Hon’ble Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah

Chairman Emeritus , Golden Peacock Awards Jury, Former Chief Justice of India, Former Chairman,
National Human Rights Commission of India and Former Chairman, National Commission for Constitution of India Reforms

Hon'ble Justice M. N. Venkatachaliah is the National Chairman of the Executive Council of Institute of Directors. He was a distinguished former Chief Justice of India. He commenced practice of law in 1951, and was appointed Permanent Judge of the High Court of Karnataka in 1975. He was promoted as the Judge of the Supreme Court of India in 1987. Subsequently, he was appointed as the 25th Chief Justice of India in 1993. After retirement, the Govt. honoured him by appointing as Chairman, 'Human Rights Commission'. He later headed the National Commission, appointed for reviewing the Constitution of India, in 2000. He has continued to work on anti-corruption and human rights issues and was awarded the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2004. He has been associated with a number of social, cultural, and service organisations. He has had several distinctions conferred on him, and is considered as a jurist of international fame. He has many other academic distinctions and honors from several Universities and Organisations.

Lt. Gen. Surinder Nath, PVSM AVSM (Retd.)

Former Vice Chief of Army Staff, Former Chairman, UPSC &
Former Independent Director, Larsen & Toubro Limited

Born on 26th June 1937, Commissioned into Regiment of Artillery in June 1957. Took active part in 1971 Indo-Pak war in Jammu- Samba sector. On promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General in 1991, he commanded all troops under his command in the Northern Sector. Thereafter he was appointed as Vice Chief of the Army Staff on 01 July 1993. Here he was deeply involved in strategic planning, procurement of equipment and armament, and transfer of technology. For his outstanding professional competence, able leadership and exceptional devotion to duty, was awarded Param Vishist Sewa Medal (Highest award for distinguished service and extreme devotion to duty) and Ati Vishist Sewa Medal by the President of India in 1993 and 1991 respectively. After rendering 38 years of Army service, retired on 30th June 1995. Was appointed as Member, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on 20th September 1995. Served as Chairman UPSC from December 1998 to June 2002. Served as Independent director on the Board of L&T from 2004 to 2007. Appointed as Vice Chairman of the Institute of Directors, New Delhi from March 2011 to November 2022. He had compiled two handbooks for IOD i.e. Handbook for Independent Directors and a Handbook on Corporate Leadership. He took over as the President of Institute of Directors with effect from 02 December, 2022.

Hon’ble Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi

Judicial Member, Lokpal of India, Former Chairperson, Law Commission of India and Former Chief Justice, Karnataka High Court

Hon'ble Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi is the Former Chairperson of the Law Commission of India. He was the Former Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court. A leading legal luminary who has had an illustrious journey in the field of law, Justice Awasthi graduated in law from Lucknow University in the year 1986. Since beginning, his expertise included civil, service and education matters at the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court. Hon'ble Justice Awasthi was also nominated as the Senior Judge at High Court in Lucknow in 2021. Thereafter he was elevated as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in 2021.
During his tenure as a distinguished Judge for more than 13 years, Hon'ble Justice Awasthi decided around 44,000 cases out of which more than 600 judgements were approved for reporting. Most of the cases decided by him had nationwide impact, as well as international relevance.

Prof. (Judge) Mervyn E. King SC

Chairman, King Committee on Corporate Governance & Chair Emeritus, IIRC & GRI and Former Judge, Supreme Court of South Africa

Prof. Mervyn King is a Senior Counsel and former Judge of the Supreme Court of South Africa. He is Professor Extraordinaire at the University of South Africa on Corporate Citizenship, Honorary Professor at the Universities of Pretoria and Cape Town and a Visiting Professor at Rhodes. He is Chair Emeritus of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa, which produced King I, II, III and IV, and Chair of the Good Law Foundation. He is Chair Emeritus of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) in London and of the Global Reporting Initiative in Amsterdam and a member of the Private Sector Advisory Group to the World Bank on Corporate Governance. He chaired the United Nations Committee of Eminent persons on Governance and Oversight and was President of the Advertising Standards Authority for 15 years and a member of the ICC Court of Arbitration in Paris for seven years. He is chair of the African Integrated Reporting Council and chair of the Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa. He has been a chair, director and chief executive of several companies listed on the London, Luxembourg and Johannesburg Stock Exchanges. He has consulted, advised and spoken on legal, business, advertising, sustainability and corporate governance issues in over 60 countries. He is the author of five books on governance, sustainability and reporting, the latest being “The Auditor. Quo Vadis.” He sits as an arbitrator and mediator internationally.

