Advisory Committee

Dr. S S Mantha, former Chairman of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) for six years from 2009 – 2015. Earlier, a Professor of Robotics, Control theory and AI at VJTI, he now occupies the Emeritus Chair. He was instrumental in creating the National Vocational Education Qualification Framework which was later re-christened the National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF).

• Currently, he is the CEO of Mahatma Phule Renewable Energy and Infrastructure Technology Limited (MAHAPREIT) Start-up Knowledge Centre, a subsidiary of Government of Maharashtra.
• He is also an Adjunct Prof. at the National Institute for Advanced Studies (NIAS), Bengaluru, an Emeritus Prof. at VJTI and Chairman of Technical Committee, National Cyber Safety and Security Standards (NCSSS).
• His knowledge in a variety of socioeconomic, political and technology-related issues is sought after and has been working with a number of government-appointed and independent committees as an Advisory / Expert Member with various State and Central Government departments. Some of these memberships include - Advisor, Department of IT (Government of Maharashtra), Advisor to several Semi / Quasi / autonomous Government and other bodies besides being a consultant to National e-governance division, Ministry of electronics, GOI.

Prof. K.K. Aggarwal, Chairman, National Board of Accreditation is Former Founder, Vice Chancellor, GGS Indraprastha University, Delhi and Former Chairman, Board of Governors, MNIT, Jaipur.

He has been President of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) for 2002-2004. He also served as Sectional President (IT & CS Section) in the Indian Science Congress Association, President, Computer Society of India for the period 2007-2009 and President of South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC) for the years 2008-10. He is also the Academy Professor of AcSIR of CSIR.

Accolades Prof. Aggarwal was honoured by:

• Reliability Society of IEEE, USA for his services as Guest Editor for the special issue on “State of Reliability Effort of the Indian Sub-Continent”
• Declared as the Man of Decade, Man of the Century and finally Man of the Millennium by American Bibliographical Institute, USA.
• He was also awarded Delhi Ratan by the All India Conference of Intellectuals.
• International Biographical Centre, England has published his biography in “The First Five Hundred – at the new millennium” in July 2000.
• Prof. Aggarwal was conferred Distinguished Fellowship in 2010
• Institute of Electronics and Tele-Communication Engineers conferred the very First LifeTime Achievement Award in 2011.
• Computer Society of India also conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award on Prof. Aggarwal during 2016.

Dr. Sandeep Sancheti who holds a highly-dignified position as the Provost (Vice Chancellor) of Marwadi University, Rajkot, has a remarkable 34+ years of experience in the field of higher education in the domains of teaching, research, and administration. Dr. Sancheti has been one of the longest serving Vice-Chancellor of the country (with more than 15 years in this position) and has served/ headed all major higher educational institutions like Institutes of National Importance, Govt. and Private State Universities, Govt. and Private State Deemed Universities, etc.

Dr. Sancheti has been a diligent and skillful administrator and dedicated institution builder over the exceptional years of his academic career:

• He has served as President of Manipal University (Jaipur)
• Founder Director of National Institute of Technology (Delhi)
• Director of NITK (Surathkal) and
• Director In-charge of NIT (Tiruchirapalli), NIT (Calicut), School of Planning & Architecture (SPA) (Delhi), and also Mentor Director of NIT (Goa), NIT (Puducherry) and NIT (Sikkim).

Prof. Sudhirkumar Barai currently holds the position of Director, BITS Pilani and Director-in-Charge, International Programmes and Collaboration Division. He was Erskine Visiting Fellow at University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand during May-June 2008. He was also visiting scientist at National University of Singapore during May-July 2003. He was a recipient of the BOYSCAST Fellowship and visited the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA during May-November, 2000. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Solid Mechanics, Materials and Structures, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel during February, 1997-July, 1998.

He has co-authored three books which have been published by Springer:

• Concrete Fracture Models and Applications
• Shear Strengthening of T-beam with GFRP: A Systematic Approach
• Systematic Approach of Characterisation and Behaviour of Recycled Aggregate Concrete

Mr Vishal Khurma holds the post of CEO for Woxsen University. A successful commercial leader & growth hacker, his illustrious career spans over 22 years in Consumer Goods, Retail, Telecom and Higher Education space.

• He has been felicitated with Excellence in Education Award at Higher Education Summit 2021 and Global Business Excellence Award at the Asia – African Leadership Summit 2020.
• In his past, his experience has straddled across Global & Indian conglomerates with leading brands such as PepsiCo, Coca-Cola. Dabur, Birla Shakti and Tata Teleservices, catering to mass and premium product categories.

Under his astute leadership, the brand Woxsen University has become a name to reckon with. Over the last few years, Woxsen has strongly emerged at All India Rank 13 in the Times B-School Ranking and Rank 16 in BusinessWorld B-School Survey. With meticulous research, launch of new schools and inclusion of disruptive programs, Woxsen University today has grown substantially by 3X student enrolments and diverse cohorts, during his tenure.

Dr. Harivansh Chaturvedi is Professor and Director at Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH), Greater Noida, India and Alternate President of Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI). He has more than 45 years of experience in teaching, research and academic administration.

