Digital Transformation via Open Public Stacks

Dr. Pramod Varma is the chief architect and technology advisor for India’s ID project – “Aadhaar”. He is also the architect of UPI, digital locker and esign (as part of india stack). Pramod sits on the technology advisory board of several government and regulatory organisations in India like national payment corporation of India, goods and service tax network, securities exchange board of India. Pramod is currently the CTO of EkStep foundation. Pramod holds a master’s and ph.d. degree in computer science with a second master’s in applied mathematics. Over the last 25+ years, Pramod has studied architectures spanning from mainframes to web, and his main areas of interest are internet scale distributed architectures and intelligent systems.

Shri T. Armstrong Changsan is a career diplomat with over two decades of experience in the Indian Foreign Service, having served in various capacities in Japan, Nigeria, South Africa including as Ambassador of India to Iceland, his last assignment. In India, he was in the United Nations, Economic and Social Division and also for around 4 years, he was the Regional Passport Officer looking after the North Eastern States. He joined in December 2021 as the Joint Secretary (PSP) & Chief Passport Officer in the Passport Seva Programme Division of Ministry of External Affairs that administers The Passports Act 1967 through the 36 Regional Passport Offices, 93 Passport Seva Kendras and 428 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras across India, as well as around 180 Missions/Posts abroad.

Sanjay Jain is the chair of the technology board, for the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform. MOSIP helps user organizations such as Governments implement a digital, foundational ID in a cost-effective way, harnessing the power of open source, while embracing the best practices of scalability, security, and privacy. He is also a partner at the Bharat Innovation Fund, which invests in early-stage companies. During his career, Sanjay has been a part of for the development of many large scale, high impact systems, including Google Map Maker, Aadhaar, and UPI.

Dr. Basant Garg is the Additional Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Authority. He is in charge of policy formulation, design, and implementation of flagship healthcare schemes of the Government of India including the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), which is the world’s largest government-sponsored health assurance scheme, and the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), which aims to revolutionize digital healthcare access for all. He is the Mission Director of ABDM.

Dr. Garg, a qualified doctor from the Government Medical College, Chandigarh joined the IAS in 2005 with the Punjab Cadre. He also holds a Masters in Economics, a PG diploma in Urban Studies along with certification in Tax Analysis and Revenue Forecasting, Public Policy from the Duke University, USA.

Amitabh Khosla is the Country Director for the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in India. IATA is the global trade association for the airline industry, which promotes safe, secure and efficient air transportation on behalf of its 300 member airlines, which carry 83% of the world’s scheduled international airline traffic.

Amitabh oversees IATA’s activities and priorities in India, Nepal & Bhutan – covering the streams of aviation safety, operations, standards, infrastructure and regulatory affairs among others. In this role, Amitabh also works closely with the member airlines, government, airports and other stakeholders in India.

Arun Sharma is working at the World Bank as Senior Digital Development Specialist, based in New Delhi. He is working with national and sub national governments in the South Asia Region on digital infrastructure, inclusion, and service delivery. Prior to joining the World Bank, Arun was a part of the Indian civil services for over two decades and worked in various Ministries such as Finance, Housing & Urban Affairs, the Cabinet Secretariat and MEITY, where he was Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to the Hon’ble Minister of State.

Arun was instrumental in setting up the Direct Benefits Mission in the Cabinet Secretariat, responsible for driving the world’s largest identity linked social benefits delivery program across the country. He has also worked with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), in the payments practice in South Asia.

Arun’s professional interests include digitization, public financial management, government payments systems, digital ID, and financial inclusion. He holds an MBA from Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, India.

Jaymin Shah is a seasoned business professional and visionary leader in the biometric hardware industry, dedicated to delivering innovative technology solutions that shape the future of secure identity management.

Currently, Jaymin serves as the Vice President of International Business for Mantra Softech India Private Limited, where he has been instrumental in steering the organization's sales strategies and initiatives for the past four years at global footprints. With a deep understanding of the biometric industry, Jaymin specializes in citizen enrollment and verification, playing a pivotal role in shaping solutions that enhance security and efficiency in identity management.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Jaymin is known for his commitment to fostering strong relationships with clients and colleagues alike. He values collaboration and teamwork, leveraging his exceptional communication and negotiation skills to build lasting partnerships that drive mutual success.

Ajesh has been an integral part of Major Global Semiconductor Companies in India for over 30 years .

Ajesh is currently heading Business Development for South West Asia Region in NXP and is based out of India. His career graph spans from R&D, Product Design to Product Marketing to Sales and then to Overall General Management in Technology Domain having worked with major semiconductor companies like ST Micro, Conexant, Samsung Semiconductors and now NXP.

He belongs to New Delhi and did his Engineering and Masters from BITS, Pilani.

