Our Speakers

Mr. Jyotiraditya M. Scindia has been recently appointed as the Union Minister of Communications; and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Government of India. He is a six-term Member of Parliament, which includes five terms in the Lok Sabha (2002-04, 2004-09, 2009-14, 2014-19, 2024-2029), and one term in the Rajya Sabha (2020-2024) representing the state of Madhya Pradesh. During the Lok Sabha 2024 elections and Vidhan Sabha 2023 elections, he was appointed as the star campaigner for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state of Madhya Pradesh. He is also the Member of the BJP Election Management Committee and the Core Committee of BJP in Madhya Pradesh. From 2014 to 2020 he was the Member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) and from 2019-2020 as the General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) he took charge for Uttar Pradesh West. From 2014-2019, he was appointed as Chief Whip of Congress in the Lok Sabha and also served as the Chairman of the Election Campaign Committee during the 2013 and 2018 Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections. Mr. Scindia began his journey in public service in 2002. In his tenure as the Union Minister of Civil Aviation and Steel (from 2021 to 2024), Mr. Scindia played an instrumental role in incorporating substantial improvements in the aviation sector, enhancing connectivity and infrastructure across the country. His tenure saw initiatives aimed at modernizing airports and increasing accessibility to remote areas, thereby boosting economic growth and tourism. As Minister of Steel, Mr. Scindia has been pivotal in driving policies that strengthen the steel industry, ensuring it remains competitive on the global scale and contributes robustly to India's economic framework. He also made dedicated efforts to boost the green steel sector in India. From 2007-2009, he served as the Minister of State for Telecommunications, Posts and IT; from 2009-2012 as the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, and then, from 2012-2014 as Minister of Power (Independent Charge). Mr Scindia’s tenure as Minister of State for Telecommunications, Posts and IT ushered in the transformational Project Arrow that modernized the Indian post offices through new branding and IT-enabled procedures. In his tenure as Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, he successfully brought down transaction costs in Indian exports at various levels - right from the stage of production to the end customer. Additionally, as Minister of Power (Independent Charge), he led the establishment of a unified transmission grid network i.e. One Nation One Grid with a 6-sigma reliability system, linkages for power plants, and resolved last-mile distribution issues in collaboration with State Governments. Mr. Scindia has also been a member of Parliamentary Committees on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports; Defence; Finance; Home and External Affairs. Mr. Scindia completed his schooling from the Doon School, Dehradun. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Harvard University, USA and an MBA degree from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, USA. Besides, Mr. Scindia has also worked at the United Nations, and as an investment banker at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Apart from his political roles, Mr Scindia is passionate about education. He is currently serving as the President of the Board of Governors at the Scindia School (Gwalior), Madhav Institute of Technology & Sciences (Gwalior), and Samrat Ashok Technological Institute (Vidisha). He is also a Board Member for Scindia Kanya School (Gwalior) and Saraswati Sishu Mandir (Gwalior). With an avid interest in cricket, he has served as the Member of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), and as the Chairman of the Finance Committee and Member of the Disciplinary Committee of BCCI. For two years from 2014-16, he was the Member of the Governing Council for the Indian Premier League (IPL). He has acted as the Former President and Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) and also represented MPCA in the BCCI.

Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar is a graduate of Osmania Medical College in Hyderabad, India. He ranked 27th out of 60,000 students who took the EAMCET medical school entrance examination, one of the most competitive examinations in the country. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania, and obtained the highest percentile scores in most board examinations. During his postgraduate training, he represented the state of Pennsylvania in a national medical knowledge competition for 2 years. He then worked at Johns Hopkins University – Sinai Hospital for about 5 years as an attending physician, teaching residents and medical students. He is also the founder of UWord, an online learning platform for high stakes competitive exams in the US. In 2020, he won the Ernst and Young Award of “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the US. Also, he is a member of Forbes Business Council. Dr. Pemmasani has worked in a free medical clinic providing care to uninsured/underinsured patients in the Indian community of Dallas. In India, he helped provide free and clean water to residents of the Palnadu in the Guntur district, for over 10 years, and donated land for a community hall in his father’s village. He has also provided educational funding to a number of children and adults besides giving charitable donations to local community organizations. In addition, through the CSR and foundation activities, he continues the philanthropic activities focusing on education, global crisis, and service basic needs. Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar joined Telegu Desam Party (TDP) in year 2013 to serve the common people. He has been elected as Member of Parliament from Guntur Lok Sabha constituency in 2024.

Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, FRS, Padma Shri awardee, is the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and a renowned physicist known for his pioneering work in quantum materials, graphene, nanotubes, soft matter, and Raman scattering. A PhD from IISc Bengaluru, he has made landmark contributions including the discovery of the Sood Effect, authored 400+ research papers, and holds several patents. He is a Fellow of leading academies worldwide, including the Royal Society (UK), and has held key leadership roles such as President of the Indian Academy of Sciences. Prof. Sood continues to shape India’s science, technology, and innovation landscape through both research and policy.

Dr. Neeraj Mittal, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, a senior Indian Administrative Service Officer of Tamil Nadu cadre, is a B. Tech in Electrical Engineering from IIT, Kanpur, MBA from Cranfield University, UK and Ph.D from Ohio State University, USA in Management Information Systems. He started his career as an IAS Officer in 1992. He has held various administrative positions in the fields of land and revenue management, mines and minerals, IT/Communications, e-governance. During his stint in Central deputation, he worked in Department of Telecom, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. In the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, he was instrumental in rolling out the Cash Transfer program in LPG and ‘Give It Up’ campaign. He has also served as Senior Advisor to the Executive Director in World Bank in Washington DC. He held important positions of CEO of Tamil Nadu Industrial Guidance and Export Promotion Bureau, Additional Chief Secretary, Information Technology and Digital Service Department and MD & CEO, Tamil Nadu Urban Finance and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

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Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi heads the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, located at the IIT-Madras Research Park, which is focused on emerging wireless standards and technologies. He is a holder of several patents related to 4G and 5G technologies and was the national coordinator for the project to build an end-to-end 5G Test Bed. He has served as the Chairperson of TSDSI. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and INAE and an Hon. Fellow of RWTH Aachen, Germany. He served as Director, IIT Madras from 2011-21. Bhaskar Ramamurthi graduated with a B.Tech in Electronics from IIT Madras (1980). He secured his M.S. (1982) and Ph.D. (1985) in Electrical Engineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara. After working at AT&T Bell Laboratories for a couple of years, he joined the faculty of his alma mater in 1986. His areas of specialization are Communications and Signal Processing. His body of research is in Wireless Networks, Modulation, Wireless Data, and Audio and Video Compression.

Harald Haas FREng, FRSE, FIEEE, FIET received his Ph.D. from The University of Edinburgh, U.K., in 2001. He is the Van Eck Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and the founder of pureLiFi Ltd., where he also serves as the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). His recent research interests focus on photonics, communication theory and signal processing for optical wireless communication systems. Since 2017, he has been recognised as a highly cited researcher by Clarivate/Web of Science. He has delivered two TED talks and one TEDx talk. He was awarded the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2017, the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society James Evans Avant Garde Award in 2019, and the Enginuity: The Connect Places Innovation Award in 2021. In 2022, he received the Humboldt Research Award for his research contributions. In 2023, he was shortlisted for the European Inventor Award. 

Dr. Iwao Hosako received his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1993. He is currently the Director General of the Wireless Networks Research Center of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT), Japan. His research focuses on terahertz band semiconductor devices, cameras, and wireless systems. He was the Vice-Chair of the IEEE 802.15.3d Task Group and is currently the Vice-Chair of the IEEE 802.15 Standing Committee-THz. He was serving as a member of the Beyond 5G (6G) Promotion Strategy Roundtable of the Ministry of Internal affairs and Communications, Japan from Jan. 2020 to Jun. 2020.

