Advisors

The Dialogue is a young team consisting of highly driven public policy professionals. Our work is strongly rooted in the experience of our advisors consisting of former government officials, thought leaders, researchers and academicians, economists and beyond. We have a core team of professionals working with us on projects, along with a network of more than 200 subject matter experts who work with us on project-by-project basis. This allows us to tap into the larger policy and development network yet retaining the in-house capacity to deliver projects with high quality and pace.


Dr. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan

Dr. Badri Narayanan Gopalakrishnan serves NITI Aayog – Government of India, as a Fellow, wherein he headed the verticals of Trade and Commerce, Strategic Economic Dialogue, International Cooperation and Vision India@2047. Prior to joining the GoI, he has been an economist working to analyse a wide range of economic (mainly international trade), disruptive technology, environmental/energy, labor and public health policies. He has informed the process of decision making in several major economic policies such as free trade agreements, technology regulations, etc., both through his academic research and consulting/advisory projects. Badri simultaneously holds several affiliations; Affiliate/Courtesy Faculty Member with University of Washington Seattle, Oregon State University and Boston College, Non-Resident Senior Fellow with European Center for International Political Economy, Brussels, National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and Center for Social and Economic Progress (formerly Brookings India), New Delhi.

He was on the Board of Directors of British American Business Council. He has also been a consultant with the UN, World Bank, ILO, FAO, WHO, ICRIER, IMF and several other international organizations as well as government/private bodies across the world. He has also been engaged with the startup community across the world as an advisor and co-founder. He had founded a consulting firm named “Infinite Sum Modelling” in 2015, which has a global presence, with offices in Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Beijing, Hong Kong, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and New Delhi.

He has been a consultant to several organizations such as McKinsey, KPMG, PWC, World Bank, UN, ADB, Harvard University, LSE, the Commonwealth Secretariat, etc. He has published over 150 papers and 8 books cited thousands of times in journals as well as popular media (FT, BBC, CNN, WP, The Economist, etc.), in reputed journals such as Nature Communication, Energy Economics, Network and Spatial Economics, Economic Modelling, Applied Economics, Agricultural Economics, etc., and presented his work in over 30 countries across the world, including several times as a Key Note/Plenary Speaker.





Dr. Avik Sarkar

Dr. Avik Sarkar is Faculty at Indian School of Business working in the areas of Data, Emerging Technology and Public Policy. At ISB, Dr Sarkar is heading the development of India Data Portal, one stop portal for analysis and visualization of government data. Dr. Sarkar was the former Head of Data Analytics Cell and Officer on Special Duty (OSD) at NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India Aayog) premier policy think-tank of Government of India. At NITI Aayog, Dr. Sarkar helped in developing roadmap for use of data, analytics and artificial intelligence for Governance, Policy making across various sectors for India’s inclusive growth and led efforts towards setting up the first High Performance Computing based Data Analytics Lab and Energy Modeling Unit at NITI Aayog.

Dr. Sarkar is multiple TEDx speaker and has been nominated among the “Top 10 Data Scientists in India” in 2017 by the Analytics India Magazine and nominated as “LinkedIn Influencer” in the Technology space in 2015 for contribution and engaging discussions on the LinkedIn platform in areas related of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, etc. Dr Sarkar is involved as an Advisor at various government committees like the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) committee for setting standard for “Artificial Intelligence”, Analytics Advisory committee for Government e-Marketplace (GeM), Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) of Census 2021 and Advisor towards setting up Data Analytics Center of Excellence by Government of Assam. Dr. Sarkar serves on the Academic advisory board of Aegis School of Business and on the Entrepreneurship/Academic advisory board of Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Delhi.

Dr Sarkar has over 18 years of experience across different aspects of artificial intelligence, data science, analytics, statistical modelling, text mining, network analysis across companies like Accenture, IBM, Nokia, NASA, Persistent Systems, Zycus, etc. At Accenture Consulting in Singapore, he contributed to various data and analytics related engagements with the Singapore Government like efficient reporting and resolution of municipal issues, evaluation and monitoring of secondary school education, improving operational efficiency in immigration and customs. While at IBM, Dr Sarkar made significant contributions towards developing the Monte Carlo Simulation of SPSS and the Predictive Maintenance and Quality solution for the manufacturing sector. Dr Sarkar holds a PhD from The Open University, UK, Masters from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and Bachelors from Calcutta University. Dr Sarkar has authored several technical publications and technology patents.


Mr. Adnan Ahmad Ansari

Adnan Ahmad Ansari is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s South Asia Center and Associate Vice President at The Asia Group. Ansari has worked with Indian and international corporations and nonprofits in the technology, retail, e-commerce, electric-vehicle, private-equity, rural-electrification, manufacturing, health, and renewable-energy sectors. He regularly advises and helps organizations identify and leverage opportunities, mitigate risks, and engage with central and state governments. Ansari has expertise in technology and has engaged with government stakeholders extensively on key policies such as India’s draft data protection law, draft national e-commerce policy, potential regulations for crypto assets, and changes in social-media platforms’ regulations. He has facilitated large-scale investments, created and executed strategic sales for organizations, run campaigns on critical policy issues for nonprofits and private companies, and enabled clients across sectors to navigate India’s complex policy environment.

Ansari started his career as an engineer and subsequently set up a social venture in Ahmedabad, India. Born in the politically vibrant city of Allahabad, in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Ansari follows Indian politics with a keen eye. In his personal capacity, he also advises civil society organizations and has been associated with a regional political party in the past. Ansari has a Bachelor of Technology (B. Tech.) in mechanical engineering, with a minor in management, from the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar and a post-graduate diploma in liberal arts from Ashoka University.