Ada is an Indologist with over 6 years of experience in India and a solid background in business and administration. As the Principal Consultant at the EBTC in New Delhi, she supports European companies throughout the internationalisation process and facilitates their market entry to India. She also provides overall support to the ongoing projects strengthening the Europe-India business corridor.

Before ETBC, Ada was heading the Polish Investment and Trade Agency in India. She has successfully facilitated the market entry of various Polish companies to India and led the establishment of partnerships with local chambers of commerce, business organisations and governmental entities.

Ana Rocha or ANA is a Portuguese and German singer, composer and lyricist, Musician, Singer, Speaker and Translator. A few of ANA’s innumerable contributions includes the vocal and video performance of "Vaishnav Jan To" bhajan, for the Embassy of Brussels during the International Celebration of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary, participation in a Jazz Evening in Collaboration with AsiaBerlin Summit 2020 with Indian music, Member of the Confluence Allstars, having participated in the EP "India Meets Europe". ANA translated (Portuguese, German, French, English) several film scripts, documentaries and series and has also contributed to the Goethe Institut and German TV Channels.

Alexandros is the Executive Secretary of Cyprus India Business Association which was established under the auspices of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It is actively supported by the Embassy of India and the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Cyprus. In his role as secretary of the association, he engages closely with India's high commission in Cyprus to promote trade and relations between India and Cyprus. He also plays a role in organising Business Delegations from Cyprus to India and welcoming Business Delegations from India and organising Forums and B2B Meetings in Cyprus.

Astrid runs Nordic India Innovation (NII) with the purpose to elevate the Nordic public on business opportunities and trends in India. During 2019-2020 she did an internship at the Swedish Chamber of commerce in New Delhi and later she was sent on behalf of the chamber to the Swedish Consulate General in Mumbai to work for the preparations for the Swedish Royal state visit in December 2019. Astrid came to India for the first time as a research student in political science and urban studies at Savitribai Phule Pune University in 2017 during her enrolment in the Euroculture Erasmus Mundus Master program. 

Axel Nordenstam is a Stockholm-based think-tanker specialising in EU-India relations and Indian foreign and climate policy. Having lived in six countries, including India, he is currently a PhD Candidate in International Relations at Stockholm University. He is also affiliated with the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI). Axel has previously served as President for the Swedish Association of International Affairs and on the Executive Board of the International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS). For his various civil society engagements, he has previously been named a Young Leader by Asia-Europe Foundation. His pieces have been published by UI, Springer, the EU Delegation in New Delhi, Utrikesmagasinet, and Economic Times.

Caris Ienco has been a key contributor for over 3 years in nurturing cultural relationships between EU and India, as a Direction assistant, film selector, organizer with “River to River Florence Indian Film Festival”, an annual film festival showcasing the best of Indian Cinema in Florence since 2001. Caris is currently studying Urdu, and also speaks English, Spanish and Slovenian. She is a performing arts Journalist writing reviews about dance, theatre and cinema. Also works as an Italian language teacher at Isituto Europe and Accademia Europea in Florence.

Professor Sridhar is the founding Director of the Global Health Governance Programme and holds a Wellcome Trust Investigator Award. She was previously Associate Professor in Global Health Politics and a Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford University. She was also a visiting Associate Professor at LMU-Munich and guest lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Public Health Foundation of India.

Dr Dhanasree Jayaram is an Assistant Professor, Department of Geopolitics and International Relations, and Co-coordinator, Centre for Climate Studies, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Karnataka, India. She is also a Research Fellow, Earth System Governance and Member, Climate Security Expert Network. She holds a PhD in Geopolitics and International Relations from MAHE. She pursued a visiting fellowship (Erasmus Mundus, short-term PhD) at Leiden University, the Netherlands during 2014-15; and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, under the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship during 2018-19

Dominic, a senior Parliamentary Assistant with the UK Parliament in London, has been contributing to strengthening UK and India Business and Political relationships for over 6 years as senior advisor to Virendra Sharma MP, Chair of the Indo-British APPG. Has a BA in Ancient History, King's College London.

Emilie is the Director and President of the Board at DutchBasecamp. DutchBasecamp is fully geared towards the international growth of startups and scale-ups. DutchBasecamp is one of the driving forces of the EU-India Innovation Center, in which European tech startups and scale-ups are supported to successfully expand their activities into the Indian market, by offering them training, tools, and access to local knowledge & network.

