NIBM 2021 “Towards a Sustainable Planet Through Netherlands – India Collaboration” 17 June 2021

It is our great pleasure to invite you for the Netherlands India Business Meet (NIBM) scheduled on Thursday 17 June 2021 from 15.00-19.15hrs CET (online).
For more than a decade the NIBM attracts over 200 small-sized, medium-sized and multinational companies active in the Netherlands-India business area.
 
The theme for this year is “Towards a Sustainable Planet Through Netherlands – India Collaboration”. 
We feel very privileged that excellent guest speakers have confirmed their presence to shed light on and discuss this issue from both Dutch and Indian perspective, sharing their insights, latest developments and business prospects during our NIBM event.

The program for this year is: 

14.45-15.00        Log-in, Registration, Informal networking

14.54-14.56        Audience Poll

14.56-15.00        Pre-recording by Rinay Prasad – Drummer

15.00-15.03       Welcome by Vidhya Sampath – Moderator NIBM

15.05-15.10       Welcome by Edith Nordmann, Chairman NICCT

15.10-16.30        KEYNOTE SESSION

15.10-15.20        Henk Ovink – Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands

                             Sherpa to the UN/WB High Level Panel on Water

15.20-15.25        Address by H.E. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rawat – Ambassador of India to The Netherlands

15.25-15.30        Address by H.E. Mr. Marten van den Berg – Ambassador of the Netherlands to India

15.30-15.35        Sustainable Scale-up Movie 1

15.35-16.25        Discussion NICCT Patron Members

“Sustainability as a strategic driver for industry”

Corporations have increasingly come recognise that their future prosperity hinges upon their responses to the challenges on the sustainability agenda – management of their carbon footprint, restructuring supply chains and meeting their responsibilities to their stakeholders. The process of mainstreaming sustainability is a challenging and expensive affair. How are companies developing their strategy around sustainability? What are the factors shaping their strategy, including regulation and technology?

                        Christina Herden – Global Head Sustainability – HCL

                        Michele Lemmens – Head of Business Sustainability & CTO Asia Pacific &

                        Singapore – Tata Consultancy Services

                        Vipin Moharir – Group CSO – Gateway Group

                        Jan Niewold – Head Climate Change & Sustainability Services – EY NL

16.25-16.30       Sustainable Scale-up movies 2

16.30-16.45        Break

16.45-17.57        INDUSTRY SESSION

“Building and implementing a sustainability mindset”

Existing economic systems are/were geared towards optimising production and maximising growth & profits, however adherence to sustainability goals requires a mindset with a focus on the creation of long-term shareholder value. That means identifying the changing needs and demands of society and responding by mitigating risks and leveraging opportunities while working in collaboration with various stakeholders — suppliers, customers, employees, shareholders and governments. How is industry building this capability? What are the challenges and wherein lie the opportunities?

16.45-16.55        Keynote Address by Soren Gade – MEP, Chair EU-India Parliamentary Committee,

                             Europe India Business Council Chair

16.55-16.58        Sustainable Scale-Up Movie 3

16.58-17.08        Keynote address by Ms. Seema Arora – Deputy Director General – CII and Head-CII Centre of Excellence for Sustainable

                             Development

17.08-17.10        Online Poll Questions to Audience

 17.10-17.55        Discussion with Industry Leaders

                             Arindom Datta – Executive Director and Head of Rural & Development Banking / Advisory – Rabobank

                             Santhosh Jayaram – Partner & Head, Climate Change, Sustainability and CSR Advisory – KPMG India

                             Sarah Woodhouse – General Council Europe & General Counsel Food and Refreshment – Unilever

 17.55.-17.58      Sustainable Scale-Up Movie 4 

17.58-19.00        SUSTAINABILITY SCALE-UP DISCUSSIONS

 “Building a greener world”

 ‘Green’ scale-ups operate at the intersection of business and technology, aiming to create positive change on a global scale. They face unique challenges brought on by their inherent triple bottom line, social responsibility, economic value, and environmental impact. In this session we will hear about their experiences and their views on opportunities in the sustainability space.                       

17.58-18.43        Discussion with Sustainability Scale-ups

                             Mesbah Sabur – Co-Founder – Circularise

                             Lennard Kruseman – Co-Founder – My Carbon Tree

                             Nitin Vishwas – Co-Founder and Benevolent Overlord – Moonshine Meads

                             Shyam Kumar Katta, Ph.D – Country Advisor – SmartFarmingTech

 18.43-18.45      Audience Vote ‘Most Promising Scale – Up’

 18.45-18.5        Cultural program – Rinay Prasad – Drummer

 18.55-19.00     Announcement winner of NICCT Members Prize for ‘Most Promising Scale-Up’

                            Announcement winner ‘Most inspiring Sustainability quote’

 19.00-19.05     Vote of thanks and Closing Remarks

 19.05-19.15     Informal networking

Please click on this link for the speaker overview. 

