Theme
After 2 long years of waiting, TedxSIUNashik is back with its next edition! This year with the theme "Free" and explore the different iterations, meanings and experiences that encompass it.
What does it mean to be free? Freedom carries a unique feeling for each individual. Liberation from the presentiment of being caged in and stuck to one idea or notion. To be free is to not be bound by anyone or anything. The past has shown us multiple examples where the notion of freedom has shaped history and guided societies. From liberating one's country from an oppressive colonial regime to fighting for equal rights for your gender and for societal equality, there are countless examples of how one can exemplify and personify "Free". The ability to be free has turned into one of the most precious feelings that all human beings chase and very few achieve. It is one that does not bind us down to any preset norms but instead lifts us up and allows us to feel what we truly are without expectations and without external influence. It allows us to express ourselves in ways much beyond what we perceive. To be free is much more than a feeling or an emotion. It has changed lives, countries, societies and more importantly, it has shaped humans.
Join us this December as we dive into this wonderfully open theme "Free" and explore the unique meaning it carries for different people from different walks of life
What is TEDx
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxSIUNashik, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxSIUNashik event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
Ms. ElsaMarie D'Silva
Ms.Elsa is a passionate social entrepreneur, dedicated towards empowering the women and youth in areas of Gender Based Violence. Her organisation Safecity is a platform enabling crowd-mapping of personal and anonymous stories of sexual harassment in public spaces and has been highly acclaimed by the media including The Telegraph, BBC News, Aljazeera,The Economic Times and many more. An experienced airline professional and accomplished author, she brings out the untold stories of women advancing India's Sustainable Developement Goals in her book titlted "She is". Ms. Elsa has always wanted to make a difference in the society and live a meaningful life while inspiring others through her actions.
Ms. Rachana Gupta
Ms. Gupta is a co-founder of Gynoveda.com, a revolutionary website that is the world's 1st combination of content, technology and ayurveda to provide ayurvedic medicines that are ready to buy online for women to experience healthy periods. It was founded out of her personal belief that women should take charge of their mental health. Ms. Rachana Gupta also authored the book "Happiness Ki Khoj", a book that helps understand happiness, how to find it and also provides special insights for women and mothers on how to find happiness and contentment in their lives.
Ms. Shailaja Rangarajan
"Ms Rangarajan is the founder and director of Rimagined, which promotes a sustainable consumption by making premium lifestyle products like bags, furnishings, apparel through Upcycling. Her take on upcycling goes well beyond art and craft and aims to make it an everyday lifestyle choice. The enterprise works with a varied range of materials like fabric, denim, tyre tubes to list a few. Through her organization, she also focuses on creating sustainable and dignified work for the team, both women and men by training them in the upcycling process."
Mr. Ashish Kotari
Mr. Ashish is an accomplished writer and social activist, passionate about protecting the bio-diversity and environment. Founded in 1979, his organization Kalpavriksh works on environmental awareness and social issues with a belief that a country can develop meaningfully only when ecological sustainability and social equity are guaranteed, and a sense of respect for, and oneness with nature, and fellow humans is achieved. Mr. Ashish has also served in various committees of the Indian Government for formulating laws such as the Biological Diversity Act & National Wildlife Action Plan, the Forest Rights Act and many more. He has been active in numerous people’s movement including the Narmada Bachao Andolan and has authored and edited over 30 books and 300 articles. A keen photographer and an impassioned environmentalist, Mr. Ashish is a true inspiration for today’s generation.
Ms. Ramya Mohan
A British based senior NHS Developmental Consultant Psychiatrist, Ms. Ramya wears many hats. Besides being an accomplished Medical Educator, she is also a Music Composer, a trained Singer, an exhibiting Artist, an invited Author, Orator and Humanitarian working across Asia and Europe for international Community Development. Ms. Ramya is an expert in the neuroscience of creativity and psycho-oncology and is a pioneer in amalgamating Creative Arts and Neuroscience for youth and societal development. She is dedicated towards optimising the reach and enhancing the potential of creativity in healing and supporting mental health and her internationally acclaimed neuroscientific therapeutic technique CAPE : Creative Arts for Processing Emotions has dedicated users across the globe. As a composer, singer and performer, she has published two music albums and three video singles in collaboration with artists and communities worldwide, including Indian and British Arts & Culture and British Hollywood. A global citizen in true sense, Ms Ramya is impassioned about empowering organisations, individuals & families by fusing the profound abilities of medicine, neuroscience and the creative arts.
