indo-Korean cultural collaboration) - powerfully connected and very happening. <rathi.jafer@inkocentre.org>, <rathijafer@gmail.com>. Don't know her personally at all. '''Sashi Kumar''' - Head of Asian College of Journalism, film director, former TV personality. Don't know him or how to reach him. '''Padmanabhan''' - Called the Kiyosaki of India ; Trainer , Investment guide- he teaches Investment dynamics through games like Cashflow; trains to inculcate financial freedom amongst people. '''Naveen Jayakumar''' Ace quiz master ;known for his wit and humour ; hosted the Landmark quiz in Chennai for several years. '''Dr Kannan Pugazhendi''' - Sports Medicine Expert. He has done interesting workshops for dancers and is on many government sports panels. sparrc@gmail.com '''Joshna Chinnapa''', Squash Champion. '''Dipika Paliakal''', renowned Squash player. (both Joshna's and Dipika's details with Sanobar) '''Karthikeyan.V''', Entrepreneur. CoFounder of Deepam, an NGO that aims to teach computer literacy to young, underpriveleged kids. Marathon runner and sports enthusiast. (details with Kiruba) '''Manu Karan''', Founder of the Chennai Ultimate Frisbee Movement. A person who has been pivotal in growing this sport in India. Organized pan-india competition and also participated in international tournaments. (manu.karan@chennaiultimatefrisbee.com) '''Mullai Venthan''', Prolific tree planter who has planted more than a lakh trees. An inspirational figure who is now helping youngsters with the green movement. (details with Kiruba) '''Anu Thampi''', Head of British Council's International Climate Champions program for India and Srilanka. (contact details with Kiruba) '''Ramesh Nair''', MD, Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, India's largest real estate management firm. Ramesh is the youngest MD in the history of Lang LaSalle. (number & email with Kiruba) '''Dr.Shyam''', Owner, www.ShyamRadio.com and Thamarai Web TV. shyam@shyamradio.com, 944467450 '''Balaji Lakshmanan''', Student Entrepreneur from IIT Madras, Founder of Robotics Company Geeky Technology & Consulting, Went to Stanford for Entrepreneurship Summit. Has given talk and conducted workshop in colleges and schools http://balajil.com/ '''Rahul Gupta''' : Serial Entrepreneur. Just a year out of IIT Kanpur he has founded • Rtination.com : The online Portal for filing RTI applications. Widely covered by the national media including CNBC TV18, Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express and more. The site has been endorsed by the Chief Information Commissioner of India, Mr. Wajahat Habibullah • Founder of Piccachy – a t-shirt fashion label that sources designs from designers all over the world • Founder of iitjobs.in – India’s first and only site featuring career options exclusively for IITians. Contact at the3colours@gmail.com '''Dr. Eswaran Subrahmanian''', Research Professor of the Institute for Complex engineered Systems, Carnegie Mellon University, USA and Delft University, The Netherlands, Fellow of the Association of Advancement of Science (AAAS), and presently, Distinguished Research Fellow and Project Director, CSTEP, and his wife, '''Dr. Robin King''', previously of Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and presently, a Distinguished Research Fellow of CSTEP, took several years off successful careers to come to India to help found CSTEP, lead research and provide guidance and leadership to young Indian researchers addressing large scale research projects whose goal is to impact policy and decision making related to complex problems that seriously impact Indian society. See http://www.cstep.in for some details on the Center and http://www.cstep.in/infrastructure for one of the topics led by Dr. Subrahmanian and Dr. King. Contact details: Dr. Eswaran Subrahmanian: sub@cstep.in Dr. Robin King: robin@cstep.in '''Sunny Joseph''', cinematographer (FTII, 50 features of international quality, 30 years exp ), teacher (Prasad Film Inst.). Has interesting views on the future of cinema and distribution using the internet, liked by students/audiences, good presenter. (Nominated by Sanjay Nambiar) '''M.S.Swaminathan''' - Father of Green Revolution. '''Kausalya''', President, Indian Network of Positive People...speaks from her heart in tamil, english a little iffy... Supriya sahu, IAS officer who cleaned ooty up. Now based in delhi. (Nominated by Ramya Kannan) '''J.Radhakrishnan''', IAS officer, worked in Nagapatinam during tsunami, now is with UNDP, Delhi, articulate. (Nominated by Ramya Kannan) '''Dr.Santha''' from Cancer Institute. Magsaysay