70th Constitution Day 2019

The Hon Justice Andrew Bell is the President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. His Honour completed undergraduate degrees in Arts and Law at the University of Sydney, followed by a Bachelor of Civil Law and a Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford where he was awarded the Vinerian Scholarship. His Honour was admitted to the Bar in 1995 and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2006. During his time at the Bar, his Honour had a broad national practice and an extensive international arbitration practice. His Honour was appointed to the New South Wales Court of Appeal in February 2019.  His Honour is the author of two books:  Forum Shopping in Transnational Litigation (2003, Oxford University Press) and Nygh’s Conflict of Laws in Australia (10th ed, 2019, LexisNexis).

Mr. Kapil Chaudhary, Fellow, Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (FSIArb) is also the Member/ Co-Chair, New Delhi Knowledge Net Chapter, International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP). He is Member, Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Kapil was awarded as among the “Top 40 below 40” General Counsels in India by an independent jury at The Legal Era Awards, 2016 and featured among the “GC Power List” published by Legal Era, Feb. 2016 issue and in 2018 he was the Moderator, Session on Artificial Intelligence, ITechLaw Association India Technology Law Conference, Bangalore.

Mr. Rajiv Chauhan, GC- Pernod Ricard. After graduating from Hindu College / Law Faculty ( Delhi University ), practiced criminal law primarily before the Delhi High Court for about 4 years and then joined Hindustan Unilever as an in-house counsel and worked there for about 11 years. There after had a short stint of about 2 years with Pepsico before joining the then Seagram India ( acquired by Pernod Ricard in 2002 ) to start their legal department as their Head Legal. Have continued since with Pernod Ricard and am currently the Executive Vice – President Legal / Compliances and General Counsel responsible for the South Asia business. He is also a member of various governance committees including the Crisis Management Group, Risk and Assurance Committee as well as the Information Security Committee.

Mr. Salman Waris LL.M. (U.K), heads the TMT and IP Practice groups at TechLegis. Mr. Waris regularly advises on legal/regulatory issues concerning IP, technology, domain name disputes, telecommunications, data protection/ privacy law, outsourcing (IT/Business Processes/ LPO), M&A and joint ventures. Mr. Waris has been recommended by Expert Guide to the World‟s Leading Information Technology Lawyers, AsiaLegal500, International Who‟s Who of Internet & e-Commerce Lawyers and Guide to World’s Leading Emerging Markets Practitioners, International Financial Law Review Leading Lawyers (TMT) and AsiaLaw Leading Lawyers Guide. He has also been awarded the International Law Office Client Choice Award. Indian Lawyer 250 recognized Mr. Waris as a “top name” and as someone who “receives high praise” and is “highly regarded”. He has recently also been retained by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India.

Ugen Bhutia, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of SBI Cards and Payments Services Pvt. Ltd (SBI Card). Ugen joined SBI Card in 2012 after a rich and extensive experience of corporate litigation with prestigious law firms, including Fox Mandal and Lakshmikumaran& Sridharan. In his current Role, Ugen provides transactional, advisory, litigation and collection support to the business through his able and experienced team. As part of the senior management team,he directly reports to the CEO. One of the elementary principles that he vouches is to enablesustainable growth for the organisation and protect and mitigate the risk of the organization. The Agility to adapt to changing business environment and the regulatory landscape is also a must in today’s day and age.

Anupam Sharan, Vice President, Legal at Genpact India Pvt. Ltd., is a senior attorney managing strategic legal, contractual and commercial programs globally for over $4 Billion spend per annum. He has extensive legal and contractual experience in drafting, negotiation, corporate, commercial including International law, M&A, government affairs, risk, governance, change, compliance and privacy matters. He seeks to channelize business and operational insights to provide thought leadership within the industry and contribute to shape laws, regulations and public policies. He brings experience across multiple industries such as consulting, banking and financial services, telecom, outsourcing, IT, ITES, steel, power and construction.

