ABOUT GFF’23

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman was born on 18th August, 1959 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu to Smt. K. Savitri and Shri K. Sitharaman. She completed her bachelors from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College in Trichirapalli and headed to the Jawahar Lal Nehru University to pursue her masters in Economics. After submitting her doctoral thesis on Indo-European Textile Trade, she moved to UK and worked as the Senior Manager (Research & Analysis) in Price Waterhouse, London. During her stay in London, she also worked briefly for BBC World Services. Post her return to India, she was keen on working towards institutionalizing Policy Analysis in India and therefore established Centre for Public Policy Studies in Hyderabad in 1992. In 1997, She established Pranava, a school in Hyderabad that won the British Council’s International School Award, 2007-2010 for its unconventional approach to education that prioritized giving shape to a child’s inherent talent over the conventional learn and rote system. 
From 2003-2005, she served as a member of the National Commission for Women and in 2008, she was invited to become a member of the BJP’s National Executive and since then she has been actively involved in drafting almost all of party’s Economic and Political Resolutions. In 2010, Smt. Sitharaman was appointed as the National Spokesperson of the BJP and was widely respected for her well researched and graceful articulation of the party’s stand. 
During the Gujarat Assembly Elections in 2012, Smt. Sitharaman worked directly under the leadership of Shri Narendra Modi wherein she was given the responsibility of organizing BJP’s Media Campaign for the elections. After the historic victory of BJP in 2014 General Elections, she was inducted into the Council of Ministers and she held the charge of Minister of State( Independent charge) for Commerce & Industry. 
In May 2016, she was one of the 12 candidates nominated by the BJP to contest the Rajya Sabha elections on 11 June 2016. She successfully contested her seat from Karnataka. On 3 September 2017, she became the first full- time woman Defence Minister of India. After landslide victory of BJP in the General Elections of 2019, Smt. Sitharaman was given the responsibility of the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister of India. 

Mr. Shaktikanta Das, Governor of Reserve Bank of India, has been a career civil servant with over 42 years of distinguished service, primarily in the areas of finance, taxation, investment and infrastructure.

Mr. Das possesses a unique combination of experience in both policy formulation and implementation at the highest levels of state and central governments. He has served as Revenue Secretary and as Secretary, Economic Affairs, Government of India. In these positions, he played important roles in conceptualisation and formulation of key policies in the areas of economic reforms, fiscal and monetary policy, financial markets and investment policy. He also served as a Director in the Central Board of RBI rendering advice in the areas of Central Banking. He was also on the Board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the regulator for capital markets.

Mr. Das has served as India’s Alternate Governor in the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB), New Development Bank (NDB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He represented India in several international fora like the IMF, G20, BRICS and SAARC.

Mr. Das has also acted as India’s G20 Sherpa and Member, Fifteenth Finance Commission.

As Governor, Reserve Bank of India, he has spearheaded a series of measures taken by the Reserve Bank to support growth and strengthen financial stability in the country. Since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, he has steered the Reserve Bank’s response through several conventional, unconventional and innovative policy measures spanning monetary policy, liquidity conditions and regulatory policies to preserve financial stability while mitigating the adverse effects of the pandemic on the economy.

Mr. Das was recently conferred with the ‘Central Bank Governor of the Year’ award by Central Banking Publication, UK in 2023. He was also conferred the 'Central Banker of the Year, Asia-Pacific 2020' award by the London based magazine-The Banker.