Award Winner. Great person. '''Vandana Gopikumar & Vaishnavi Jayakumar''': Founders of The Banyan, an organization that champions the cause of the mentally ill and homeless. Vandana & Vaishnavi started The Banyan in their early 20's and once The Banyan's unique model of rehabilitating mentally ill homeless women from the streets of Chennai back to their homes in villages and cities across the country was proven, they began to work towards propagating the model to other interested organizations, including Governmental ones, while also tackling the root causes that led to people with mental illness not being correctly diagnosed and treated for their condition near their homes and early in the life-cycle of the illness. While working on this difficult and under-funded area of social work, Vandana & Vaishnavi also continued to break the stereotypes of social workers by showing that they could lead happy, fun-filled lives and didn't feel there was any sacrifice involved in their work whatsoever. http://www.TheBanyan.org '''M.B Nirmal''', Founder of Exnora '''D.V.Sridharan''', the man behind http://www.GoodNewsIndia.com '''S V Raju''' of the Indian Liberals Group/Swatantra Party/Freedom First magazine. '''E Sreedharan''' of Delhi Metro who has pulled off the impossible. '''Ms Meena Dadha''' - Chairperson MUKTI.. an NGO giving free artificial limbs n calipers, helping rehab physically n mentally challenged n artists etc... Invited for camps 2 many countries around the world - based in Chennai n Pondy.. Frm a traditional, conservative Rajasthani background, at the age of 32, b'came a danseuse, set up this cause doing yeomen service, n is a business woman and curator of Prakrit Art Gallery.. '''Venkat Krishnan''', Founder, GiveIndia (nominated by @sansdom) '''Dr.K. Kasturirangan''', ISRO Chairman (nominated by @jayasimhan) '''NR Narayanamurthy'''. We had him on the cover of the first issue of DARE. He is awesome! (nominated by @vimarshbajpai) '''Gregory David Roberts''' - Author of Shantaram. (Nominated by @LukeGrange) '''Kuzhali Manickavel''' - Humorist. (Nominated by @Labsji) '''Narain Karthikeyan''' - Motor Race Driver (nominated by Madhu Raghav) ''' Shanti Raghavan ''' - Founder of Enable India, a NGO working for the welfare of disabled people. '''Viswanathan Anand''' - Chess Grandmaster (Nominated by Balaji Ramaswamy @arianrams) '''Swami Dayananda''' - Leading Teacher of Vedanta. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dayananda_Saraswati_(Chinmaya_Mission) (Nominated by Balaji Ramaswamy @arianrams) '''Venkat Narayanan L''' - Entrepreneur, Visionary, Founder of Knowledge Dynamics, Singapore (Please check out on linkedin. Nominated by Balaji Ramaswamy @arianrams) '''Sameer Bharat Ram''': Brand strategist.He has had successful stints in large corporates such as HLL, Nutrine and Mahindra Holidays. He also has a strong advertising background having worked with O & M and Contract. His passion lies in building brands.He is right now working on some top brands of the country. '''Raghavan Jawahar and Sreedevi Raghavan Raghavan''' is co-founder and Director of Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd., India’s first employer sponsored childcare services provider. Sridevi Raghavan is co-founder and CEO of Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd. Sridevi returned to India upon her graduation with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008 to start Amelio along with Raghavan.A trained Bharatanatyam dancer, Sridevi also greatly enjoys travelling and reading.Amelio has been recognized by NASSCOM as a futuristic and international daycare provider, and Amelio is currently working on a study on the status of childcare in India in partnership with NASSCOM. '''Arundhati Roy''' : A writer and activist who won the Booker Prize in 1997 for her novel, The God of Small Things, and in 2002, the Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize. She is also a writer of two screenplays and a number of collections of essays. Roy is a well-known activist for social and economic justice. '''Bobby Menon''' : Transformational coach. '''Chinmayi Sripada''' : Singer, RJ, VJ, Entrepreneur. '''Dr. Nammalvar''': organic scientist http://twitter.com/NammalvarG http://www.vanagam.com/contactus.htm http://www.vanagam.com/board_members.htm Sri. G. Nammalvar General Secretary, Tamzhina Vazhviyal Multiversity Trichy - 620 005. Tel. 94425624589, 9442531699 '''Mrs.Saloni - Founder of Desicrew''': After listening to Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala's speech, she moved to Chennai in 2005 to create