Nomination Jury
Dr. Anil Joshi, a recipient of the fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri in 2006, holds PhD in environmental science. He started his career as a lecturer in the Kotdwara Government College. Having roots in the hills, he decided to contribute for the hilly community rather. In order to guard the environment and its conservation he started Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organization (HESCO) in 1981. For the last 28 years, Dr. Anil Joshi and his team members of HESCO have been applying knowledge of the environmental sciences and simple technologies to bring consistent development to the rural villages of the Himalayas. HESCO draws its inspiration from the villages and designs custom solutions of their issues. It allows them to focus on the needs i.e. economic and development. It helps them to focus on their economic and development needs and encourages them to use local resources which open avenues to self-sustenance. For nearly three decades HESCO advocated sustainable change by use of simple technologies in the rural parts of Himalayas. Their ecological and innovative solution brought outstanding results and in return have helped them earned national recognition and has drawn attention of the international community in the development of rural mountain regions.
An Engineer- MBA and a Ex-Banker,he ventured in to Film making as a passion 15 years back. In 1999 he started to write scripts and was also subject expert with Audio Visual Research Centre AVRC(Central Govt body) in making educational films for University Grants Commission(UGC).The films were telecasted on the DD National Network under the UGC slots. Professionally trained in Film making and Film Editing he Produced and Directed short films which travelled to various National and International Film Festivals. With 3 years of Hardcore experience in Theatre he has played Character roles in more then 85 Television Serials in all the National Channels
He played significant roles in WebSeries’s – Anurag Kashyap’s “Sacered Games 1”, Farhan Akhtar’s “Inside Edge 2 and 3”,Vikram Bhatt’s “Holycross”,” Zakhmi”,”Memories”, ”Untouchable”, ”Twisted 2” etc.He has also acted in fIlms “Why Cheat India” with Emraan Hashmi and “Mission Mangal” with Akshay Kumar.He also successfully started Central India’s Biggest Film Festival –international Film Festival of MP”,the festival is held every year in Jan-Feb in Indore and is a major film event in MP. Now as a Creative Director of a Business Groups Media Venture he is into production and distribution of Web Series,Feature films,Music Video’’s etc.
Mr. Ankit Alok Srivastava have completed Masters in Mass Communication, and Bachelors in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has been associated with the audio-visual industry in the capacity of a director, producer, and cinematographer for the past over eight years. He is well versed in scripting, directing, and producing documentaries for broadcast and for the web, the recent being an on-gong audio-visual project for the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, Government of India.
Anushree Bhattacharjee leads the Forest Landscape Restoration programme of IUCN in India. The programme focuses on restoring landscapes using new tools and techniques, while involving all stakeholders, including government, non-government organizations as well as the private sector. Anushree has also been supporting the Government of India with their voluntary Bonn Challenge pledge of bringing 21 million hectares of degraded and deforested land into restoration by 2030. She has co-authored India’s progress report on Bonn Challenge, a first from any country in the world. She is also involved in developing other projects on landscape restoration and nature-based solutions in India. Anushree has over a decade of experience in biodiversity conservation and natural resource management. Prior to joining IUCN, she worked with UNDP. Before that, she worked with various environmental research and conservation organizations, both at the grassroots as well as at the national level. She has a Post Graduate degree in Ecology and Environmental Sciences, and has published several peer reviewed journal articles on natural resource management, biodiversity conservation and landscape restoration.
US & Israeli citizen, Chana Batya Anzi Zalis was the Director of the Israeli Cultural Centre at Embassy of Israel, New Delhi from 2011-2018. Currently she is rendering her services as a trained teacher and Instructor of Hebrew Language, Literature and Culture in the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Overseas School in India. She is also the Cultural Head of International Relations, Marwah Studios Noida Film City and Adjunct faculty at the Asian Academy of Film and Television (AAFT) & Asian School of Cinema (Department of Cinema), Noida Film City, India
"Dhiraj Arvind Meshram is working in Film and Television Institute of India, Pune since 2006 and is presently Dean (Films).He has studied Film and Television Direction (2004 pass out) and is an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. He has been a screenplay writer and director of three short films in Marathi Language titled, 'OADH', 'HARAVLELE INDRADHANUSH' 'BHUMIKA' and a feature length film in Hindi titled “BAROMAS” which is based on Sahitya Akademi Award winning Novel. All his films participated in various Indian and International film festivals which includes -Indian Panorama(IFFI) Goa India; Next Reel Film Festival ,New York; ‘Golden Elephant Children’s Film Festival, Hyderabad, India; ‘Munich International Festival of Film Schools, Munich, Germany; International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK),Trivandrum;Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary and Short films(MIFF); Indian Documentary Producer’s Association (IDPA), Mumbai; Indian Film Festival of Los-Angeles (IFFLA); ‘Bollywood and Beyond’ film festival, Stuttgart, Germany; BRICS film festival New Delhi; Osian film festival, New Delhi; South Asian International Film; Festival USA; DC Independent film festival Washington DC. He has been a selection jury member for Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF-2012) for Documentary, short films and Animation."