Ms. Divya Goswami
Ms. Goswami is the Artistic Director & Owner of Divyakala, an organisation that is dedicated to the promotion of Indian classical arts for appreciation, preservation and continuation of tradition and culture of India. She is highly trained in the traditional Indian dance form of Kathak and also pursues writing, storytelling, compering and creative therapy. Ms. Goswami has won numerous awards for her art and has dedicated her life to the appreciation, preservation and proliferation of the various arts.
Mr. Ajay Shivlani
Mr. Shivlani is the founder & executive director of ‘The Skate Academy’, an organisation dedicated to coaching and training competitive and recreational skating for people of all ages and walks of life. Mr. Ajay has trained over 1 Lakh students and is a mentor to national and international level professional skaters along with being an ICP international skating examiner and has also been coach to the Maharashtra skaters. He is also associated with world skate and has been part of UNICEF events and Make in India intiatives.
Mr. Satyarup Siddhanta
"Mr. Siddhanta is a versatile personality. He is a mountaineer, motivational speaker, and technocrat in the data analytics field. Despite being diagnosed with Asthma in his childhood, with great determination, Satyarup started his mountaineering journey and now holds the Guinness world record for being the youngest in the world to scale the 7 highest summits as well as the 7 volcanic summits all across the 7 continents. And also, he is the first Indian to achieve this feat. He is the founder of Winners and Achievers LLP, which organizes mountaineering and outdoor activities for executives from various corporate houses and entrepreneurs. Siddhanta firmly believes that mountaineering is a great teacher for learning business management. He was invited by multiple prestigious organizations, including CERN (Geneva), INFN (Italy), and Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics (India), to deliver lectures from his rich mountaineering experiences."
Mohsin Memoni
CEO,Memcorp Immersive Learning
Mohsin Memon, CEO, Memcorp Immersive has extensively used games to impact lives. Switching his career as a Project Manager in a Fortune 500 IT Company eight years ago, he chose to work with a group of passionate people to build games for learning.
He believes people learn best when they play and he dreams of a world in which students go to school not to study or learn but to play; a world where learning happens as a byproduct of experience. He's been invited to speak at NASSCOM, spoken at 5 TEDx events and won 'The 20 most admired companies of 2018' award by the Mirror Review magazine. When he's not working, you can find Mohsin either playing board games, video games, trekking, surfing or doing his favorite thing of all - snowboarding in the Himalayan Mountains.
Prof. Dr. T V Ashokan
MBBS, DPM (Psychiatry), M.D. (Psychiatry)
Prof Dr. T. V. Ashokan is a leading Psychiatrist and General Physician from Chennai who has pioneered numerous researches in Psychiatry for the past 30 years. He has publications in the fields of Postpartum Psychiatric Illness, Forensic Psychiatry, Bipolar Disorder and Sex.
He is well known as a discussant on sex and mental health in various television channels. The messages he conveys through these discussions and the articles he writes in leading magazines have clarified various misconceptions about sex and mental health. He has served numerous positions of prestige, such as Asst.Editor-Indian Journal of Psychiatry, President - Indian Psychiatric Society, President - Asian Federation of Psychiatric Association, and South Asia Zonal Representative- World Psychiatric Association among many others.
Mayank Gandhi
Activist, Statesman, Manager
Activist, Statesman, Manager and Urban Planner, Mr. Mayank Gandhi is a rare combination of deep commitment, and quick thinking. Uplifting underprivileged since 2003, Mr. Gandhi has been instrumental in carrying out major structural reforms across the country. Currently leading the effort against drought and helping to improve the lives of farmers in rural Maharashtra, Mr. Gandhi is a champion of rural transformation and strives tirelessly to the goal of a better India.
Revanta Sarabhai
Actor, Dancer and Choreographer
Mr. Revanta is an actor, dancer and choreographer. Having made his solo Indian classical dance debut at the age of 8, he has been performing professionally and touring internationally with the Darpana Performing Group since 1999. Combining his classical dance with contemporary practice, Revanta creates cutting-edge work that is honest, immersive and relevant to the society and times we live in. Revanta made his film debut in 2017 and has since played the lead in four feature films.