MAXIM TAFINTSEV, Chairman-founder of the Russian-Asian Association of Lawyers

Noriswadi Ismail, Managing Director at Ankura, based in London. Noris oversees and grows the firm’s UK, EMEA, and Asia data privacy practice, focusing on data protection and privacy assessments, data privacy and security strategies, data privacy governance, including general data protection regulation (GDPR) reviews, and implementation and improvements. He also leads the team providing binding corporate rules (BCRs), project advisory and management services, code of practice reviews, data subject access request (DSAR), data breach regulatory analyses, and customized data privacy and security training.

Mr. Rajinder Singh is the founder Managing Partner of Lex Jurists®. He has extensive experience in criminal litigation and has served as a counsel in the some of the most publicized cases in India. Over the years, Mr. Singh has earned a formidable reputation in criminal law practice. He has been the Legal Coordinator of Rape Crisis Intervention Centre of Delhi Police for 8 years. Moreover, he holds the distinction of having been regularly featured in many Criminal Law articles and papers published in leading magazines and international journals including the Washington Global Post. Additionally, Mr. Singh has participated in panel discussions on leading news channels of the country and has also been interviewed for prominent Criminal Trials in India. Mr. Singh is a prominent speaker and has moderated various conferences in India and abroad. He has successfully contested cases at the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), led corporate fraud investigation teams in Cyprus, and is regularly engaged as a counsel for commercial disputes in Dubai. In addition, Mr. Singh led a team of counsels to Spain and United States of America to engage and negotiate with law firms for filing and contesting law suits/ criminal cases for various clients.

Mr. Carl Gustaf is widely regarded as one of the finest M&A practitioners in Sweden and the Nordic region. Mr. Carl Gustaf De Geer joined Nishimura & Asahi as an Advisor on May 1, 2019. He is well known for his work on the largest M&A transactions in northern Europe, as well as for advising the Swedish government on public-sector privatizations and the sale of state-owned companies. Chambers Global 2019 ranks Carl as “Senior Statesperson” for Corporate/M&A – Sweden. “Carl Gustaf De Geer is a veteran practitioner in this space, described by one source as ‘a very senior lawyer of huge experience, particularly of government work, with a rock-solid reputation.’ He valuably combines extensive experience of corporate and M&A work with in-depth knowledge of anti-corruption, compliance and CSR issues.”

Mr. Abijit Uday Shahane, founder, Xpert Advisory a Bespoke Corporate Service Advisory is a seasoned senior business development and sales leader with a unique track record and over 10 years’ experience in commodities, energy and manufacturing industries. Abhijit also has hands on experience in working with other renowned commodities trading companies across the
MENASA region where he managed key strategic projects in line with the business development and operational needs of the markets. One of his key focus areas is to advise global Governments and Private sector on all aspects of setting up and running Special Economic Zones and companies therein. ABijit is the one stop solution for all our legal and
corporate needs in today’s digital economy.

Mr. K Satish Kumar, Global Head Legal and Chief Data Protection Officer, Ramco Systems Limited, a major multinational software product company has experience of over two decades. He is a tactful Negotiator and during his stint with Polaris he had negotiated and finalized a prestigious US$ 250 million worth contract with a major global banking company. He is also fondly called as the “Deal Maker”. Mr. Kumar is a prolific writer and has various publications to
his credit, including on GDPR, Open Source Software, Insurance as a risk mitigation tool, Block chain etc. in various leading newspapers like Deccan Chronicle, Business Standard, Indian Express, Financial Chronicle. He is a vociferous Keynote speaker in various international platforms in London, Dubai etc. He was awarded recently being top 50 global leaders by
Legal/IP Gorilla Singapore, 2019 and GC Power list India 2018 by Legal 500, London.

