Different perspectives.
Shared purpose.

Karen Sultanik Simhon is an expert on international security and strategy with several years of work experience in the fields of diplomacy, defence and education.

She has comprehensive knowledge on global affairs and politics (especially Latin America, the U.S. and the Middle East) and strong research and
writing skills. Her expertise lies in communicating effectively with different types of audiences (political leaders, decision-makers, diplomatic corps, media, etc.) and has experience in public management, executing strategies and planning mechanisms.

Her areas of interest include security and defence (research, risk assessment, etc.); diplomacy and global affairs; geopolitics, conflict and political risk; climate change (global governance and the role of subnational governments and nonstate actors in international CC action).

Karen has worked in 6 countries across different regions, which provides her with an international outlook that is useful to interact effectively
with multi-cultural actors.

She holds a BA in Government (Public Administration) and International Relations, MA in Political Science, Security and Diplomacy. She has a MSc in International Strategy and Diplomacy from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Mrs. Mita Nangia Goswami is a Senior Advisor at Policy Monks. Previously, she was a Senior Consultant at Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. She is the former Vice President of the Independent Power Producers Association of India (IPPAI). At IPPAI, she was building a bridge between the power sector and ecology and the environment.

From March 2008 to March 2015 she was the Director of the Environment Education Division of WWF India. Mrs. Goswami has served as a member of the National Advisory Committee on Environment Education of the Ministry of Environment and Forest as well as the NCERT Committee which was reviewing the National Curriculum Framework.

She has worked in the development sector at the grass roots since 1995 on varied issues like gender, reproductive health and nature conservation before moving to Delhi in 2008. She has also been an educationist, having taught both at the high school as well as the college (Honours) levels.

A member of the North-East Writers’ Forum, she has penned short stories, essays and poems and one of her short stories has been published in a Penguin collection.

She has also authored articles on Environment Education and delivered talks as well as conducted workshops on Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) at various national platforms. Recently Ms. Goswami has trained the Master Trainers of both CBSE and NCERT in ESD at New Delhi and also the SCERTs and DIETS of West Bengal, MP, Assam and Chhattisgarh. She was invited as an ESD expert to the UNESCO world conference 2014 held at Nagoya, Japan.

In a career spanning over two and half decades teaching political science, governance, development and public policy, Professor Ashwani Kumar has had the privilege of engaging with students, academicians, diplomats, parliamentarians, development professionals, multilateral agencies and governments across countries and at various levels helping build rich learning and scholarship.

He is presently Professor of Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai. He has authored ‘Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar’ (Anthem Press, London). With Mary Kaldor and others at London School of Economics (LSE) and Dirk Messner, Director of German Development Institute, he led a global network of eminent researchers and practitioners in areas of governance and development and co-edited the prestigious LSE Year Book on ‘Global Civil Society; Poverty and Activism’ and a book titled ‘Power Shifts and Global Governance’.

His other international projects as project-director include, among others, ICSSR-ESRC (UK)'s partnership program for capacity building for doctoral scholars between TISS &  University of Sussex and project on Political Roots of Economic Development for International Growth Centre at LSE.

As member of Central Employment Guarantee Council (GoI), he headed the central government’s task force for capacity building reforms in MGNREGA and gained crucial experience in coordinating with multiple stakeholders in federal governance. As Executive Committee member of CAPART, among other things, he also helped conceptualised and implement the Prime Minister Rural Development Fellows (PMRDF) program.

He was also involved in the academic restructuring of NIRD and of flagship programs in Manipur, Rural Entrepreneurship Program of Ministry of Telecommunications and Post.  He was also project director of ‘Inclusive Elections and Domestic Migration’ for Election Commission of India.

Abhishant Pant is a fintech expert with over 15 years of experience in payments, mobile money, and financial inclusion. He is known as the "Cashless Man of India" and has appeared on PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat as well as in global media.

On 13th March 2016 to enhance his understanding of the challenges and catalysts in Fintech's journey he started cashless journey (essentially he stopped carrying physical manifestation of money i.e. cash) experiment . During more than 300 days of journey he travelled length and Breadth of India, got invited by Swedish Government and did a comparative study with Singapore and Bangladesh market as well.