Rohtash Mal
CHAIRMAN AND MD, EM3 AGRISERVICES PVT LTD ; CHAIRMAN EQUITIGRO
He revolutionized the Indian farming sector by making state-of-the-art equipments affordable to farmers, by pioneering the rent and pay-for-use model in India. The Founder and Chairman, EM3 Agriservices Pvt Ltd, a large scale start up in the Agri Tech and Agri Services space, is a reputed organization builder of four startups and two turnarounds. With 40+ years of leadership experience in large corporate companies such as Escorts Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, Maruti Suzuki Ltd., Ballarpur Industries Ltd., Khosla Ventures, Equitigro and Turnaround Management Consulting, he is a member of the Executive Advisory Committee of Simon Business School, University of Rochester, CII, TiE and India Angel Networks. He is also an alum of IIT (1976) and IIM(1979).
Partha Sinha
Vice Chairman & MD, McCann World Group India from January 2016.
Partha Sinha has been Vice Chairman & MD, McCann World Group India from January 2016.
Partha started his career with Citibank NA where he was the marketing manager for Credit Cards. From there, he moved on to Ogilvy and Mather where he started the discipline of strategic planning in India. He then joined an internet start up, prior to joining Zee Telefilms as their Marketing Director for Zee Telefilms. He was responsible for the marketing and programming strategy of 14 channels of Zee Telefilms.
Partha then moved on to Publicis, as the chief strategy officer of South East Asia. He left Publicis to start BBH in India where he was a Managing Partner. After a successful launch of BBH, he was brought back within the group to Publicis worldwide. He left Publicis to join McCann in the beginning of 2016.
Partha has a B.Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from IIT, Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. Partha is an occasional columnist with the Economic Times and the Financial Express and teaches at IITs and IIMs. Married to Chaitali, a Chartered Accountant by profession, they have a son Atreyo. Partha is an avid reader, sports enthusiast and loves Indian classical music.
Radhike Khanna
Founder Trustee at OM Creations & Shraddha Charitable Trust - India
Dr. Radhike Khanna, Trustee and Consultant of Shraddha Charitable Trust, is also the current Vice-President of the SPJ Sadhana School, Mumbai. She is a PhD in Special Education and holds a doctorate in Special Education from Knightsbridge University, England. She has done courses in Autism in Berard Method of Auditory Integration Therapy. Dr. Khanna has also completed a course in Public Engagement and attended the International Conference in Learning Disabilities, both at Harvard. She is the only Auditory Integration Therapist and S.S.Screener in the country.
She believes in unleashing the creativity from within each child, and is instrumental in bringing about an attitudinal change where society as a whole started to accept mentally challenged children. She has spent over 25 years of her life to give mentally challenged women a sense of self-worth and dignity, and has received numerous awards and recognition for her contributions, including the National Award for the best individual/professional in the field from President, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in December 2005 and NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Award 2008. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has also conferred her with the prestigious 100 Top Women Achievers Award for her outstanding contribution in the category of "Disability and Disadvantage" in 2016.
Ritesh Bhatia
Founding Director of V4WEB Cybersecurity
Mr. Ritesh is the founder of V4WEB Cybersecurity and a well known Cybercrime Investigator and Cybersecurity Consultant with an experience of 20 years in cyberspace. He is popularly known for his Cybercrime Investigations and has been successful in solving many cases for corporates, law enforcement agencies and individuals in India and abroad. He has also played the role of his real life self as cybercrime investigator in MTV's award winning show - MTV Troll Police. His recent case on busting a WhatsApp group that was circulating child sexual abusive material was well appreciated not just by the Indian police but also by Interpol.
He frequently appears on national television channels such as NDTV, Mirror NOW, CNBC, Zee, Aaj Tak, and many others which seek his opinions on the trending cyber crimes. He has also been interviewed by international media houses such as BBC and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His views on trending cybercrimes and cyber security have been published by many national publications including Times of India, Indian Express, Hindustan Times, DNA, Mumbai Mirror, Mid-day, India Today, The Week, Open Magazine and many other regional newspapers.