Dr. Magnus Frodigh?is Vice President and Head of Ericsson Research. In this role, he leads Ericsson’s long-term technology research organization, its close collaboration with academia and industry, and its contributions to Ericsson business and product development.

He holds a Master of Science degree from Linköping University of Technology, Sweden, and a Ph.D. in Radio Communication Systems from the Royal Institute of Technology, where he is also adjunct Professor in Wireless Infrastructures. He is a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).

Frodigh joined Ericsson in 1994 and has over the past three decades held various key senior positions within Research & Development and Product Management throughout the generations of mobile technology.

from?2G?all the way to current research on 6G technologies. He holds 29 patents.

Ashutosh brings in a unique blend of industry and academic experience. He is currently Chief 5G Strategist at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labs and serves as associate research professor and the director of Doctor of Engineering program at Johns Hopkins University in addition to his teaching. His past career spanning more than 30 years, includes Director of Technology Security and Lead Member of Technical Staff at AT&T, CTO of cybersecurity company NIKSUN, Senior Scientist in Telcordia Research, Director of Central Research Facility at Columbia University, and Computer Engineer with TATA Motors. Ashutosh has published more than 110 papers, IEEE-Wiley book on Handoff Optimization, 6 book chapters and has 31 issued patents. As a Technical Leader in 5G, Ashutosh has served as the founding Co-Chair for the IEEE Future Networks (https://futurenetworks.ieee.org/), IEEE Connecting The Unconnected (ctu.ieee.org) and IEEE 5G/6G Innovation Testbed (testbed.ieee.org). Ashutosh served as IEEE Communications Society's Distinguished Lecturer for 2017-2020. He has served in IEEE Communications Society's director of Industry Outreach Board (2014-2019) and has been serving as Member-At-Large (2020-2025). He initiated and organized more than 90 5G Summits around the world (www.5gsummit.org) and has served as founding Co-Chair of IEEE Future Networks World Forum (https://fnwf2025.ieee.org/) since 2018. Ashutosh has served as Workshop Co-Chair in ICC and Industry Forum and Exhibits Co-Chair in Globecom. His most notable awards include, 2022 North American Region Exceptional Service Award, 2009 IEEE MGA Leadership award, 2022 IEEE-USA George F. McClure Citation of Honor, and IPv6 Hall of Fame in 2024. Ashutosh is a Distinguished Alumnus of NIT Rourkela with BS in Electrical Engineering, MS in Computer Science from NJIT, and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University under the supervision of Prof. Henning Schulzrinne. Ashutosh is a Fellow of IEEE, Distinguished member of ACM, Fellow of AAIA, and Member of National Academy of Artificial Intelligence.

David R. Koilpillai received the B.Tech. degree from IIT Madras, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, all in electrical engineering.,In 2002, he joined the Electrical Engineering (EE) Faculty of IIT Madras. He is currently the Qualcomm Institute Chair Professor in EE and Dean (Planning). During 2008 to 2009, he served as the Co-Chair of the IITM Special Task Force for setting up the new IIT at Hyderabad. He also served as the Head of the Central Electronics Centre, IITM, from 2010 to 2011. His technical areas of expertise include cellular and broadband wireless systems, and DSP techniques for wireless communications. He is the Faculty Coordinator of the IITMSAT Student Satellite initiative. In 2007, he was on sabbatical from IITM and served as the Chief Scientist of the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT), a public–private research and development initiative of the Government of India, and was responsible for launching the national project Broadband Wireless Consortium of India. Prior to joining IITM, he was with General Electric (GE) Corporate Research and Development for four years and Ericsson USA for eight years, where he held different technical and managerial positions. In 2000, he became the Director of the Ericsson’s Advanced Technologies and Research Department, RTP, NC, USA, developing GPRS/EDGE handset technology. His technical contributions at GE and Ericsson have resulted in 32 U.S. patents, 10 Canadian patents, and 19 WIPO/European patents. His current technical activities are in the areas of cellular evolution—4G and 5G, smart grid communications, and DSP for high speed coherent optical communications.,Dr. Koilpillai received the Ericsson Inventor of the Year Award, the highest technical recognition within Ericsson, in 1999.

A. Robert Jerard Ravi I.T.S is an accomplished Indian Telecom Service officer with degrees in Electronics Engineering (First Rank) and an MBA in International Business from Pondicherry University.

He has significantly contributed to Indian telecommunications by developing key initiatives such as the Indian AI stack, TAFCOP portal, RF coverage portal, and NBM portal for the Department of Telecom. He designed and implemented major projects, including the Integrated Communications Network for Pondicherry University and PSWAN for the Pondicherry government.

His international experience includes roles as Chief Engineer at Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd. and Chief Consultant for broadband projects in Kuwait, where he pioneered FTTH and OTN systems. He has also consulted on e-governance projects in Kuwait, revitalized telecom services in Libya and Lebanon, and has presented and published extensively on broadband and communication systems.

Aayush Bhatnagar is a Senior Vice President at Reliance Jio, with a strong background in cutting-edge software platforms development, particularly focusing on India’s own cloud-native 5G technology. He played a crucial role in the commercialization of various home-grown IMS VoLTE platforms that are integral parts of the world's largest VoLTE network. Aayush's expertise spans a wide range of products developed for India, including 5G Core Networks R&D, Blockchain Platform, NFV and SDN Platforms, and Distributed Data Lakes for Machine Learning, among others. His skills extend beyond software development to systems engineering activities, contributing to network architecture, design, engineering, and traffic dimensioning, notably in the successful VoLTE deployment at Reliance Jio across 22 circles in India. Aayush holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

A seasoned technology leader with over 20+ years of extensive experience in Radio planning and Optimization, he has a proven track record of delivering results as part of senior management teams across various organizations and multicultural environments. His efforts have driven businesses to achieve market-leading technology capabilities through strong engineering discipline and a robust partner ecosystem built around high-performing teams. In previous roles at HFCL , RCOM , Vodafone VI and currently at Airtel, he has fostered thought leadership and operational excellence through structured transformation, customer-centric initiatives, and a steadfast commitment to quality.

Dr. Rajkumar Upadhyay is CEO of the Centre for Developments of Telematics (C-DOT), a premier R&D Centre of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India. His previous assignments include working with Prasar Bharati, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), and the Defence R&D Organization. He has also been the Chairman of the working group on ‘Policy and Regulation for South Asian Regulators Council (SATRC)’ during 2011-12.

Currently, he is a Governing Council Member of the Telecom Standards Development Society India, Broadband India Forum, Telecom Export Promotion Council, Telecom Centre of Excellence, and a founding member of the ‘Bharat 6G Alliance’. He is also a member of the National Committee on Electronics Manufacturing and the National Committee on Telecom and Broadband of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

He is the winner of several awards, including the J.C. Bose award by the Ministry of Defense, the National e-Governance award by the Government of India, the CIO 100 award by International Data Group (IDG), and the Deepak C. Jain Award by IIM Bangalore. Under his leadership, C-DOT has won various awards, namely Voice Data “Telecom Person of the Year”, the IETE Corporate Award for Telecommunication, the ELCINA Award for Innovation in R&D Category, and the 12th Annual Aegis Graham Bell Awards across three categories for Disaster Management, Secure Messaging & Calling Solution, and Covid Quarantine Alert System (CQAS), as well as the ELCINA Defennovation Awards for innovation in Defence and many more.

Dr. Upadhyay holds a Ph.D. in Corporate Strategy & Policy, an MBA from IIM Bangalore, and an M.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee.

