Building Advanced Manufacturing Ecosystems for Sustainable Growth

Mr. Thangam Thennarasu, hon’ble minister for industries, Tamil Nadu, was born in Mallankinaru village of Virudhunagar district. He earned his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. As a graduate engineer, he worked with SPIC (Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation Ltd.) for about 10 years before his political plunge. Mr. Thennarasu has more than two decades of legislative experience. He was elected to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly five times starting with his first electoral victory from the Aruppukottai constituency in the 1997 by-election. In 2006, he became the Minister for School Education, Sports & Youth Welfare, and Archaeology.

Now, as the Minister for Industries, his ambition is to make Tamil Nadu the leading destination for industrial investments in South Asia. He was lauded for handling the oxygen demand during the COVID crisis in the state. He is a voracious reader and a good orator. His interests include archaeology, ornithology, wildlife, numismatics, and Tamil literature.

Mr. S. Krishnan is currently the Additional Chief Secretary, Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu. With a service record of more than 30 years, Mr. Krishnan holds many accomplishments, such as serving as Additional Chief Secretary, Finance to the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Senior Advisor in the Office of the Executive Director for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Bhutan of IMF, representing Government of India in the G20 Expert Groups on International Financial Architecture and Global Financial Safety Nets, and assisting in preparing the Union Budget as well as the Tamil Nadu State Budget during multiple years, to name a few.

Through his multiple roles as a public administrator, Mr. Krishnan has demonstrated expertise in aspects of policy-making, public finance, and socio-economic development issues. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and a Master of Arts in Economics from Annamalai University.

Sanjeev Krishan is Chairman of PwC in India. Previously, he served as the Deals leader. Sanjeev has been with the firm for 29 years, having joined in 1991 as an articled trainee. He became a partner in 2006 and has successfully led the firm’s Transactions, Private Equity and Deals business over the years, getting the firm to a pre-eminent position amongst its Private Equity clients and their investee companies.

Sanjeev has served in diverse leadership and client service roles and has extensive India and overseas experience in Deals work across a range of sectors, such as technology, consumer and industrial products. Among his prior roles, he was a member of the team that set up the Transaction Services practice in India, and has spearheaded the relationship with most global private equity funds, personally looking to raise the firm’s focus on numerous funds. Sanjeev did a brief stint with PwC Sweden as part of an International Exchange programme, where he worked with several Private Equity funds and Corporate clients, mostly on cross-border deals.

Sanjeev frequently interacts with the media on various issues ranging from insolvency to mergers and acquisitions. Additionally, he regularly participates in seminars, panel discussions and events held in India, as well as overseas, and is also part of FICCI’s National Committee on Stressed Assets. Sanjeev is a member of the Rotary Club of Delhi, South.

He is a certified Chartered Accountant, and an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). Sanjeev graduated with First Class in Economics from the University of Delhi and remains an active and proud alum. A New Delhi native, he joined the firm after graduation.

Sanjeev is passionate about playing a part in building a sustainable future for the society we live in, and actively advocates the causes of conservation, socio-economic inclusion and diversity. He has also been specifically focussed on sponsorship of women employees, especially to get them back to work after their mid-career breaks.

A nature lover, Sanjeev sets out for weekend getaways with his family every few months, whenever his schedule permits. He enjoys his morning walks and exercise regimen, and until recently, played squash to keep healthy. He lives in New Delhi with his parents, wife and two children.

Since 2002 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günther Schuh holds the chair of Production Engineering at RWTH Aachen University (Germany). His research interests focus on production management, factory planning, business engineering and innovation management, with a special focus on production planning issues. This includes core topics such as integrated process and product design, cooperative value creation, business modelling and system selection, ‘Industrie 4.0’ and the Internet of Production, a new production technology theory which has been developed in Aachen. Günther Schuh is member of the board of directors of the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology (IPT) in Aachen (Germany). He is member of the German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP) and Fellow in the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), where he also belongs to the Editorial Committee of CIRP. Since 2014 Günther Schuh is also Member of the executive board of acatech – The NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING. Günther Schuh is Founder and CEO of e.GO Mobile AG, Aachen (Germany), and member of several supervisory and administrative boards.