Mr. Ritesh has been a very sought after speaker to discuss issues related to new age cybercrimes, dark web, mobile security, data privacy, cyber security and prevention. He has been a distinguished speaker at many national and international conferences and organisations such as the United Nations, UNICEF, RBI, Anti Narcotics Cell, Economic Offences Wing, Indian Air Force, State Police, leading corporate houses, schools and colleges and many more where he spoke on new age cybercrimes, data privacy and dark web
Sunil Khandbahale
Founder And CEO Khandbahale.com
Mr. Khandbahale is a Sloan Fellow and earned a masters in business management MBA degree at MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has developed a dictionary search engine program for Marathi and in 2005, set up an online dictionary portal, khandbahale.com, for various Indian languages.
In 2012, he launched 12 Language Dictionary on 12 December 2012 at 12 hours, 12 minutes and 12 seconds. In early 2013, Mr. Khandbahale launched his twelve-languages dictionary on an SMS platform.
He also founded KHANDBAHALE.ORG, an organization which develops language-related projects such as Global Language Networking, Global Language Heritage, Global Language Friendship, Global Language Environment. He is a founder and secretary of the Global Prosperity Foundation, an NGO that focused on education, health and environment. In 2013 he was given an award as a youth icon by the Maharashtra Times. On 27 December 2013, he co-founded Kumbhathon with MIT Professor Ramesh Raskar, an innovation platform to spot problems and probe solutions in Nashik. In 2014, in conjunction with Mumbai University, he started developing an English to Sanskrit thesaurus for use with mobile phones.
He is a receipient of several awards like - Best entrepreneur of the year "Yashokirti Award", from the Computer Society of India., Best Local Language Website Award from the Internet and Mobile Association of India, International "Manthan Award" from the United Nation’s World Summit on the Information Society, "Youth Icon" Award from the Times Group, National ICT VASVIK Industrial Research Award
Vithal Nadkarni
Consulting Columnist and Writer & Vice-President of The Asiatic Society of Mumbai
Mr. Vithal is the former Science Editor of The Times of India and a Vice-President of The Asiatic Society of Mumbai. He is a writer and columnist, with over three decades of experience working with some of the world's biggest newspapers and science magazines.
With a passion for learning, Mr. Vithal is well read on a diverse range of topics from theology to modern science which has enabled him to be equally at home on both sides of the science and arts interface.
He is a self-confessed wanderer and seeker of mysteries, who has a coffee-table cultural biography of River Narmada, and a book-length encounter with The Serpent Within to his credit. TEDxSiuNashik
Sumaira Abdulali
Convenor at Awaaz Foundation
Ms. Sumaira is an environmentalist from Mumbai, India, founder of the NGO Awaaz Foundation and Convenor of the Movement against Intimidation, Threat and Revenge against Activists (MITRA). She was Co-Chairman of the Conservation Sub Committee and Honorary Secretary of Asia's oldest and largest environmental NGO, the Bombay Natural History Society, and is currently a Governing Council Member.
Through legal interventions, advocacy and public campaigns, contribution to documentary films, television debates and press articles she has successfully mainstreamed and built consciousness about previously unknown environmental hazards, notably noise pollution and sand mining, and has won national and International awards for her work. She also set up the first network for protection of activists in India after an attack on her by the sand mafia is 2004.
She has been referred to as "one of India's foremost environmental activists."
Seema Avasarala
Chief Operating Officer and Co - Founder OyeHelp Technologies Pvt Ltd.
Ms. Seema a true entrepreneur at heart has always thought of technology as a tool to bring accessibility in healthcare thereby creating an ecosystem that encourages well-being. Through her venture OyeHelp she hopes to achieve the same by providing easy-to-use E-clinics for Health professionals. She strongly feels that technology is is curretnly under utilised the healthcare system, be it delivery, accessibility of doctors to patients from where they are, EHR etc. If simple matters like appointment adherence can be improved through technology, its a move towards better health. If patients can have easy access to their health records and have them be digitized so that they can map, track and be proactive towards their health vs reactive, this can help give their health and general well-being a huge positive push. While working for the National Literacy Mission Government of India, Ministry of HRD, she was nominated as an Expert Educationist. She was involved in strategizing and innovating educational reforms with regards to senior and higher education courses under the expert guidance of the HRD ministry. The core intention of her involvement was to bring about a paradigm shift in the arenas of traditional education in a modern changing world.