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NETHERLANDS INDIA BUSINESS MEET
Thursday 17 June 2021

PROGRAM 

Theme: ‘Towards a Sustainable Planet Through Netherlands – India Collaboration’
Date: Thursday 17 June 2021
Location: Online, MS Teams
Time: 15.00-19.15 hrs CET / 18.30-22.45 hrs IST

Moderated by: Vidhya Sampath, Vice President NICCT

14.45-15.00        Log-in, Registration, Informal networking

14.54-14.56        Audience Poll

14.56-15.00        Pre-recording by Rinay Prasad – Drummer

15.00-15.03       Welcome by Vidhya Sampath – Moderator NIBM

15.05-15.10       Welcome by Edith Nordmann, Chairman NICCT

15.10-16.30        KEYNOTE SESSION

15.10-15.20        Henk Ovink – Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands

                             Sherpa to the UN/WB High Level Panel on Water

15.20-15.25        Address by H.E. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rawat – Ambassador of India to The Netherlands

15.25-15.30        Address by H.E. Mr. Marten van den Berg – Ambassador of the Netherlands to India

15.30-15.35        Sustainable Scale-up Movie 1

15.35-16.25        Discussion NICCT Patron Members

“Sustainability as a strategic driver for industry”

Corporations have increasingly come recognise that their future prosperity hinges upon their responses to the challenges on the sustainability agenda – management of their carbon footprint, restructuring supply chains and meeting their responsibilities to their stakeholders. The process of mainstreaming sustainability is a challenging and expensive affair. How are companies developing their strategy around sustainability? What are the factors shaping their strategy, including regulation and technology?

                        Christina Herden – Global Head Sustainability – HCL

                        Michele Lemmens – Head of Business Sustainability & CTO Asia Pacific &

                        Singapore – Tata Consultancy Services

                        Vipin Moharir – Group CSO – Gateway Group

                        Jan Niewold – Head Climate Change & Sustainability Services – EY NL

16.25-16.30       Sustainable Scale-up movies 2

16.30-16.45        Break

16.45-17.57        INDUSTRY SESSION

“Building and implementing a sustainability mindset”

Existing economic systems are/were geared towards optimising production and maximising growth & profits, however adherence to sustainability goals requires a mindset with a focus on the creation of long-term shareholder value. That means identifying the changing needs and demands of society and responding by mitigating risks and leveraging opportunities while working in collaboration with various stakeholders — suppliers, customers, employees, shareholders and governments. How is industry building this capability? What are the challenges and wherein lie the opportunities?

16.45-16.55        Keynote Address by Soren Gade – MEP, Chair EU-India Parliamentary Committee,

                             Europe India Business Council Chair

16.55-16.58        Sustainable Scale-Up Movie 3

16.58-17.08        Keynote address by Ms. Seema Arora – Deputy Director General – CII and Head-CII Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development

17.08-17.10        Online Poll Questions to Audience

17.10-17.55        Discussion with Industry Leaders

                             Arindom Datta – Executive Director and Head of Rural & Development Banking / Advisory – Rabobank

                             Santhosh Jayaram – Partner & Head, Climate Change, Sustainability and CSR Advisory – KPMG India

                             Sarah Woodhouse – General Council Europe & General Counsel Food and Refreshment – Unilever

17.55-17.58        Sustainable Scale-Up Movie 4

17.58-19.00        SUSTAINABILITY SCALE-UP DISCUSSIONS

“Building a greener world”

 ‘Green’ scale-ups operate at the intersection of business and technology, aiming to create positive change on a global scale. They face unique challenges brought on by their inherent triple bottom line, social responsibility, economic value, and environmental impact. In this session we will hear about their experiences and their views on opportunities in the sustainability space.                       