Academic Experience

• Director, Birla Institute of Management Technology, Greater Noida, 1999-till date
• Director, All India Council for Technical Education (MHRD), 1998-1999
• Deputy Director, All India Council for Technical Education (MHRD), 1995-1998
• Reader, RBS College, Agra University , Agra, 1977-1995
• Lecturer, Sahu Jain College, Bijnore, 1976

Academic Positions and Assignments

• Special Invitee Member, Board of Governor, United Nations Global Compact Network India, New Delhi
• Member, Advisory Board, Asia Pacific Centre for CSR Sustainability, UNGCNI, New Delhi
• Member, Board of Governor, Birla Global University, Bhubaneswar
• Member, Board of Management, Birla Global University, Bhubaneswar
• Member, Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Tourism & Travel Management (IITTM), Gwalior (under the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India)
• Member, Board of Governors, National HRD Network
• Initiated Vision building for the Birla Institute of Management Technology in 2001, 2006 and 2011.
• Set up two state-of-the-art residential campuses of BIMTECH at Greater Noida (2004) and Bhubaneswar (2013).
• Trustee and Alternate President of the Education Promotion Society for India (EPSI), a national network of private sector education institutions established in 2005 with a vision similar to NASSCOM.
• Founder President, Alumni Association of Agra University (AAAU), a global alumni network of the erstwhile Agra University (currently known as Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Agra).

After completion of M.Sc. (Electronics) in 1985 and receiving a fellowship from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Govt. of India in 1986, Dr. Sanjay Yadav joined CSIR-NPL, New Delhi as Research Scholar. Two years later, He was awarded SRF of CSIR, New Delhi. He completed a Ph.D. degree in “Research Contributions towards the Development of Ultrasonic Instrumentation for Scientific, Biomedical and Forensic Applications” in 1990.

• Prior to joining NPLI, he has worked more than 6 years as ‘Project Officer’ in the Science and Technology Department, Government of Haryana for the implementation of various rural energy programmes.
• He has more than 150 research publications to his credit in national and international journals of repute, 12 patents / copyrights, several technologies, author, contributor or editor to several books.
• Currently he is working as Chief Scientist and Head, Physico-mechanical Metrology Division.
• After joining CSIR-NPL, he is dedicatedly working towards development of metrological standards and their dissemination for national growth. He has significantly contributed in the development of 3 primary pressure standards, NPL-HI (20-1000 MPa) in 2000; NPL-H2 [(10-100) MPa, (20-200) MPa] in 2008 and 2011, respectively, NPL-H3 [(5-50) MPa and (50-500)]

Col. Pokhriyal has a diverse professional experience of more than three decades across two continents in the fields of Project Management, Operations Management including SCM, Business Development, Procurement, UN Peacekeeping Operations and Skill Development while working in challenging environments in the Corporate Sector, United Nations and Indian Army.

• He blended successfully in the corporate sector working towards Skill Development in Construction Industry after serving in the Army for more than three decades.
• He was the first Head Operations of Construction Skill Development Council of India (CSDCI) for two years.
• He has successfully tenanted numerous regimental, staff and diplomatic assignments. Col. Pokhriyal has commanded an elite Engineer Regiment of Indian Army at Rajasthan, J&K and Himachal Pradesh from 2009-2011.
• He has been awarded Chief of Army Staff Commendation Card in 2007 and General Officer Commanding in Chief (Northern Command) Commendation Card in 2011 for meritorious services and exemplary devotion to duty in operational areas.

Wg Cdr Rachit Bhatnagar is the CEO of Aerospace & Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC), which is an Awarding Body in this sector. He brings to table a blended insight of civil & military aviation technology to the skill development ecosystem. He is an accomplished Indian Air Force veteran of over two decades. He transitioned to corporate after a management program from MDI Gurgaon.

• He has spearheaded many technology intensive projects for military helicopter MRO, aircraft component manufacturing and aircraft accident investigations & recovery missions besides curating skill development programs for IAF engineers
• He is also a member of skill development committees of various industry bodies and is working to develop skilling frameworks for emerging drone & other industry 4.0 technology for the aspiring workforce in the country.

Dr. Abhilasha Gaur is an accomplished professional with vast experience in the Skill Development ecosystem. She is a certified black belt in lean six sigma. She is a hardcore management practitioner with 19 years of experience in Business Development, Execution of Government Projects and implementation of various initiatives in Skill Development, Corporate and Academics.

• After attaining her management degrees, she joined PERGO International as Business Consultant and later on joined Samridhi Finances as Branch Head.
• She switched over to Academics by joining Hyderabad School of Business Sciences as Academics Head and later joined Algol School of Management & Technology as Principal.
• She has worked as Vice President with Algol Group of Companies and started their skill development vertical pan India in 2011.
• In October 2021, she joined Electronics Sector Skills Council of India (ESSCI) as COO.

Mr Ashish Jain is the Chief Executive Officer of Healthcare Sector Skill Council (HSSC), which aims to facilitate creation of a robust and vibrant ecosystem for quality vocational education and skill development in allied healthcare.

• Mr. Jain has an extensive work experience of 20 years working closely with the government, industry, academic institutions, global standards organisations, multilateral bodies, policy makers etc.
• Prior to joining HSSC, he was Director at Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
• He has handled manufacturing sectors as well as Association’s Council, which represents 100 sectoral associations.
• Mr Ashish Jain has earlier worked with Pearson Education, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Aryaman Financials Services Ltd.