Breathe Clean Conclave

NDTV and Philips have turned the spotlight on the looming pollution crisis with the NDTV Breathe Clean campaign. India is home to six of the world’s most polluted cities, and the air we are breathing causes more deaths than tobacco smoking or poor nutrition. Even the air inside our homes is toxic for our children and families, causing cancers, reduced life expectancy, lung damage and air borne allergies as indoor air is 2 to 5 times worse than the air outside. Inhaling pollutant air takes away at least 1-2 years of a typical human life.

Breathe Clean Conclave 2015, on August 25, in New Delhi, aimed to provide a platform for prominent government bodies, actors, medical practitioners, citizen groups, educators and corporates to come together and highlight this critical national issue and recommend possible solutions.

Opening Keynote: Prakash Javadekar, MoS of Environment and Parliamentary Affairs

Prakash Javadekar is a Member of Parliament Rajya Sabha and a leader of Bharatiya Janata Party. He is the official spokesperson of the BJP. Javadekar is the incumbent Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Government of India. He holds the portfolios of Environment and Forests and Parliamentary Affairs. Javadekar was honoured with “Sir Purshottam Das Thakur Memorial” National Award, for research Papers on “Rural Development & Banks role in Co-ordinated approach”.

Conclave Session 1: Breathe Clean – Act For Better Air
Moderated by Vikram Chandra, CEO, NDTV Group

Following are the panelists for this session:

Soha Ali Khan

An actor, known primarily for her work in the Hindi film industry, although she has also acted in Bengali and English-language films. Soha has always been a socially aware film star, who has keenly voiced her opinion on matters that affect the masses. She has contributed in a big way to increase awareness about issues that deserve to be magnified in the society.

Anumita Roy Chowdhury

Anumita Roy Chowdhury is the Executive Director of Research and Advocacy in Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India. She is in charge of research and advocacy on public health, energy and climate impacts of motorization and sustainable cities programme at CSE. She has been deeply involved with the building up a public campaign, Right to Clean Air at the centre. This is aimed at improving the decision making process related to air quality planning and mobility management.

Prof. Sanjay Zodpey

Prof. Sanjay Zodpey presently works as Vice President (North) and Director, Public Health Education, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi and also holds leadership position as Director at Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi. His current professional interests include health systems research, health workforce development, education of health professionals, maternal and child health and vaccines. Prof. Zodpey is involved in designing and implementing several capacity development initiatives including on-campus and distance learning academic programs at PHFI. He is also currently involved in several initiatives related to education for health professionals including situation analysis, estimation of demand and supply of health professionals, designing competency driven frameworks, assessment of impact of educational initiatives on performance of health professionals, research in governance of education for health professionals and advancing reforms agenda for health professional education. He has authored two monographs related to education of health professionals in India. He is also the Member of IOM Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.

A Krishnakumar

A Krishnakumar had taken over as the MD and CEO of Philips India in 2013. He is the alumnus of India Institute of Mangement (IIM) Ahemedabad and has worked with firms like Coopers & Lybrand Consulting, HSBC Investment Banking, Microland and Johnson & Johnson’s healthcare division.

Parthaa Bosu

As India Director and South Asia Liaison of Clean Air Asia, Parthaa Bosu has made much headway in engaging and sustaining efforts to create an impact on clean air initiatives in India, and neighboring South Asia countries, by capitalizing on his over 14 years experience in corporate affairs and corporate communications. He was the former Head of Corporate Communication of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) where he focused on assessing in-use vehicle emissions. Parthaa also had a brief stint as Project Officer in the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games.

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo

Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo is an Indian politician from Odisha and a leader of the Biju Janata Dal political party. He attended the Doon School, Dehradun and graduated in Economics from St. Stephens College, Delhi University. He represented India in shooting and basketball. Prior to becoming an MP, he was the youngest member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly, to which he was returned in 2004 as a representative of the Saintala Constituency.