Flo Oberhofer is a German Social Entrepreneur based out of Shillong, Meghalaya, India. He has partnered with IIM Calcutta Innovation Park to head the PRIME Startup Hub, the state-run entrepreneurship development program initiated by the Planning Department, Government of Meghalaya. He delivered several projects and startups in MedTech, CleanTech and Agriculture in India over the last few years and currently is focussed on Sustainability Venture Building with his Startup Terra Preta Impact Innovations LLP. Flo is also promoting sustainable Food Forests (based on Permaculture) to facilitate healthy nutrition and conservation of biodiversity in India - enabled by technology.

Ghanshyam Nabar has been instrumental in the UK India Corridor forging strong relations between both sides for close to a decade. Being passionate about delivering economic development, he has been a vocal advocate of a beyond the transactional relationship between these two countries. Demonstrated through his work past and present that focuses on delivering robust strategies for regions like Northwest and Midlands, he has worked within investments, trade, education, arts, sports, tourism and media. In addition to going beyond roles & responsibilities and being a true Indian at heart, he actively dedicates his time to various community activities that connect the future generations with their roots, thus preserving the Indian social and cultural fabric.

Dr. Jubin Shah is the chief coordinator, German Indian Startup Connector under the German Indian Business Forum. He is an Ambassador for the German Indian Startup Exchange Program (GINSEP). His work includes planning and executing several startup activities between India & Germany and has mentored startups in the healthcare sector. He served as President & Manager for the Heidelberg Indian Students Organization between 2015-2020. Under his leadership, the organization received the best students organization award & achieved several other milestones. Dr. Jubin Shah has completed his PhD from the University of Heidelberg and is also a co-founder for a podcast series, Success Across Boundaries.

Specialized in international business, Juliane is an accomplished Startup Ecosystem Builder and Enabler with years of experience in building support programmes around International Expansion and Client Acquisition to and from India. Juliane supported more than 50 startups with India Market Validation and Entry Support and Access to Clients to accelerate their scaling and impact their bottom line. Worked with T-Hub in Hyderabad as Director International Programs (lived in Hyderabad/ India between 2016 and 2019 designing and executing internationalization programs in and out of India with countries such as the UK, Sweden, Finland, France and many more. Build German Accelerators Next Step India program and Initiated EU-India Innocenter.

Karolis is an extreme adventurer, explorer and inspirational speaker from Lithuania. He reached the coldest place on earth in -50C on motorcycle as well as rode around the world in just 40 days. Karolis travelled the world's deepest lake (Baikal) on ice various times alone and as group leader for the documentary and Guinness World Record. He travelled around South India more than 3000km with 5 other international riders as part of the Spice Route to meet local communities to share experiences and inspire them to set big goals and be ready to go for it. He likes to say about cold 'you can not dress enough anyway, better focus your energy on the internal heat we all have. 

Krupa is a Councillor in London, in the London Borough of Brent. She serves on the Cabinet in Brent as the Lead Member for Environment. She was elected as a Councillor for the first time at the age of 20, making her the youngest ever Asian to be elected to Post in the Country. She is currently serving her third term as a Councillor. Krupa works closely with the High Commission of India to support the requirements of Indian Students, businesses and the Indian community living in the UK on the whole. She is a strong supporter of the Mahatma Gandhi Future Leadership Program, which is a mentoring and leadership program for a new generation of political leaders from the Indian Community in the UK, who are keen to be part of the Labour party.

Lakshmi Lalita Mohan is involved in the promotion of industrial cooperation and bilateral relations – trade, foreign direct investments, joint ventures and technical collaborations between India and the EU. Primarily, promoting India as a destination for trade and investments. She is a Member of the India Business Forum Executive Committee an initiative by the Consulate General of India in Frankfurt and since September 2018 Ambassador of the Indo-German GINSEP program a joint initiative by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy - Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft and Energie and Deutsche Startups Association.

Dr Lara Klossek's interest in India and the South Asian region has been a defining and central element of her academic career. This year she defended her PhD in International Relations at the Autonomous University Barcelona. The PhD was conducted within a Horizon 2020 Marie S. Curie European Training network called 'Global India' and looked into the EU's and India's approach to peace operations. Parts of the dissertation have been published as policy briefs, as it has always been her goal to produce research that has an applied character. She firmly believes that research on EU-India relations will eventually enable more informed policy decisions and can thus help to take forward their strategic partnership. Currently, she is working for the EU's External Action Service as a Policy Assistant. 