Anil Baijal, IAS (Retd.)

Former Lieutenant Governor of Delhi and Former Union Home Secretary, Government of India

Mr. Anil Baijal is a retired Indian Administrative Service officer and served as the 21st Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. He is a 1969 batch IAS officer from the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre. He has served as Union Home Secretary under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. He has also served as the Chairman of Delhi Development Authority; Chief Secretary of Andaman & Nicobar Islands; additional Home Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting; MD of Indian Airlines; CEO of Prasar Bharati; Development Commissioner of Goa; Commissioner (Sales Tax and Excise) of Delhi; Councilor in Charge of India Aid Mission in Nepal. He was responsible for the introduction of DD Bharti. He retired from service in 2006 as Secretary of the Urban Development Ministry. After retirement, he was actively associated with the planning and implementation of ₹60,000 crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) launched by the Manmohan Singh government. He served as President of the National Institute of Urban Affairs (2012-2014). He has also served on the executive council of the Vivekananda International Foundation think-tank and multiple corporate boards including IDFC Bank. He has also served as an advisor, on the National e-Governance Advisory Group (NAG); Advisory Group for Integrated Development of Power, Coal, and Renewable Energy; Committee on implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility in the current Narendra Modi government.

Dr. Aruna Sharma, IAS (Retd.)

Board Member on Multiple Boards and Former Secretary, Ministry of Steel & IT, Government of India

Dr. Aruna Sharma is a Practitioner Development Economist. She was Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT and also worked as Secretary Steel in Govt. of India. She was a Member of Reserve Bank of India's High-level Committee on Deepening the digital payments in India. She works in field of Digital Transformation, e-Governance, FinTech, Digital Assets as well as core sectors like Steel and Mining. Presently, she is on the Board of Directors of multiple companies and writes regularly on Economy, Digital and Social Innovation and Rural Development. As an author, she has 5 best seller books to her credit, latest one being, “Dancing towards $5Trillion economy through Holistic Ride".

Ruchi Ghanashyam, IFS (Retd.)

Former High Commissioner of India to UK

Ms. Ruchi Ghanashyam is a retired Indian diplomat. She was a former High Commissioner of India to UK. She joined the Indian Foreign Service in August 1982. She was the Third Secretary at the Indian Embassy in Damascus where she learnt Arabic. She has served in Indian missions in Brussels, Kathmandu, Damascus, Islamabad, Pretoria and Accra. She has served at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi as Director (Pakistan) from August 2000 to March 2004. Prior to this, she was the Counsellor (Political, Press & Information) at the Indian High Commission in Pakistan. As an Undersecretary at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, she handled the Audio-Visual Publicity for the Ministry. Ghanashyam was the first Indian woman diplomat to be posted in Islamabad when the harassment of Indian diplomats was routine.

Dr. Anup Wadhawan, IAS (Retd.)

Former Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India

Dr. Anup Wadhawan is an economic and public policy professional with 40 years of work experience in various sectors, including the civil service, regulation, academics, private sector, and international development. He spent 36 years in the Indian Administrative Service and served as Commerce Secretary for 3 years. During this tenure, he managed India's Foreign Trade Policy, negotiated bilateral, regional and multilateral trade deals, and implemented measures to promote exports and create an investor-friendly environment. Previously, he was responsible for policymaking and oversight in banking, insurance, the national pension system, and capital markets. He played a significant role in passing of the Insurance Laws Amendment Act 2015, which reformed the Indian insurance sector, raised the foreign investment cap, and allowed foreign reinsurers and Lloyds to operate in India. He also oversaw the management of the National Pension System corpus as PFRDA chair. During his time at the Prime Minister's office, he provided advice on macroeconomic and sectoral policy reforms in areas like regulation, PPPs, fiscal management, and the power sector.

Dr. V. K. Agnihotri, IAS(Retd)

Former Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha (Parliament of India)

Dr. Vivek K. Agnihotri is an IAS officer of 1968 batch. He has Master’s degrees in English Literature and Political Science from the University of Allahabad. He has Ph.D. in Public Policy Analysis and Design from IIT Delhi. Dr.Agnihotri superannuated as Secretary to Government of India. Post retirement, he was Member of CAT and Secretary-General, Rajya Sabha, in the Parliament of India. He is Director, LML, Kanpur; Member of the Technical Advisory Group, ISB; Adviser, UPSC; and Adviser of Eminence (Public Governance), American Society for Quality, New Delhi. He is widely travelled and has several publications to his credit.