17.58-18.43        Discussion with Sustainability Scale-ups

                             Mesbah Sabur – Co-Founder – Circularise

                             Lennard Kruseman – Co-Founder – My Carbon Tree

                             Nitin Vishwas – Co-Founder and Benevolent Overlord – Moonshine Meads 

                             Shyam Kumar Katta, Ph.D – Country Advisor – SmartFarmingTech

 18.43-18.45        Audience Vote ‘Most Promising Scale – Up’

18.45-18.55        Cultural program – Rinay Prasad – Drummer

18.55-19.00       Announcement winner of NICCT Members Prize for ‘Most Promising Scale-Up’

                            Announcement winner ‘Most inspiring Sustainability quote’

19.00-19.05        Vote of thanks and Closing Remarks

19.05-19.15        Informal networking

Confirmed speakers at the NIBM 2021 are:

Henk Ovink – Special Envoy for International Water Affairs, Kingdom of The Netherlands Sherpa to the High Level Panel on Water – Keynote Address 

Henk Ovink was appointed in 2015 by the Dutch Cabinet as the first Special Envoy for International Water Affairs. As the Ambassador for Water, he is responsible for advocating water awareness around the world, building institutional capacity and coalitions amongst governments, multilateral organizations, private sector and NGO’s, and initiating innovate approaches to address the world’s stressing needs on water. “Worldwide, water is the number one global risk, the connecting challenge across the 2030 Agendafor Sustainable Development and our best opportunity for inclusive and comprehensive action!”
Ovink is also Sherpa to the UN / World Bank High Level Panel on Water.

Henk Ovink served on President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force where he led the long term innovation, resilience and rebuilding efforts. He developed and led the ‘Rebuild by Design’ competition and initiated the National Disaster Resilience Competition. Before joining the Task Force Ovink was both Acting Director General of Spatial Planning and Water Affairs and Director National Spatial Planning for the Netherlands.

Henk teaches at Harvard GSD, the London School of Economics and the University of Groningen. His book – written together with Jelte Boeijenga – “Too Big. Rebuild by Design: A Transformative Approach to Climate Change” explores his climate and water work for the Obama Administration. In January 2018 Henk Ovink was awarded for his ‘transformative global water work’ an honorary membership from the Royal Instítute of Engineers of the Netherlands. At the World Urban Forum in February 2020 Henk was awarded the IHS Urban Professional Award 2020.

H.E. Mr. Marten van den Berg – Ambassador of The Netherlands to India – Opening Plenary Session

 Marten van den Berg is the Ambassador of the Netherlands to India, Nepal and Bhutan. Prior to his appointment as Ambassador, he served as the Director General, Foreign Economic Relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Netherlands from 2015-2018.
Ambassador Van den Berg studied Economics at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and was part of a Programme for Public Management at the University of Maryland, US and the Programme for Senior Executives of State and Local Government, John F. Kennedy School, Harvard University, USA.

His first entry into public life was as the Senior Policy Advisor of General Technology Policy, Ministry of Economic Affairs. His subsequent posts included, Deputy Chairman of the Working Group Technology Transfer at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Adjunct Secretary General at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Deputy Director Spatial Economic Policy. In 2001, he was appointed Economic Minister at the Netherlands Embassy in Washington; and returned to the Ministry of Economic Affairs as Deputy Director General of Foreign Economic Relations in 2004. In 2008, he was also appointed as the Director of Economic Diplomacy at the Ministry. In 2012, Ambassador Van den Berg was appointed as the Deputy Director General Foreign Economic Relations and then as the Director General Foreign Economic Relations in 2015. 

H.E. Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rawat – Ambassador of India to The Netherlands – Opening Plenary Session

 Mr. Pradeep Kumar Rawat is the Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of the Netherlands. He is also the Permanent Representative of India to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and responsible for India’s relations with the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration and other legal institutions in The Hague.

Mr. Rawat joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1990. He opted to learn Mandarin Chinese as his foreign language and served in Hong Kong and Beijing between 1992 and 1997. He returned to Delhi in 1997 and served in East Asia Division for over 3 years. He then served as First Secretary in Indian Mission in Mauritius.

He started his second tenure in Beijing in 2003 as Counsellor and ended in 2007 as Deputy Chief of Mission.

Mr. Rawat returned to the Ministry of External Affairs and worked as Director (East Asia) in East Asia Division between 2007 and 2009 and thereafter he was on deputation to South Asian University for 10 months. He then served as Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi from 2014 to 2017.

Mr. Rawat served as Ambassador of India to Indonesia and Timor-Leste from September 2017-December 2020.

He speaks fluent Chinese.

He is married to Ms. Shruti, and they have two daughters.

Edith Nordmann – Chairman NICCT & Managing Partner ACG International – Opening Plenary Session – Keynote address

Edith Nordmann is next to being the Chairman of NICCT also Managing Partner at ACG International in Amsterdam.