Abhishant is renowned as a Fintech evangelist and has shared his insights and expertise at prestigious platforms such as the UN-G20, TEDx Talks, NUS, IIM, and IITs. He actively mentors through incubators like Barclays Rise and Zone Startups, contributing to the growth and development of the Fintech ecosystem. His leadership positions in the payments domain include roles with Visa, M-Pesa, and HSBC, showcasing his vast expertise in various aspects of financial technology.

He is extensively covered by Media both India (TOI, HT, ET, Zee News, India News , Mid-Day etc ) and abroad (BBC, Dagnes Nayhter) and was recently named amongst the TOP100 Fintech Professionals in Asia.

Dr. Geetima Das Krishna has more than two decades of  experience in research, policy, strategy, consulting and teaching spanning both the corporate world and academics. Until recently she was heading the North East and UTs team at Invest India, DPIIT, Govt. of India. Previously, she was associated with the Centre for Policy Research as a Senior Researcher since it revived the macro-economic research unit in February 2014.

Over the last two years, she has published a number of macro-economic reports and some of these were subsequently published in leading national economic/financial dailies in an effort to enrich the public debate and provide policy inputs. Her research piece on Indian Exports was published in ‘Economic & Political Weekly’. The research report ‘TPP – Trans Pacific Partnership’ was well accepted by the Commerce Ministry and cited in the Economic Survey 2016 of the Finance Ministry. She has authored a book on the Indian Bond Market. 

She has authored several policy briefs and the policy impact of one of the recommendations was felt when the government raised the securities transaction tax on derivatives in order to rationalise the tax structure
compared to cash market and discourage retail speculations, in the General Budget in February, 2016.

Previously, she was Additional Vice president at Reliance Capital Asset Management Co Ltd handling very focused macro research for Fixed Income Investment team helping formulate investment strategies based on macro expectations. Prior to that she worked as Senior Research Associate in Pipal Research (Crisil, a Standard and Poor’s company), New Delhi. Before that, she had worked as Assistant Professor in Dept. of Electronics and Telecommunications, and Computer Science in Assam Engineering College.

She holds a BE in Electronics and Telecom Engineering from Assam Engineering College (University Gold Medallist) and a Master’s in Computer Engineering from the Florida Institute of Technology, USA. She also holds an MBA in Finance and Investments from the City University of New York and a Phd (Economics) from IIFT Delhi. 

Francesco Stefani is an Advisor at Policy Monks and a technology entrepreneur, software engineer and public policy specialist working at the intersection of emerging technologies, regulation and institutional strategy. His work focuses on areas including blockchain, cybersecurity, financial technology, digital infrastructure and other frontier technologies.

He is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Awareland, where he leads the development of technology for blockchain intelligence, fraud detection and digital risk. Through Awareland, he works closely with major enterprises and Italian institutions on issues related to blockchain, digital assets, cybersecurity and emerging technologies, including the implications of quantum computing. His work includes translating regulatory and institutional requirements into technical systems and infrastructure.

Previously, Francesco worked across fintech, blockchain and technology companies including CoinCover, ClearScore, Focaldata and Clyde & Co. His experience includes building real-time fraud monitoring systems, blockchain infrastructure, privacy technologies and data-driven platforms operating in regulated environments. At CoinCover, he acted as technical lead on systems processing hundreds of thousands of blockchain events every day.

Francesco has also been part of international technology and entrepreneurship programmes including UC Berkeley SkyDeck and Entrepreneur First in London. He is a graduate of the Polkadot Blockchain Academy, and his entrepreneurial work has received recognition through initiatives including the Italian FinTech Award and Crédit Agricole's startup programme.

He holds an MSc in Public Policy and Economics from the London School of Economics and Peking University, an MSc in Computer Science with Distinction from University College London, and a BSc in Economics, Management and Finance from Bocconi University. His multidisciplinary background allows him to bridge technology, economics and public policy, with a particular interest in how governments and organisations can respond effectively to rapid technological change.