Mr. Jayanta Dey is responsible for the HFCL’s foray into 5G Product Development and System Integration globally. An MBA from North Eastern University, Boston, and a B.E. from BITS Pilani, he has a vast experience in the high-tech sector with a focus on innovation, scaling up competencies in new technologies, successful delivery of large transformation programs, and the ability to build and manage a business unit. Prior to joining HFCL, he worked with Wipro as Vice President and Global Business Head for Network and Edge & Consumer Electronics Vertical. He also worked as a CTO for the Manufacturing and Technology Business Unit at Wipro Limited, where he led the initiative on autonomous vehicles as part of Wipro's innovation charter.

As Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Asia-Pacific, Magnus Ewerbring is responsible for driving technology alignment as well as long term technology strategies for Ericsson in Asia-Pacific.
Mr Ewerbring has been with Ericsson for more than 30 years and has held several senior executive positions within Ericsson R&D, the Business Units, as well as in customer accounts.
Mr Ewerbring holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology (Gothenburg, Sweden) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University (Ithaca, New York, USA).

Anita Doehler has extensive international experience in various business areas, including senior management positions with mobile network operators, vendors, and consulting firms. From 2016 until 2020, she held senior management positions at Accenture. Prior to that, she worked at Vodafone Group for 16 years, and also at E-Plus and Philips, among others.

Anita holds a Dipl.-Ing. degree in Telecommunication Engineering as well as an Executive MBA degree. Furthermore, she is a Systemic Business Coach.

Anita is passionate about driving technology innovation for the benefit of humans and societies and supporting the world’s leading operators, vendors, and research institutes. Since July 2020, she has been the CEO of the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN).

Mr Charles is a, Senior R&D Management professional with 28 Years of wireless experience in L1/L23/Arch/System Engineering areas. He completed his Master's in Engg from Indian Institute of science & holds an MBA on International Business. He has a great deal of experience in development of SW/FW on CPU/DSP/FPGA/GPU based computes for all generations of Mobile standards from 2G to 5G. He started his career at Centre for Development Telematics (C-DoT) and worked with NxP semiconductors, Alcatel Lucent and Mavenir in the past. Currently leading the development of Aerial L1/L2 offloading on GPU for 5G/6G wireless solutions in India as part of NVIDIA. Charles is a Senior Member of IEEE and has served as Execom member of IEEE Bangalore section for two years. He is a Prolific Inventor and has 5 patents granted and 30 Patents in published state.

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Prof. Rohit Budhiraja is a faculty member in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Kanpur, specializing in wireless communications, signal processing, and next-generation networks. A PhD from IIT Madras, his research spans multi-antenna systems, cooperative communications, and energy-efficient 5G/6G technologies. He also plays a key role in shaping India’s 6G vision as Vice Chair of the Bharat 6G Alliance, contributing to both national initiatives and international standardisation efforts.

Professor Mathini Sellathurai (IEEE Fellow) is currently Professor of Signal Processing and Wireless Communications and Dean of Science and Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. With over 20 years of active research in signal processing, she has established a strong international reputation in wireless communications. She has held visiting research positions at Bell Laboratories (Holmdel, NJ, USA) and the Canadian Communications Research Centre (Ottawa, Canada). Professor Sellathurai has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers in leading international journals and conferences, along with two research monographs. Her current research focuses on the application of machine learning and statistical signal processing to wireless communications, radar, assistive care technologies, robotics, and hearing aids. Her contributions have been recognised with numerous awards, including the IEEE Communications Society Women in Engineering Mentorship Award (2022), the Fred W. Ellersick Best Paper Award (2005), the Industry Canada Public Service Award (2005), and the Technology Transfer Awards (2004). She also received the NSERC Doctoral Award for her Ph.D. dissertation. She served as an Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing from 2009 to 2018, was General Chair of the IEEE Signal Processing Advances in Wireless Communications (SPAWC) conference in 2016 and was a member of the IEEE Signal Processing for Communications and Networking (SPCOM) Technical Committee from 2014 to 2019. In addition to her technical contributions, Professor Sellathurai is a member of the IEEE History Committee and serves on the Strategic Advisory Team of the UK Research Councils. She is also an invited Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA), an Invited Fellow of the International Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (FAIIA) , and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), U.K.

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Dr. Hanumantha Rao received his PhD from The Queen’s university, Belfast, UK, M.S. from BITS, Pilani and B.Tech. from SV University, India. He has more than 38 years of experience in Research and Development in RF, microwaves and mm-wave technologies for strategic and civilian sectors. He has been working in SAMEER for the past 35 years after a brief stay at Space Applications Centre SAC (ISRO), Ahmedabad. As a scientist, in the initial part of his career and later as a senior member of the organisation, he has been actively involved in the implementation of various future driven next generation technologies for both strategic and societal applications for DRDO, MeitY and DoT. He has been part of multi-institute (IITM, IITB, IITD, IITK, IITH, IISc, CEWiT and SAMEER) collaborative research towards the development of Indigenous 5G solutions. He was part of 5G team and, demonstrated for the first time in India, a fully functional MIMO and Massive MIMO systems at sub 6-GHz band, and integrated mm-wave Tiled Phased array antennas. He was instrumental in building indigenous technologies, R&D facilities and executed various strategic projects to address the denied technologies to India. He actively participates in developing Indian standards for 5G and represented India at ITU global meetings. He contributed towards SoC, SoP and implemented Electromagnetic Band Gaps (EBG) and Metamaterial configurations in collaboration with Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA. As a member of high-level committees at national level in driving the technology programs for India, he facilitated collaborative research between SAMEER-Academia and industry, both at national and international levels. He actively contributes in capacity building in terms of lectures, workshops and symposia and mentored number of scientific teams at various levels. He has guided more than 50 M.Tech. /MS students along with 11 PhDs. He is a member of Doctoral Committees for various IITs, NITs and reputed Indian universities. He created SAMEER-Academia interaction with various premier IITs and NITs. Most of his work has been published in highly referred journals. Some of his publications are the most referred / popular articles for a long period in IEEE. He has more than 120 publications in IEEE/IEE/John Wiley and referred journals and conferences. His current research areas include 6G solutions, intelligent reflecting surfaces, UAV detection and deactivation, Spectrum studies and RF SoC and Tiled Phased arrays systems.

NANDANA RAJATHEVA (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.Sc. degree (Hons.) in electronics and telecommunication engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, in 1987, and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada, in 1991 and 1995, respectively. He is currently a Professor with the Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland, and leads the thematic area of wireless access technologies in the 6G Flagship Project. During his graduate studies, he was a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar in Manitoba. From 1995 to 2010, he was with the University of Moratuwa and the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. He is contributed to the intelligent radio air interface design task in EU Project Hexa-X-II. He has co-authored more than 200 refereed papers published in journals and conference proceedings. His research interests include physical layer in 6G, machine learning for PHY and resource allocation, multimodal sensing and communications, and channel coding.

Erik G. Ström is heading the Division of Communications, Antennas, and Optical Networks. His research focuses on signal processing, information and communication theory, specializing in coding and modulation, channel estimation, medium access, wireless positioning, and vehicular communications for traffic safety and efficiency applications, and low-latency ultra-reliable communications. He received the Chalmers Pedagogic Prize in 1998, the Chalmers Supervisor of the Year Prize in 2009, and the Chalmers Area of Advance Prize in 2020. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Debarati Sen is a National Doctoral Fellow of the Government of India and holds a Ph.D. in Telecommunication Engineering from IIT Kharagpur (2010). She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, working on the FORCE project. Previously, she served as Chief Engineer at Samsung Electronics, Bangalore. Her research interests include wireless and optical communication systems, particularly coherent optical communication, UWB, MB-OFDM, synchronization, equalization, green and 60 GHz communications. She has authored several international publications, holds multiple patent applications, and is actively involved in IEEE and Inderscience editorial and technical committees.