Mr. Sanjay Kaushik, ARVP ASIS International Region 13 A, Former Chairman ASIS International, Chapter 207, India & Managing Director Netrika Consulting India Pvt Ltd, is a recognised expert in Fraud Risk Management, Investigations, Cyber Forensics, Anti Counterfeit Strategies, with over 25 years of experience including working as Chief Operating Officer of one of the largest Risk Consulting Firm. Sanjay is founder member of Indian Association of Professional Background Screeners, Member Council of International Investigators (C.I.I), Member World Association of Detectives, Member of APDI (Association of Private Detectives of India), an Associate Member of ACFE (Associate Certified Fraud Examiner) Member FICCI CASCADE, and Member ASIS International. Netrika, under the leadership of Sanjay has won the ‘Most successful Risk consulting company 2018’ Sanjay  has been conferred with “Fraud investigator of the year 2017” by Wealth &     Finance International, U K. He is a proud Recipient of Prestigious “Investigation Professional of the year 2012” Award in the 7th Security Leadership Summit. Netrika, under the leadership of Sanjay has also won the “Security Design of the Year” award by Secutech in 2015.

Mr. Sudhanshu Pandey, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Department of Commerce comes with an experience of more than three decades in the government sector. Mr. Pandey’s present responsibilities include RMTR and UNCTAD, Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations, EP (Services), Implementation of the foreign Trade Policy Statement (2015-2020), FT (Australia and New Zealand), IIFT and General Agreement on Trade in Services to cover all service negotiations and services exports in India. Mr. Pandey has been a recipient of  Governor’s Medal, Chief Minister’s Gold Medal, National Award by Akhil Bhartiya Vidvat Parishad, Varanasi & Govt of India.

Ms. Nina Auchoybur, Managing Director, Ocorian Corporate Services (DIFC) Ltd. has been heading the Middle East operations of Ocorian since its inception in 2009. Ocorian is present in 18 jurisdictions and is an award-winning provider of bespoke administration and fiduciary services to corporate, institutional and private investors. Nina has over 20 years of experience in Global Business, part of which was spent at Price water house Coopers in Mauritius. She has also headed the operations department of a financial institute. Furthermore, she currently serves as Director on the board of a number of African & Middle East based companies engaged in cross-border trade and investment. She is an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (UK). She also has an MBA from Heriot-Watt University and a Bachelor of Law from the University of London.

Mr. Pawan Kumar, Sr Vice President (Legal) & Head, Litigation, SBI Cards & Payment Services Ltd is heading the Litigation in SBI Card which includes retail, and also at Supreme Court and High Court besides scattered through PAN India including litigation pertaining to Cybercrimes before various authorities and trade mark relating also. He has been a speaker for various training programmes for Law Enforcement Agencies across PAN INDIA for investigating officers relating to cybercrimes.

Mr. Satyajit Gupta is a dual-qualified lawyer India and England) with over 16 years’ work experience in top law practices, and is now in-house with one of India’s best in-house legal teams as Vice President-Legal at Star India, a Disney group company. His work has encompassed general corporate/ M&A advisory, banking and strategic/ PE investments, across industry sectors. He also has considerable experience drafting and negotiating high-value commercial contracts. As a former finance lawyer, he also brings knowledge of debt and expertise dealing with insolvency/ restructuring matters.

Mr Pankaj Mohindroo is the Chairman of the India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), the apex industry body representing the entire electronics sector in India. Narendra Modi. Mr Mohindroo is widely respected and honoured amongst the highest political, administrative and industry leadership corridors in India considering his unparalleled contributions and unquenchable spirit to drive forward the Make in India and Digital India flagship programs of the Government of India. Needless to mention, under Mr Mohindroo unquestionable and clamorous commitments, the mobile handset and its component eco-system in India has witnessed dramatic progress during the past 3-4 years making this as the most outstanding success story under the Make in India program.

Ms. Rama Vedashree is CEO of Data Security Council of India. Prior to moving to DSCI, she was Vice President, NASSCOM leading all initiatives in Domestic IT, eGovernance and Smart Cities among others. At NASSCOM, she has also led the Healthcare initiative in partnership with apex Health Sector body, NATHEALTH and the NASSCOM-DSCI Cyber Security Task Force. DSCI under her leadership is pursuing a Cyber Security Industry growth charter to make India into a global hub for cyber security and grow to 35B$ by 2025. With a rich and varied experience of 30 years in the Industry, she has had long stints at NIIT Technologies, Microsoft and General Electric. Her previous roles include that of Director in Microsoft Global Services, and Vice President, GE India. She has experience in the diverse domains of IT consulting, Strategic Accounts and Business Development, e-Governance projects and Business Development for Infrastructure projects and Health and Water Sectors at GE. She is member of many committees of Government of India, including the Data Protection Committee, Cloud Expert Group and Financial Inclusion Advisory Board.

