Chetan Kulkarni

Chief Editor, Digital Platforms / MyLiveableCity

Chetan is an urban designer and architect, presently working at Sasaki in Boston. He has been involved with research and design projects for cities located in South Asia, Middle East and the Americas. His practice of urban design adopts a multidisciplinary approach in each project, seeking integration of urban form, landscape, transportation, and sustainable practices. Kulkarni is a graduate of urban design from The University of Texas at Austin, and architecture from University of Mumbai. He is a recipient of the European Union Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to be part of the Urban Lab initiative, organized by Universita Della Calabria.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.

Jaishree Jindel

Transport Specialist / World Bank

Jaishree works as a Transport Specialist with the World Bank, on urban transport projects across transit mode (bus, metro, walking, cycling, waterways) in South Asia. Currently focusing on developing sustainable efficient and well-connected public and active transit options to promote inclusion and access to opportunities. She is an architect planner MBA with 17 years of experience across the sector value chain – business diligence, transaction advisory, PPP, operations and maintenance of transport assets, and now financing. In her earlier roles she has been instrumental in setting up new business for digital and technology overlay with transport infra. She is passionate about promoting low carbon mobility and interventions supporting the “A – Avoid” in ASI “Avoid Shift Improve” framework to further the climate commitments and transportation sector targets of developing countries like India.

Roshan Toshniwal

Head / Centre for Future Mobility, OMI Foundation Trust

Roshan leads the research on active, shared, connected and digital mobility, interested in electric and other clean mobility technology. He is an avid cyclist, public transport advocate and a heritage buff. Before OMI Roshan was advising Chairman and Managing Director of Pune Mahanagar Parivahan Mahamandal Limited (PMPML), Pune on the procurement of 500 Electric buses, and preparation of a comprehensive strategic business plan for the public bus operation in Pune. Roshan has over 15 years of experience in technical and management consulting, architectural practice, and policy research. He is a member of the Council of Architecture. He is also a member of an advisory committee that works with the Directorate of Urban Land and Transport (DULT) on alternative transport. As a student of planning and management, Roshan has a degree in Architecture from Anna University and a Master degree in Urban and Regional Planning from CEPT University. He has a distinct view of a city through its build and natural heritage. Roshan is a resident of Bangalore and lives in the bygone memories that resemble the garden city.

Sanjay Sridhar

Strategy and Policy Advisor / Urban Mobility Innovation Fund (UMIF)

Sanjay is currently associated with CEPT University in Ahmedabad at the Faculty of Planning where he teaches Urban Governance and Public Policy in the context of climate change adaptation and mitigation. He also co-guides a Directed Research Project that critically analyses climate action in the Indian context He also is the part of the Third Masterplan Review Committee at the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) with a specific focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies integrated into the Masterplanning process. Sanjay was a core member of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's Committee that prepared the dossier for India’s first UNESCO World Heritage City tag for the Historic City of Ahmedabad. Prior to working with UMIF, he was the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group’s Regional Director for South and West Asia. In the past he was a member of the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development (ABIDe) Taskforce, which undertook a comprehensive study of all aspects of urban development for the City of Bangalore.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.

Udit Amin

CEO / Alembic Global Holdings

Udit Amin, CEO of Alembic Global Holdings, is also Director of Alembic Limited, Paushak Limited, Shreno Limited, and Zazen Holdings. He founded Alembic Real Estate in 2009, spearheading sustainable developments like Alembic City in Vadodara and Bangalore—mixed-use townships focused on adaptive reuse, walkability, and community. He later founded Zazen Properties in Dubai, winning awards for innovative, sustainable projects. Udit's business philosophy champions profit with social and environmental responsibility, emphasizing green spaces, low carbon footprints, and community engagement.

Shyam Khandekar

Co-founder, Director and Editorial Director / MyLiveableCity

Shyam is an urban designer, city planner and architect with four decades of design experience in Europe and India. He was the founder and director of the award winning Dutch design practice, Khandekar Urban Design and Landscape, that continued under the name of BDP Khandekar. He has lectured and published extensively on different aspects of Liveable Cities at universities and conferences across the world. MyLiveableCity has published three books under his guidance: Affordable Housing, Inclusive Cities, Designing For Sustainability Through Upcycling and the latest release Streets For All : 50 Ideas for Shaping Resilient Cities, published in 2022, has been edited by him.