Prof. Deepa Venkitesh (Member, IEEE) received the Ph.D. degree in physics from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, Mumbai, India, in 2009. She is currently a Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, Chennai, India. She has authored more than 100 publications in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. Her research interests include optical communication systems, optical signal processing, and microwave photonics.

Dr Kaveh Delfanazari is a Royal Society Industry Fellow in Quantum Computing and an Associate Professor at the James Watt School of Engineering and Centre for Quantum Technology, University of Glasgow (UofG), UK. He leads the UofG Quantum Information Cluster, a cutting-edge research laboratory that brings together leading academics, research scientists, and PhD students, and is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities dedicated to addressing the most critical challenges in quantum information processing hardware. Dr Delfanazari has been the recipient of several highly competitive research fellowships, awards and grants, including the Royal Society Fellowship in Quantum Computing, Royal Academy of Engineering/Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship in Quantum Communication, Royal Society of Edinburgh Personal Research Fellowship in Quantum Microwaves, the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Fellowship in Quantum Innovation, Technologies, and Standards, the Monbukagakusho Scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Dean’s Award for Innovation and Excellence in PhD Thesis, Multiple International Travel Grants, and Best Paper/Presentation Awards at National/International Conferences. Dr Delfanazari is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP), a Senior Member of IEEE, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), and serves as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering.

Ashok Kumar is an officer of the Indian Telecom Service, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India. He joined this service in 1995. A career technocrat with specialization in Mobile Communications and the telecom and related ICT sector, he is currently working as Deputy Director General in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications. Presently, he is the Vice Chair of ITU-T Study Group 16, which develops standards for Multimedia and Digital services.

In addition to his expertise in telecommunications policy and regulations, he is an expert in 5G and other mobile technologies. During his tenure at the National Telecommunications Institute for Policy Research and Innovation, he designed and developed 30 courses totaling 40 hours on 5G Mobile Communications, which were published on the eLearning Platform (known as iGoT) of the Government of India. He has also conducted five batches of Online 36-hour/6-week Certificate courses on 5G Technology for officers of the Indian Telecom Service, other central/state government officials, and faculty members of engineering colleges.

Earlier, he worked at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which was mandated to issue a biometric-based identity called Aadhaar to all residents of India. He contributed to creating enabling policies, processes, and guidelines to expand the ecosystem and keep it viable and healthy, resulting in the successful enrollment of over one billion people in India.

During his initial 10 years of service, he served in various parts of the country and contributed to the installation, commissioning, and operation of telecom networks.

Mahesh Marina is a Professor (Personal Chair of Networked Systems) in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He holds or has held Visiting Professor and Researcher roles at Johns Hopkins Computer Science, ETH Zurich and at Ofcom (the UK’s telecoms regulator). Previously, he was a Turing Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute (the UK’s national institute for data science and AI) for five years (2018-23) and served as the Director of the Institute for Computing Systems Architecture within Informatics@Edinburgh for four years (2018-22). Prior to joining Edinburgh, he had a two-year postdoctoral stint at the UCLA Computer Science Department after earning his PhD in Computer Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He is an IEEE Fellow and an ACM Distinguished Member.

Elena Fersman is a Vice President, Head of AI Innovation and Incubation and Head of Ericsson Silicon Valley Site. Elena is a docent and an adjunct professor in Cyber-Physical Systems specialized in Automation at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, holds a PhD in Computer Science from Uppsala University, and did a postdoc at the University Paris-Saclay. At Ericsson, she had various positions ranging from product management to research leadership. Elena served on the Board of Directors of RISE Research Institutes of Sweden 2019-2022 and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. Elena has co-authored over 50 patent families.

Dr. Simone Redana is Head of Architecture, Security and Automation Standards & Research at Nokia Standards, Strategy & Technology Dept. with focus on novel E2E architecture, security and network automation solutions for the 5G and 6G era as well as business acceleration for verticals. He is responsible for Research and Standardization in Nokia on RAN, CORE & System Architecture, Security, Network & Service Automation and creating Nokia IP portfolio in those areas. He is responsible for the global academic collaboration on key next generation networks research topics like 6G architecture innovations, network softwarization and automation, digital twins, AI and Data frameworks. He received the MSc and PhD degrees from Politecnicodi Milano, Department of Electronics and Information in 2001 and 2005 respectively.

Sandeep Sharma is a seasoned telecom leader with over two decades of experience in next-gen wireless technologies, including 5G, O-RAN, and AI-powered networks, Sandeep drives innovation, shapes industry standards, and builds strategic partnerships that are redefining the future of telecommunications. A recognized thought leader, Sandeep is a frequent speaker at high-impact forums and author of influential white papers that are helping steer the industry toward 6G. With deep expertise in product management, network planning, and pre-sales, he has led world-class teams across both mature and emerging markets. His vision continues to unlock new growth opportunities and enhance network capabilities in an increasingly digital world

Ashwin Gumaste is an AI Architect at Microsoft. He specializes in building AI systems, scaling networks, and model estimation. Before joining Microsoft, Ashwin held key roles at Infinera, Cisco, and Fujitsu, as well as academic positions at IIT Bombay and MIT. Earlier in his career at IIT Bombay, he designed, developed, and successfully commercialized carrier Ethernet switch routers, earning India's highest science and technology honor, the Bhatnagar Prize. A distinguished fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences in India, Ashwin has made significant contributions to AI and network engineering. He has authored three books, published 215 peer-reviewed papers, and holds 28 granted patents.

Ramu is Co-Founder and Director of Lekha, bringing over 20 years of experience in wireless communication markets. He specializes in private networks, IPs, and solutions for the cellular telecom sector, with deep expertise in IEEE and 3GPP standards including WiMAX, LTE, and 5G NR. At Lekha, he leads business development, innovation, product strategy, and execution. Previously, he held roles at Cisco Systems, Navini Networks, Centillium, and Encore Software. Ramu holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Instrumentation Electronics from Bangalore University.

Vivek Badrinath is Director General of the GSMA and a member of its Board, supporting global membership across the GSMA’s three broad pillars: Connectivity for Good, Industry Services and Solutions, and Outreach. In his role, Vivek is committed to strengthening and evolving the mobile industry – amplifying impact, fostering business growth, and collaborating with partners to explore innovative business models. Before joining the GSMA, Vivek was the CEO and Chair of the Management Board of Vantage Towers AG, from its creation in 2020 through its IPO in 2021 to its partial sale to Private Equity in 2023. Vivek has extensive experience in the mobile industry, having formed part of the Executive Committee at Vodafone as CEO of Africa Middle East Asia Pacific, overseeing operations in the Vodacom Group, India, Australia, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and New Zealand. Vivek represented Vodafone at GSMA Board meetings and chaired the Policy Group in 2019 and 2020. Prior to this, Vivek was the Deputy Chief Executive at Orange, responsible for innovation, marketing and technology. He also successively held the positions of CTO of Orange Mobile, subsequently Group CTO, and CEO of Orange Business Services. Between 2000 and 2004 Vivek ran the Indian operations of Thomson. He was a Board member of Nokia from 2014 to 2016, a Board member of Accor Group from 2016 to 2018, and a Board member of ATOS from 2019 to 2023. Vivek holds a degree in telecommunications engineering and an advanced degree in stochastic modelling and statistics. He is a recipient of the French Legion of Honor and of the National Order of Merit.

Ross Bateson is Special Adviser to the GSMA. His work in government affairs shapes global mobile?broadband policy, with expertise in spectrum management, telecom regulation, and international negotiation. Over more than two decades, he has supported the mobile industry in spectrum strategy, political engagement, and regulatory frameworks—formerly also serving as telecom analyst, policy adviser and entrepreneur. He has been involved in the development of the global spectrum outlook for LTE, 5G and now emerging debates like 6G, helping drive forward the planning, design, and renewal of spectrum regimes across regions. His work ensures that spectrum is structured to deliver long term investment, aligning governments, industry, and markets to deliver connectivity for everyone, lower the digital divide and develop mobile services worldwide.

