Education Awards

Keynote Speakers

Anand Kumar

Founder, Super 30

Anand Kumar
Founder, Super 30

Mr Anand Kumar is an iconic Indian Mathematics educator whose efforts in the field of education are considered "pioneering". He is the founder of the globally celebrated Super 30 programme which coaches underprivileged students for the prestigious IIT-JEE entrance examination. Super 30 received praise from United States President Barack Obama's special envoy, Rashad Hussain, who termed it the "best" institute in the country.

Newsweek Magazine has recognized Mr. Kumar’s initiative and included Super 30 in the list of four most innovative schools in the world. He has spoken about his experiences at global institutions of eminence such as a number of IITs, IIM Ahmedabad, MIT, Stanford and Harvard.

Mr Kumar is a living example of genius, excellence in education and natural connect with the grassroots. His life and work have been portrayed in the 2019 film, Super 30, where Mr Kumar’s story was brought alive on the celluloid by the film star, Hrithik Roshan. He was awarded the "Rashtriya Bal Kalyan Award" by president of India, Ram Nath Kovind.

In 2023, Mr Kumar was decorated with Padma Shri by the Government of India for his distinguished contributions in the field of literature and education.
Sharad Vivek Sagar

CEO - Dexterity Global,
Social Entrepreneur & Expert at KBC

Sharad Vivek Sagar
CEO - Dexterity Global, Social Entrepreneur & Expert at KBC

Sharad Vivek Sagar is a globally renowned social entrepreneur, noted thought leader, powerful orator and a widely followed youth icon. Sagar is the first Indian to be elected President of the Student Government at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Raised in small towns and villages of Bihar, Sagar founded the national organization Dexterity Global at the age of 16. Today, leaders trained in the Dexterity system have received over ₹114 crores in scholarships from top universities across the world, served as India’s youth ambassadors to the UN, won national and international awards and started their own leadership initiatives.

President Barack Obama invited Sagar to the White House. Forbes listed him on the Global Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Rockefeller Foundation inducted him in the list of 100 Next Century Innovators. The Nobel Peace Center invited him to the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony. The Queen of England included him in the Queen's Young Leaders list. India’s most watched television show, Kaun Banega Crorepati, invited Sharad Sagar as the youngest Expert on the show. After a stirring speech at Vivekananda Memorial in Vadodara, India’s leading media house Divya Bhaskar called Sagar, “the Vivekananda of 21st Century”.

Besides his organizational leadership, Sagar is regarded as a firebrand orator and thought leader and is invited to speak at over 250 major stages across 20+ states in an average year. Sagar reaches over 5 million people per month on social media. Michigan State University put Sagar on its Social Entrepreneurship syllabus, the Government of Taiwan quoted him on their Social Impact Agenda while the Ramakrishna Math and Mission featured Sagar on their annual calendar. In 2022, Dainik Jagran bestowed upon Sagar the Editor’s Choice Award for India’s Youth Icon “for representing the bold face of young India and redefining education and leadership for millions of young Indians.”
Rahul Bose

Actor & Founder- The Foundation

Rahul Bose
Actor & Founder- The Foundation

Described as the ‘Indian art house icon’, by TIME magazine, Rahul Bose won the Best Actor award at the Singapore Film Festival for ‘Split Wide Open’ and the runner-up prize for Best Debut Director for ‘Everybody Says I’m Fine!’ at the Palm Springs Film Festival. Last year he was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor for his chilling double role in the Netflix film, ‘Bulbul’.

Rahul runs two NGOs, ‘The Foundation’ - dedicated to the equalisation of development by educating children from India’s most underserved areas and ‘HEAL’ - dedicated to the prevention of child sexual abuse.

Some of his awards include : Indian Youth Icon of the Year - Social Justice, the Green Globe Award for Climate Change, NDTV Celebrity Sports Activist of the Year, the Lt. Governor’s Commendation Award for Services to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Hakim Khan Sur award for National Integration, GQ's Philanthropist of the Year and GQ’s Man Of The Year, Social Change.

In 2017 he produced and directed his second feature film, ‘Poorna’ (available on Amazon Prime) for which he received the Excellence in Direction Award from the Directors Association of India and two international awards in Melbourne and Dublin. His next directorial venture goes on the floors in April next year. A former international rugby player, Rahul represented India for eleven years, playing 17 internationals from 1998 to 2009. In December 2021 he was elected President of the Indian Rugby Football Union. This year, in an honour few ever receive, leave alone in their lifetime, the KIIT rugby stadium in Bhubaneswar was renamed the Rahul Bose Rugby Stadium.

A prolific speaker, he has lectured on leadership, gender justice, sport, social activism, and cinema at the World Bank, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge Universities amongst others.

Jury

Dr Raj
Nehru

Vice Chancellor Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Government of India

Dr Raj Nehru
Vice Chancellor, Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Government of India

Dr Raj Nehru is the Vice Chancellor of Shri Vishwakarma Skill University, Government of Haryana, the first Skill University of India and 6th in the world. He is the youngest, founding Vice Chancellor in India who left his lucrative corporate career to serve the dream of transforming the National Skill Ecosystem, that is on high priority in the Country.