Shri. Devendra Fadnavis is presently the Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra. He served as 
the 18th Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 2014 to 2019. Maharashtra, the 3rd largest state 
of India in terms of area and population, became the most economically advanced state with 
the highest industrial output (nearly 25% of the country’s output) under the visionary 
leadership of Shri. Fadnavis. 
Shri. Fadnavis strongly believes that ‘Politics is an instrument for socio-economic change’ 
and his political career of 25 years continues to reflect the same. His capacity to work tirelessly 
and relentlessly comes from his mantra of ‘People First’. At every step of his socio- political 
journey, he has been pertinacious to see equitable progress for all. 
Shri Fadnavis hails from a middle-class progressive family in Nagpur. His diverse educational 
background includes a Graduate Degree in Law, a Post Graduate Degree in Business 
Management and a Diploma in Project Management from D.S.E. Berlin. 
His political career began at a very young age, in 1992. He was elected as the Councillor at 
Nagpur Municipal Corporation and served two consecutive terms. He has the distinction of 
being the second youngest Mayor in India. He has been the youngest Mayor of Nagpur and 
has been the only person to be re-elected on the position of ‘Mayor in Council’. Also was the 
Mayor of Nagpur twice. There after he has been elected as the MLA - Member of Maharashtra 
Legislative Assembly for 5 consecutive terms. He has earned the recognition as leader of 
masses. 
His ability to assume multiple leadership roles is undisputable. He has ably done justice to 
leadership roles within the party, as a member of legislature and as an elected representative 
of the people of Nagpur. 
On the organisational front in Bharatiya Janata Party, he rose strongly and steadily from the 
rank of Ward Convenor to President of BJP, Maharashtra. The most recent organisational 
responsibilities being in charge (Prabhari) of Kerala State and Election In-charge of Bihar 
State Assembly Elections 2020. 
The campaigns for historic 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra were led by 
Shri. Fadnavis. The Maharashtra Assembly Elections and many elections for rural and urban 
local bodies were fought and won under his leadership, creating histories and records. 
As a Member of Legislative Assembly, he is known for his spirited and intellectual debates. 
His understanding of fiscal issues is appreciated across party lines. He has served as a 
member of various Subject Committees, Standing Committees and Joint Select Committees 
of Legislature. He is recipient of The Best Parliamentarian Award of Commonwealth 
Parliamentary Association. 
As an elected representative of people of Nagpur, he was instrumental in resolving long 
pending and complex land ownership issues. He is known to be a fervent advocate for the 
cause of equitable development of Vidarbha region, for which he was felicitated with 
prestigious Nag Bhushan Award in 2016. 
Shri Fadnavis holds the record of becoming the first Chief Minister of Maharashtra to 
complete a full five-year term in last 47 years and only the second one in entire history of 
Maharashtra. 
Shri. Fadnavis’ tenure as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra was exemplary. People centric 
inclusive governance with knowledge driven policy making, use of technology as key 
enabler, dynamic approach towards development, problem solving and result oriented 
frameworks for project implementation were features of his transformative rule. 
Besides serving as the Chief Minister, he held other portfolios too, such as Home, General 
Administration, IT, Urban Development, Law and Judiciary, Ports, and Information & Public 
Relations. 
Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan, an ambitious program which aimed at making Maharashtra drought 
free is an example of his understanding of aspirations of people and his ability to mobilise 
these aspirations into the mission. The program received tremendous response from not 
only the farmers but from people across all walks of life. It was a unique example where a 
government program turned into a people’s movement. The success of the program is not 
only limited to creation of 6 lakh plus low cost, decentralised water structures across 22 
thousand plus villages but the program also facilitated harmony in many villages, 
empowering the people to join hands to mobilise resources and to find their own 
sustainable solutions. 
Shri. Fadnavis’ strong inclination towards transparency and good governance was evident 
when he announced to enact the Right to Service Act, in the very first cabinet meeting of his 
government. At the time, it was first of its kind legislation in the country to ensure efficient 
delivery of Public Services. Eventually 393 services were brought online that benefitted lakhs 
of people. ‘Aaple Sarkar’ too is one of a kind grievance redressal platform started by Him for 
the ease in remedy to the common man. 
Shri Fadnavis’ inclusive leadership also involved many out-of-the-box ideas such as Chief 
Minister Fellowship Program. Youth in their twenties were invited to join government to 
bring in fresh perspective and energy in governance and policymaking. 
Infrastructure projects got tremendous impetus during the tenure of Shri. Fadnavis. His 
project management approach and problem-solving skills along with a War Room to 
monitor the implementation of key projects, ensured that the bottlenecks were removed 
and projects were expedited; be it Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur Metro projects, Nagpur- Mumbai 
Samruddhi Expressway, Coastal Road or MTHL (Mumbai trans harbour link). 
Under his stewardship and persistent efforts to boost investment and industrialisation, 
Maharashtra had achieved the feat of attracting 50% of the total FDI inflow into the country 
in 2016. 
Shri. Fadnavis is seen as a promising leader by investors and corporates. He successfully 
mobilised their support for social good. His initiatives such as Village Social Transformation 
Mission, SMART (creation of value chains for agricultural produces) and Sahabhag (Social 
Responsibility Cell) were hailed and supported by industry leaders. 
Given his in-depth knowledge and unique approach towards sustainable development he 
was invited by several national and international agencies for his inputs on sustainable 
agriculture, climate change and energy security. The most prestigious of these was invitation 
of NITI Aayog to chair the High-Power Committee of Chief Ministers on Transformation of 
Agriculture. 
Devendra Fadnavis’s political acumen and skills have been recognised by several forums, both 
nationally and internationally. He has been the recipient of many honours. He was elected as 
the Secretary of Global Parliamentarians Forum on Habitat for Asia region. He is the first 
Indian to be selected for an Honorary Doctorate by Osaka City University, Japan for his 
initiatives to implement major reforms for the cause of socio-economic development in 
Maharashtra. He has received the honour of being Singapore’s prestigious Lee Kuan Yew 
Exchange Fellow. USA’s Georgetown University has honoured him with the Outstanding 
Leadership in Development Award. 
Amidst the hustle bustle of his socio-political life Shri Fadnavis, is a dutiful son to Smt. Sarita 
Fadnavis, a devout husband to banker and social worker Amruta Fadnavis and doting father 
to Divija. He is a private person who enjoys writing, reading, watching movies and web-series, 
cricket, listening music in his moments of solitude.
 