Dr Mike Short was Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Trade from November 2017 to February 2023. He has over 40 years of experience in the electronics and telecommunications industry, latterly as Vice President of Telefonica for 17 years to December 2016. In that post, he managed the launch of 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technologies in the UK, established an office in Brussels and went on to lead international research, innovation and standards for Telefonica Europe. His career includes the promotion of international technical standards in mobile and digital technology. He is a former chairman of the GSM Association, the UK Mobile Data Association, and was president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in 2011 to 2012. He was honoured with a CBE in 2012 for his services to the mobile industry.

Rahim Tafazolli, Regius Professor of Electronic Engineering, was awarded this royal recognition to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. He has been a Professor of Mobile and Satellite Communications at the University of Surrey since April 2000, the Director of the Institute of Communication Systems (ICS) since January 2010, and the founder and Director of the 5G Innovation Centre since 2012, which is the world's first dedicated centre on 5G research and innovation.

Professor Tafazolli has over 30 years of experience in digital communications research and teaching. He has authored and co-authored more than 500 research publications and is regularly invited to deliver keynote talks and distinguished lectures at international conferences and workshops.

He was the leader of a study on “grand challenges in IoT" (Internet of Things) in the UK from 2011 to 2012 for RCUK (Research Council UK) and the UK TSB (Technology Strategy Board). Professor Tafazolli is regularly invited by governments to advise on national 5G research and strategy and was an advisor to the Mayor of London regarding the London Infrastructure Investment 2050 Plan.

In 2011, he was appointed as a Fellow of the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF) in recognition of his personal contributions to the wireless world as well as heading one of Europe's leading research groups. He was also awarded the 28th KIA Laureate Award in 2015 for his contribution to communications technology.

Dilip Krishnaswamy has led the architecture, design, and development of engineering platforms & products at Intel Corp, Qualcomm Research, IBM Research, and Jio Platforms. He received his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an inventor on 80+ granted patents and has authored 80+ research publications. He is presently serving as Executive Vice-President at C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics), Bangalore, India, where he is leading Advanced-5G Engineering and 6G Innovation efforts.

Dr. Rawat has been consulting for GSMA since 2014 as Senior Spectrum Advisor. She spent 28 years within the Canadian Government where she held executive positions in managing radio frequency spectrum. During 2004-11, she was President of Communications Research Centre (CRC) of Canada. Between 2011-14, Dr. Rawat worked as Vice President and Ambassador to ITU for BlackBerry. She had many trailblazer ‘firsts’ and has a long list of national and international awards. In 2003, she became the first woman to chair the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) of the ITU and received ITU ‘s gold medal for her chairmanship. In 2014 she was awarded ‘Officer of the Order of Canada’ for her “contributions to telecommunications engineering and for leadership in establishing the global regulatory framework for radio spectrum management”. Dr. Rawat holds PhD in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University, Canada and Hon Doctorates in Science and Engineering from University of Ottawa and Queens University, Canada. She is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE) and of WWRF and member of the External Advisory Board of Spectrum X of NSF, their innovation center for spectrum.

Lt. Col VS Velan is a seasoned technocrat with diverse experience spanning military operations, project management, and GNSS solutions. He has contributed to defense and space sectors, including the Indo-Russian GLONASS agreement, DRDO, ISRO, and foreign research agencies, as well as environmental NGOs. Skilled in crisis management, operations, intelligence, and strategic planning, he also brings corporate experience from Ramco Cements Ltd. He holds an MBA in HRM/HRD from Pondicherry University, multiple MSc and management degrees, and has been pursuing research at IIT Kharagpur since 2011. Currently, he is developing and marketing solutions for NavIC, India’s indigenous GPS system.

Rahul Vatts is Chief Regulatory Officer (India & South Asia) at Bharti Airtel. He is also Director of OneWeb India and Vice Chairman of the Indian Space Association (ISpA) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). He serves as a Board member at Indo Teleport Limited and Mobipro, which runs the India Mobile Congress.

As the Chief Regulatory Officer of Bharti Airtel, Rahul heads the Government Relations, Policy, and Regulatory interfaces across the company’s business spanning mobility broadband, DTH, Data Center, Submarine Cables, its international subsidiaries, and all Digital lines of business.

Rahul is the chair of GSMA’s Spectrum Policy Working Group (SPWG). He is also a member of GSMA’s Global Policy Group and the Spectrum Strategy & Management Group (SSMG). Additionally, Rahul is a Governing Council Member of various telecom standardization bodies in India.

A telecom industry veteran with over 29 years of experience with leading corporations, Rahul is an expert in Telecom & Broadcasting Licensing, Economic Regulations, Spectrum Management, and Regulatory Litigation. He has actively shaped public policy discussions across the globe in emerging areas such as data privacy, M2M & IoT, and content self-regulation.

An engineer in telecommunications from the prestigious Pune University, Rahul is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and The Wharton School, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Ravi P Gandhi is a renowned expert in the telecommunications, media, entertainment, retail, and e-commerce sectors, with over 30 years of outstanding experience. His leadership has played a pivotal role in transforming India's telecommunications landscape while driving significant innovations across other industries, including e-commerce and media. Known for his expertise in navigating complex technological and regulatory environments, Dr. Gandhi has consistently empowered organizations to thrive in rapidly evolving industries. His efforts have been instrumental in revolutionizing India's telecommunications sector. Currently, Dr. Gandhi holds key leadership roles, including serving as part of the Global Leadership Team at GSMA, Chairman of the ICT Committee of ASSOCHAM, Chairman of the Retail and Consumer Affairs Committee of the PHD Chamber of Commerce, and Co-Chairman of the E-commerce Committee at FICCI. He is also an active member of Nasscom's Special Interest Group. Dr. Gandhi's distinguished career began with the Indian Telecom Services, followed by his tenure as Chief Regulatory Officer at Bharti Airtel. He currently holds the position of President at Reliance Jio, Reliance Retail, and Jio Platforms, where he is known for implementing visionary strategies that transform technical and regulatory challenges into opportunities for growth and innovation. Dr. Gandhi holds a Ph.D. in Technology Management from IIT Delhi and a B.Tech from NIT Kurukshetra. His blend of technical expertise and strategic insight continues to drive innovation and make a meaningful societal impact. His career serves as a beacon for aspiring engineers and leaders who aim to make a lasting difference. Through his leadership, Dr. Gandhi continues to inspire a new generation of innovators committed to progress and transformative change.

Dr. Chandra Prakash is a Scientist/Engineer-G, with more than 26 years of experience in building Navcom technology & applications at the Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), Ahmedabad. He has made pioneering contributions to national-level projects in both strategic and societal domains. Dr. Prakash has been instrumental in architecting and executing major technological development initiatives of Mobile Satellite Service based Asset Tracking applications such as the Vessel Communication Support System (VCSS) for monitoring, control and surveillance enabling real-time monitoring and emergency communication for over 100,000 vessels across Indian coastal states, Real-time Train Information System (RTIS) for Indian Railways covering more than 10000 locomotives and technology for NavIC enabled Real-Time Aircraft Tracking System (RTATS). As Project Director of VCSS project, he led the technology development team and its national roll-out across nine (9) coastal states and four (4) UTs. His team has made pioneering contribution in building an all indigenous technology for national network deployment supported by web-based network management system namely “NABHMITRA” accessible across all stake holders for coastal monitoring and strengthening Maritime Security / Domain Awareness efforts. He innovative contribution span domains such as Indigenous VSAT Baseband System with improved Transmission Security Features for special users, Advance Receiver for space-based Automatic Identification System and ADS-B systems, NB-IoT implementation & waveform development for Non-Terrestrial 6G networks, software-defined radios for air-borne applications, quantum communication electronics, and Gaganyaan crew communication systems. Dr. Prakash holds a Ph.D. in Wireless Communication, an M. Tech from IISc Bengaluru, and a B.E. from BIT Mesra. He has completed the prestigious in-campus Management and Leadership Development Program at IIM Bangalore. He is a Governing Council Member of the Bharat6G Alliance, has authored 25+ technical papers, and received several honours including the “Nina Saxena Excellence in Technology Award-2025”, ISRO Young Scientist Merit Award and multiple Team Excellence Awards. Recognized for his technical leadership, innovation, and commitment to national development, Dr. Chandra Prakash continues to drive the frontiers of technology development for space-based Navcom applications.