Desh Deepak Verma, IAS (Retd.)

Board Member on Multiple Boards
Former Secretary- General, Rajya Sabha (Parliament of India)

Shri Desh Deepak Verma is a retired IAS officer. He has held several key positions in the Government of Uttar Pradesh and in Government of India. Shri Verma was selected as first head of the India office of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Sri Sri Verma was decorated during the Republic Day parade for outstanding contribution to the settlement of 20 years old Shia-Sunni dispute. Shri Verma is also accredited for introducing several industry friendly reforms in the Trade Tax Department like e-filing of returns and removal of all check-posts and barriers.

Hon’ble Justice Uday U. Lalit

Chairman, Golden Peacock Awards Jury , Former Chief Justice of India

Justice Uday.U. Lalit enrolled as an advocate in June 1983. He specialised in criminal law and practiced at the Bombay HC from 1983 to 1985. Following his stint at the Bombay HC, he worked in the chambers of then Attorney General of India, Soli Sorabjee, from 1986 to 1992. Justice Lalit was designated as Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court in April, 2004. He aided the Court as amicus curiae in many important matters pertaining to forests, vehicular pollution and pollution of the Yamuna river. Justice Lalit was elevated as a Judge of the Supreme Court directly from the Bar on August 13th, 2014. He was the sixth Judge elevated directly to the SC without having served as a Judge in a lower court or High Court. As an SC Judge, he was appointed as the Executive Chairman of the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) on May 14th, 2021. Justice Lalit took over as the 49th Chief Justice of India on August 27th, 2022, becoming the only second CJI to be elevated to directly from the bar.

Shekhar Dutt, IAS (Retd.)

Former Governor State of Chhattisgarh &
Former Secretary Ministry of Defence Government of India

Shekhar Dutt was the governor of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh. Earlier he had served on various bureaucratic posts including, as an IAS officer, as Secretary in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India.

Dutt was appointed Governor of Chhattisgarh on 18 June 2014. Dutt belongs to the 1969 batch of IAS from Madhya Pradesh cadre. He was awarded the Sena Medal for gallantry during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. As Director General of the Sports Authority of India, Dutt played a role in the hosting of the Afro-Asian Games in Hyderabad, India in 2003.

Dhanendra Kumar, IAS (Retd.)

Former Chairman, Committee on National Competition Policy of India
Former Chairman, Competition Commission of India
Former Secretary to Government of India &
Former Executive Director, World Bank

Dhanendra Kumar (born 1946) is a civil servant who was the first Chair of Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kumar Formerly served as Executive Director at World Bank. He is currently assisting Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs as Principal Advisor and Chief Mentor of School of Competition Law – the upcoming National Centre of Excellence.

Sumanta Chaudhuri, IAS (Retd.)

Former Secretary Ministry of Coal
Government of India

Mr. Chaudhuri is a retired IAS officer of 1985 batch, West Bengal Cadre with 36 years of experience in Public Administration which includes being the Secretary Coal, GOI and Managing Director, Small Farmers Agri-Business Consortium, Ministry of Agriculture, GOI, pioneering the E-NAM project and Farmer Producers' Organisations Development and Mentoring. He has been an International Trade Specialist for over two decades. This includes stints of over 15 years at the Department of Commerce, GOI as Joint Secretary and Director, Trade Policy Division and as the Permanent Mission of India to the WTO at Geneva. He has also been India's Chief Services Negotiator at WTO forums and Chief/ Dy Chief Negotiator for RCEP/India -EU BTIA, India-ASEAN, India-Malaysia CECAs etc.

Anurag Goel, IAS (Retd.)

Former Secretary Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Government of India

Anurag Goel has joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1972 and is now Member, Competition Commission of India (CCI). He brings rich experience of corporate governance and competition regulation to this assignment, including nearly 3½ years as Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Corporate Affairs and varied earlier assignments in the Ministries of Finance, Home, Defence, Civil Aviation, etc. Mr Goel also set up and operationalized the hugely successful and widely appreciated MCA-21 e-governance system for corporate compliance.

Hem Pande, IAS (Retd.)