Koneru Bhavani

Executive Vice President / Larsen & Toubro

Koneru Bhavani, Executive Vice President, is Head of Urban Transit SBG, Heavy Civil Infrastructure IC, a part of L&T Construction which focuses on establishment of Mass Rapid Transit Systems including Semi High-speed rail, High Speed Rail and Urban Tunnels. She started her career as Graduate Engineer Trainee in Cement Plants division of L&T, growing into becoming the Executive Vice President & Head- Urban Transit SBG whilst working in different functions as Head – Metros BU , Head – Procurement, EDRC Head for Metros, Section Head – CMPC for Roads, Bridges & Metro Projects and many diversified roles for past 29 years. She has extensive experience in various aspects of construction like bid estimation, Engineering & Design, Construction Methods & Planning, Supply Chain Management, Contracts etc. During her association with Engineering & Design, she has been instrumental in establishing Design department of Metro. She has headed teams which have designed Mega Projects like Hyderabad Metro, Delhi Metro, Mumbai Monorail etc. which have been appreciated and have received accolades in the international arena. She has been a pioneer in introducing and implementing breakthrough construction technologies in L & T Construction. She is also on the Board of the L&T GeoStructure Private Limited.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.

Vishal Kundra

Chief City Planner, Sr. Vice President, PA & E, / GIFT City

Vishal brings 24+ years of global experience in leading, designing, & managing urban transformation projects of varying scales and complexities. His work emphasizes people-centric, sustainable communities, with expertise in smart cities (greenfield and brownfield), social inclusion, waterfront rejuvenation, placemaking, and complete streets. Vishal’s approach moves projects from concept to implementation, blending strategic planning with participatory methods to build consensus and drive decision-making. Known for developing responsive design guidelines, he leverages innovative techniques to craft urban spaces that are inclusive, vibrant, and future-ready. Previously, he worked with design consultancies, including AECOM, SmithGroup JJR, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, and Cannon Design in the USA and Singapore.

Adarsha Kapoor

Architect & Principal Urban Designer / Creative Footprints

Adarsha is also advisor to The World Bank, NIUA for TOD works and secretary of the Institute for Urban Designers of India (IUDI) Delhi NCR Chapter. He has advised Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation, RITES and Delhi Multi Modal Transit System for Station Redevelopment works, Traffic Advisor, Jammu & Kashmir for water transport visioning works, GIZ and UTTIPEC-DDA for TOD, street design and other mobility related Urban Design works. He has prepared knowledge products for institutionalising Form-Based Codes, Transit Oriented Development Planning, Infant-Todler and Caregiver Friendly public space design, Street Design Guidelines, etc. He has led workshops organised by MoHUA, IUT, CEPT, CSE, UTTIPEC, etc. to build capacity in planing agencies to plan and implement TOD and FBCs. He also teaches at the Department of Urban Design, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi. In the past, he has taught and given focused lectures at JMI University, SPA Bhopal, BRICS Pune, Sushant School of Architecture, Chandigarh College of Architecture, BITS Mesra, etc.

Praveen Raj

Co-founder and Director - Urban Design and Masterplanning / Sponge Collaborative

Praveen is an urban designer, planner, and architect with over 10 years of experience. Since 2012, he has worked across disciplines on a wide range of award-winning projects in India, Central Asia, Argentina, Afghanistan, Mexico, Egypt, and the United States. Praveen’s vast expertise spans across strategic metropolitan and resilience planning, blue-green infrastructure, water-sensitive urban design, and climate-adaptive architecture. At Sponge Collaborative, he has led several planning and open space projects working with the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority, Greater Chennai Corporation, district administrations, multilateral agencies, and others. Prior to founding Sponge, Praveen was an associate urban designer at Sasaki in Boston, and he holds a master’s degree in urban design from the University of California, Berkeley. His projects have received several international awards, including the American Institute of Architects, the Boston Society of Landscape Architects, The Plan, the Congress for the New Urbanism Charter Award, and The American Architecture Prize.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.