Dr Gary Stutte

Dr Gary Stutte has worked at the Kennedy Space Centre in Dynamic’s plant research group to determine the feasibility of using plants as bioregenerative life support systems for long duration space missions. Dr Stutte is the principal investigator for several spaceflight experiments designed to grow plants in microgravity.

Conclave Session 2: Children and Air Pollution
Moderated by Ravish Kumar, Senior Executive Editor, NDTV India

Following are the panelists for this session:

Soha Ali Khan

An actor, known primarily for her work in the Hindi film industry, although she has also acted in Bengali and English-language films. Soha has always been a socially aware film star, who has keenly voiced her opinion on matters that affect the masses. She has contributed in a big way to increase awareness about issues that deserve to be magnified in the society.

Jayati Singh

Jayati Singh is a strategic thinker and marketer with extensive experience across consumer-centric industries. Currently heading the New Businesses portfolio for Philips India, she has been instrumental in bring product categories like Air Purification, Mother and Child Care to India. She has also led the Kitchen appliances and Garment care business for Philips, defining the marketing strategy and delivering both growth and profitability. Prior to joining Philips India, she has led the launch of several highly successful brands at P&G India. An alumnus of Delhi School of Economics, and Miranda House, Jayati is passionate about the performing arts and music and loves travelling and cooking with her two daughters and husband.

Kunal Kohli

Kunal Kohli is an Indian film director, producer and writer. He owns the production house Kunal Kohli Productions. He has won many awards for his directorial ventures.

Sushma Paul Berlia

Sushma Paul Berlia is a leading industrialist, educationist and entrepreneur in the country who combines her deep interest in education along with business acumen of the highest order. She has used a central air purification system to bring the PM 2.5 levels down. The levels in her school are 2 micrograms/cubic meter.

Barun Aggarwal

Barun Aggarwal is the director of Breathe Easy. Breathe, a full service indoor air quality solution provider. They have been pioneers in the indoor air quality space for the last 25 years. They produce clean air in the 50,000 square feet space with the help of 1200 indoor plants for themselves.

Dr Randeep Guleria

Dr Randeep Guleria is the head of the department of pulmonology and sleep disorders at All India Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Credited with the establishment of India’s first centre for pulmonary medicines and sleep disorders at AIIMS, he was honoured with Padma Shri award, the fourth highest Indian civilian award, by the Indian government in 2015.

Dr Vivek Nangia

Dr Vivek Nangia is a qualified interventional Pulmonologist with over 15 years of experience. He has done his MD in Respiratory Medicine (India) and Diploma in Interventional Pulmonology (Spain). He is amongst the pioneers to conduct various Bronchoscopic Intervnetions and Medical Thoracoscopy in Delhi.

Professor Kalpana Balakrishnan

Dr. Kalpana Balakrishnan obtained her doctoral degree in Biophysics and subsequent post-doctoral training in Environmental Health Engineering both at the Johns Hopkins University,Baltimore, Maryland, and USA. Her fields of specialization include occupational and environmental health risk assessment, exposure assessment, industrial hygiene and industrial toxicology. She is a well recognized international expert in environmental health and serves many reputed organizations including The World Health Organization, The World Bank, and The Indian Council for Medical Research and The Tamil Nadu State Pollution Control Board in multiple technical capacities.

Closing Keynote: Prof. Sanjay Zodpey, Vice President (North) and Director, Public Health Education, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi

Prof. Sanjay Zodpey presently works as Vice President (North) and Director, Public Health Education, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi and also holds leadership position as Director at Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi. His current professional interests include health systems research, health workforce development, education of health professionals, maternal and child health and vaccines. Prof. Zodpey is involved in designing and implementing several capacity development initiatives including on-campus and distance learning academic programs at PHFI. He is also currently involved in several initiatives related to education for health professionals including situation analysis, estimation of demand and supply of health professionals, designing competency driven frameworks, assessment of impact of educational initiatives on performance of health professionals, research in governance of education for health professionals and advancing reforms agenda for health professional education. He has authored two monographs related to education of health professionals in India. He is also the Member of IOM Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.