Dr Pallavi Majumdar is a media professional and educator with over two decades experience in Print Journalism, New Media, Media Regulation and Governance. As a media educator, she has been one of the founding members of Amity School of Communication and the driving force for industry-academia interface and collaboration. She has been a key contributor to accreditation and rankings at Amity University, including curricular aspects and student development. She has also led several internationalization initiatives for Amity including student exchange programs, International and Study Abroad Programs. Dr Majumdar has done her doctoral research in the area of Media Regulation from the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia and has published several research papers in National and International Journals. She was also granted fellowship in Environment Management by the Netherlands government. Her research interests pertain to Media Regulation and Governance, New Media, Media Literacy, Media Education, among others. Prior to joining academics, Dr Majumdar has worked as a journalist for over 8 years with leading brands such as The Times of India and Business Standard. She actively covered the Environment and Urban Development beats and was recognized for her efforts. She has also free lanced for the BBC News Service. Dr Majumdar has been invited as a key resource person for FDPs/PDPs at various universities.
Dr. Anil Kumar Garg is the Founder of Energy And Environment Foundation. Dr. Garg has more than three decade experience in energy sector. Doctorate in chemistry and completed post-doctoral work at University of Oklahoma, Norman USA and has large number of publication in international journals of repute. He has promoted renewable energy and encourages the use of clean and green technologies to achieve carbon neutral growth for economic development. He is responsible for organizing annual international conference namely World Renewable Energy Technology Congress, World PetroCoal Congress, World Water Summit apart from consultancy, training and research in energy sector. After completing teaching and research assignments for more than a decade, Dr. Garg served Oil and National Gas Corporation Ltd. India for more than 26 years. He has been invited at number of International Conferences world over to deliver keynote address in energy sector specially in Renewable Energy on Rooftop Solar. He is a recipient of many national and international awards.
Dr. Ankhi Mukherjee is currently teaching as an Assistant Professor at Amity School of Communication, Amity University Uttar Pradesh. She has successfully completed her Ph.D. from the Department of Film Studies and Visual Culture, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad on October 2017, and her thesis is titled as "Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Locating the Transition from the National to the Transnational." Her research interests are Latin American Cinema, Political Cinema, Transnational Cinema. She has been working on these domains for the last 8 years.
Dr.Binitha Pushpakaran is an ardent trekker, loves travelling and passionate about wildlife. She has done her doctoral studies on the Wetlands of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, which lies in the lap of the Nilgiris in the State of Tamil Nadu. She also has a Post Graduate Diploma in International Environmental Laws and Policies. Presently she is on deputation with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau handling matters on Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of wild Flora and Fauna.
Dr. Gauri D Chakraborty graduated from Film and Television Institute of India, Pune and has been a part of the Audio-Video Industry since 1995. With the distinction of being awarded ‘Dada Saheb Phalke’ Memorial Student Award along with a scholarship at F.T.I.I for the year 1996 – 1997, she has worked with prestigious institutions like BBC WST, Zee & DD Metro. Gauri was the Associate Producer for the award winning film ‘Sheep Thief’, (1997). At present, Gauri heads the Amity School of Communication in Noida. She has been a media educator for the last 13 years and her research interests are Feminist film theory, spectatorship studies and female auteurs. Trained in ‘Kathak - Indian Classical Dance’ by world renowned maestro, Guru Jitendra Maharaj, she has also been a Research Scholar and Junior Fellow, Ministry of HRD. In 2016, Gauri founded the social movement Vansh Vyom which relooks at traditional arts from the point of view of matriarchal inheritance. In 2018, she was awarded Womennovator 100 Women Faces as a media educator by Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs. She was also the Festival Director for the 15th edition of the IAWRT Asian Women's Film Festival 2019.
Currently working with WWF- India as Senior Programme Officer- Eco Trails, Kaustubh Srikanth is a wildlife biologist with extensive experience in leading nature trails and workshops. Besides his expertise in the areas of ornithology and ophiology (study of snakes), he is a keen wildlife photographer who uses his images to promote conservation. He has mentored many amateur birders in the field of ornithology. He has sensitized over 10000 students and 3000 others in the field of environmental education and wildlife conservation, a topic he is passionate about. If you cannot get Uncle Kaustubh on his mobile, it is more than likely that he is trying to convert a group of first-time, enthusiastic birders into birders for life, somewhere deep inside a jungle! Kaustubh also represented India in the first Arctic Youth Summit (AYS) held at Finland in October 2018.
