Amala Akkineni is married to film star Nagarjuna Akkineni. A successful film star herself, she is a trained classical dancer from Kalakshetra, Chennai. Presently teaches yoga at Hyderabad, & volunteers with animal welfare groups at Hyderabad.

An ardent animal lover & emotional Vegetarian She is the founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, working for the animal welfare at Hyderabad for the past 12 years with one of India's best-known animal shelters.

Arun Samuel, at 17 yrs, started out in 1984 as a door-to-door Sales Representative of DSPCO, marketing Zero B as his first product. Within a few months he, with a partner started his own company, Arrow Promotions. Tucked away in a little space in Koramangala, using part of a generator room that doubled as an office, Arrow Promotions' first client was TGL Quick Foods. But the real break came with Tata Oil Mills, followed by Tata Tea.

 Ashok Kanwar as modestly describes himself as a small industrialist. Small indeed for a person who started with nothing to carve a niche in the niche business of Chocolates.  Lady.Jennie Hallam Peel- Chairperson of the London Season during her recent visit to India addressed him as the Chocolate King of India. Ashok Kanwar has been a very active senior Rotarian and is involved with the Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled Children/ Children's Orthopedic Hospital, The Cuffe Parade Residents association and a host of smaller NGOs over the last 30 years. Ashok has been the pillar of strength for ICONGO and whatever progress ICONGO has made today is thanks to his support and solidarity in the most dismal and leanest periods. His belief and faith in the concept of ICONGO has kept us going even in times of utter disappointment.

Begum Bilkees Latif is a social worker earlier involved with upgrading and recognition of 60 Air Force Schools, stressing family planning issues through women's groups and Air Force Medical Centres all over India. As Founder President of The Society for Human & Environmental Development (SHED) and the Dharavi Jan Shikshan Sanstha, she established Centres for vocational training. As Chairman, Andhra Pradesh Central Social Welfare Board, she developed women's training workshops for women sarpanchs and NGOs all over the state. She is presently Chairman of The National Bal Bhavan. Begum Latif is also President of the Society for Clean Cities with its Children's Complex in Mumbai. She is a Trustee of the Population Foundation of India and of the Indian Council for Child Welfare.

 Deepak Parekh is Chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited www.hdfc.com, India's best known housing finance institution that has virtually paved the way for the development of the retail loans business in India. Apart from heading HDFC, Mr. Parekh has headed and been on a large number of committees involving finance and infrastructure. The latest committee is the 3-member Investment Commission appointed by the Government of India to interact closely with corporates in India and abroad, bridging the gap between 'announcements' and 'proposals' and between 'proposals' and 'project implementation'. It also makes recommendations to the government, both policies and procedures, to facilitate greater FDI flows into India.

Edwin is an author specializing in human rights issues or writer-activists and institution development consultants.

Jamshyd N. Godrej graduated in mechanical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, USA. He joined the Board of Management of Godrej and Boyce Mfg. Co. Limited, as Director in 1974, became Managing Director in 1991 and Chairman of the Board in 2000. Mr. Godrej is the President of World Wide Fund for Nature, India and was President of the Confederation of Indian Industry and Indian Machine Tool Manufacturer's Association. He is also the Chairman of Aspen Institute, India.

Jeroninio "Jerry" Almeida who is now a serial social entrepreneur and social scientist working on institution building, has been a volunteer from his very early days having worked for creating awareness about causes related to the blind, aged, animals and children while schooling in St. Xavier's high school. He continued volunteering and contributing with his cutting edge ideas for social awareness by creating big ticket projects and initiatives through his days in St. Xavier's college in Mumbai and now in his thirties continues as the CHIEF VOLUNTEER with the organisation he founded in 2004 called iCONGO- Indian Confederation of NGOs. Jerry from his teenage days believed there is a greater purpose to life, which is not just about creating wealth for oneself and our near & dear ones, but that life is to be lived well to leave behind a legacy of a better world for future generations where there is social equity for one and all.

In early 2008 year he received a nomination for the young global leader's award by the world economic forum. Last year, Jerry was a finalist for the Eisenhower fellowship and was one of the expert discussion leaders on climate change and citizen action for addressing global warming at the "World economic forum's India Economic summit". Jerry is also a prolific writer on various topics for leading newspapers and magazines, speaks at various forums on CSR, fundraising, media responsibility, sustainable business strategy, retail, etc organised by UN bodies, EU, WAC, WEF in India and overseas and also does guest lectures at various institutes in India and overseas.