Former Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs Food & Public Distribution Government of India &
Former Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change Government of India

Hem Pande is an outstanding leader and project manager with impeccable administrative and managerial skills. He has 36 years of experience as a civil servant and three years of teaching in a University. During 2016-17 he served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Department of Consumer Affairs. He was responsible for bringing out direct selling guidelines in September 2016 thus heralding a new chapter in direct selling in India. Mr Pande also holds Master's degree in Business Administration from Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne (Australia).

Dr. Uddesh Kohli

Secretary General IFTDO, Senior Advisor, Global Compact Office, UN &
Former Chairman and MD, Power Finance Corporation Limited

Dr. Uddesh Kohli, B.E. (Hons), MBA and Ph.D in Economics, is presently the Chairman Emeritus of Construction Industry Development Council, Chairman of Construction Industry Arbitration Council and Engineering Council of India. He is also Secretary General of International Federation of Training & Development Organizations (IFTDO). He is Independent Director on the Boards of several companies and a Member of the Board of Governors of IIM, Kozhikode and Bangalore. He is a Senior Adviser in the Global Compact Office of UN Secretary General and is promoting this Program in India. He has also worked as a Consultant with several other United Nations organizations and the Asian Development Bank. His wide ranging specialization includes corporate governance, strategic management, development planning, project planning, appraisal & management, finance, energy, power systems, corporate citizenship, reforms and restructuring, public systems, and training.

Dr. Kohli has been Adviser, Planning Commission, the Chairman & Managing Director of Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Chairman of Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) and Consultancy Development Centre. A HRD expert, Dr. Kohli is the President Emeritus of Indian Society for Training & Development (ISTD) and president of Council of Indian Employers (CIE), All India Management Association, Asian Regional Training and Development Organization (ARTDO).

Ovais Sarmad

Vice-Chair, GHG Protocol, Steering Committee, Spain & Former Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC)

Mr. Ovais Sarmad appointed as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at the Assistant Secretary-General level. The appointment has been made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau. Mr. Sarmad will succeed Richard Kinley of Canada, to whom the Secretary-General and the Executive Secretary are grateful for his dedicated service to United Nations climate change efforts over the past 20 years. Mr. Sarmad, who currently serves as Chief of Staff to the Director General of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), brings to the position nearly 27 years of experience with IOM, where he worked in several policy and management areas to strengthen the Organization's operational effectiveness in close consultation with IOM Member States. He was instrumental in the establishment of the organization's Ethics and Conduct Office and was a key team member negotiating the agreement which brought the IOM into the United Nations System.

C. K. MISHRA, IAS (RETD.)

Former Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India

Shri C.K. Mishra joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1983 and currently heading the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Government of India. He led the Indian negotiations at important Forums such as United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Conference of the Parties (COP)) to assess progress in dealing with climate change; Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and various other multilateral events. He leads the government initiative for air pollution mitigation in Delhi and indeed all pollution control strategies for the country. He is also the administrative head of Forest & Wildlife conservation efforts in India.

Ruchira Kamboj, IFS (Retd.)

Former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations at New York and Former Ambassador of India to Bhutan

Ms. Ruchira Kamboj, a retired Indian diplomat of 1987 batch of Indian Foreign Service, served as India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations from August 2022 to May 2024 until her retirement. She has previously served as High Commissioner of India to South Africa, first female Indian Ambassador to Bhutan and Ambassador/Permanent Representative of India to UNESCO, Paris. On 21 June 2022, she was appointed as the Ambassador/Permanent Representative – designate of India to the United Nations in New York. Her appointment made her the first female Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. She assumed charge as PR-designate on 1 August 2022 and served there till 31 May 2024. She served as the President of the UN Security Council in December 2022, becoming the first woman from India to hold this position.

Prasanta Mahapatra, IAS (Retd.)

Senior Advisor, International Solar Alliance (ISA) and Former Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Haryana

Mr. Prasanta Mahapatra is a former member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), 1985 Batch. He superannuated as Additional Chief Secretary to the Government of Haryana, a post equivalent to the Secretary to the Government of India. He is an experienced public administrator with a demonstrated history of working in the fields of Public Policy, Governance, Finance, Institutional Finance & Credit Control, New & Renewable Energy, Health, Public Health Engineering, Food & Drug Safety, Education, Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Rural & Urban Poverty Alleviation, Woman & Child Development, Home, Criminal Investigation, Administration of Justice ,Vigilance, Tourism, Elections, Minerals, Revenue & Exercise Taxation, Animal Husbandry & Fisheries etc. While in the Government of India, he worked in the areas of International Trade Policy formulations, WTO & Multilateral Trade, Exports Promotion, Anti-Dumping matters.