Natalie took over as the Economic Counsellor at the British High Commission in August 2018. She is responsible for the British Government’s engagement on economic, financial, energy and climate change issues in India, with a focus on creating partnerships between the two countries that will lead to mutual prosperity.

Prior to posting in India, Natalie worked for Her Majesty’s Treasury, and has extensive experience in economic and fiscal policy, mostly recently leading the team that delivered the 2016 Budget. She holds an undergraduate degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from St Edmund Hall, Oxford and a Masters in Economics from the University of London.

Mr. Atul Bagai is the Country Director for United Nations Environment Programme India Office. Since UNEP’s journey in India in 2016, Mr. Bagai has decisively led UNEP’s global environmental agenda in India. The unprecedented success during World Environment Day in 2018 was noteworthy with India’s bold commitments to end single-use plastic by 2022 and its partnerships with Government Ministries. Previously, as a career diplomat Mr. Bagai rose to be the Director (Ozone) in MoEFCC, and held senior positions in Central and State Governments. At the UN he has been spearheading assignments across South and Southeast Asia & the Pacific Islands for the past two-decades now.

Navroz K Dubash is a Professor at the Centre for Policy Research, a New Delhi based think-tank. He has been actively engaged in global and national debates on climate change, air quality, energy and water as a researcher, policy advisor and activist for over 25 years.

Navroz is a Coordinating Lead Author for the chapter on policies and institutions for the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, serves on the UNEP GAP Report Steering Committee, and has been has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for the UN Climate Action Summit in 2019. He has worked to inform and advise Indian government policy-making on climate change, energy, and air and water policy over the last decade, including serving on the committee on a Long Term Strategy for Low Carbon Development for India. In the early 1990s, he helped establish the global Climate Action Network as its first international coordinator.

He has written two books, edited ten volumes, and published more than 70 journal articles and book chapters. Most recently, he edited India in a Warming World: Integrating Climate Change and Development, and Mapping Power: The Political Economy of Electricity in India’s States, both with OUP. In 2015 he was conferred the T N Khoshoo Memorial Award for his work on Indian climate change policy and the international discourse on global climate governance, and in 2018 his co-authored paper on interpreting model scenarios was awarded the Emerging Nations Award by Environmental Research Letters.

Dr Archna Negi teaches at the Centre for International Politics, Organization and Disarmament of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India. She offers courses at the M.Phil., M.A. and B.A. levels relating to international negotiations, international organization and world politics. Her research interests include international law, diplomacy and organization; with a focus on issues of international trade and environment. Her recent publication is an edited volume titled Sustainability Standards and Global Governance: Experiences of Emerging Economies (Springer, 2020). She is currently a member of the Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) Academic Advisory Council that has been set up jointly by the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) and the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies (GGS) of the University of Leuven.

Over the past two and a half decades, Chandra Bhushan has engaged in a wide range of environmental issues through research, writing and advocacy, and has been at the forefront of several public policy campaigns. An engineer and environmental planner by training, Bhushan integrates scientific and technical expertise with socio-economic realities to solve multi-dimensional environmental and developmental challenges. His scope of work encompasses both global and local issues, from climate change and energy transformation to rights of mining-affected people and environmental governance. He has authored/ co-authored 20 books, more than 60 publications, and numerous articles. He was conferred with the Ozone Award by the UN Environment in 2017 for his contributions towards the framing of the Kigali Amendments to the Montreal Protocol.

Chandrashekhar Dasgupta, IFS (Retd), has served as India’s ambassador to China, and to the European Union. Dasgupta was involved in the UN climate change negotiations for over a decade during his foreign service career and following his retirement from the foreign service. He was appointed a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change. He was a member of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights from 2006 to 2018. His publications include War and Diplomacy in Kashmir 1947-48, and India and the Bangladesh Liberation War (forthcoming). Dasgupta is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan award.

Mr Manish Chourasia is a financial services professional with over 25 years of experience in origination, credit risk assessment and syndication in the Asia- Pacific Region. As part of the above mentioned functional categories, he has handled various products covering project finance, trade finance, and investment banking.

Since July, 2015, he has been working in Tata Group as managing director of Tata Cleantech Capital, which is the first private sector Green Investment Bank in emerging markets, jointly promoted by Tata Capital Ltd and International Finance Corporation (IFC). During his tenure till date, the company, starting from scratch, has funded over 250 projects in Clean-tech sector saving 9.0 tons of CO2 annually, executed a number of marquee advisory assignments, and tied up with a number of global climate finance investors to channelize low cost funds to the Clean-tech sector in India. In 2019 it was rated “AAA” by CRISIL, an S&P Global company primarily driven by its top-class asset book of USD 850 million, as on March 31, 2021. In May, 2021, the company was chosen as “Leading Private Financing Institution for RE” in the first edition of ICC Green Urja Awards.

Manish is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT, Rookee and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. In 2012 he completed his CFA and since then has been active volunteer with CFA Institute, USA. In Feb 2020 he was presented “100 Top most Influential BFSI Leaders” award by World BFSI Congress. He is an avid runner with several long-distance runs to his credit.

Manjeev Singh Puri joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1982 and has served as Ambassador of India to the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg, Nepal and as Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative of India to the UN. In addition, he has served twice in Germany (in Bonn and Berlin), in Cape Town, Muscat, Bangkok and Caracas.