Shri K. Rajaraman belongs to the 1989 batch of Indian Administrative Service (Tamil Nadu cadre) and has assumed the responsibility of the Chairperson of International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) after serving for nearly 35 years in various leadership roles in Government of India and Government of Tamil Nadu. Prior to joining the IFSCA, he served as the Secretary to Government of India in the Department of Telecommunications. He is a B.Tech Graduate in Electronics & Communications, a first-class MBA and Master of Economics.  
Starting his career as a Design Engineer in BHEL, Trichy, during his rich and varied experience as an IAS Officer, he had held various administrative positions in the areas of Investment Promotion, Foreign Direct Investment, Public Sector Undertakings, Industrial Infrastructure, VAT Administration, etc. He was MD of Chennai Metro Railways for nearly 4 years during its early construction phase, Commissioner for Commercial Taxes in Government of Tamil Nadu, and Joint Secretary Expenditure in Government of India. He also served as Additional Secretary, Investment, IER and Administration in the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance.  
 

CAREER SUMMARY 

 Presently Minister of E&IT & Sports & Youth services (Ind chrg), and Home, Govt. 
of Odisha.
 Won General Election 2019 from Kakatpur Constituency (AC-105) as MLA 
Candidate in BJD ticket.
 Have created a workforce of approximately 3000, from 280 booths of Kakatpur 
constituency comprising 45 Gram Panchayats and Konark NAC. 
 Block Level Coordinator of Atharmulak Kaibarta Mahasangh, Puri which comprises 
approximately 35,000 Kaibarta population. 
 Graduated from IIT Kharagpur and worked as Assistant Professor in Environmental 
Engineering (Branch of Civil Engineering) in Centurion University of Technology & 
Management for about 3.5 years 
 Worked as Assistant Professor and HOD in Department of Biomedical Engineering, 
Eastern Academy of Science and Technology under BPUT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha for 3 
years 
 Associated with the DST project of ‘Bio-sand Filter’ for 2 years 
 Dale Carnegie certified Trainer 
 Trained in Mission 10X Leadership Program by WIPRO 

PROJECTS SUPERVISED 
 Advanced Remote Health Monitoring System 
 Automatic Wheel Chair Using Motion Sensor and Touch-screen 
 Sustainable Use of Water in Centurion University campus 

WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS 
 Participated in the workshop on Globalization, Leadership and Strategy by Mr. Partha S 
Ghosh (Chairman- Boston Analytics).
 Organized National Conference on “Recent Advances and Future Prospects in Civil 
Engineering” in CUTM. 
 Participated in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA-2012) workshop organized by IIT 
Bhubaneswar. 
 Organized International Conference on Soft computing tools in Bhubaneswar. 
 Organized workshop on MATLAB in Biomedical Digital Signal Processing. 
 Organized workshop on Biomedical Instrumentation in EAST, Bhubaneswar.
 Participated in Swarm Intelligence workshop organized by IIT Bhubaneswar.
 Participated in Renewable Energy Symposium by Aryan Institute of Technology, 
Bhubaneswar 

INTERESTS AND EXTRACURRICULLAR ACTIVITIES 
 Co-founder of Kgp Cyber League (A cyber-gaming community comprising more than 300 
members). 
 Worked as General Secretary of Kalinga Samaj (An odia community comprising more than 
500 members in IIT). 
 Worked as Vice-president Cultural Team for the Annual festival of EAST.
 Have worked closely with Infosys, Mahindra Satyam, L&T InfoTech, POSCO STEEL 
and Reliance ADA as part of recruitment in colleges.