Krishnan S V
Co- Founder , Dialogue in the Dark, India. Diversity & disability inclusion catalyst, corporate fundraise advisory.
Mr. Krishnan has conceptualized and developed India's Innovative National corporate social movement to empower 1,00,000 PWD's (Persons with Disabilities) with wage / self employment opportunities in collaboration with NSDC ( National skills development corporation).
Over the last 8 years, "Dialogue in the Dark" India welcomed nearly 5,00,000 visitors and sensitised them about the abilities of the disabled leading to skilling of 5000 disabled & job creation for over 4000 disabled people in India. Dialogue in the dark has helped generate Rs 250 million (nearly US$5 million) of income in the hands of these PwD's.
Dialogue in the Dark aims to remove the traditional barriers that limit the societial interactions of an individual on the basis of certain pre-conceived notions of "similarity" through a transformational learning experience. Dialogue in the Dark, reverses the power dynamics, where people who can see have to reply on people withour sight to be their guides through a dark room. A dialogue in stimulated by visitors sharing the experience of the guides, of being blind, who present their capabilities and share their expertise. This authentic sharing sets a common ground, build trust, brings people together and create an emotional link with the guide, and further more with the subject of diversity and inclusion.
Pankaj Mittal
COO for Aurigraph & Lead Investor at CIO Angel Network (CAN).
Mr. Pankaj is a business transformation strategist with over 22 years of progressive leadership experience in the IT, security and telecom industries in India and abroad. He is an active Angel Investor & has a portfolio of 15+ companies under his kitty. He currently sits on multiple boards of various companies and speaks frequently at Technology & IT seminars and workshops. He has been on panel of various IT Initiatives as well like - Member National committee for ecommerce- CII, CIO- 5am Ventures, Member of CIO Klub Pune, DSCI Pune Chapter member, TiE Pune Member/Speaker, Board Adviser- Troology Technologies, Technology Adviser (CTO)- vElements, Member Delhi Startups Community.
He has worked with companies like SLK Group, Ericsson, SingTel, Tata Communications, and Vodafone etc. and specializes in - Digital Operations & delivery (Blockchain, AI/ML, IoT & RPA), Strategic Alignment of Technology with Business, Business Development & Go to Market for Product/Services, Cost Optimization, IT Strategy, IT Security & Audits.
Manjari Chaturvedi
classical Dancer, Director & Choreographer, TedX Speaker, Cultural Academia.
Ms. Manjari , the leading exponent of classical dance in India, is an unusual dancer, she has blazed her` own path, that no one traversed earlier, in the field of performing arts. She has taken the traditional form of Kathak to a different level altogether and has created her own style, her own brand of dance. Her productions as a dancer are projects that are meticulously researched, documented, as she first studies the original traditions and then finds her own artistic expression of the subject and that expression is always unique, as never seen before, as she pours her heart and soul into the dance. Manjari has extensively worked on gender-sensitive subjects through her medium of dance, exploring the many traditions woven into poetry, music, and dance. A force and a name to reckon with, she has blazed her own path in classical Indian Dance with her work in the last twenty years on spirituality and dance. She re-lives traditions in a modern context, at times re-living an era that has been lost to time and creating that ecstatic dance of mystical surrender. She has been the part of the Sufi Symposium at the prestigious Smithsonian Museum Washington D.C. and of the conference on Living heritage by UNESCO and is the Jury and member of “Think Tank on Asian dance” for the prestigious Asian Dance Committee in Korea. In the past decade, Manjari Chaturvedi has collaborated and performed with a wide range of international artists as Global Fusion with Tim Ries (Saxophone, Rolling Stones, USA) And Ustad Shujaat Hussain Khan (Sitar, India), Taufiq Quereshi (India), Kailash Kher (India), Kevin Hays (Piano, USA), Dhaffer Yoseuf(Oudh, Vocals, Tunisia), Rahim Al Hajj ( Oudh, Iraq), Patrick Possey (Saxophone, USA), Firas Shahrstan (Qanun, Syria), Micheal Glenn (Bass, USA).