Shri. Suresh Chandra, Information Commissioner, Central Information Commission is presently serving as the Information Commissioner at Central Information Commission has held a number of prestigious positions in the past, including, Union Law Secretary, Legal Adviser to Railways and Private Secretary to Law Minister. He has previously been accorded with the National Law Day Award in 2016 for outstanding achievement in the field of Law as well as SKOCH Award for achievement of digital monitoring of court cases through Legal Information Management & Briefing System.

Shri. G.R. Raghavender, Joint Secretary, Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, is a civil servant from Central Secretariat Service (CSS) 1988. At present, he is posted as Joint Secretary, Department of Justice, Ministry of Law & Justice, Government of India, New Delhi. Previously, he was Joint Secretary in Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, New Delhi. In addition to this, he has also held additional charge of Director General, National Productivity Council (NPC).

Mr. Vinayak Godse, Vice President, Data Security Council of India is the principal author of the DSCI security framework and DSCI privacy framework. He has engaged with industry, regulatory bodies, and international institutions on matters related to cyber security policy, international cooperation and capacity building. In this capacity, he also represents the Indian industry in bilateral and multilateral initiatives of the Government of India in the area of cyber security and privacy. Mr. Vinayak has over 24 years of experience in the areas of telecom switching, intelligence network, internet infrastructure, mobile telephony, information security and privacy. Prior joining to DSCI, he worked with Tata Consulting Services (TCS) in its Global Consulting Practice, which advises global organizations o matters related security and privacy. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering.

Mr. Santanu Mukherjee, Advocate & Head of Chambers, Ex Lege Chambers

Santanu Mukherjee advises both private and institutional clients on various contractual, contentious matters and policy strategy. With more than 20 years’ experience in India and overseas, he specialises in Intellectual Property laws, International Trade (WTO) Regulations, Technology and Competition laws. In such capacities he was engaged in extensive policy work and negotiations at WIPO, WTO, UNCTAD and UNFCC.

Mr. Sujit Ghosh, Partner, ADVAITA Legal. Sujit Ghosh, the co-founding partner of two best friends of major consultancies – BMR Legal and most recently Advaita Legal – is set to leave the firm soon, we have learned. Mr. Ghosh, the Delhi-based managing partner of Advaita who has also become an avid arguing counsel, is understood to intend to transition to becoming an arguing counsel full-time. Mr. Ghosh had set up Advaita in 2013 with former KPMG partner Sunil Moti Lala.

Mr. Axel Heck, Alexander & Partners, Berlin. Axel Heck specializes in complex transnational transactions, international private dispute resolution and strategic legal counseling, with a strong focus on the transatlantic and European-Indian market. Axel Heck’s early legal experience included a clerkship with the Directorate General for Competition of the EU Commission, Brussels, and service as a member of Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine, New York City.

Mr. Sachin Kalra, Deputy General Counsel, Hindustan Times Media. Corporate attorney with substantial in-house legal experience of 16 years, having LL.M. degree in Corporate Law, Focus on Litigation, Arbitration , Advisory , Contract management and team management. Specialties: Leadership, Management, Litigation, Arbitration, legal Advisory, Contract & Compliance

Ms. SritaHeide, Founder/CEO, Indo-European Business Advisor. Sarita is associated with various international women’s organizations dealing with women empowerment, social challenges, female entrepreneurship and the like. According to SritaHeide –“Internationalization of markets and Globalization can be only successful if this also means chances and opportunities for those people, who are not able to participate actively in the process and influence the system”.

Ms.IshitaSethi, Barrister, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers. She represents high wealth private groups, small to medium enterprises, large corporates, the Federal Commissioner of Taxation and the Chief Commissioner of State Revenue. She has experience representing clients in relation to ATO & Revenue NSW investigations, audits, objections, disputes and external reviews in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Federal Court of Australia.