Lourens is a historian and researcher with a strong interest in higher education developments and how these affect societies. During his fellowship for the EU-funded Horizon 2020 programme ‘Global India’, he studied the development of higher education in India in the last decades. He published several articles on the EU’s policies with regard to higher education cooperation with India and argued for strengthening cross-border relations. Lourens has completed his doctoral research at the KU Leuven (Belgium) in 2021 and will continue working on the transnational developments in higher education between the EU and India as an assistant professor for the University of Groningen.

Manoj Agarwal is an MBA from IIM Kozhikode and a Computer Science Engineer from PEC Chandigarh. He comes with over 15 years of experience in building companies, technology, product, marketing, and business excellence. He has worked with companies like Yahoo, Flipkart, Manipal Education before starting his venture which is today a global company with over 1200 clients and 250+ employees. Manoj has been active with various industry and technology forums like TechIreland, IMA, Saastock, Loyalty 360, CII, Nasscom, IIMs, FICCI, RPI, SHRM, and more. He is a regular speaker in various international forums and takes an active interest in sharing his learnings back to the entrepreneurs & businesses. Manoj enjoys connecting with new people and cultures, sports, yoga and spiritual readings.

Meena received an honour diploma from the Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi for her contributions to promoting Indian culture through her singing. Meena represented Romania in the production of the bhajan music video, Vaishnava Jana to, in Gujarati, for the 150 years birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Meena also sang Jana Gana Mana, the Indian National Anthem. She produces and delivers podcasts on Indian receipts and Mahatma Gandhi’s life. She is also well known for producing remix covers of popular Bollywood songs. Apart from singing, Meena is also a globally recognized Public Relations expert and has contributed to multiple EU-India relationship-building efforts through her coordination and leadership efforts.

Mikkel is a Project Manager at Asia House, a non-profit organization improving commercial ties between Denmark & Asia. Among other projects at Asia House, Mikkel has been working with the NORDIN SME Platform, a highly operational market access program designed to help Danish SMEs find success in India. NORDIN is a partnership between Asia House, GIG, DI India, and Innovation Centre Denmark. In his past work, Mikkel also dealt with India, working with BLUETOWN, a last-mile internet company enabling affordable connectivity in rural India and other parts of the world. His experience with India began as a fellow of the IDEX Global Fellowship, where he joined Unitus Capital and UC Inclusive Credit, an impact investment firm and NBFC, helping Indian impact-focused SMEs gain access to capital. Finally, Mikkel has been and continues to be, direct support to the Indian startup ecosystem, having acted as Community Leader and Organizer for the Techstars Global Startup Weekend in Bangalore, while currently mentoring Indian-based startups as a part of the UNLEASH Plus incubation program.

Nicolas is a trade policy advisor at International Trade Intelligence and an associated researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute. He has worked with international organisations and national governments and provided expertise on the negotiation and implementation of multilateral and regional trade agreements. Before his advisory work, Nicolas was a doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge with a focus on the political economy of Indian trade agreements. Nicolas's most recent publications on EU-India relations include a book chapter on the negotiations for the Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement and a policy brief on EU-India cooperation towards a Digital Economy Partnership Agreement.

Prof. Nidhi was the youngest female and only Asian (Indian) elected for two consecutive terms in European Association for International Education (EAIE) highest governing body – the General Council , headquartered in the Netherlands. At Symbiosis, Prof. Nidhi set up SCES which facilitates more meaningful, research-based, and strategic partnerships and projects with European counterparts. She works actively in collaboration with the EUDEL and EU Member states diplomatic missions in India to foster ties in Research, Innovation and Higher Education. Prof. Nidhi is a renowned speaker at International forums on Internationalisation of Higher Education and has published on internationalisation and India-EU bilateral relations. She is an ‘out of the box thinker’ and has pioneered E-Academies on Internationalisation in India and established the first chapter of European Horizons in India for students – SCES Student Think Tank.

Peter teaches Hindi grammar, language exercises and text-readings (BA, MA), General Knowledge about India and South Asia, Cultural History of India after 1000 AD, History of Hindi Literature, History of New Indo-Aryan Languages. He is admired for representing the culture of Europe (Hungary) and Indian in countless person-to-person interactions, translation of literary texts and blog writing. Peter has been awarded the PhD at an Indian university for his Literary Studies in Hindi Literature for thesis written in Hindi on Women and Social Issues in Mamta Kalia’s Fiction. His fields of interest include Hindi language and literature, culture of contemporary India, Portrayal of society in Hindi and Translation of lyrical texts.

