Dr. Rahul Walawalkar is the Founder and President of the Netzero Energy Transition Association and President of Walawalkar Enterprise LLP. He is a prominent thought leader in energy storage, renewables, demand response, electric vehicles, and green hydrogen technologies. He is the founder and served in various roles as Executive Director, President and Chairperson of the India Energy Storage Association (IESA) during 2012-25.

IESA was established to promote advanced energy storage technologies in India. Under his leadership, IESA has grown to nearly 200 members and strategic partners. IESA has played a crucial role in shaping policies and regulations for energy storage at national and international levels. Rahul has also served on various committees for global organizations, including US Energy Storage Association, NAATBATT International, NITI Aayog, Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (India), the US Department of Energy and the European Space Agency. He has over 20 years of experience leading the emerging technology consulting practice at Customized Energy Solutions, receiving multiple accolades, including the 2024 IESA Industry Excellence Award. He holds a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master's in Energy Management from NYIT, and a B.E. from Walchand College of Engineering in India. He also holds a Certificate in C-Suite Leadership from Wharton Executive Education at the University of Pennsylvania

Debi Prasad Dash is the Cofounder & Executive Director of Net Zero Energy Transition Association (NETRA), a global platform for driving energy transition by enabling new and advanced technologies.

He was leading India Energy Storage Association (IESA) for 12 years as Executive Director and president. He has been involved in Policy advocacy, strategy formulation in emerging technology areas like energy storage, advanced batteries, renewable integration, green hydrogen, electric mobility & EV infrastructure. He is currently part of the BIS ETD 52 committee and Indo-German Green Hydrogen Taskforce and other bilateral bodies.

Debi has over one and half decades of industry experience and is part of various other industry bodies and start-ups in an advisory capacity. Debi holds an MBA degree in Finance from Symbiosis International University and a Post-Graduation Diploma in Renewable Energy (PGDRE) from TERI University. He also attended ISB-NUS joint General Management Programme (GMP) and an alumnus of IGMTP Program by the Government of Germany and DIPP, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. He was awarded with POSCO ASIA Fellowship by POSCO TJ Park Foundation.

Netra Walawalkar is a seasoned clean energy and sustainability professional with over 20 years of experience across energy, technology, and policy. As Co-founder and Vice President of NETRA, she leads efforts to foster global collaboration and accelerate the adoption of net-zero technologies.
She has worked extensively with commercial and industrial consumers to design and implement renewable energy strategies, collaborating with cleantech innovators and energy providers to enable cleaner, more resilient systems.

Previously, Netra played a key role in building Customized Energy Solutions’ India operations and co-founded the India Energy Storage Alliance (IESA), contributing to policy advocacy, market development, and clean tech growth. She also served as Director at CES Foundation, promoting sustainable rural development.
With a strong commitment to sustainability, Netra continues to drive clean tech innovation, capacity building, supports startups, and helps build meaningful industry-academia collaborations. She continues to encourage women in energy, nurture global partnerships, and contribute to informed policy discussions—helping to foster inclusive growth and advance the net-zero transition across the clean energy ecosystem.
As an angel investor, she backs purpose-driven ventures in cleantech, healthcare, mental health, and fitness.

She holds an MBA from Drexel University, Philadelphia, and a degree in Electronics Engineering from Mumbai University.

Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Institute Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras at Chennai, India. Following his B.Tech degree from IIT Kanpur, he obtained his MS and PhD from University of Maine, USA. He was an Assistant Professor at Washington State University, USA for a year and half and has been a faculty at IIT Madras since 1981. He has also completed one and half year of his services as Principal Advisor to Minister of Power, MNRE and Railways, Government of India, New Delhi.

Professor Jhunjhunwala is Member of national Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA and Fellow of IEEE and World Wireless Research Forum (WWRF). He is also a fellow of the four S&T academies in India, namely, INSA, NAS, IAS, INAE. Prof. Jhujhunwala was conferred the highest civilian Honor, Padmashri in India. He has received a number of awards in India including Shanti-Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, H. K. Firodia Award, Millenium Medal at Indian Science Congress, UGC Hari Om Ashram Award, IETE’s Ram Lala Wadhwa Gold Medal, JC Bose fellowship, Dronacharya Award and Lifetime Achievement Award by TIE, Chennai among others. He has also received Silicon India Leadership Award in USA. He has also been conferred honorary doctorate by University of Maine, USA and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden.

Prof. Jhunjhunwala is considered a pioneer in nurturing Industry-Academia interaction in India towards R&D, Innovation and Product Development. He conceived and built India's first university affiliated business park (IIT Madras Research Park). He has been developing products for masses; affordable yet technically advanced products in India, like Wireless in Local Loop, Remote health monitoring system, ATM, Solar-DC to homes, Affordable electric vehicles, etc.

TIE conferred him the title of Dronacharya for his contributions to the cause of entrepreneurship, as he incubated and nurtured more than 200 companies at IIT Madras. He heads the IITM Incubation Cell and Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI). He leads the TeNeT group, which has worked closely with industry to create innovative affordable products in sectors like telecom, banking, renewable energy and electric vehicles. His strength has been in designing and developing products which are affordable to Indian people at large.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala has been Chairman and member of various government committees and has been on boards of several education institutions in the country. At the same time, he has been on the boards of a number of public and private companies and has driven comprehensive changes, especially in the area of technology, in these companies. He was a Director on the board of State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics Limited, HTL, NRDC, IDRBT, BIRAC, VSNL and BSNL as well as in Tata Communications, Mahindra Electric, Sasken, Tejas Networks, TTML, Intellect and Exicom. He is currently the Chairman of Technology Advisory Group of Securities Exchange Board of India and Chairperson of the board of Governors of educational institutes like IIIT Kottayam and College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala.

Prof. Agnihotri has been a career bureaucrat and has served the Government of India and State Government of Odisha in several capacities. Dr. Satish B. Agnihotri recently retired as Secretary (Coordination & Public Grievances), Cabinet Secretariat. Prior to this he was Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Director General (Acquisition) in the Ministry of Defence, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture discharging the role of Financial Advisor and the Director General of Shipping during 2010-12. He has worked as Joint Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Transport Commissioner, Odisha and Secretary, Women and Child Development and General Administration Department. He was Vice Chairman, Cuttack Urban Development Authority, CEO of the Odisha Renewable Energy Development Agency, Director Industries and District Magistrate in Dhenkanal District. He also worked with UNICEF, Kolkata as Consultant on Child Nutrition and Health. He is an IAS officer of Odisha cadre from the 1980 batch. He has done his Master's degree in Physics followed by M.Tech in Environment Science and Engineering from IIT, Bombay.

He later did an MA in Rural Development followed by a Ph.D on sex ratio patterns in Indian Population from School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia, Norwich UK. His research on declining sex ratios in India has been approvingly cited by scholars including Prof. Amartya Sen. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Mumbai in 2002 and is an adjunct Professor at IIT Bombay in the Centre for Technology Alternatives in Rural Areas. He also writes political satire and science fiction in Hindi and plays flute as a hobby. His collection of satire "TahanTahanBhrashtaachaar" has been published in Hindi by Rajkamal, New Delhi and in Marathi by Parchure Publications as "ZopiGelaaKumbhakarNa". He has written a short monograph "Energy Access - tracing the contours of deprivation" published by the CSE on the occasion of the Anil Agrawal Energy Dialogue 2015.