Mr. Rajnish Singh, Head – External Affairs at Moet Hennessy India. Extensive experience in the field of Start-Ups, Government and Corporate Affairs, Market Entry Strategies, Management Consulting, Company Establishments and Sales. Specialties: Consulting, company start-up, general management, government and corporate affairs, market entry strategies, P/L responsibility, business development, sales and marketing, business/market consulting on export, the establishment of offices and manufacturing/production (including outsourcing)

Dr. James J. Nedumpara, Head, Center for Trade and Investment Law. James J. Nedumpara is Professor and Head of the Centre for International Trade and Investment Law (CTIL) at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). In this capacity, he advises the Government of India on various aspects relating to international trade and investment law. He is currently on leave from Jindal Global Law School where he joined as a founding faculty.

Niraj Singh, Partner- RNS Associates. Law Graduate from the University of Delhi. He has been in the legal profession for almost two decades.  He is handling arbitration matter of various Multi-National Companies (MNCs) and Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)  of different jurisdiction and sector including commercial disputes, construction, contract, supply, facility-agreement, insurance etc. He is handling both  Civil litigation including Corporate Fraud, Commercial disputes having cross border jurisdiction, extradition, while collar crime etc. He is regularly advising clients to defend themselves before Regulatory Authorities including, Enforcement Directorate, Serious Fraud Investigation Organisation, Financial Investigation, Economic Offence Wing, Insurance Regulatory Development Authority and Reserve Bank of India.

Ms. ADITI MITTAL,LEGAL COUNSEL,SAP INDIA PVT LTD. Graduated from Gujarat National Law University (GNLU) in 2015, Aditi joined SAP India Pvt Ltd as a young Contract Specialist right after the law school. She delivered an immense output in terms of drafting and heavily negotiating large licensing contracts and was promoted to become the youngest Legal Counsel across all Asia Pacific offices of SAP, in 2017. In her role as Legal counsel, she now looks after the drafting, reviewing and negotiation of licensing contracts of over 3000 customers along with working on litigation cases and advising business on day to day company matters.She has also initiated and simplified many legal processes for SAP. Amongst various praises and recognition she received from Global and Regional Legal, the recent awards of Champions Trophy and Courage Under Fire are noteworthy. She has also written and presented various research papers on ‘Surrogacy Contracts’, ‘Sovereignty’ and ‘Legal Aid’ at various conferences.

Mr. Edgar Philippin has been a partner at Taglaw.com since 2002 and is professor for commercial law (mergers & acquisitions, capital markets law) at the University of Lausanne Law School and director of the Center for Business Law (CEDIDAC). He is a member of the Swiss Lawyers Society (SSJ), the Swiss Arbitration Association (ASA), the International Bar Association (IBA) and the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale (ALAI). Edgar focuses on advice to Swiss and international companies and institutions, in particular in connection with specific issues of corporate and commercial registry law, organization of groups, internal regulations, corporate governance, executive compensation, financing rounds, mergers, acquisitions and restructurings, joint ventures, public tender offers, relationships between shareholders and employment law, as well as with respect to other commercial transactions and contracts, in particular with a real estate or intellectual property focus.

Sunita Singh-Dalal, Of Counsel, Stephenson Harwood Middle East LLP, leads the organization from the Dubai office, where the team focus on assisting clients in the GCC, Middle East, Africa and SW Asia.  Sunita is a full member of STEP (Africa and Arabia) and speaks at various international forums and conferences in the Middle East and SW Asia. Sunita has established intrinsic relationships with private banks, financial and legal advisers, corporate service providers and the regulators (DIFC and ADGM) and is actively working to spread awareness in India and the GCC of their new Foundations regimes. Sunita has been nominated and shortlisted in the City wealth Power women Awards 2020 as “Inspirational Woman of the Year” and has been named a key India Lawyer in both the Indian Business Law Journal’s 2019 Report and the Global Stars Report 2017. She was conferred an international accolade of recognition by the Indian Corporate Counsel Association (ICCA) of India’s Most Trusted Corporate Lawyer in 2017.

