A Founder member of ORF, Baljit Kapoor had his earlier schooling in Punjab. Graduating from Punjab University, he took his masters in Business Administration from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. During his professional career, he attended several Advanced Management programmes at, Staff College, Hyderabad and All India Management Association.
He had a long stint with the Times of India, and served it in variety of positions. He handled several internships in select European and American newspapers and attended International Newspaper conferences. He was Director, The Times of India, Delhi, when he left it in November 1989, to join Observer Group of Newspapers, as its Sr. Vice President.
He served as Director, Times Research Foundation and established Times Centre for Media Studies.
He has been a visiting Faculty at Indian Institute of Management and colleges of Delhi University, besides several Institutions offering communication courses.
He is widely traveled in India, Europe and North America.
Sunjoy Joshi has a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Allahabad University, India, as well as in Development Studies from University of East Anglia, Norwich. He also studied Upstream Economics and Risk Analysis at the Petroleum Economist, Woking, UK.
He joined the Madhya Pradesh Cadre of the prestigious Indian Administrative Services in 1983, but has taken premature retirement from the service in 2009 in order to pursue his primary interests in energy and environment.
During his career spanning over 25 years in the Indian Administrative Service, Sunjoy has gained experience across the conventional as well as non-conventional energy sectors. He has handled oil and gas exploration as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and was the Government nominated Director on the Boards of ONGC, OVL, OIL and MRPL. Sunjoy headed the Madhya Pradesh Energy Development Agency as its Managing Director and served as Chairman of M.P. Windfarms.
He has been Visiting Associate at the International Institute of Strategic Studies, London as well as Distinguished Visitor to the Programme on Energy and Sustainable Development, University of Stanford, USA.
Honorary Treasurer Observer Research Foundation
CEO, Reliance Foundation
Smt. Annu Tandon, a Trustee of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), is a Member of Parliament of the 15th Lok Sabha from India's largest constituency Unnao. She won from the constituency with a record margin of over 300,000 votes. She is a member of the Parliamentary Committee on Privileges, Financial Committee on Estimates, Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Rural Development, Standing Committee on Rural Development and the Standing Committee on Empowerment of Women. She has also been selected several times to represent India in an official capacity at international forums, including the United Nations and other multilateral institutions. She was a member of the Indian parliamentary delegation to attend the 123rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union held at Geneva. She was also a member of the Indian delegation to the 67th UNGA session. Smt Tandon is also the founder and chairperson of the Hriday Narain Dhawan Charitable Trust (HNDCT), which has served marginalised sections of society in Unnao and surrounding areas for over 20 years. Smt. Tandon has enjoyed a successful career, spanning over 25 years, in diverse business enterprises, including IT, media and garment export. She did her schooling from St Mary's Convent, at Ramnee Park, Nainital. After that she joined the Government Girls' Intermediate College followed by her science graduation from Dayanand Subhash National Degree College, both at Unnao. Annu Tandon decided to go ahead with her father's lifelong philanthropic dream to serve the poor and started the charitable Trust in Unnao, with the special objective of uplifting and empowering women and the rural poor. The main focus of the Trust is to support education and upbringing of the rural children. A multi-faceted personality, Smt. Tandon exudes tremendous passion and zeal for social service. Her dedication towards her roots is evident in her extensive humanitarian endeavours in Uttar Pradesh. Smt. Tandon believes that changes take place in the mind. No amount of external assistance and charity can bring about the positive and sustainable change in the rural Indians' lives unless they become conscious about their problems and grow the conviction to reach out, avail, try and achieve the solutions. So, for Smt. Tandon, social service is not just accesorising rural poor with some temporary or stopgap kind of 'help', but awakening their souls to the worth of their life and the standard of living they deserve as Indian citizens. She also believes in working together with villagers towards achieving the standard of life they deserve.
Sh. Bharat Goenka is the Managing Director of Tally Solutions, India’s leading company in business accounting software. Bharat Goenka is the son of Late Shyam Sunder Goenka, who ran a company that supplied raw materials and machineries to textile mills and chemical plants in the southern and eastern parts of India.
Bharat Goenka, being a mathematics graduate, had the intuition to develop accounting software. In 1984, his father bought him an IBM PC, which changed his whole phase of life. Bharat Goenka developed an accounting software called ’The Accountant’ with no-codes. He and his father together started Peutronics in 1986 -- renamed as Tally from 1988. The latest version is Tally 9 is the world's first concurrent multi-lingual business accounting and inventory software.
Zia Mody is a Trustee at ORF.
A Founding Partner at AZB & Partners, Zia is a well known legal consultant on corporate merger and acquisition law, securities law, private equity and project finance.
She has been advising clients across the world on marquee deals. Zia has worked with GE, Tata Group, Reliance Industries Ltd., Aditya Birla Group and the Vedanta Group. She also advises large private equity houses including KKR, Bain Capital, Warburg.
Rajesh Viren Shah is Trustee at ORF. He is also Co-Chairman and Managing Director at Mukand Ltd.
A career in leadership and management, Mr. Shah has held several roles, including as Dean’s Council at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2003. He owns the kabaddi team Patna Pirates.
He has an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and Masters in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.
Mr. Shah has been on the boards of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. (appointed by Daiichi Sankyo, Japan), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
He regularly participates in industrial forums, including at the Japan Business Leaders’ Forum, the World Economic Forum, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), among others. He also holds positions in academic, social and sports forums, including at the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, National Institute of Fashion Technology, among others.
A co-author of the book, Resurgent India: Ideas and Priorities, he is currently working on a programme to enable girls from the disadvantaged communities in Thane, Maharashtra, complete primary school education.
Samir Saran is the President of the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), India’s premier think tank, headquartered in New Delhi. His research focuses on issues of global governance, climate change and energy policy, technology and media, and India’s foreign policy.
Samir completed his doctoral studies at the Global Sustainability Institute, UK. He holds a Masters degree in Media Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK, and a Bachelors in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, India.
As ORF’s President and member of the Foundation’s Board, he provides strategic direction and leadership to the foundation’s multiple centres on fundraising, research projects, platform design and outreach initiatives including stakeholder engagement.
He curates the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual flagship platform on geopolitics and geo-economics, and is the founder of CyFy, India’s annual conference on cybersecurity and internet governance. He spearheads the foundation’s efforts to foster new international partnerships and incubate young leaders networks and youth led conversations globally.
Samir is the Chair of World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Geopolitics a member of WEF Global Risks Advisory Board. He has served as a Commissioner of The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace. He is a member of the Board of Directors at ORF America. He is also a part of Board of Governors of East West Centre
Samir has authored four books, edited important journals and publications and written several academic papers and book chapters. He is featured regularly in Indian and international print and broadcast media. His latest publications include The New World Disorder and The Indian Imperative with Shashi Tharoor and Pax Sinica: Implications for the Indian Dawn with Akhil Deo.
