Alka Acharya is currently on deputation as Director and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi, from the Centre for East Asian Studies (Chinese Studies) School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) where she is Professor and former Chairperson. She has been teaching courses on Chinese Foreign Policy and Political Economy to the Masters and M.Phil students and guiding doctoral research since 1993. Ten scholars have so far been awarded a doctoral degree under her supervision. She is the joint editor of the book Crossing A Bridge of Dreams: 50 years of India-China, published in 2002, has contributed chapters to many books and regularly features in the Economic and Political Weekly.

She was Editor of the quarterly journal China Report (New Delhi) from 2005-2013. She was nominated by the Indian government as a member of the India-China Eminent Persons Group (2006-2008) and member of the National Security Advisory Board of the Government of India for two terms (2006-2008) and (2011-2012). She has authored a book China & India: Politics of Incremental Engagement, published in 2008. Her current research focuses on India-China-Russia Trilateral Cooperation and the Chinese strategic response to the post-cold war regional architecture, with special reference to China's neighborhood.

Sridhar Venkiteswaran is an entrepreneur and a key founding member and Director of the India based, Avalon Group, consisting of multiple entities along the Information Services Value Chain ranging from Strategy and Performance Improvement Consulting, Business Research and Marketing Analytics serving global clients with Group revenues of ~$38mn in 2014 and employing >1900 people.

In a career spanning 25+ years, Sridhar has been working with clients in the Indian, Chinese, Middle East and European geographies on strategy and performance related engagements across a wide spectrum of manufacturing and service businesses.

In the process, he hasdeveloped lasting relationships with industrialists and senior management professionals in companies / Groups like Ashok Leyland, Hero Group, TVS & Sons, Asahi India, Rane Group, Dow Chemical, DSM, etc., in India and with businesses like Omzest Group, Qatar Development Bank, OCIPED, ME Global, etc. in the Middle East, by working with them on strategy and other consulting engagements.

As part of these engagements, Sridhar has travelled widely across the globe to > 30 countries across North America, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia Sridhar has also done extensive work evaluating the relative economics of businesses across the two hottest emerging markets - India and China - for a number of Indian entities and is part of the CII Core Group on China, where he led a Strategy Exercise on how India needs to Engage with China.

Sridhar has extensive experience interacting with Boards of listed and privately held companies as part of the above and other engagements, both in India and abroad and is intimately aware of the dynamics and workings within such Boards. He is an Independent Director on the Board of Hinduja Foundries Ltd - a listed company on Bombay and National Stock Exchanges, and in Rockman Industries Ltd., a privately held company of the Hero Group, the world's largest two wheeler manufacturer.

Wenjuan Zhang is an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for International Collaborations of Jindal Global Law School in India. She is also leading the Center for India-China Studies of the Jindal Global University. She got her LLM degree from Columbia Law School in 2014 and Juris Master Degree from Peking University Law School in 2004. She was a visiting scholar of Yale Law School in 2012 and of Columbia Law School in 2006. She has her Marc Haas fellowship with the Brennan Center for Justice of NYU School of Law in 2015 and her PILNET fellowship in 2006-2007. Before joining the JGLS, she had been a well-respected public interest lawyer in China for over nine years.

She served as Vice Director of Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers, the biggest public interest law organization in China. Ms. Zhang and her Zhicheng colleagues have played a very pioneering role in expanding legal and political space for rights-based civil society organizations in China. She had been deeply involved the legislative process of PRC Law on Protection of Minors (Passed in 2006), the bill drafting process of Beijing Legal Aid Act (2008) and the initial drafting stage of Anti-Domestic Domestic Violence Law (Passed in 2015). She served as an expert for the UNICEF/NWCCW Project on Implementing National Program of Action for Child Development in China and an adviser on child welfare policies for the Ministry of Civil Affairs. She has published more than 50 essays and papers as well as few books in Chinese. Her research focus is rule of law, civil society development and child law.

Ravi Bhoothalingam is Founder and Chairman of Manas Advisory, a Consultancy practice focusing on Leadership Coaching as well as on business and cultural relations with China, Mongolia and Myanmar. He is Treasurer and Honorary Fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies, Delhi. Ravi is a B.Sc Hons in Physics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi and holds a Masters degree [M.A. Cantab] in Experimental Psychology from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University, guided by the renowned Sinologist and scientist Joseph Needham. He also holds an AMP from Harvard. Ravi Bhoothalingam serves on the Boards of several companies in India. Earlier, he held senior positions in industry including as President of Oberoi Hotels and Head of Personnel Worldwide of BAT Industries plc.

Ravi has traveled extensively in China and its neighbourhood. He is a member of the Joint Study Group examining the feasibility of a Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor. Ravi sits on the Editorial Boards of China Report and World Affairs. His interests also cover Confucianism, Sino-Indian business ties, and adventure travel in the remote regions of China. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, London, and a member of the Court of Governors of the Administrative Staff Collegeof India, Hyderabad, India.

Mr Singh had his schooling at the Mayo College, Ajmer from 1958-68. He graduated with Honours in History from St.Stephen's College, Delhi in 1971 and attained the first rank in Master's in History from Delhi University in 1973. He joined the premier Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1974 and was assigned to the State of Rajasthan.He spent a year as a Hubert H.Humphrey Fellow under the Fulbright Program at Pittsburgh University, USA for mid-career professional development (1986-87). On deputation to the Government of India, Mr. Singh worked for a decade at the Ministry of Human Resource Development in the Department of Education first as Director of Higher Education (1987-92) and then as Joint Secretary, Elementary Education (1995-2000). He represented India on the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Vancouver, for three years.

Mr Singh returned to Rajasthan from 1992-95 to serve as Education Secretary when he lead and coordinated mass literacy campaigns and community based rural education projects (ShikshaKarmi& Lok Jumbish) resulting in significant improvements in adult literacy and primary education in the State. In recognition of his contributions to education in India, he was invited to chair the Global Drafting Committee at the World Education Forum at Dakar in 2000.

He joined UNESCO in April 2001 and was responsible for leading and coordinating the Education for All (EFA) movement on behalf of the international development partners for over five years. Mr Singh was assigned as Director of UNESCO's office in Nigeria in 2006 and as Director of the UNESCO office in Beijing in 2008 where he is the first Indian to have held the position of a Head of a UN agency. His responsibilities extended to five countries-China, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia and North Korea.

On completion of his service with UNESCO in December 2014, Mr. Singh returned to India and was invited by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to be Team Leader of two joint review missions to several States to review the flagship programmes on Education For All ( SarvaShiksha Abhiyan) and Mid-Day Meals in schools. He has recently been awarded a research fellowship at the University of Tokyo by the Japan Foundation to study EFA. Mr. Singh is now an international consultant to UNESCO. He recently drafted the SAARC Framework for Education 2030.In May 2016 he was invited to Chair the Foundation for Education and Development, Jaipur (Rajasthan) which is responsible for implementing the Doosra Dashak Project,one of the largest and most successful initiatives for education of adolescents in India.