Ajesh has a proven track record in creating new businesses in all major market verticals that are existing and upcoming in India and South West Asia Region which is well recognized by the Electronics Industry and Semiconductor Community. He is an active member and contributor to various standardization bodies and working groups.

A Digital Transformation and Innovation Leader. A Visionary, Thinker, Doer & Achiever! Pioneer and Leader of pan-India initiatives like #DigiYatra biometric passenger processing using W3C Standards and Self Sovereign Identity. Working with IATA One-ID Contactless Travel working group, contributing to re-define the global air travel experience, to make it futuristic, safe and contactless, cutting across international borders! Remaining relevant in this VUCA world by continually learning and adopting new disruptive technologies to enable a new future.

An Engineering graduate, Manish is an experienced industry professional of over 25 years, with in-depth knowledge of aviation processes and IT systems across airlines, airports and borders. In addition to promoting the effective use of passenger data, risk assessment, border management and biometric solutions, Manish continues to champion the collaboration of all stakeholders within the transport industry, with a focus on the passenger experience from perspective of both aviation and government entities. Since 2019 he has been instrumental in building and driving strategies for SITA Airports & Borders solutions across Indian Sub-Continent and now leads SITA at Borders for the region.

Andreas is an accomplished professional with an impressive track record in the field of identity industry and IT system integration. Currently serving as the Director of Solution Delivery at Veridos, he oversees the successful execution of system integration projects on a global scale. With over decades of experience in the identity industry, Andreas possesses a deep understanding of the intricacies and challenges involved in delivering cutting-edge solutions. His extensive background in IT and system integration spans over 25 years, showcasing comprehensive knowledge and expertise in this field.

Ashutosh Dubey is Senior Lead, Innovation management in NPCI. He has 10+ years of experience as product and innovation manager in Fintech and regulatory space of India specially on Decentralised Technology. He has worked in products like UPI lite, Offline payments in NPCI. Before that he worked in RBI IT subsidiary and has experience of working projects like Account Aggregator and Public credit registry.

An IIM-A alumnus and a Chartered Accountant, Anand Kumar Bajaj is the Founder, MD & CEO of PayNearby. With over 23 years of experience in Digital Payments and Mobility, Anand holds six patents in banking technology and has worked earlier with YES Bank, ICICI Bank, and Ernst & Young. Previously, he was the President and Chief Innovation Officer at YES Bank, where he led several high-impact programs in digital payments. At PayNearby, Anand steers the company’s strategic direction and growth, and he, along with his team, is committed to enabling the reach of digital payments and financial services at the first mile by empowering retailers.

Madhukar leads Co-Develop, leveraging more than 25 years of experience in impact investing, policy, and scaling nonprofits.

Madhukar comes to Co-Develop from Omidyar Network, where as Managing Director he built out their global work on digital identity and digital public infrastructure. His previous experience includes setting up PRS Legislative Research, a research institution that focuses on making the legislative process in India better informed, more transparent, and participatory; working at the World Bank on issues regarding parliamentary capacity-building in various countries; and scaling some of India’s largest nonprofits, including education nonprofit Pratham.

Antony Vendhan is the Co-Founder of Touchless ID. Antony is a serial entrepreneur and a problem solver. He happened to be at companies like Netflix and Yahoo and built scalable solutions. He comes from a world where the keyword is "software is eating hardware". He stumbled upon this idea when he applied for his Aadhaar card in 2017.

Siddharth designs Digital Public Infrastructure that socio-economically empowers individuals and small businesses. His leadership spans the areas of technology, public policy, foreign policy, institution building, and engaging civil society, private and public sector market players, governments, and regulators in building digital ecosystems.

He’s been leading the strategy & design for the Data Empowerment & Protection Architecture, a techno-legal framework that gives individual & small businesses control of their data. It’s currently being rolled out in India and is the largest implementation of Open Finance globally.

Siddharth is the Co Founder of Sahamati and has been a participant in numerous government and regulatory committees in India. He’s an Advisor to India’s Ministry of Finance (Department of Economic Affairs) on Digital Public Infrastructure and has been advising advanced and emerging economies on their design & deployment of Digital Public Infrastructure.

Nitin Mishra is the Chief Technology Officer at ONDC. In his current role, he is responsible for overall technology consultation and strategy for the network.

An engineering graduate and alumni of IIM Kozhikode, Nitin brings almost three decades of experience as a technology product leader with a proven track record in the areas of Strategic direction and Operational excellence, Capital planning, Organizational leadership (C-Level Exposure), Entrepreneurial experience, data analysis and visualization, Big data and associated technology components, Internet & ecommerce performant applications, etc.

Prior to his tenure with ONDC, Nitin effectively played various roles of a technology leader, product and program director in consonance with business leadership.