Edith has an expert qualification in employment law, and is experienced corporate and commercial litigator, who has been representing both companies and private individuals in highly complex matters. Her practice also covers cross-border transactions, contract disputes, and national and international litigation. In addition, she is a certified mediator, who assists her clients in finding amicable resolution of their disputes.

Being fluent in German (native speaker), English, Dutch, French and Italian, Edith is not only able to communicate with many of her international clients in their mother tongue, but also to understand the difference in mentality, culture and legal systems. This puts her in a unique position to resolve cross-border issues.

Edith successfully combines her professional career with numerous charitable and social organizations, where she uses her expertise, not only to help others but also to empower them in their endeavors. Among many other commitments, she is also Vice Chairman Supervisory Board of Housing Corporation Rochdale.

Vidhya Sampath – Director Corporate Affairs Europe – Tata Consultancy Services – Day Moderator

Vidhya Sampath serves as the head of Corporate and European Affairs for Tata Consultancy Services across TCS’ European operations. Prior to this she served as the Director External Relations for Europe and as the Marketing Head for TCS Benelux, a period that saw exceptionally fast growth for TCS.
Vidhya has served as the Director of the Europe India Institute at Nyenrode Business University and initiated the Netherlands India Institute.
As a private consultant she advised several major corporates and public institutions in Europe on business collaboration with India and has orchestrated several high-level missions to India.

Vidhya serves presently as a Vice President on the board of the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade and is on the advisory Board to the Europe India Chamber of Commerce.
Vidhya holds a Bachelors degree in Architecture (cum laude), a Masters degree in Urban development and Housing Studies and a MBA from the Rotterdam School of Management. Vidhya is a fully certified yoga teacher and enjoys teaching and practicing yoga on a daily basis.

Christina Herden – Global Head of Sustainability – HCL Technologies – Patron Member Panellist

Christina Herden has been with HCL Technologies for over 7 years in a number of different roles. Most recently, she has taken the reins of defining and leading our global sustainability strategy. In this role, she is able to leverage her wide experience in marketing, public relations, communications, start-ups and international experience. Combined with her passion for a better and more sustainable future for all, Christina is determined to drive a strategy that creates harmony between profits, people and the planet. 

 Michele Lemmens – Head of Business Sustainability & CTO APAC – Tata Consultancy Services – Patron Member Panellist 

Michele Lemmens is the APAC Head of Business Sustainability and CTO for Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). In this role she is responsible for championing sustainability initiatives with stakeholders to bring the depth and breadth of TCS, Research & Innovation and COIN to deliver measurable economic, social, environmental outcomes that have industry relevance.

Michele is passionate about the opportunities for businesses to embrace more sustainable business models by harnessing the power of innovation and digital in the way they operate and champion change for a better triple bottom line.

Most recently she was responsible for establishing the Regional ASEAN Hub for Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) on secondment in Singapore, and worked across businesses, governments, regulators, stock exchanges, investors and academia in the region to advocate sustainability and build capability in sustainability reporting. Key to this outcome is engaging stakeholders in enhanced ESG disclosure dialogues that enable better decisions, based on information that matters to drive more sustainable outcomes.

She has extensive experience in business model transformation often led by strategies around new market entry, M&A, JVs, start-ups and strategic alliances. This experience has been built across multiple business functions and industries spanning APAC, ASEAN, Middle East and UK geographies.

Vipin Moharir – Group CSO – Gateway Group – Patron Member Panellist

Vipin Moharir is co-founder of The Gateway Corp. In his role as Group Chief Strategy Officer, he is responsible for Strategy, Execution and Results at The Gateway Corp, that includes multiple Brands and presence in 16 countries.

Vipin also heads Group’s venture funding activities and is responsible for global inorganic initiatives (‘Buy & Build’) of The Gateway Corp.

With a unique blend of Indian background, combined with Dutch/International exposure, he has evolved into a serial entrepreneur at ‘heart and soul’.

Vipin is an ‘InspirAgent’ with over twenty five years of managerial and consulting experience. Vipin has (co-) founded several start-up’s in IT & other sectors. Vipin is known for his hands-on approach for business acceleration and innovation. Vipin has built and managed internationally diverse teams and business units in multiple countries.

He appears frequently in the media and regularly speaks at events. Vipin was involved in The Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade (NICCT) as an active Board Member (8 years) and as Chairman NICCT (2015-2017).

Vipin believes fervently that “There is no substitute for hard work”.