Prof. Dr. Torbjørn H. Netland is Assistant Professor and the Head of Chair of Production and Operations Management (POM) at ETH Zurich. Before taking a position at ETH, he was an Associate Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and a Senior Researcher at SINTEF Technology and Society in Trondheim, Norway. He has been a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for International Manufacturing, University of Cambridge, UK, and a Fulbright Visiting Research Fellow at McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA.

Netland's research expertise is in the fields of manufacturing management, lean production, and process innovation. He is especially interested in methods for productivity improvement in manufacturing industries and the related management of productivity improvement programs in multinational companies. His research is carried out in cooperation with leading companies and draws on empirical methods such as econometrics, case studies, applied machine learning, action research, and field experiments.

Under Netland's leadership, the Chair of Production and Operations Management (POM) conducts innovative and relevant operations management research. The Chair of POM focuses on smart manufacturing, behavioral operations, global operations, and operational excellence. 

Sudarshan Venu is the Managing Director of TVS Motor Company. He is also a non- executive Director in Sundaram-Clayton Ltd, the holding Company and TVS Credit Services Limited, the Non-Banking Finance arm of the group

Being an automotive enthusiast, Sudarshan grew up amidst the roar of engines in India’s oldest factory racing team. Driven by passion, he has motorbiked in four continents. Over the last few years, he has been charting the future of one of India’s leading two-wheeler manufacturer, TVS Motor Company, and has made it the most awarded two-wheeler company. It is a testimony to Sudarshan’s focus, that TVS Motor has been voted No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction for four years in a row by the prestigious J. D. Power Awards.

Sudarshan has now set his vision of transforming the company into a leading global mobility player. To this effect, he has set in motion global expansion through both organic & inorganic means. Under his leadership, TVS acquired UK’s iconic motorcycle brand Norton Motorcycles and has also setup a completely new manufacturing facility in UK. Sudarshan also strongly believes in staying ahead of the emerging trends – electrification and personal mobility are two big areas of focus. He is looking to build a strategic personal e-mobility ecosystem by scaling unique brands, and recently led TVS to acquire European e-bike brand EGO Movement and Switzerland’s largest e-bike company, Swiss E-Mobility Group. Sudarshan has also played a pivotal role in TVS Motor Company’s growth in Africa, ASEAN & Latam.

With the vision of enriching the life of every Indian, Sudarshan is also leading the change at TVS Credit Services, a non-deposit Non-Banking Finance Company. Keeping the customer at the center, he wants the NBFC to become a partner in the customer’s aspirations. He also has been instrumental in setting up and in the success of Emerald Haven Realty Ltd, and TVS Digital, a subsidiary of TVSM incorporated in Singapore, focused on providing technology solutions for digital transformation.

Sudarshan holds a Graduate Degree with Honors in the Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology from the University of Pennsylvania, USA. He holds B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School. He has also completed M.Sc. in International Technology Management from the Warwick Manufacturing Group attached to University of Warwick in U.K.

Karmesh Vaswani leads the Consumer Goods & Tech, Retail and Logistics Global Business Unit of Infosys.

Karmesh partners strategically with the Executive Board leadership teams of Enterprise clients to help strategise, plan and implement next generation business, digital and technology capabilities. He has extensive cross industry expertise in the areas of Global supply chain management, Logistics Transformations, Sales & Marketing, Finance & HR Transformations and setting up Global Shared Enterprise Services. He has led a number of initiatives to carve out new sources of competitive advantage in the Consumer, Retail and Logistics industry, delivering tangible improvements in free cash flow for the Enterprise clients. He is very actively involved in shaping new ecosystems with innovative startups, select cloud providers and the business technology services of Infosys to shape new business models Enterprise Clients.

A passionate advocate of Diversity at the workplace, Karmesh leads the global diversity programme at Infosys and also helps clients cultivate diversity in their Technology and Business services groups. Karmesh represents Infosys at the World Economic Forum and is involved Global Taskforces focused on China and India markets.

Prior to joining Infosys in 2003, he was a senior executive with Accenture for 10 years, and specialized in leading large business and technology transformation programmes in Asia Pacific region in the Manufacturing, Logistics and Consumer industries. He has received a Bachelors with Honors in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering from VJTI, University of Mumbai (India) and also Executive Global Leadership Development Programme at Stanford University (USA). Karmesh is based in London, UK.