Sustainability Conclave: Green Growth for a Viksit Bharat

Sachin Jain

CEO India and Southeast Asia, Cleantech Renewable Assets

Sachin Jain: CEO – Cleantech Renewable Assets

As the CEO – India & Southeast Asia of Cleantech Renewable Assets, a Keppel and Shell platform, Sachin is driving the company’s growth toward a 3GW+ platform focused on investing in, developing, and operating renewable power assets across 7 countries including India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Previously, at BCG, Sachin played a key role in scaling the firm’s energy transition, and climate & sustainability investment strategies. Prior to that, Sachin has led and served across the technology, management consulting, Industrials, EPC, B2B Enterprise and climate infrastructure space while working at Oriano, KPMG, Mahindra Susten and has leadership experience in establishing platforms, building businesses and leading P&L operations of AUM $600+ million.

Sachin holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, UK, as a Tata Scholar, a Master of Science in Industrial Systems Engineering from Ohio University, USA, and a Bachelor of Engineering from KJSCE, University of Mumbai, India.

Amit Kumar Sinha

MD & CEO, Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd

Amit Kumar Sinha- the Managing Director & CEO of Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd. joined Mahindra Group in November 2020 as President – Group Strategy. He became a member of the Group Executive Board from April 2021. Amit is also a Director on the Board of Mahindra Finance, Mahindra Susten, and Mahindra First Choice.

Amit brings a unique combination of leadership experiences, value creation skills, customer-first approach, people centricity and ESG commitments, which align well with the Mahindra Group’s Rise philosophy. Over the past 2+ years, Amit led several high-impact projects covering growth, transformation, and capital allocation across Group companies. Time Magazine recognized him as one of 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders in Business in 2023, globally. He is one of only nine Indian leaders to be featured in the Time100 Climate List.

Prior to joining the Mahindra Group, Amit was a Senior Partner and Director with Bain & Company. Over 18 years at Bain across US and India, he managed large-scale strategy, organization, and performance improvement projects covering numerous industries including infrastructure, real-estate, construction, energy, and technology. Amit started his career with Tata Motors and worked with IGate Patni (now Capgemini) in technology leadership roles in India, Singapore, and US.

Amit holds dual MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, specializing in Finance and Strategy, where he received coveted Palmer scholar award and Siebel scholarship for academic performance. He also holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical and Electronics) from the Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi. Amit is also an Ananta Aspen Fellow as part of their India leadership fellowship program.

Vineet Rai

Founder, Aavishkaar Group

Vineet Rai is the Founder & Vice Chairman of Aavishkaar Group and chairs its Board and Group Executive Council. Aavishkaar Group is an Impact Investment Platform impacting millions of people in Asia and Africa using an entrepreneurship based development approach. Vineet believes in building impact ecosystems to deliver real Impact as enshrined in the vision of Aavishkaar Group “We exist to bridge the Opportunity gap for the Emerging 3 Billion”. Vineet believes that Impact Investing has the potential to change the world of finance irreversibly. The Group’s ecosystems include Aavishkaar Capital – the Impact fund manager focused on Global South, Arohan – One of India’s largest & most digitally advanced microfinance institution (MFI) targeting low income households, Ashv Finance – a Fin Tech NBFC, offering unique cash flow based business loans to Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and IntelleCap  building Impact Ecosystems globally.

Aavishkaar Group has 10000 employees, manages assets in excess of US $ 1.5 Billion while trying to serve needs of entrepreneurs from debt of US $ 150 (INR 10 thousands) to equity of US $ 15 Million (INR 100 Crore) while aligning the group to 13 out of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals or SDG’s. Vineet has received numerous awards including the 2021 Access-HSBC Inclusive Finance India Award for personal contribution to Financial Inclusion in India, TIE Hall of Fame 2018, the Impact Investor of the Year by News Corp for 2016, Porter Prize for Strategic Leadership in Social Space, 2016, CNBC TV 18 Award for being the Catalyst Fund for India 2016, G 20 – SME Innovation in Finance Award 2010 in Seoul South Korea, UNDP-IBLF –ICC World Business Award in 2005 and Lemelson Award for Social Venture Investing. In 2021 Vineet Rai and Swati Rai (Co-Founder) was awarded the Faces of Vibrant Bharat 2021 by Grant Thorton Bharat. He is an Ashoka Fellow and Honorary Member of XLRI Alumni Association. In 2023, Vineet Rai was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his Excellence in Impact Investment by India Startup Foundation. In 2022, Vineet has been appointed on the G20 Start up 20 Engagement Group Task Force on Sustainability and Securities and Exchange Board of India has appointed him on Advisory Committee of the Social Stock Exchange. Vineet was invited by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for his “Roundtable interaction with Venture Capital and Private Equity Funds”.

In 2021. Vineet was also invited by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for consultations on doubling the income of the farmers in September 2017 as part of his champions of change program. Vineet has also served on the advisory committee of SEBI for the formation of Social Stock Exchange, as Commissioner at the Business Commission for Sustainable Development, as Senior Advisor to Blended Finance Working Group at OECD and as an Advisor to United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific Science Technology and Innovation Advisory Board Vineet featured on the cover of Forbes India, January 2018 issue. Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever endorsed Aavishkaar Intellecap Group for its efforts in furthering inclusive development.

Driving on Indian roads is one of his passions and he tries to cover 50,000 KM every year.

Smitha Hari

President (India) – auctusESG

Smitha Hari is a finance professional with 18 years of experience across corporate banking, investment banking, sustainable finance, ESG, & impact investing. She holds certification in Sustainability and Climate Risks from GARP. Her last role was with the corporate banking vertical of a large private sector bank as part of the Impact Investing team. She specialises in product structuring, financial analysis and research. She currently leads the India operations at auctusESG.

Santosh Kumar Singh

Chief Sustainability Officer, Larsen & Toubro

Sustainability professional with 31 years of experience in Corporate Sector & Consulting. Involved in developing and executing strategies to address material ESG issues, Operations, Statutory Clearances & Compliance Management, Risk Management and CSR. Graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology and Post-graduate from the Indian Institute of Forest Management