Pinder has a wide range of experience in politics, within the Conservative Party. Serving as the first Indian female County Councillor from 2017 - 2021 and re-elected in May 2021 to West Northamptonshire Council . Pinder has helped UK and India relationships by working with individuals and businesses to build stronger links in her role as a relationship manager for a portfolio of global clients. Pinder is the Chairman of South Northamptonshire Conservatives Association and also serves as a board member for numero charities - including the Hope Centre for helping alleviate poverty and homelessness and Groundworks UK.

Captain Prashant S. Widge has two decades of experience leading large-scale sustainable organizational transformations through Thought leadership interventions in the maritime, shipping, and logistics industry. For the past five years, he spearheaded the best-in-class shared-value responsible ship recycling program at Maersk creating relational integration opportunities through a win-win proposition, which led to the transformation of the Alang ship recycling industry in India. Copenhagen Business School appointed him the first Ambassador in India to strengthen the maritime business links between India and Denmark. He has since collaborated with industry stakeholders to increase the focus on ship recycling and academia through its inclusion in the IN-DK Green Strategic Partnership.

Proma Ray is a PhD Candidate at the School of Law and Government in Dublin City University under the EU Marie Curie ETN Global India Project. Her work explores Gender and Political Parties in contemporary India. The project is aimed at intensive training and knowledge-production on social, political, economic, and cultural developments in contemporary India and facilitating better cooperation and engagement of the EU with an emerging India. Proma Ray’s thesis studies women's participation, representation, and leadership in Indian political parties with a specific focus on West Bengal.

Raita has been the cultural bridge having understood the different business styles in the EU and India, helping her company build and maintain a smooth, long-term EU-India business relationship. Her main expertise is in the field of commercial promotion, development of business processes and project management in the Indian environment for green sewage treatment solutions using the Swedish technology Aquatron, which won 1st prize in the Swacchathon 1.0 contest, 2017, organized by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Before starting the sewage treatment business, Raita was already contributing to EU-India through her Finnish language and cultural training for corporate groups as well as individuals in India.

Sanam is the founder and chairperson of the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (NISAU), the largest association of Indian origin students and young professionals outside India. NISAU is a not-for-profit organisation she founded during her time as a student at the London School of Economics which has in a short period grown to be the leading voice of the young Indian diaspora, not just in the UK but also globally. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the organisation worked very closely with the Indian and UK Governments to support Indians stranded in the UK.

Sreeman is the founder of Indian Confluence , a platform to showcase the diverse Indian culture, cuisine and art with a message of Celebrating unity. He was instrumental in introducing some iconic events in Belgium aimed at cultural exchanges between India and Europe. He has played a key role in Indian Diaspora events with Prime minister Modi, the Indian Food Festival, Spring Festival and Diwali in Durbuy. More than 20000 visitors from Belgium attend the Indian food festival every year and Sreeman has been instrumental in making this event an event of importance in bringing a positive image of India in Europe especially in Belgium.

Subrahmanyam , the youngest CEO of NSEFI was instrumental in signing an agreement of cooperation between NSEFI and SolarPower Europe which is Europe’s Solar Energy Industry Association, and since 2019 has been leading efforts to bridge the gap between Indian and European Solar Industries. Mr. Pulipaka was the team co-lead and the lead from Indian side for developing Indian version of SolarPower Europe’s best practices guidelines. This 8-month exercise was supported by Indo German Energy Forum (IGEF) and included a launch workshop that was inaugurated by H.E Christine Falken-Grosser, Head of Division – Bilateral Energy Cooperation, Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, Germany in March 2020. This report was then prepared with a series of consultation sessions between Indian and European Solar industry (NSEFI and SolarPower Europe) members and was finally launched in December 2020.

With a Life-Sciences, Bio-Chemistry and International Economics background, Sukanya has close to 10 years of experience in International Business Development, both inward and outward, and with a strong focus on Trade & Investment between India and Europe, where she has developed a strong network of businesses, decision-makers, distributors and policymakers. Since 2016, she is representing the Wallonia Trade & Investment Agency to identify, advise and facilitate FDI from India into the Wallonia Region of Belgium. She is active as an Investment advisor for helping Indian companies to expand in European nations and is an avid believer that the Start-up ecosystem is the core for growth for both India and Europe in the future. She has a keen interest in understanding socio-cultural impacts on business decision making.