He has been also entrusted with an additional responsibility as Mission Director, Haryana Skill Development Mission. He has also been appointed by Governor of Haryana, as the Director on the Board of Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation Limited. University Grant Commission has appointed him as a member on formation of implementation plan for National Education Policy (NEP) - 2020.

A veteran in Human Capital Management, has spent more than two decades in various roles and different organisations. He started his career with the Indian Army and then moved to the Corporate Sector (Pharmaceutical, IT&ITES, Manufacturing, Automobile and Engineering and Energy Sector). He has worked for more than a decade with IBM and managed the global portfolio as Director Leadership Development.

Prior to joining the Skill University, he was Director - HR at Schneider Electric. He has a wide global & cross cultural experience and has worked in Philippines, China, Europe & United States for his projects. Under his leadership, SVSU has pioneered the Dual Education Industry Integrated Model, that is becoming highly popular now as 'Earn While Learn' scheme. He has also led SVSU to win various awards by National and International bodies for its exemplary work in the area of dual vocational education.

He is on the board and committees of various organizations including AICTE, UGC, MSDE, IILM University, Jammu Central University, NASSCOM Sector Skill Council, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, YMCA University of Science and Technology, Gurugram University and Global Village Foundation, among others.

He is the recipient of Innovative Leader Award, BRICK of Change Award and Neelkanth Samman-2019. He has also received Hall of Fame, Skills Leadership Award-2020. Recently he has been honoured with the Most Inspiring Vice Chancellor Award by Golden AIM Conference & Awards for Excellence & Leadership in Education. He is also an active philanthropist and is founder of Utsav Foundation.

He has also undertaken various philanthropic activities and has worked on ground zero in the Disaster hit areas of Uttrakhand, Visakhapatnam and Jammu & Kashmir. He received a special commendation from the State Government and PMO office for his contribution towards the disaster hit village Saddal in J&K.
Dr Ashok
Pandey

Educationist & Former Director Ahlcon Group of Schools

Dr Ashok Pandey
Educationist & Former Director, Ahlcon Group of Schools

Dr Ashok Pandey is the Ex-Director of Ahlcon Group of Schools and former Chairperson of the National Progressive Schools’ Conference. He is presently serving on the Governing Board of the National Council for Teacher Education, NCTE, Cambridge and NEP Advisory Board for India and South Asia. He has more than 30 years of experience and is a widely admired educationist, an innovator and a reputed thought leader on contemporary educational issues.

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, IIMA, recently published a case study on the impactful Professional Development Programme he carried out at Ahlcon International School. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the National Teacher Award 2012, Extraordinary Leadership Award, 2021 by the Education World, and The Forbes India Top 100 People Manager's Award 2020. He considers teacher development, servitude leadership style, SDGs evangelism and a lifelong learning attitude among his most cherished goals.

He has worked closely with schools and educationists from over 20 countries, studied the finest mentoring and pedagogical approaches which he has implemented across schools and achieved measurable results. His two books on classroom teaching and practical aspects of school management have been best sellers.
Mr Himmat S
Dhillon

Headmaster The Lawrence School, Sanawar

Mr Himmat S Dhillon
Headmaster, The Lawrence School, Sanawar

Mr Himmat S. Dhillon is an alumnus of the The Lawrence School, Sanawar, and is presently leading the school to greater heights as its Headmaster. He has previously served as Principal & CEO of GEMS Our Own English High School in the United Arab Emirates, Principal of The Gandhi School, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Head of Department of English at The Doon School, Dehradun.

Apart from being associated with the best of elite residential schools, he has worked with Harper Collins and provided Media & Communication consultancy through W. S Atkins to the European Union Funded Doon Valley Integrated Watershed Management Project.

Mr. Dhillon has been a contributor to numerous projects and initiatives that have collected accolades for the institutions that he has served as a leader. At The Doon School, as Housemaster of Oberoi House, his students distinguished themselves by winning ‘The Doon School Cup’ three years in a row under his stewardship. This coveted trophy is presented in recognition of all-round achievement in academics, extracurricular activities, as well as in sports.

In his overseas assignments, Mr Dhillon was appointed as Chairman, Debating, in the Association of National Plus Schools, Indonesia and also served on the Board of The Jakarta Schools Football Association in addition to organizing the Coco Cola Cup.

He is widely known as an educationist who enables initiatives that empower children to excel academically, and also encourages them constantly to shine in co-curricular and sporting activities.
Prof Shalabh

Dean - Academics Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Prof Shalabh
Dean - Academics, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Professor Shalabh is a Professor of Statistics and Data Science at Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. He is currently the Dean of Academic Affairs and has held several important administrative positions including the Board of Governors at IIT Kanpur.

Prof Shalabh completed his PhD in Statistics from Lucknow University and postdoc from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and the University of Munich, Germany. He has more than 27 years of teaching and research experience.

He has received many prestigious awards such as the National Award for eGovernance from Govt. of India, National Award in Statistics from the Ministry of Statistics, and Planning Implementation, Vigyan Ratan Samman from Council of Scientific and Technology (Uttar Pradesh), Young Scientist award from International Statistical Institute (The Netherlands), IISA (USA), Indian Science Congress, Humboldt fellowship from Germany, and the BOYSCAST fellowship.

He has authored four books published by Springer Publications and one of his books has seen more than 5 million downloads. He has played a pivotal role in providing online courses offered by Ministry of Education through NPTEL and MOOCs. His project on implementing artificial intelligence for analyzing grievances is greatly helping the citizens of India. He was most recently in the news for correctly forecasting the third and fourth COVID waves.
Prof Archana
Shukla

Director Indian Institute of Management Lucknow

Prof Archana Shukla
Director, Indian Institute of Management Lucknow

Dr. Archana Shukla is Director of Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow and Professor of Organization Behavior in the Human Resources Management Group, IIM Lucknow. She earned her PhD in Psychology from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. She was the first chairperson of Dr. Ishwar Dayal Chair for futuristic Issues in the Behavioral Sciences for a period of two years from 2015 - 2017.

Her book titled ‘Designing Knowledge Management Architecture: How to implement successful knowledge management programmes’ has been adopted as a text as well as reference book by many Business schools. She has also published a number of papers and authored many cases in the fields of knowledge management, organizational adaptation and organization structure.

She is also on the Board of IIIT, Allahabad, Arun Jaitley National Institute of Financial Management Society and also UP Social Audit Organization, Lucknow. She is on the Academic Council of Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, TN, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow and AICTE representative on the Board of Governors of Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur.

She conducts management development programmes on Team Building, Managerial Effectiveness, Strategic Mindset, and General Management. She does process consulting in the areas of culture building, team building, coaching and mentoring and assessment and development centres.

She has been involved in training and consulting for public and private sector organizations like the India Yamaha Motors, GMR group. J K Group, TNT, EGIS India, Power Grid Corporation of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Minda Group. She has also undertaken consulting projects for public institutions including UP Basic Education Project, State Institute for Educational Management and Training, and Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, all funded by the World Bank.
Prof Jyotsna
Bhatnagar

Dean - Research Member - Board of Governors, MDI Gurgaon

Prof Jyotsna Bhatnagar
Dean - Research, Member - Board of Governors, MDI Gurgaon

Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar is member, Board of Governors at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon. She is currently Dean, Research and has also been Dean Graduate Programme & Dean Continuing Education at MDI Gurgaon. She is a PhD from Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and has also done a Post graduate diploma in Design thinking from MIT Sloan Executive Education, Columbia Business School, Tuck school of Business, USA (Online Emeritus).

She has 27 years of experience and offers teaching, training, research and consulting on Talent Management, Employer Branding and Strategic Human Resource Management. She has trained over 7000 Indian & International managers. She has published research studies, multiple times in: Harvard Business Review (FT 50, ABDC/A*); International Journal of Enterprise and Management (ABDC/A) and International Journal of HRM (ABDC/A); International Journal of Manpower, ABDC/A impact.

Prof Bhatnagar is a Board member for Promotion, Recruitment, selection board of Public Sector Banks; IIMs & Private Business schools since 2015. She also teaches at IIM Calcutta, since 2021 & teaches PGPX Sessions at IIM Ahmedabad. She has also taught at Aston University, U.K.
Mr Marco
Teixeira

Senior Programme Officer United Nations Organization

Mr Marco Teixeira
Senior Programme Officer, United Nations Organization

Mr. Marco Teixeira, a national of Portugal, is the Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Office for South Asia (UNODC ROSA). Within UNODC, he has led programme development and implementation, partnership building and resource mobilization efforts in various positions, including recently as Programme Coordinator in Mozambique, as Senior Programme Officer and Law Enforcement Expert while leading the Global Programme for the implementation of the Doha Declaration.

Before joining UNODC, Mr. Teixeira has held various positions with the Portuguese Public Security Police.

He was awarded the UN Secretary-General Award in the category of ‘Innovation’ 2020; the 'Juvenile Justice Without Borders' International Award 2020. He was numerous times officially commended by a number of National and International Institutions and also was awarded the United Nations Special Service Medal (UNSSM).

Mr. Teixeira holds a Master’s degree in Psychology from the Porto University in Portugal and a Bachelor’s degree in Police Science, besides other post graduate courses.
Mr. Parikshit
Bhardwaj

GM & Head Content and Strategy, Jagran New Media

Mr. Parikshit Bhardwaj
GM & Head, Content and Strategy, Jagran New Media

Parikshit Bhardwaj Heads Content and Strategy at JagranJosh.com. He is an educational content professional with 17+ years of rich experience in creating solutions for new-age learners. He brings transferable skills from diverse industries like Study Abroad, Academic Books and Journals Publishing, eLearning, Test Preparation and online media.

He has worked in content leadership roles with global brands like The Princeton Review, SAGE Publishing, John Wiley & Sons, and NIIT Limited. He is an avid reader, a content marketing enthusiast and has travelled widely across Europe and America on professional assignments.

He is deeply passionate about building an ecosystem where the key stakeholders in education - Students, Teachers & Educational Leaders - find a voice on a common platform. At Jagran New Media, Parikshit and team are creating just that with JagranJosh Education Awards.