The International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses will feature plenary sessions by some of the world’s leading thinkers and innovators in the field, as well as numerous parallel presentations, by researchers and practitioners.
Viraal Balsari
Erach Bharucha
B.N. Goswami
J.S. Pandey
S.N. Prasad
Prakash Rao
Allen Rodgers
Garden Conversations
Plenary Speakers will make formal 30-minute presentations. They will also participate in 60-minute Garden Conversations - unstructured sessions that allow delegates a chance to meet the speakers and talk with them informally about the issues arising from their presentation.
Please return to this page for regular updates.
The Speakers
- Viraal Balsari
Viraal Balsari dedicated himself to Sustainable Development more than 16 years ago when he pursued an MSc in Energy Management from the Norwegian School of Management. Since then he has worked in wide ranging contexts including in energy, environment, corporate responsibility, management and strategy. Viraal has worked in research, civil society, banking and consulting from an international perspective, i.e. from Europe as well as Emerging Markets.
Viraal is spearheading ABN AMRO’s efforts at mainstreaming sustainability and is the team leader for the Sustainable Development vertical. Based out of Mumbai, Viraal’s unit functions as an intellectual engine that incubates ideas in sustainability and works with the various departments to integrate the same in their respective contexts; the goal being to build business excellence, enhance competitive advantage and chart a high growth leadership path.
Prior to joining ABN AMRO in December 2006, Viraal headed the Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at YES BANK (Mumbai) and worked as a Consultant with The Energy and Resources Institute (New Delhi and London). Earlier, Viraal worked at three organisations in Denmark – Dansk Energy Management A/S, Forum for Energy and Development and the Folkcentre for Renewable Energy. Viraal’s views on sustainability have also been published in leading journals such as AccountAbility Quarterly and Ethical Corporation. Amongst many achievements in his career, Viraal is particularly proud of his recent efforts that won ABN AMRO India the prestigious 2007 FT/IFC Emerging Markets Sustainable Bank of the Year Award.
- Erach Bharucha
Erach Bharucha is founder and Director of Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environment Education and Research, Pune. He has been active in various fields of wildlife and nature conservation over the past 45 years. He has worked as a consultant to the Government and Non government organizations on conservation issues and on various programs and projects. He has been a member and an executive functionary on several conservation institutions such as the Bombay Natural History Society, Worldwide Fund for Nature, Wildlife Institute of India and Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History. His major publications include the ‘Wonders of Indian Wilderness’ which is in three volumes 1.Biodiversity of India 2. National Parks and Sanctuaries of India and 3. History of Conservation in India. Other major publications include Biodiversity of India (CD-Rom and book) and a textbook on Environmental Studies for undergraduate courses for the University Grants Commission (UGC).
- B.N. Goswami
Dr. Goswami is the Director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, India. He received his Ph.D. in Plasma Physics under the guidance of Prof. Bimala Buti, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad (thesis entitled, “Nonlinear waves in dispersive media and current driven instabilities in magnetoplasmas”). His research areas include Indian summer monsoon variability, predictability of the tropical coupled ocean-atmosphere system, climate modeling, modeling of large scale air-sea interactions in the tropics, and the theoretical study of large scale tropical dynamics using simple models.
- J.S. Pandey
Dr. J.S. Pandey has been the Deputy Director & Science Secretary at the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in Nagpur, India since May 1987. He has been the project leader for various projects sponsored by the Department of Ocean Development (DOD), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Environment and Forests (MEF), Department of Biotechnology, Urban Improvement Trust, Udaipur (Govt. of Rajasthan), Department of Environment (Govt. of UP) and International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID).He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. His specialties include Environmental Impact Assessment, Ecological Risk Assessment, Health Risk Assessment, Green House Effect, Global Climatic Changes and their Impacts on Ecosystem and Human Health, Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation.
- S.N. Prasad
Dr. S.N. Prasad is the Senior Principal Scientist and Head of Landscape Ecology at the Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON). His research areas have included Biodiversity and conservation biology, restoration ecology and ecodevelopment, wildlife-habitat relationships, biomass and productivity of tropical moist forests, and use of Advanced Spatial Technologies in natural resource and biodiversity conservation in terrestrial and aquatic habitats. His teaching experience has included courses at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun: Quantitative Methods in Wildlife Biology, Introduction to Remote Sensing, Biogeography, Vegetation Types of India, Evolutionary Genetics, and Quantitative Plant Ecology and Habitat Ecology.He has served as an independent consultant to a number of Non-Governmental, Governmental and International agencies. Some of the prominent consultancies offered were Wildlife Institute of India - Biogeography project 1986, Ecodevelopment in Uttara Kannada - Myrada and plan International - March to June 1986, Water Resources of the Krishna River Basin - Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage - April 1986 to March 1987, Bombay Natural History Society - Krishna Mangrove Project January to September 1987, Govt. of India - Project Tiger - GEF Project proposal for Ecodevelopment - July 1993 to February 1994, and DANIDA - Biodiversity of Dakshina Kannada – 1993.
- Prakash Rao
Dr. Prakash Rao has 25 years of experience in the field of biological conservation and ecology related subjects in India and overseas. He holds a Ph.D in Zoology from the University of Bombay. He has worked with the Bombay Natural History Society and coordinated several field based ecological research projects on wildlife, forests and coastal ecosystems. He has undertaken detailed assignments for the Government of Qatar in the Arabian Gulf to document and assess the biological environment of the desert and coastal regions . He was the Coordinator of the Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre at WWF India from 2000-2003. He is currently the Senior Coordinator of the Climate Change and Energy Programme at World Wide Fund for Nature- India and coordinating the implementation of the Climate Change and Energy programme based on existing strategic plans. Current interests include Climate Change impacts and adaptation research and advocacy in biorich areas and ecosystems apart from studies on Himalayan glaciers, and Sundarbans . He has also edited two books including one with Prof S K Dash of I I T Delhi on Assessment of Climate Change in India and mitigation policies brought out by WWF India in 2004.
- Allen Rodgers
William Allen Rodgers has over 30 years of tropical field experience and project management and development experience in natural resource management, and biodiversity conservation, evaluation and capacity development. His most recent position was with UNDP GEF as Regional Technical Advisor for Biodiversity, Sustainable Land Management and Waters Projects, retiring in 2006. He is currently a free-lance consultant operating out of the UK and Eastern Africa.
He has held positions with the Wildlife Institute of India as an FAO specialist in Wildlife Conservation Planning and Habitat Management; with the University of Dar-es-Salaam as Wildlife Coordinator in the Department of Zoology; and as Senior Research Officer of the Wildlife Division with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Tanzania.
Dr. Rodgers received his M.Sc. from the University of Aberdeen, his Ph.D. from the University of Nairobi, and has over 100 publications.