Jan Niewold – Lead Partner Climate Change and Sustainability Services – EY NL – Patron Member Panellist

Jan is the Lead partner of EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services in the Netherlands. He is a qualified chartered auditor and has a master’s degree in economics from the University of Amsterdam. He is one of the Netherlands’ leading assurance practitioners in the area of ESG, including topics such as assurance on Integrated Reports and Human Rights.
In addition, Jan specializes in sustainable finance and closely follows regulatory developments in the area of ESG reporting, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the EU Taxonomy, and IFRS.
He is currently completing a PHD on non-financial reporting, at the University of Groningen.

Søren Gade – MEP, Chair EU-India Parliamentary Committee, Chair Europe India Business Council – Keynote Industry Session

MEP Soren Gade, former Minister of Defence (2004-2010) and Former MP of the Danish Parliament (2001-2010 and 2015-2019) currently holds a position as Member of the European Parliament  and is the Chair for the Delegation for Relations with India and is Chair of the Europe India Business Council in Brussels. 

Seema Arora – Deputy Director General CII and Head-CII Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development – Keynote Industry Session

Seema Arora pioneered the creation of services on Sustainable Development within CII. Her journey with CII began with engaging Indian Industry towards the run up to the Earth Summit in 1992.

Seema Arora works on designing innovative products and frameworks to build the business case for industry to invest in Sustainability and CSR. She works with Industry, Government and Community based organisations to develop policy instruments, curate collaborative initiatives across sector and stakeholders and develops innovative voluntary approaches to Sustainable Development. Her portfolios in CII include the CII – ITC Centre Of Excellence for Sustainable Development, CII Development Initiatives, CII Foundation and Indian Women Network.

Seema Arora has a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Delhi University. She is a member of World Economic Forum Global Future Council on Biodiversity Action Agenda.

She has thirty years of experience in the field of Sustainable Development.

Arindom Datta – Executive Director and Head of Rural & Development Banking / Advisory – Rabobank – panellist Industry Session

Arindom Datta has been working for Rabobank for the last 14 years and has over 28 years of experience in Rural Finance, Cooperative, Microfinance and Agribusiness banking. Arindom is responsible for the sustainability banking initiatives on knowledge, risk management and business development. He also oversees the Rabo Foundation projects in blended finance, technology/innovation and access to finance in the agriculture sector. Arindom is further passionate about following the Agtech developments and its significance for small holder farmers.

He previously worked with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, IDBI Bank and CARE. Arindom is a Mathematics honors graduate from St. Stephen’s College and has an MBA with a specialization in Finance and Strategy from IIM Kozhikode.

Arindom’s work is recognized and he has been honoured with the ‘India Sustainable Leadership’ award at the India Sustainability Leadership Summit in 2017. 

Other affiliations: Independent Director of NABKISAN Finance Limited; Observer on the Board of Agrostar, India’s largest Agtech company; Advisory member of Climate Smart Agri 100 of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Member of the FICCI Task force on Agtech; Member of the National Advisory Committee on the PRODUCE Fund for FPOs set up by NABARD; Steering Committee member of SAFIN (Small holder and Agri SME Finance & Investment Network).

Santhosh Jayaram – Partner & Head, Climate Change, Sustainability and CSR Advisory – KPMG – panellist Industry Session

Santhosh leads one of the biggest consulting teams in the space of Sustainability/ESG in South Asia. He has worked with more than 150 companies over the last 2 decades and have been involved in ESG related projects in more than 20 countries.

He had an active involvement in setting standards in this space. He was a working group member in the development of G4 guidelines at Global Reporting Initiative, (GRI) Netherlands. (2012). He was also a Standards Committee member for the development of AA1000SES standard at AccountAbility, UK. (2011). He was a member to the Technical committee constituted by Securities and Exchange Board of India about Social Stock Exchange. He is also currently on the advisory council of KPMG Impact, a global initiative by KPMG to drive Sustainability/ESG agenda across the firm.

His consulting experience ranges through a spectrum of topics in the field of sustainability. He was involved in developing the World’s first Sustainability P&L, which is currently an HBR Case Study. He is a frequent writer on ESG topics in mainstream national media.

He holds a master’s degree in Technology, Environmental Science and Engineering and is a Bachelor of Technology and Mechanical Engineering.