From 2005 to 2009, he headed the UN-Economic & Social Affairs- Division in the Ministry of External Affairs of India and led the Indian delegation for the first meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Brussels in July 2007 and the presentation of various reports by India at the Human Rights Council. During 2011-2012, when India served on the Security Council, he was a senior member of its delegation.

Major areas of his experience and professional focus relate to the environment, in particular climate change and sustainable development. He was a lead negotiator for India at the UN on issues relating to the post 2015 development agenda, Sustainable Development Goals and at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 2012. He was a key member of India's delegation at various Climate Change negotiations, including the Conference of Parties of the UNFCCC in Copenhagen in December 2009 and before that at Montreal, Bali, Bonn and Poznan. Furthermore, he was closely involved with India's participation in the G8-G5 Summits from 2005 and he was the points-person on the Indian side at the Major Economies Forum.

Puri has a Masters degree in Management and did his BA (Honours) in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi. He is a Distinguished Fellow and on the Advisory Board of TERI.

Shri Rajani Ranjan Rashmi is a former member of Indian Administrative Service (1983) batch. He was India's principal negotiator for climate change negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change for several years and has been part of climate change policy-making in India in the run-up to and after the Paris Agreement. As Special Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change in the Government of India, he has been closely associated with formulation and implementation of policies relating to Climate Change, Pollution, Montreal Protocol on ODS, and Environmental Clearances, besides being the Project Director of Green India Mission.

Besides his work in the field of environment, Shri Rashmi has served as a trade negotiator and public finance administrator. He was Adviser in India's Mission to European Union in Brussels (2001-2005). Later, as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry (2014), he oversaw state trading and plantation commodity exports. He was Finance Secretary of the state government of Manipur for almost 8 years in various stints, and ended his term as state's Chief Secretary in 2018. In 2008, he was awarded the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Public Administration for his contribution to management of finances in the state.

Currently, he is associated with the Centre for Global Environmental Research in TERI where he works on areas relating to climate change, mitigation and adaptation challenges, carbon markets, and related environmental policies and actions. He serves on the Sub Committee of the Ministry of Finance on Climate Finance and is a Member of the Technical Advisory Body of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) for recommending use of emission units for CORSIA. He advises National Agricultural Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) on international climate business and co-chairs the 'Biofuels Standard Development Group' of the Network for Certification and Conservation of Forests (NCCF) in India.

Shri Rashmi is alumnus of Patna University and a management graduate from the Free University (Vriet Universitiet) of Brussels.

Shailly Kedia is the Associate Director of the Sustainable Development and Outreach Division at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi and will be leading efforts on TERI’s flagship Track II initiative, World Sustainable Development Summit. She has been with TERI since 2009 and a multidisciplinary professional who has more than 15 years of experience in policy research, advocacy and capacity building. She has led interdisciplinary initiatives on sustainable development and climate change supported by agencies such as the United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme, Asian Development Bank, Global Green Growth Institute, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, and Finance Commission among others. Her research interests include climate policy, energy, environment, sustainable development, green growth, non-traditional security, and international organization.

In past, she has worked with the Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank in Washington, DC; and with the Center for Climate Systems Research at Columbia University and NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. She is a Board Member of World Sustainable Development Forum and has been Member of the Taskforce on Greening Rural Development of the Ministry of Rural Development, Member of the Indo-German Expert Group on Green and Inclusive Economy, and Co-chair of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform Research Committee on Inclusiveness.

She has a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical Engineering) from the National Institute of Technology, Surat, and Master of Business Administration (Finance) from University of Stirling, Scotland. She pursued a Post-baccalaureate Elective in International Development from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. She is a doctoral candidate at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Dr Vibha Dhawan is associated with The Energy and Resources Institute since 1985. She also served as the Vice-Chancellor of TERI School of Advanced Studies from 2005-2007. She is a Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India.

Dr Dhawan is actively involved in research as well as policy development, both at the national and international level. She is a task force member of a number of committees of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), the Biotech Consortium India Limited (BCIL) etc.

She is currently serving as Adjunct Professor, Consul General South Asia Partnership, Michigan State University. She has successfully completed a number of international assignment such as co-ordinator for the Asia Pacific Consortium on Agriculture Biotechnology (APCoAB); Advisor to Director General, The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT); and Deputy Director, Research Partnerships & Co-ordination with the Borlaug Institute for South Asia. She has served on the boards of prestigious organizations in India and overseas including Jawahar Lal Nehru University, Ambedkar University, Ayurvet Foundation and Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI).

Dr Dhawan as a researcher was instrumental in the establishment of the highly successful Micropropagation Technology Park at TERI. Her other major achievements includes developing e-contents for the post-graduate programme in biotechnology for the University Grants Commission. Her recent research interests are in the area of biofuels. She is currently the coordinator of the DBT-TERI Centre on Integrated Production of Advanced Biofuels and Biocommodities. She was Advisor, Bio-resources & Biotechnology, to the Late Tarun Gogoi, the former Chief Minister of Assam.

She is the winner of Indian Women Achievers Sammaan 2017 by NRI Achievers; Women Leadership Agriculture Award 2016 by the Indian Council of Food & Agriculture; First Biotech Product and Process Development and Commercialization Award of the Department of Biotechnology in 2000, the Kamal Kumari National Award for Science and Technology and the first All India Biotech Association (AIBA) award in 1998.

She has authored 6 books and over 50 publications.