Prof. Chetan Singh Solanki has been popularly referred to as “Solar Man of India” by Times of India, The Hindu and India Today. Some people also call him “Solar Gandhi”. Known for his remarkable work in the field of Solar, he is an educator, innovator, researcher, entrepreneur, and author. Following Gandhian ideals, he has coined the word ‘Energy Swaraj’. Prof. Solanki has taken unpaid leave from his role as an academician at IIT Bombay to undertake Energy Swaraj Yatra, wherein he has pledged to not go home, and live on a solar bus for the span of 11 years until 2030. He lives, sleeps, cooks, bathes in his solar bus. Through this yatra, he will be moving criss-cross across the country 7-8 times.
Dr. Venkat Rajaraman is an Advisory Committee member of the National Center for Photovoltaic Research and Education (NCPRE), India. He has over 25 years of experience in Product Design and Engineering Management. Prior to that, he was the CEO of Su-Kam Power Systems, leading power back-up and RE solution provider from India. Before moving to renewable energy space, he was the Vice President of Engineering at Portal Player, a company that was acquired by NVIDIA Corp in Jan 2007. He worked at Sun Microsystems, USA. He has a BE degree from Madurai-Kamaraj University and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University. He specializes in Renewable Energy, Engineering Management, Product Design, and Development.
He is the Chairman and Managing Director for Aartech and its subsidiaries with a focus on innovation, entrepreneurship and prudent management with multiple initiatives across various domains and ecosystems. He has 10 Years of R&D experience followed by executive responsibilities and leadership roles. He has also designed and developed BTS 2000 Microprocessor Based Numerical Fast Bus Transfer Systems for Utilities and Process Industries. He has also worked extensively on developing Specialized and Selected Energy Applications in a multi-technologist environment by sharing a platform for technology and business development.
Parag Patankar is Co-Founder & CTO of Covalent Capital, a Fintech SaaS company backed by Singapore Stock Exchange and Temasek. He has 2 Decades of Technology Leadership roles at Oracle, Cisco and is an IIM Ahmedabad MBA, and an Electronics Engineer. He is passionate about giving back through education for underprivileged youth, and has mentored over 6000 students to create better education and work opportunities, and trained over 2000 teachers to be more effective in teaching online. He led technology strategy for a Gates foundation effort to provide better education to kids in Indian slums and inner city U.S. schools. He is an avid cyclist, braving the Bangalore traffic to commute to work, was founding member of Bangalore Brevets, has been a Super Randonneur twice, and is active in cycling evangelism through Bangalore Bicycling School and Cycle to Work initiatives.