Meera K.

Executive Director / Oorvani Foundation

Meera is Founder and Trustee at Oorvani Foundation, which connects people who want better cities with the civic information, tools, networks and resources they need to make it happen. Meera co-founded Citizen Matters, an award-winning civic media platform focusing on critical urban issues, ideas and solutions for cities. She helped initiate Open City, a civic-tech and urban data commons and community, enabling data based solutioning. Meera is also an Ashoka Fellow, recognised for her work building open knowledge platforms that allow citizens to collaborate and improve their cities.

Dr. Anjali Karol Mohan

Partner, / INDÉ (Integrated Design)

Anjali is a partner at Integrated Design where she leads urban planning projects as well as action research at the intersection of planning, participation, development and environment. Her work involves the evolution of city-region, city and neighbourhood scale climate change responsive planning frameworks that focus on resilient and liveable cities. Anjali's professional experience over the last three straddles development, institutional and policy frameworks, urban planning and management and information and communication technologies and development (ICTD). She is a faculty at the Institute for Public Policy at the National Law School University of India, Bangalore, Kautilya School of Public Policy, Gitam University, Hyderabad and the Takshashila Institutions.

Siddharth Pandit

CEO / Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN)

Siddharth comes with an accidental foray into urban development and a lifelong commitment to learning and working in the urban sector. Coming from humble beginnings as the son of a cab driver in Mumbai, Siddharth’s journey has taken him across major cities, including Boston, Jakarta, Shanghai, New York, Paris, New Delhi, and now Pune, where he is based. Siddharth’s professional journey spans across strategic, operational, and leadership positions in the private, public, and non-profit sectors. As the CEO of the Urban Collective Action Network (U-CAN) he is inspired by the idea of fostering creative energies and mutually adaptive learning processes to improve the lives in Indian cities.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.

Prem Chandavarkar

Managing Partner / CnT Architects

CnT Architects an award-winning and widely published architectural practice based in Bengaluru, India, with a history dating back to being Bengaluru’s first architectural firm. He received his training from School of Planning & Architecture, New Delhi (B.Arch. 1978), and went on to do a research-based master’s degree in architecture from the University of Oregon, USA (M.Arch. 1982). He is a former Executive Director of Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design & Technology in Bengaluru and is an academic advisor and guest faculty at Indian and international colleges of architecture. Besides his design practice at CnT, he writes, lectures and blogs on architecture, urbanism, philosophy, politics, education, environment, art, spirituality, and cultural studies.

Naresh Narasimhan

Managing Partner / Venkatraman Associates

Naresh is an Architect, Urbanist, and a creative entrepreneur, with 38 years of experience. He is best known for his association and leadership at Venkataramanan Associates, an award-winning design consultancy in Bangalore. He understands that creating a long-term vision for the city is a broad discipline by itself, and the path toward sensitive planning needs to be anything but traditional. Naresh’s varied interests have been a great influence on how he thinks about the city and its pluralities. He has wide-ranging interests in social innovation, knowledge-sharing, communication strategies, cinema, art, popular culture, and extends these interests into fueling a variety of progressive causes for the city

Shantanu Chakraborty

Chief Operating Officer / Brookfield Properties

Shantanu is a visionary real estate leader with over 20 years of experience, spearheading the company's office development and management platform. His decade-long tenure has seen him play a crucial role in diverse areas, driving profitability, project oversight, business development, leasing, tenant relations, and property management. In his current role, he spearheads asset management efforts across the entire portfolio, focusing on strategic positioning, process and protocol uniformity, and establishing Brookfield's leadership in ESG practices, among other initiatives. His diverse experience and proven track record translate into strong leadership for this expanded role. Before joining Brookfield Properties, he worked with AIG Global Real Estate India Advisors, JLL India, EvalueServe and M&K Consultant. Shantanu completed the prestigious General Management Program (GMP) at Harvard Business School. He also holds a B.Arch degree from the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), New Delhi and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Narsee Monjee Institute (NMIMS).