Professionally Jerry has amassed huge wealth of experience and relationships over the years with his work in the corporate, media, government and NGO sector with over 20 years of cumulative experience having started his career at the age of 16 with Indian Express. A maverick strategist & analyst with ground breaking, innovative, feasible & workable ideas Jerry has been as "serial entrepreneur" and began the first BTL agency in India for Advertising, Movie Marketing, Events & promotions, Direct marketing & BTL marketing at the age of 17 and in the first year achieved a billing of over 50 million INR in 1988. Involved as Non Executive Director with his co-founders (purely as the chief strategist for Target Direct & Integrated holdings that worked on strategic business and marketing planning with companies like ITC, L'Oreal, Indian Express, Discovery Channel, Benckiser, Coca Cola, Foster's, Seagram's, Microsoft, Sun Microsys, Taj Group of Hotels and various media and entertainment companies like MTV, STAR, SONY, ESPN, TEN SPORTS, Universal, Virgin and other Indian entertainment start-ups like ABCL, Plus Channel.) while continuing to work and gain experience with companies like ITC Ltd and L'Oreal in senior management.

TDI pioneered movie marketing, contests, in movie product placements and below the Line marketing activities in India. Jerry helped build the agency over years and took over as MD in 1995 to consolidate the holdings. Finally they divested in end 1997 when a top international communications firm bought the agency holdings. With his money he then invested in dotcoms (including the first email service offering 100 MB at that time) from 1997 till 1999. In 1999 Jerry moved to Delhi founded start up in media & entertainment with 1500 mn working capital from top venture funds for producing & distributing movies, music albums, TV serials and satellite cinema halls with funding from International venture funds and Indian angel investors. Jerry was also the first to start a 500 million entertainment venture fund to invest in Bollywood movies and projects

Jerry gave up a successful corporate career after 14 long years and transitioned to the not for profit sector (as his heart was now keen to work towards social causes that were dear to his heart and focus on institution building) In 2002, where at the age of 30 he became the youngest International Director and Chief Executive of ActionAid India/Society and led the way for creating supporter involvement and solidarity for the Gujarat riot victims, the homeless, tribals, dalits, positive people, the disabled, sex workers, and underserved children of India, Tsunami victims and various other neglected and invisible communities. At ActionAid Jerry also focussed on building the India strategy and also formed subsidiary companies for fundraising activities, a publishing house, movie production unit, a shop to sell deprived NGO products and a CSR consulting outfit working purely on business models.

In 2003 at the behest of the ActionAid chairman, he founded iCONGO- Indian Confederation of NGO. He has planned and successfully implemented not for profit social ventures in media, retail, education and livelihood training and is now promoting grassroots innovation and entrepreneurship for empowering communities at the bottom of the pyramid. iCONGO in association with a global UK based CSR advisory has also started iCONGO iNTEL & Associates a CSR advisory and consulting firm.

In his past life Jerry has been the pioneer in India to use entertainment formats like movies, music albums & videos, TV serials, big ticket events like classical and international acts and music concerts, Bollywood movie premieres in India, UK and USA, international art auctions with Christies and Sotheby's and other out of the box ideas through cause related marketing to mainstream various causes.

Jerry has consistently used the media effectively to sensitise people about social issues including the popular Page 3 campaign with The Times Foundation that caught people attention and made them aware of various issues and invisible communities, the popular FTV campaign, the magic box on Jet Airways, the first online auction of 200 things that money cannot buy and charity starts on the home page with eBay and Chivas. Jerry produced the first Bollywood movie "Ek Alag Mausam" on HIV Aids in India on the lines of "Philadelphia" highlighting the issue of lack of dignity for people living with HIV and the first big music video on children and community rights. Jerry was also the pioneer for creating agencies for face to face fundraising in India and today this network is used by various charities.
Jerry has also served with the UK government bodies where he was the architect of the UK - CREATING TOMORROW initiative (which is now being replicated around the world) including the scholar hunt on NDTV and UKTI, business leadership awards on CNBC that were launched by Tony Blair in 2005 and the Climate Change film competitions in association with Golden Panda to promote the cutting edge advantage of environmental work, education and business in the UK. Today at 38 years of age, he has completed a full circle working in the corporate, media, development and the government sector.