Ms Sushmita Roy research interest lies in economics and internationalisation of higher education, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially Global Citizenship Education, EU law, and project management. Her latest publication, chapter “Towards Sustainable Connectivity: India-EU Cooperation in Sustainable Development Goals” of the book “Contours of India-EU Engagements: Multiplicity of Experiences” analyses the EU Connectivity Strategy with a focus on SDGs. Her nuanced interest in the EU external action frameworks, SDGs with regards to education and valuable learning experience in Europe provides solid grounds for her future prospects to become one of the key emerging scholarly voices in the context of the future India-EU strategic partnership.

Svenja Hahn is the standing shadow rapporteur on India for Renew Europe group in the International Trade committee of the European Parliament since 2019. In her capacity as shadow rapporteur, Ms Hahn is closely following the trade relations between the European Union and India. Svenja Hahn is also the spokesperson on India for the German Free Democrats in the European Parliament.

Within the international projects of the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Tanushree works on the India-Austria collaboration projects in the field of conservation of tangible cultural heritage and has coordinated various related workshops and conferences. She is on editing team of the institute, and actively contributes to publications and presentations, nationally and internationally. She is coordinator of the International Council of Museums – Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC) Education and Training in Conservation Working Group. She is also on the steering committee of International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art (INCCA).

Tomas Petricek served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 16 October 2018 – 12 April 2021. During his tenure as Minister of Foreign Affairs, in addition to his official duties of  strengthening bilateral ties between India and the Czech Republic by engaging in discussions and interactions with Indian Government leaders and officials, he also participated in number of initiatives of the Indian community in Czech thereby helping to create a closer bond with the Indian community in Czech

Vimal is Cofounder of Finovista, works extensively in the areas of In-country Representation, Program Management Consulting, Technology Transfer and Capacity Building. He possesses extensive expertise and experience in managing various National, Bilateral and Multilateral programs and Indo-German GINSEP’s Ambassador. At Finovista, he leads prestigious programs viz Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) Programme India (UK Govt), India-UK Future Telecom Partnership Prog (UK Govt), UK-India Innovation Partnership Initiative (UKIPI) under COP26 (UK Govt), Tech4Good Innovation Challenge (German Govt), Social Enterprise (SoEnterprising) Development (Indian Govt), Promotion of CSIR Knowledgebase etc. Additionally, during the association with Global Innovation & Technology Alliance (GITA), as a Head of Strategy & Partnership, conceptualised and managed Bilateral Collaborative Industrial R&D Programs with Canada, Finland, Israel, Italy, Spain, South Korea, UK etc; Multilateral Programs viz Inno Indigo (EU), Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) (EU) and ASEAN-India S&T Development Fund (AISTDF); and National Programs viz DRDO’s Technology Development Fund (TDF), DPIIT/MSME’s Technology Acquisition & Development Fund (TADF), DHI’s Technology Acquisition & Fund Program (TAFP) etc. Vimal believes in integrating Innovation and Finance for societal development and economic growth.

Vivien's key contributions include a presentation on India's macroeconomics to the EU Trade Counselors Meeting, EU Delegation in India; preparation of a report for a leading European energy actor on India's long-term economic and sectoral outlook; presentation on Indo-French business relations at Indo-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry's event, Active participation in TeamFrance Export (an initiative to promote France-India relations) with creation and animation of a local chapter of French Foreign Trade Advisors in Chennai. Vivek, in his previous position with the Embassy of France in India, was in charge of the economic follow-up of India and South-Asian countries (growth, monetary and budgetary policies, etc.) and development issues in relations with the World Bank and IMF. He also mentors Indian companies and gets them ready to enter the European market.

Zsuzsa Anna participated in two Election Observation Missions in the Tibetan government-in-exile in India. Her advocacy work on human rights and good governance for over a decade has contributed to confidence-building measures within the Tibetan community as a way to strengthen India’s image as a generous country in Asia. Zsuzsa Anna works as a consultant for Human Rights Without Frontiers, an NGO based in Brussels, focusing on rule of law and human rights, important pillars of EU-India ties. As a postdoctoral fellow she works on strengthening the EU’s ties with its democratic partners in the Indo-Pacific. As a Political Advisor in the European Parliament between 2008-2020, Zsuzsa Anna worked on the EU’s foreign policy on Asia, including India, China and Taiwan.