Dr. Anita Patil Deshmukh

Executive Director / PUKAR

Dr. Deshmukh is a USA trained faculty neonatologist by profession, self-taught social scientist by passion and developmental researcher by preference. She is the Executive Director of Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research (PUKAR). For her pioneering work with Barefoot Researchers in slums, she was awarded the Innovator of the Year Award from Harvard School of Public Health in 2012 and an honorary PhD from Bradford University in 2019.

Udit Amin

CEO / Alembic Global Holdings

Udit Amin, CEO of Alembic Global Holdings, is also Director of Alembic Limited, Paushak Limited, Shreno Limited, and Zazen Holdings. He founded Alembic Real Estate in 2009, spearheading sustainable developments like Alembic City in Vadodara and Bangalore—mixed-use townships focused on adaptive reuse, walkability, and community. He later founded Zazen Properties in Dubai, winning awards for innovative, sustainable projects. Udit's business philosophy champions profit with social and environmental responsibility, emphasizing green spaces, low carbon footprints, and community engagement.

Dr. Debolina Kundu

Director / National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA)

Dr. Debolina Kundu, Director (Additional Charge) NIUA has over 25 years of professional experience in the field of development studies. She has worked as consultant with the ADB, LSE, IIDS, UNDP, UNFPA, UNESCAP, KfW, GIZ, Urban Institute, Washington and East-West Centre Honolulu on issues of urbanization, migration, urban development policies, municipal finance, social protection, governance and exclusion. At NIUA, she is the Country Investigator - India for the GCRF Centre for Sustainable Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods supported by UK Research and Innovation and leading several projects supported by UNICEF. She is a member of various committees formed by central and state governments, including the Fifth Delhi Finance Commission. She has several articles published in books and journals. She recently edited a book on National Urban Policies (Springer) and is currently working on a ‘Handbook on Urbanisation in the Global South’ and books on urban policies and inequality. She is the chief editor of journals - Environment and Urbanisation, Asia (SAGE) and Urban India (NIUA). She was a Co-Chair of the Task Force on LiFE, Resilience, and Values for Wellbeing under G20 Think Tank initiative.

Dr. Anjali Karol Mohan

Partner / INDÉ (Integrated Design)

Anjali is a partner at Integrated Design where she leads urban planning projects as well as action research at the intersection of planning, participation, development and environment. Her work involves the evolution of city-region, city and neighbourhood scale climate change responsive planning frameworks that focus on resilient and liveable cities. Anjali's professional experience over the last three straddles development, institutional and policy frameworks, urban planning and management and information and communication technologies and development (ICTD). She is a faculty at the Institute for Public Policy at the National Law School University of India, Bangalore, Kautilya School of Public Policy, Gitam University, Hyderabad and the Takshashila Institutions.

Srikanth Narasimhan

Founder / Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP)

Srikanth is a Social Changemaker cum Grassroots Politician, Independent Consultant, Investment Banker, Angel Investor, Board Member & Advisor, all rolled into one. He is the Founder of Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP), a new-age unique political party focused only on Bengaluru and its Municipal Governance. Through BNP, Srikanth aims to build a citizen-participative & transparent model of governance at the city level. Srikanth is also the Founder of Bangalore Apartments’ Federation (BAF). As the Founder & General Secretary of BAF, he built the largest such citizen group in the country, which today comprises 1,300+ apartment complexes in Bengaluru as members representing 8+ lakh citizens! Srikanth is extremely passionate about social & civic issues and has built up a lot of knowledge as well as brought in a lot of interventions in the areas of wastewater management, water conservation, solid waste management, energy conservation etc., specifically relating to apartment communities.

Jagan Shah

Director / MyLiveableCity

Jagan is an architect and urbanist, his leadership roles include as Director of India’s National Institute of Urban Affairs and the Sushant School of Art & Architecture. He is currently the CEO at The Infravision Foundation After completing his education in New Delhi, Cincinnati and New York, he taught and practiced for eight years. Over the past two decades, he has been deeply involved in shaping urban policy in India and creating the enabling conditions for sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities for the developing world.