In 2006 Jerry was head hunted by McKinsey & Co to come on board in a strategic & advisory role as a founding team member & chief development officer for their Public Health Foundation of India venture- a public private partnership with the Government of India with funding from the Ministry of Health & family Welfare, Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and various philanthropists including Global Indians like Uday Khemka, Vinod Khosla, Mukesh Ambani, Rohini Nilekani, Arjun Malhotra, Shiv Nadar, Ranbaxy, Satyam, Dr. Reddy's labs, Zydus, DFID, USAID, Dorabji Tata trust, Pfizer, Merck and various others.. Jerry was responsible for building a public health eco system and helping with government partnerships and land   resource mobilisation, building partnerships with corporates, foundations, and academia/bilateral-multilateral agencies and helped put PHFI together for 2 years.

Jerry is now with the US India Business Alliance as Director- India mission and continues as a honorary champion with the NGOs and PPP he was associated with like iCONGO and PHFI both not for profit start up, and also an honorary advisor & champion personally to some organisations like War Wounded Foundation, PHFI, Dalit Voluntary Association Foundation, Catholic Bishop Convention of India, WOTR, Aman Biradiri and Population First. He is now also on the advisory board of "Education world- making education the number 1 item on the national agenda for India " with some very eminent people like N.R. Narayana Murthy (promoter-Chairman & CEO of Infosys Technologies); Jaitirth Rao (former CEO of Citibank India and Chairman of Mphasis-BFL Software); Adi Godrej (Chairman of the Godrej Group of Companies); Dr. Ramdas Pai (Chairman of the Manipal Foundation); Dr. Rajashekharan Pillai (Vice-Chairman UGC); S. Ramadorai (Managing Director of Tata Consulting Services (TCS), Dr. F. C. Kohli and various others from academia, India Inc, media and civil society.

Jerry is from India's holiday haven Goa and has been a Bombay Boy & Xavierite throughout his learning years and lived in Bombay for most of his life and now lives in Gurgaon- Delhi National Capitol Region with his wife Jugnu Grewal Almeida and 4 year old son Zorawar Wilfred Singh Almeida.

Lynn is a management graduate from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute. For over 25 years she has consistently demonstrated exclusive expertise in fostering the cause of media buying as an independent enterprise. Lynn set up India's first media buying company 'Initiative Media'.

Prof. M.S. Swaminathan The United Nations Environment Programme described Prof. M.S. Swaminathan as "the Father of Economic Ecology". Javier Perez de Cuellar, former Secretary General of the United Nations described him as "a living legend who will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction." A plant geneticist by training, Prof. Swaminathan's contributions to the agricultural renaissance of India have led to his being widely referred to as the scientific leader of the green revolution movement. He holds the UNESCO Chair in eco-technology at the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundationwww.mssrf.org in Chennai (Madras), India.

Mr. Keshub Mahindra is the Chairman of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited www.mahindra.com, the largest manufacturer of utility vehicles and tractors in India, and the flagship company of the Mahindra group. Apart from heading the group since he became Chairman in 1963, Mr. Mahindra distinguished himself by leading innumerable trade and business associations, educational groups and advisory committees for the government. He is the recipient of a large number of awards and international honours like Chevaliar de l'Ordre National de la Legion d'Honneur, 1987 and Companions-British Institute of Management, 1985.

Nafisa Ali Sodhi born on the 18th January 1957 is the daughter of Ahmed Ali and grand daughter of noted Bengali writer and litterateur S.Wajid Ali. An outstanding athlete - National Swimming champion of India in 1974. "Miss India -1976" and crowned 2nd runner up at "Miss International" in Tokyo in 1976. 

She is a self taught artist, keen horse rider won gold medals at the National Show jumping. Married to Col.Ravinder Singh (Pickles) Sodhi. She acted in several Bollywood films, the notable ones being Junoon (1979) with Shashi Kapoor and Major Saab with Amitabh Bachchan (1998), and the most recent being Bewafaa (2005). She forayed into politics last year as the Congress candidate in Kolkata against Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee in last year's parliamentary elections, but lost.

She is a committed and motivated social worker, a spiritualist and devotes her time working for the welfare of others. She is a Trustee of First woman, Chairperson of 'Women's commission Indian Olympic Association'. Member of 'Umang Charitable Society'. She is the Chairperson of "ACTION INDIA" a citizen motivated Trust that she started in 1999. In September 2005, she was appointed the chairperson of the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) for a period of three years w.e.f. September 2005. CFSI is an autonomous body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India

She has been working hard with commitment to make a difference in the lives of many. Touching a soul and healing a heart wherever she goes! Nafisa has the acumen in reaching out to the cross section of people due to her firm commitment in bringing a radical difference in the lives of marginalised and under privileged millions in India. She has proved it time and again that the right attitude to "ACT NOW", her pet slogan has inspired people to live with dignity under all circumstances. Nafisa has brought back the smile on the faces of earthquake victims, HIV/AIDS positive families and distressed people, who have been victims of natural and manmade disasters. Facing challenges is the driving spirit of her NGO 'Action India' that has made its presence felt in these few years.

Rajashree Birla is a director of all the major companies of the Aditya Birla group www.adityabirla.com, which is recognised as "India's first global corporation" and has annual revenues in excess of 6 billion USD. As Chairperson of the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, the apex body responsible for development projects, Mrs. Birla oversees the group's social and welfare work. These include sustainable employment schemes for rural youth, their education and training, programmes for providing safe drinking water and empowerment programmes for women.

Mr. Ratan Tata heads the salt-to-software Tata Group www.tata.com , India's best known and reputed corporate house whose products and services touch the lives of most Indians in some way. The 137-year old group has 91 operating companies and annual revenues in excess of 17 billion USD. 'Tata' endures as one of India's most trusted brands, a value nurtured and reinforced in every new group initiative. The house of Tata is unique among Indian industrial houses in that 66 per cent of the capital of the parent firm, Tata Sons Limited, is held by Tata (philanthropic) Trusts which have sponsored and promoted a number of public institutions of national interest, including hospitals, education and research centres and scientific and cultural establishments.

S.V. Sista is the Founder and Executive Trustee of Population First. Known to his friends as, he is one of those stalwarts who have guided Indian advertising to consistently higher standards. He has always stressed social commitments and values to build sustainable and holistic growth rather than growth based on mere financials or market shares.

Tejendra Khanna is the Chairman of Ranbaxy Laboratories www.ranbaxy.com, India's largest pharmaceutical and research company with exports to over 70 countries and global net sales of 764 million USD, 2002. Also the Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (UK) and on the Board of The Indian Hotels Co. Limited, Mr. Khanna is an administrator with vast experience in top government postings and is widely regarded as an expert in international trade and public administration. He has held many public offices with distinction and integrity.

Anant Trivedi is a retired IT and engineering professional, member of the British Computer Society and a chartered engineer. Founder member of National Network For India, acting as their strategist. Also a founder member of VoteSmartIndia and Get Together For India. Founder member of National Network For India, acting as their strategist. Also a founder member of VoteSmartIndia and Get Together For India.

FISME Mr. Anil Bhardwaj is the Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises (FISME), New Delhi in India. An MBA (Intl. Trade), he served in private sector for a decade in International Trade, before joining FISME in 1996. Mr. Bhardwaj is well versed with industrial and trade issues, promotional and regulatory environment and has good expertise in Multilateral Trade issues specifically – WTO. He has spearheaded nationwide WTO awareness campaigns for the SMEs and has also authored books and articles on WTO issues. He has served on a number of high profile committees at Center formed for promotion of SMEs. He has also led several SME development projects of supported by institutions such as World Bank, UNIDO, ILO, UNCTAD, DFID and GTZ. He is among the few people credited for progressive re-orientation of SME sector in India. 

Armando Gonsalves is presently the owner of Heritage Jazz, Trancemedia, Armando Gonsalves & Associates and the Chairman of Spirit of Goa Charitable Trust. Through Heritage Jazz shows he has conducted several fundraising programs for Tsunami victims, National Association for the Blind, orphanages and various NGO’s in Goa. He is closely involved with the Heritage field especially towards bringing more attention to the heritage homes in Goa, many of which are in a state of ruin. For this, he has personally forfeited business profits to ensure that this heritage continues. Environment protection and fund raising for musicians and sportsmen are the other areas that he has been deeply involved with. He has been continuously involved with taking music and quality education to schools via various workshops. Through his Spirit of Goa organization, he organized a peace concert and several candle light vigils post the 26\11 terror attacks in Mumbai – all of which revolved around the common agenda of Peace.