Shri S. T. Abbas is the Senior DDG and Head of the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. He leads TEC’s initiatives in developing telecom standards, specifications, and certification frameworks, including the Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) scheme.

"Lorenzo Casaccia, Head of Technology Standards at Qualcomm, leads a global team across 20 countries that includes radio standards, video and multimedia standards, standards in semiconductors, AI, automotive, computing and regional standards organizations With over two decades at Qualcomm, and a long history in 5G standards leadership, he has a broad understanding of the mobile and standardization ecosystem, interfacing with the CTO office, product planning and development, IP licensing, and legal teams. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Turin Polytechnic, Telecommunications from the Eurecom Institute, and Philosophy from Rome University, and is the author or co-author of over 40 approved patents. A former avid backpacker, he has travelled extensively in numerous countries in Asia. He is married with two small children and lives in Barcelona, Spain, and frequently travels to California."

Dr. P. S. M. Tripathi is the Deputy Wireless Adviser in the Wireless Planning & Coordination (WPC) Wing, Department of Telecommunications, Government of India. With over 20 years of experience in radio spectrum management, planning, and monitoring, he has played a key role in spectrum auctions and the implementation of the World Bank–assisted National Radio Spectrum Management and Monitoring System (NRSMMS) project.

Ulrich heads the Standardization activities for Nokia. He is responsible for global and regional standardization and technical regulation as spectrum. The team is part of the Nokia BellLabs CTO group. Ulrich is board member of the 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA). He also is a VP and Executive Committee member of the Global Mobile Supplier Association (GSA). Prior to his current role Ulrich was responsible for Nokia Networks Industry Environment activities. Between 2007 and 2012 Ulrich lead the NSN 3GPP standardization team and has served as Head of Delegation to 3GPP. Between 1996 and 2007, Ulrich held various positions in R&D of Siemens Mobile Networks unit. He was responsible for standardization activities of the core network business unit and managed Siemens 3GPP activities. Ulrich had instrumental role in the definition of the UMTS architecture as well as in set up of project management in 3GPP. Ulrich holds a Ph.D. from Télécom ParisTech from 1996; his research area was the definition of 3G Radio Interface and his research was part of EU collaborative research program (RACE II ATDMA).

Mr. Dhivagar Bhaskaran has over 15 years of experience in RAN1 standardization, specializing in advanced radio access technologies and 3GPP standardization activities. He currently leads a team of over 10 RAN delegates from CEWiT across Working Groups 1, 2, and 4, and actively represents CEWiT in RAN Working Groups and RAN Plenary sessions. His expertise spans link-level and system-level evaluations, with a strong focus on MAC layer design, including link adaptation, MU-MIMO scheduling, and FAPI interface development. He is also an active contributor to MIMO, AI/ML, and mobility-related standardization efforts, driving innovation in next-generation wireless systems.

Jishnu Aravindakshan is Principal Architect Technology in the CTO’s office at Tejas Networks India Limited and has 20 years of experience in the field of Telecom.

He obtained his BTech in electronics and communication from NIT, Calicut in 2001 and a Master's from IISc, Bangalore in 2004. Subsequently, he joined Tejas Networks and is responsible for deciding the long-term roadmap of the company. He has represented Tejas at ITU-T SG15 and has contributed towards the development of ITU-T G.8032 and MPLS-TP standards. His present interests include 5G-Advanced and 6G.

He is actively involved in 5G standardization through TSDSI (Telecom Standards Development Society, India) at ITU-R WP5D, and as an Individual Member at 3GPP RAN1/SA2. He was closely involved in the design of 3G/4G backhaul architecture with major Indian and International operators. He successfully represented India and TSDSI during the IMT2020 standardization activity for the inclusion of LMLC (Low Mobility Large Cell) as a 5G evaluation configuration in Rural eMBB.

He was the founding Chairman of the Optical Access and Transport Study Group (SG3) in TSDSI, which developed the CPRI Fronthaul standard. Later, he continued as the Vice Chairman of Study Group - Networks (SGN) and coordinated the effort from TSDSI for including a 5G Radio Interface Technology (RIT) or 5Gi from India in ITU-R IMT 2020. Recently, he, as part of the Indian delegation, contributed to the ITU-R IMT-2030, also known as the 6G Framework/Vision document ITU-R M.2160.

He has filed 16 patents (12 granted) and was awarded the best paper award by IETE in 2006. He has edited the Springer’s CSI Transaction on ICT on a special issue on “Wireless in the Future” as a guest editor in March 2019.

Sudhir Dixit is a Co-Founder and COO at the Basic Internet Foundation in Oslo, Norway, and heads its US operations. He is also affiliated with the University of Oulu, Finland, where he is a Docent since 2010. From 2015 to 2017 he was the CEO and Co-Founder of a start-up, Skydoot, Inc, in Davis, California. From 2009 to 2015, he was a Distinguished Chief Technologist and CTO of the Communications and Media Services for the Americas Region of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Services in Palo Alto, CA, and the Director of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories India in Palo Alto and Bangalore. Before joining HP, he held various engineering and leadership positions at BlackBerry (Senior Director), Nokia (Head of Nokia Research Center, Boston), NSN (Head of Networking R&D for United States) and Verizon Communications (Staff Director). He has been a technical editor of IEEE Communications Magazine, and was on the editorial board of IEEE Spectrum. He is a Co-Chair of the Industry Engagement Committee of the IEEE Future Networks Technical Community (FNTC) and co-chairs the Connecting the Unconnected working group. In 2018, he was appointed a Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Communications Society, until December 2024. He is presently a Board Member & Working Group Chair at the Wireless World Research Forum (WWRF). He is also the Vice Chair for Americas at the WWRF and Editor-in-Chief of the WWRF magazine, Wireless World: Research and Trends (WWRT). From 2010 to 2012, he was an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis, and has been a VAJRA Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, since 2022 and Professor of Practice at the SRM University of Science and Technology, Chennai, India, since 2024. He has published 9 books and holds 21 US patents, and is an avid speaker in many global events. A Life Fellow of the IEEE, Fellow of IET and IETE, Dixit received a Ph.D. from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K. and an M.B.A. from the Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida.

Rajesh Kumar Pathak has done a Masters in Technology and has more than 37 years of experience in senior positions at the Government of India. Mr. Pathak is recognized for his exceptional contributions to indigenous manufacturing, technological innovation, and global collaboration. He was instrumental in setting up the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI), driving technology standards and innovation.

Mr. Pathak's strategic insight extends to nurturing Indian start-ups and the "Make In India" campaign, fostering innovation. Prior to his position as Director General in the Bharat 6G Alliance, he was the Bharat 6G Mission Head in the Government and was instrumental in framing the Bharat 6G Vision statement. Leading the Bharat 6G Alliance with his forward-looking approach, he continues to shape India's telecom landscape, inspiring innovation, collaboration, and progress.