Sarah Woodhouse – General Counsel Food & Refreshment & Markets: Europe & SEAA – Unilever – panellist Industry Session

Sarah Woodhouse is an England & Wales Qualified Solicitor.  She joined Unilever in 2003 from legal private practice and performed in a variety of roles with Unilever in the UK, Singapore & now in Netherlands. Her current position is General Counsel to Unilever F&R global division based in Netherlands and General Counsel for all Unilever business across the markets of Southeast Asia, Australasia and Europe leading legal teams across these geographies.

She is a member of Unilever’s Global Food & Refreshment Leadership Team, responsible for setting global strategy to be a Force for Good in Food and managing the delivery and execution of the relevant priorities from a legal perspective.
Sarah Woodhouse has a broad legal experience across Corporate, Litigation, Competition law, Marketing & Advertising law, Privacy, General Commercial, Employment and Criminal law. She is married with 1 daughter and loves renovating their new home, cooking, coaching club hockey U13s. 

Mesbah Sabur – Co-Founder – Circularise – panellist sustainable scale up discussions

 Mesbah Sabur learned the value of hard work as an Afghan refugee, whose family sought asylum in his adopted homeland of the Netherlands when he was just 7. His can-do philosophy — and his belief that it’s tough to solve big problems from inside big companies — inspired the creation four years ago of Circularise. The digital technology startup is using blockchain to create a platform for sharing data across supply chains. The ambition is to improve transparency so that companies can move toward more circular production processes, starting with the plastics sector.

Lennard Kruseman – Co-Founder – My Carbon Tree – panellist sustainable scale up discussions

Lennard Kruseman is director at My Carbon Tree and creative director at Ability and partner at KBenP since 2016. He is responsible for the business developement and the user experience team and created digital experiences for companies like Heineken, Red Cross, Province of South Holland and the Dutch ministry of defence.

He is a member of the round table (133) where he organises funraisings for a wide variety of charities. Has been involved in multiple digital start-ups. Lennard lives in an old farm in Langboek (Netherlands, Utrecht) with 30.000m2 of land which has been give back to nature to attract wildlife and insects by planting and maintaining biodiverse busches and trees.

Due to his passion for nature and technique Lennard started MCTO to create new transparent eco-system that will fight climate change with modern technology. For MCTO he is responsible for business development and partnerships.

Nitin Vishwas – Co-Founder and Benevolent Overlord – Moonshine Meads – panellist sustainable scale up discussions

After completing his mechanical engineering degree in 2005 from the National Institute of Engineering, Mysore, Nitin Vishwas worked as an Executive-Trainee at Larsen and Toubro. He later obtained an MBA from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and began working as a consultant with McKinsey and Company. and subsequently as an Associate Director at Abbott Healthcare, before choosing to leave everything to dive into the world of honey based alcohol aka mead, with his childhood friend, Rohan. The duo went on to get a new law made in India for honey fermentation, and launched Asia’s first meads, Moonshine in 2018. Later In 2020, they also launched their own brand of artisanal ‘hive to table’ honey under the name ‘Moonshine Honey Project’ (MHP). Along with their own bee boxes, MHP plans to works with smaller bee keepers across the country to source nano lots of honey at market price, thus providing the bee keepers/farmers with an alternatives distribution channel.

Shyam Kumar Katta, Ph.D – Country Advisor – SmartFarmingTech – panellist sustainable scale up discussions

Mr. Katta carries 18 years of diversified experience in driving 16 different projects into Digital Agriculture, Economic Developments, Strategizing Sustainable Livelihoods, Climate Resilience Agriculture, Environment, providing technical advisory services for 80 Stakeholders, impacting 2 Million households across 6 states with 650 NGOs, commercializing 600 FPOs and 2000 SHG groups.

 Rinay Prasad – Drummer – Cultural program 

Rinay is seventeen years old and is pursuing class 12 through open schooling. Showing keen interest on playing the drums from a young age she enrolled into a music school to start of her musical journey. Rinay’s passion for playing the drums increased. Subsequently she went on to finish her grade 8 in the Drums category from Trinity College of music, London through the music school in Chennai.
Rinay is a first generation musician and is the only musician in her large family.
Going further, in 2020 Rinay participated in the”Hit like a girl contest” which is an International contest for female drummers.
She was selected as the 3rd weekly winner during the seven weeks of the competition and was also the India under 18 champion.
The year 2021 and for the second time Rinay entered the”Hit like a girl contest”. This time she was selected as the first week winner and
The first runner up in the 13-17 years category from a field of over 60 drummers.
She is the First Indian to reach this level and is also the current India under 18 champion.
She was also awarded the Rotary international award for Young achiever in the field of music.

Participants NIBM 2021 are: