GI - Technology

Board Of Directors

Mr. VIJAI KAPOOR
IAS Officer
Ms. KHARAI DHUN
GENERAL MANAGER
Mr. PRADIP SHAH
FOUNDER INDASIA
Mr. UMA SHANKAR
SECRETARY

Mr. VIJAI KAPOOR

IAS Officer

Mr. Vijai Kapoor is a civil veteran with over 30 years of experience. He served in the Indian Administrative Service from 1961 to 1996. Later he was appointed as a lieutenant Governor of Delhi from 1998 to 2004. Since then, he has led some of the leading think tanks to address issues of development and national security. He is a decorated IAS officer who has held prime positions in various government sectors. During his tenure he served a couple of years in the Ministry of Industry and had firsthand experience of administering licence-Permit Raj.

From 1977 to 1983 he was seconded to the United Nations and worked at Bangkok in the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific wherein he worked on industry and technology policies and when the second oil price shock of 1979 induced stagflation he was made Coordinator of Energy Unit. Back from the UN in 1983, he worked as General Manager of the Delhi Electricity Supply Undertaking in conditions of extreme power shortage. He was concurrently Commissioner of Delhi Municipal Corporation. A notable initiative was to reform property taxation which later resulted in introduction of unit area method.

He served as the chief secretary of three states Arunachal Pradesh ( 87-88 ), Delhi ( 88-90 ) and Jammu and Kashmir ( 90-92 ) and also served as the Secretary of Defence , playing a key role overseeing India's weapon system - indigenous production as well as collaboration with friendly countries.

As Lt Governor of Dehi (1998-2004), he had holistic responsibility for governance of Delhi - directly in the reserved areas of law and order and land and on advice of Council of Ministers in others. Some of the initiatives under his role as the Governor include:

Overseeing Delhi Metro and providing it support as member of Group of Union Minister
Privatizing electricity distribution
Shifting fuel base of buses, taxis etc to CNG.
Establishing two large biodiversity parks and other green areas.
Grade separation and other initiative in traffic engineering.

He studied at St Stephen's College and Delhi University, where he did BA Hons in Mathematics and MA Mathematics; Economics was his subsidiary subject. In 1975-76 he was visiting fellow at Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford ( UK ) and specialised in social cost- benefit analysis.

Ms. KHARAI DHUN

GENERAL MANAGER

Ms. Karai Dhun is the Head of Group Financial Services & General Manager Woolworths Money, Woolworths Limited. Ms Karai is responsible for strategy and operations for Payments Services and Retail Financial Services for all Woolworth’s brands across Australia and New Zealand. Dhun Karai has over 20 years’ experience in Payments, Cards and Retail Financial Services initiatives of its various brands and businesses in Australia, New Zealand and India.

Dhun Karai is a council member at the Australian Payments Council (Reserve Bank of Australia). The Australian Payments Council has been established by the Reserve Bank of Australia to foster the ongoing development of the Australian payments systems to meet changing user needs while delivering efficient & safe payment services and encouraging competition.

She is a distinguished member at National Financial Literacy Taskforce and a board member at EFTPOS Australia Ltd, the largest domestic debit card company in Australia.

She completed her Commerce degree from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and her Executive MBA from Harvard Business School. She holds Masters in Business Administration degree from USA.

She was very active outside academics, being part of various societies and most notable is Beat Gamma Sigma, the International Honor Society for business students.

Mr. PRADIP SHAH

FOUNDER INDASIA

Mr. Pradip P Shah runs IndAsia, a corporate finance, private equity, and investment advisory business. He is also the co-founder of Grow Trees (www.Grow-Trees.com), a web-enabled social initiative, and Universal Trustees Private Limited. Earlier, IndAsia had a joint venture with AMP of Australia for the private equity business. Mr. Shah holds an MBA from Harvard, a B.Com degree from Bombay University, is a Cost Accountant and ranked first in India in the Chartered Accountants’ examinations.

Prior to that, he helped establish the Indocean Fund in 1994, the first foreign India-dedicated private equity fund, in association with affiliates of Chase Capital Partners and Soros Fund Management. As a Founder and Managing Director of CRISIL, first and largest credit rating agency. To honor his achievements, a garden of a hundred trees was formed in his name in Israel. He also co-founded HDFC, India’s first retail housing finance company. Travelling worldwide, he has conducted seminars and coaching sessions worldwide

Mr. Shah holds various distinguished positions various organizations.

Mr. Shah is currently Chairman of Wyeth, Sonata Software and Shah Foods and a Director of BASF (India), Godrej & Boyce, Hardy Oil and Gas (U.K.), Panasonic Energy India, Pfizer and Tata Investment Corporation amongst other companies.
He is the Co Chairman of the Corporate Governance Committee of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber, member of the National Executive Committee of FICCI.
He was a Director on the Western Region Board of the Reserve Bank of India, was the first Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Financial Sector Committee, and has served as a member of the Finance Commission of the State Government of Gujarat
He is of the Expert Group on Infrastructure Financing appointed by the Government of India.
He is of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of State Public Enterprises, Government of Maharashtra
He is of the CII National Task Force on Non-Performing Assets; of the SEBI Committee on Venture Capital.
He is of the SIDBI Working Group on Access to Capital Markets for Small Industries; of the Expert Committee, Public Sector Restructuring Program, Government of Gujarat, and of the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board Task Force on Policy and Implementation.

He is also associated with several non-profit organizations as Trustee/Governing Council Member, and co- founded Harvard Business School Association of India Mr. Shah has also served as a consultant to USAID, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. He is of the CII National Task Force on Non-Performing Assets; of the SEBI Committee on Venture Capital. Several other notable positions add to his decorated hat. He is also associated with several non-profit organizations as Trustee/Governing Council Member, and co-founded Harvard Business School Association of India.

Mr. UMA SHANKAR

SECRETARY

Uma Shankar has held various key assignments at the Centre and in Uttar Pradesh. Prior to taking over as CMD of REC in March, 2008, he was a Managing Director of the National Cooperative Development Corporation. Currently he is assisting IIT, Chennai in the development of an innovative approach for providing a certain minimum uninterrupted power supply to homes thereby eliminating blackouts. He has held several notable positions such as secretary, Ministry of power, Govt of India, as CMD of Rural Corporation of India.

He has overseen many key projects aimed at promoting and financing cooperatives and industrial establishments in relation to food industry. He has played a key role in in development, management and maintenance of urban infrastructure for Greater Noida.

Mr Uma Shankar holds a Master's degree in Math from IIT, Madras and a Master's degree in Social Policy and Planning in Developing Countries from London School of Economics.

Joining the I.A.S in 1976, he has more than 3 decades of leadership experience in Government spanning district administration, rural development, finance, housing & urban development, rural and agro-industries, municipal affairs, and power. Retiring from the IAS in June 2013, Shri P.Uma Shankar works as a consultant/adviser in the power sector.

He is also an independent director on the boards of Jaypee Infratech Ltd, IMP Powers Ltd and Ravindra Energy ltd. He served earlier on the boards of ONGC Ltd and Shipping Corporation of India Ltd as independent director.