Colin is currently the chairman of the board of the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA), the vice-chairman of the board of the European Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS-JU), and vice-chairman of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) board. He has detailed knowledge and experience in the telecommunications industry, having worked directly or indirectly with many of the major players over a 30-year period. His roles have included software developer, technical consultant, technical marketing, standardization, and management.

In addition to his line manager roles, Colin has participated extensively in standardization activities at ETSI, ITU-T, and 3GPP, including instrumental work in creating and developing the TTCN-3 testing language. He has also been very active in the European research ecosystem, leading a number of award-winning European projects such as TT-Medal, D-MINT, and SEMAFOUR. Currently, Colin is the head of Research Alliances at Nokia.

Dr. Naveen Yanduru is the CEO of Axiro Semiconductor, a global fabless company specializing in high-performance RF and mmWave integrated circuits. With nearly three decades of experience in the semiconductor industry, he has led innovation in RF front-ends, transceivers, and SoCs across the wireless communications space. Prior to helping establish Axiro, he held executive and technical leadership roles at Renesas, IDT, Qualcomm, pSemi, Samsung, and Texas Instruments. Dr. Yanduru is the inventor of 26 U.S. patents, has authored more than 25 IEEE publications, and previously served as an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer.

Mr. Akshay Aggarwal is a Senior Director of Technology at MediaTek and is based out of Bangalore. In this role, he is responsible for working on next generation product development with key focus on modem and CPU technology. His current focus areas include 5G NR and 6G, AI/ML in Wireless Networks and CPU technology. With over 25 years of semiconductor industry experience in design engineering, business development and product marketing, he has worked extensively with global R&D teams and several Tier-1/2 customers worldwide. Akshay joined MediaTek Inc in 2010 and during his 4 year stay in Taiwan he held multiple senior positions in the Wireless Communications Products Group before eventually moving to India and start the Bangalore R&D center for MediaTek. Prior to this role, he has worked in the United States for several renowned companies including Lucent technologies, Silicon Labs, ST-Ericsson among others, where he was primarily involved in R&D (design engineering) and global marketing roles. Akshay holds various patents and publications and has also presented in multiple conferences. Akshay graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and pursued his master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh US. He has also pursued and completed the Executive MBA program from University of Texas at Austin.

Udayan Mukherjee is the Intel Senior Fellow and Chief Architect of Intel’s Network & communications Products. Udayan architected industry's first fully virtualized 5G infrastructure Software on open architecture through FlexRAN & FlexCore which are being deployed worldwide. He also leads the worldwide team driving Intel’s NextG network technology & 3GPP/ORAN standards development. Udayan is also responsible for developing Silicon enhancements for networking and is currently working on developing network AI architecture including domain specific LLM & RAG pipeline trained with network and enterprise data for deployment/automation as well as troubleshooting/root cause analysis. Udayan is also responsible for establishing new growth areas for Intel in the intelligent compute both in the enterprise as well as communications market segment, a role that includes developing technologies and architecture including augmenting classical networking algorithms with AI/ML models, enterprise and network specific LLM/RAG for network automation and RCA, software-based networking, as well as developing edge specific intellectual property including system design as well as time sensitive networking for industrial usages.. Udayan has been deeply involved with IEEE, ORAN alliance and TIP/Facebook, has been a keynote and distinguished speaker multiple times @ IEEE Globecom, IEEE WCNC, IEEE 5G Silicon Valley summits, IEEE NFIC, CTIA, GSMA, Cable Labs, ORAN Summits as well as ITS, FCC and other Global as well as US government forums. A three times recipient of Intel achievement awards, Udayan also has more than a dozen granted patents and many pending in networking, edge as well as silicon enhancements for wireless, real-time processing & HA architecture. He has been associated with two startups and has double master’s degrees in computer science as well as industrial engineering.

Kumar is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Tejas Networks. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and has nearly three decades of experience in the field of telecommunications. In 2000, he received the Swarnajayanti Fellowship from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, which is awarded to outstanding young scientists to pursue basic research in frontier areas of science and technology.. Kumar has co-authored the bestselling book titled “Optical Networks: A Practical Perspective” which is currently in its third edition. He also received the prestigious IEEE W.R.G. Baker Prize Paper Award in 1997, which is presented for the most outstanding paper reporting original work in the transactions, journals, and magazines of the Societies or in the proceedings of the IEEE. In November 2021, he was elevated to IEEE Fellow status for his extraordinary and continued contributions to the field of optical networking. He was the recipient of the ‘CTO of the Year’ award from ET Telecom in 2022.

Amitabha (Amitava) Ghosh (F’15) is a Nokia Fellow and works at Nokia Standards and Strategy. He joined Motorola in 1990 after receiving his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Since joining Motorola he worked on multiple wireless technologies starting from IS-95 to current 5G-Advanced. He has more than 75 issued patents, has written multiple book chapters and has authored numerous external and internal technical papers. He is currently working on 6G technologies. He is also the chair of the NextGA Technology Roadmap Working Group and member of NGA Research Council where he worked on various initiatives like defining 6G audacious goals, role of vertical industries, Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), AI/ML readiness to name a few. He is the recipient of 2016 IEEE Stephen O. Rice and 2017 Neal Shephard prize, Sr. editor of IEEE Access and co-author of the books titled “Essentials of LTE and LTE-A” and “5G Enabled Industrial IoT Network”.

Dr. Afif Osseiran is the Director of Radio Communications at the Ericsson CTO Office and currently serves as General Vice-Chair of the Board at 5G-ACIA. He holds a Ph.D. from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, and two Master’s degrees from École Polytechnique de Montréal and INSA Rennes, France. Since 1999, he has held various positions at Ericsson, including managing METIS, the EU 5G flagship project (2012–2014). Dr. Osseiran has authored over 70 inventions, technical papers, and co-authored books on 5G and IMT-Advanced. He is a Senior Member of IEEE.

Gerard is a Full Professor in Telecommunications Engineering and has been Head of the School of Computing Sciences at the University of East Anglia (UEA) from 2016-2023, which involved a range of senior management roles and responsibilities covering Teaching, Research, Innovation, and Outreach.

He holds a PhD in Self-Stabilising Protocols from Ulster University, aspects of which were completed with University College London (UCL), and he was one of the founding fathers of the Internet (Professor Jon Postel) as a Visiting Research Scientist at the DARPA/University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute in Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles.

Within his academic career, areas of research include Self-stabilising Networks, Wireless Sensor Clouds, UAV for Disaster Response Communications, ICT for the Rural Economy, Converged Network Management, Control Protocols for Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial Networks, delay-sensitive QoSLAs, energy-aware autonomic networking, and IoT-edge computing.

He has attracted several million pounds of external research and commercial funding and has advised governments on the allocation of funding to large-scale projects valued in total at approximately £3 billion. His industrial collaborations have included companies such as BT, Intel, ARM, Vodafone, IBM, Aviva, Ericsson, Siemens, InfoSys, Wipro, and SAP.

Professor Parr is an invited member of the EPSRC Peer Review College. His academic research collaborations include institutions such as MIT, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Arizona, UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, USC-ISI Los Angeles, University of Florida, University College London, Southampton, Surrey, QMUL, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University of Oxford, St Andrews, Exeter, Lincoln, Lancaster and Cambridge, as well as Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Indian Institutes of Technology in Mumbai, Madras, Kanpur, Hyderabad, Delhi, Mandi, and IISc Bangalore.

He was previously appointed as a Visiting Professor to the Science Foundation Ireland/CTVR at Trinity College Dublin and to the Emirates-BT Innovation Centre (EBTIC) at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE. He was the International Scientific Advisor to the UK EPSRC National Centre for Doctoral Training in Communications Engineering at the University of Bristol.