a rural-based business - http://www.Desicrew.in - to provide opportunities for educated people in the rural area. Location - RTBI, IIT Campus, Chennai Email id - saloni@desicrew.in '''Sandesh Reddy''': Cook since the age of 12, Sandesh Reddy has pioneered dessert concepts in Chennai with his brands that include Sinful Something and Sandys Chocolate Laboratory. Currently consulting start up food entrepreneurs, his upcoming ventures will include more outlets of Sandys and Chennai's first REAL lounge bar. '''Karti Chidambaram''': Young blood politician, is well educated and travels extensively to pick up infrastructure ideas to implement in improving the state of India. Son of current Union Home Minister, P. Chidambaram, Karti is outspoken on issues ranging from cricket to urban development. Follow on twitter @Karti16 '''Kiran & Swaroop Reddy''': Revolutionized entertainment retail in traditional Chennai. Gave the city its first real multiplex by going all out and making Sathyam Cinemas India's first multiplex to go fully digital. Also pioneered Blur, arguably the world's best gaming zone right here in Chennai. Both in their mid-30s, they have a great foresight and vision when it comes to combining technology and entertainment retail. '''Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev''': a renowned mystic, yogi and spiritual guru with a difference. Sadhguru is a speaker at many international leadership forums like the World Economic forum and has also served as a delegate for the United Nations Millennium Peace Summit and the World Peace Congress. Sadhguru is the founder of the Isha yoga foundation which also doing a lot of work in the education of under priveleged children (Isha Vidya), Health and Well being (Action for rural rejuvenation), Environment (Project Green hands), Community outreach (prison programs, womens empowerment, child rights advocacy). Please visit ishayoga.org for more about the movement and Sadhguru. '''Senthil Kumar''' : Pioneer in revolutionizing Digital Cinema in India with his company REAL IMAGE and its world class digital cinema product QUBE. '''Jijo Punnoose''' : First filmmaker (India) to shoot stereoscopic 3D in the year 1984 and director of MY DEAR KUTTICHATTAN. Pioneer to use DTS for 3D motion picture CHOTA CHETAN in late 1990 even before hollywood achieved it. '''Shankar Iyer & Rajani Nair''': Entrepreneurs & Environmentalists. Founders of TRIBE 10. The group businesses include Advertising & Brand Consulting and Eco-Holidays. Founded TRIBE 10 FOUNDATION, a non-profit trust working on nature & wildlife conservation and preventing Global Warming. Contact: shankar@tribe10.com / rajani@tribe10.com '''M K Subramaniam''' : A Civil Engineer , recently translated into English , the Famous Tamil 850 Page Period Epic ( 1930-47 ) , '''ALAI OOSAI by KALKI''' . He Reasons : ''Wards of NRIs should appreciate our India, its Culture & its Values'' . He can be contacted @ +919884357817 ; Mail : rajbetty29572@yahoo.com '''Mr.P.Shiva Prasath''' : Managing Director, Virtuosity Skill Development. Pioneering e-learning solutions in India – ushering in Education without Boundaries. Using more than 2 decades experience from its education and research group - Alpha Foundation and putting efforts to "Building a Skilled India" (http://virtuosity.ac - Contactus@virtuosity.ac) '''Sumeet Anand''' : Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO of i-nable Solutions Pvt Ltd.(Kreeo)[http://www.kreeo.com]. He was chosen as the speaker at the Interop[http://www.interop.com] Conference for the track Emerging Technologies & Trends - Enterprise 2.0, speaking on the topic Collective Intelligence & Semantics based KM. '''Aysha Rau''' - Managing Trustee of 'THE LITTLE THEATRE' produces the christmas pantomime in aid of underprivileged children seeing them through school and college. At present 54 children benefit from the program. Also runs english and theatre workshops for the corporation school and street theatre performances. littletheatre@gmail.com '''Siddharth Ganeriwala''': Founder & Director of Aura Integrated Solutions Pvt. Ltd (http://www.aura.co.in/). A seasoned veteran in the Events industry, he leads the company’s framework and service delivery efforts. A creative solution provider who brilliantly visualizes the possible gaps in any project plan. '''Meena Kandasamy''': Indian-born poet, fiction writer and translator. Her debut poetry collection, Touch, with a foreword by Kamala Das, was published in August 2006. (http://www.linkedin.com/in/meenakandasamy)

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