Mr. Ashwin Jayaram, CEO of CyBourn, a state-of-the-art cyber security company offering data privacy, protection, and compliance services, forensics, monitoring solutions, best in class incident response services, and tailored strategic cyber security consulting along with bespoke machine learning driven solutions. With presence in London, Bucharest, Naples, and Washington D.C., Ashwin oversees CyBourn’s business strategy and market expansion. Ashwin has a Master’s degree from Cornell University and a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Toronto.

Dr G D Singh, Founder & Chairman, Asian-African, Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Founder & President, CIHF (Confederation of International Healthcare Foundation) is a global management consultant, brand maker, educationist, author, academician, speaker, motivational trainer and world peace advocate.

Mr. Viren Miskita is a partner of M. T. Miskita & Co. and a practicing Advocate & Solicitor of the Bombay High Court for over 26 years. Mr. Miskita has varied and substantial experience in cross-border transactional work and outbound investments for both private clients and corporations. He also attends to corporate and real estate work in India and has represented highly reputed Indian and international corporations and financial institutions. His clients include large international and Indian corporates, banks, institutions, developers and high net-worth individuals. Mr. Miskita has been top ranked in Band I of real estate lawyers in India by Chambers & Partners, UK, in the Chambers’ Asia Guides for the past several years.

Mr. Nitin Mittal is currently working as General Counsel, Head of Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary- South Asia of Signify Innovations India Limited (earlier Philips Lighting India Limited). He is part of the India Lighting Leadership Team and part of the Regional (Growth Markets) Legal Team. He also supports business and legal teams in other international markets for various projects and assignments. Prior to joining Philips Lighting, he has worked as Head of Legal, Compliance & Company Secretary for OSRAM India Pvt Ltd where he spent ~10 years in the legal function.  There he was responsible for Legal, Compliance and Company Secretary for India and acted as Compliance officer for Australia and supported the APAC Compliance team for compliance task in the APAC Region. He also served as a Director in OSRAM Lighting Private Limited as part of the carve out project of OSRAM in India. He has a total work experience of around 17 years. He has recognised as one of the Influential Corporate Counsels and CS in March 2019 by Alliance of Corporate Counsels and Company Secretaries. He has also been selected as amongst India’s Finest in-house counsels by Indian Corporate Counsel Association “ICCA.

Mr. Tabrez Ahmad, Group Director Govt Affairs & Public Policy, Dell Technologies, India is a well networked professional with deep understanding of business environment-social, economic, bureaucratic & political landscape of India. He has acquired strong techno-commercial-legal-regulatory knowledge across multiple industries, advised top business executives from telecom, electronics, software, e-business, retail, entertainment, media, healthcare sectors on policies and regulations for compliant business operation in India and US. Mr. Tabrez took keen interest in promoting Ø Indian tech industries in US, EU, Japan, Middle East and ASEAN countries. He has been felicitated by CBI for supporting academy on IPR.

Mr. Rajat Malhotra is an Arbitration Counsel at Laware Associates, a boutique firm catering to Infrastructure and Real Estate Industry clients. He started as a transactional lawyer with L&L Partners after being called to the Delhi Bar in 2006. Rajat extensively advises both private corporations and government bodies in various project finance transactions and is retained by top engineering consulting firms including URS Corporation, SNC Lavalin and Feedback Ventures for advise on highway, mass road transit system, water and sanitation and smart city projects. He has been involved in some of the largest national highway developments together equalling more than USD 5 Billion in value – including the Qazigund to Banihal Section of NH-1A (construction cost of USD 347 Million), Chilakaluripeta-Nellore Section of NH-5 (construction cost of USD 144 Million), Krishnagar-Bahrampore Section of NH-34 (construction cost USD 108 Million), Jabalpur-Rewa Section on NH-7 (USD 287 Million), Ranchi-Rargaon-Jamshedpur Section of NH-33 (USD 214 Million), and the Agra – Etawah Bypass Section of NH-2 (USD 364 Million).