He was appointed as Senior Guest Editor for the prestigious IEEE Journal on Selected Areas of Communications (JSAC) for a Special Issue on Communications Challenges and Dynamics in UAVs. He has extensive experience working with developing economies, particularly India, where he was the UK Academic coordinator for the major EPSRC-DST India-UK Advanced Technology Centre in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services, which was the largest collaboration of its kind between the UK and India in the ICT sector, attracting a total investment of over £20 million and helping establish a Virtual Graduate Research School for 67 PhD students under the UKIERI Programme.

Presently, Professor Parr is working on the development of the East of England Smart Emerging Technologies Institute (SETI), one of the recommendations from the UK BEIS Science Innovation Audit, with colleagues from Essex, Cambridge, UEA, and BT Adastral. SETI will look at innovations in 5G, IoT, AI-Big Data/Cloud Computing, and Testbeds across a number of sectors, including Energy, Intelligent Manufacturing, AgriTech, and Smart-Supply Chains.

Gerard was awarded an MBE in the Queen's New Year Honours for 2018 for contributions to Telecommunications Infrastructure in Northern Ireland. During January 2020, Professor Parr was elected to the Strategic Advisory Committee for the UK Government UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) ICT Programme to assist with strategic developments, funding panels, and identification of funding priorities.

Most recently, Gerard has been successful in attracting Co-I funding for a 5-year EPSRC Next Stage Digital Economy Hub called DIGIT (Digital-Innovation-Growth-Impact-Transformation) valued at over £12 million, which will explore methodologies and business impact of Digital Transformation in Large Organisations. During 2021, Gerard was also successful as PI in attracting £1.4 million funding for the “UK-India Future Networks Initiative” with IISc Bangalore, IIT Delhi, UCL, Surrey, Southampton, and BT. Most recently, in December 2022, he was successful as a Co-PI on a bid to UKRI-ESRC concerning Digital Technology in Teacher Agency. The £5.3 million fund will support a total of nine projects. He is also a Member of the UKRI-EPSRC Digital Security & Resilience Advisory Group.

Prof. KyungHi Chang is Chair of the Executive Committee of the 6G Forum and Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Inha University, Korea. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Electronics Engineering from Yonsei University and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He has held research and leadership roles at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and ETRI, and has been recognized with the Haedong Academic Award (2010), MSIT Minister’s Commendation and KICS Fellowship (2020), and the Presidential Commendation (2021). He also chairs the Technology Committee for the National Integrated Public Network and previously served as Vice President of KICS (2017–2023).

Prof. Akihiro Nakao is Co-Chairman of the XG Mobile Promotion Forum (XGMF), Japan, and Professor at the University of Tokyo’s Department of Systems Innovation. He holds degrees from the University of Tokyo and Princeton University, and has also worked at IBM in Japan and the U.S. His research focuses on next-generation cyber infrastructure, networking, and AI integration with communications. At XGMF, he plays a key role in advancing Japan’s 5G, Beyond-5G, and 6G strategies, international collaborations, and global standardization efforts.

Dr. Mallikarjun (Mallik) Tatipamula is a Chief Technology Officer at Ericsson Silicon Valley, bringing over 34 years of expertise in telecommunications, networking, cybersecurity, wireless, cloud, and AI technologies. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Sciences and Technology from the University of Tokyo, a Master’s degree in Communication Systems from IIT Madras, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from NIT Warangal, India.

During 34 years of his professional career, Dr. Mallik has held leadership positions at F5, Juniper Networks, Cisco, Motorola, and Nortel, playing a crucial role in transforming innovative ideas into market-leading products. A recognized thought leader, he holds over 100 publications and patents and has delivered more than 500 keynotes. His leadership has driven the launch of numerous products and solutions, advancing the telecom industry.

Dr. Mallik has been instrumental in pioneering key 5G innovations, including network slicing, Control-User Plane Separation (CUPS), and distributed cloud technology, that are fundamental in scaling 5G networks for low-latency IoT use cases. Today, as a CTO at Ericsson, he drives early 6G research efforts, advocating for industry-academia collaborations and public-private partnerships.

He serves on several academic and industry advisory boards, including the Commonwealth Nations Steering Committee on AI. He has mentored over 100 university students and is a frequent guest lecturer at leading universities worldwide.

He has co-authored two books and has served on over 40 IEEE conference committees. Dr. Mallik’s accolades include CTO of the Year by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, Technologist of the Year by Total Telecom's World Communications Awards, and the IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award. He is also an inductee of the IPv6 Hall of Fame by the IPv6 Forum and a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Canadian Academy of Engineering. He has received honorary doctorates from Concordia University (Montreal), Carleton University (Ottawa), and Middlesex University (London).

Mr. N. Ganapathy Subramaniam (NGS), Chairman Bharat 6G Alliance, is with Tata Consultancy Service Limited as Consulting Advisor overseeing strategic initiatives, after a career of 42 years. He is also the Chairman of the Borad of Directors of Tejas Networks Limited and Tata Elxsi Limited. In the last four years, he was the Chair of TSDSI, India’s Telecom SDO, during which time he was also the 3GPP PCG Chair during 2023. He steers few initiatives under the aegis the Govt. of India as it relates to Standards Development and advancing the Bharat 6G Vision goals

Dr. Charles Clancy is Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at MITRE, where he heads MITRE Labs. MITRE is a government-chartered non-profit research institute that operates R&D centers for the US government. As CTO, he oversees MITRE's advanced technology programs, including work in areas like 5G/6G, cybersecurity, and AI. Prior to MITRE, Clancy was the Bradley Distinguished Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech where he led the university's research and student programs in defense and security. He has co-founded five venture-backed startups, including Federated Wireless which built the 3.5 GHz spectrum sharing ecosystem in the US, and DeepSig which is building AI-RAN, and SecureG which is modernizing cryptographic security for voice and messaging services. Clancy is a Fellow of the IEEE for his work in secure and wireless communications, and has published over 200 papers, 15 patents, and 6 books.

Tommy Svensson is a Full Professor in Communication Systems at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, where he leads the Wireless Systems research on air interface and wireless backhaul networking technologies for future wireless systems.

He received a Ph.D. in Information Theory from Chalmers in 2003 and has worked at Ericsson AB with core networks, radio access networks, and microwave transmission products.

Professor Svensson has been involved in top European and international research towards 4G, 5G, and currently 6G on physical layer algorithms, multiple access, resource allocation, cooperative/context-aided/secure communications, mm-wave/sub-THz communications, C-V2X, JCAS, satellite networks, sustainable design, and end-to-end architecture.

He has been the coordinator of the MSc program at Chalmers and is currently a board member of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS).

Radha Krishna Ganti is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India.

He received his B. Tech. and M. Tech. in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and a Masters in Applied Mathematics and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame in 2009.

His doctoral work focused on the spatial analysis of interference networks using tools from stochastic geometry. His research interests include digital communications, convex optimisation, and building communication systems.

He received the 2014 IEEE Stephen O. Rice Prize, the 2014 IEEE Leonard G. Abraham Prize, and the 2015 IEEE Communications Society Young Author Best Paper Award. He was also awarded the 2016-2017 Institute Research and Development Award (IRDA) by IIT Madras.

In 2019, he was awarded the TSDSI Fellow for technical excellence in standardization activities and contribution to the LMLC use case in ITU. He was the lead Principal Investigator from IIT Madras involved in the development of 5G base stations for the 5G testbed project funded by DOT.

Satish Jamadagni is currently Senior Vice President and head of Global Standards at Reliance Jio. He has about 25 years of industry experience in the telecom domain. He is the current Chair of TSDSI (Previously Vice Chair of TSDSI). He is active in 3GPP, GSMA (member of the Strategy Group) and in O-RAN alliance. Earlier he was a Co-Chair of the Asia Regional Operators Group; Small Cell Forum (SCF) and was on the board of the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC). He has around 200 granted patents in the wireless and network domain and around 30+ published papers.