"Presently working in Amity University, Noida as Asst Prof in Amity School of Communication from 2011. Worked as Reporter/News Bulletin producer in ETV Rajasthan, Hyderabad (A.P) (Produced more than 1500 half an hour news bulletins) 2003 June to 2005 Dec, Sub-editor in Swantantra Bharat, Lucknow, 2002 Jan to 2003 Mar and freelance filmmaker in the Video Industry in Delhi Independently produced and directed a number of films for Government (Delhi govt Higher technical education department documentary film “stree Shakti” ) non-government agencies ,also had exposure in various aspects in the production of social spots, corporate films, music videos, educational films, news programmes, magazine formats, multi camera studio shows, docu-dramas, and dramatic features. In 2004 he began to teach Mass Communication as a visiting faculty member in Eenadu School of journalism, Hyderabad. In 2005, hetook up a position as a fulltime faculty member for Mass Communication at JIMS, Vasant Kunj for a period of one year. In 2007, he moved to the, Kasturi Ram College of Higher Education in the same capacity, once again for a 4year period.
A passionate teacher and mentor, an educationist, she holds three Masters Degrees ; Sociology, (Gold Medalist, MDU Rohtak &UGC NET Cleared), Mass Communication (UGC NET Cleared)& MBA, Post Graduate Diploma in English Journalism (IIMC -1996-97 Batch) and PGDHRM along with B.Ed. (College Topper). She was topper & Sambad Sun Times award winner for highest marks in Print Journalism combined IIMC DELHI – DHENKANAL (1996-97) In a career spanning 22 years, she has experience in academics for curriculum development, teaching & training, organizing and conducting events, administration, planning and maintaining media relations. With excellent communication skills and understanding of students’ personality, she has been successful in managing, placing students in the corporate world and leading the teams in the organizations where ever she has worked. She has served as Dean of Humanities, Shridhar University, Pilani Rajasthan, Director, School of Mass Communication Studies, Baddi University of Emerging Sciences & Technology (BUEST), Baddi (Solan – H.P.).Started the Department of Mass Communication in SGT University, Gurgaon. Presently working as Assistant Professor III, Amity School of Communication, AUUP, Noida. Pursuing Ph.D. in Print Journalism, Dept. Journalism & Mass Communication, M.D.University, Rohtak, and Haryana.
Dr Lalbiakmawia Ngente is an Architect and a Management Graduate by profession. Known for his meritorious achievements, dynamic outlook and service to society, he has multiple educational achievements, sports and other awards to his credits. As a successful leader, he has been involved in different NGO’s, Student Unions, Educational Institutions and Government Bodies in different capacities. Some of which includes General Secretary of Central Young Mizo Association, the founder Secretary of Mizoram People’s Forum, President YHAI Mizoram State Branch and President of the Mizoram Sustainable Development Foundation, Member of the National Task Force on Housing to mention a few. He started his own consultancy firm viz. M/S L.B Associates in 1988. Dr Ngente is also a fellow of LEAD India since 2000, where he is actively involved in various capacities in the development and environment related issues. Currently, he is the Vice President of Integrated Mountain Initiative, a pan-Himalayan CSO, as well as member of the National Jury for selection of the Architect of the Year 2019.
A journalist for last 14 years with focus on governance, human rights, and environment. He has reported from 13 of the 15 major agro-climatic zones of India and have also been privileged to engage with media students and journalists in different parts of India as a trainer on topics ranging from reporting on water and climate change, right to information, data journalism and multimedia reportage. During initial six years of his career, he worked for national newspapers and news agencies, including Hindustan Times, Press Trust of India and Mail Today. For last eight years, I have been freelancing as a journalist and research consultant. In 2011, he founded GoI Monitor, a web magazine on policy issues and grassroots governance. It’s a low- budget venture run through volunteers and freelancers and the content is republished on various websites, regional newspapers and Women News Network, an international news agency.
Neha Sinha is an award-winning wildlife conservationist. She works with the Bombay Natural History Society on environmental policy and conservation. She is also a newspaper columnist and author and has a forthcoming book on wildlife in India. She has been a Legislative Professional Fellow with a specialisation on environment, sponsored by the United States Department of State; and Guest Faculty at Delhi University.
Pranab is an environment and sustainability professional with close to two decades of experience in the non-profit sector working with leading national and international organisations such as Earthwatch Institute, GIZ, WaterAid, The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), Centre for Environment Education (CEE), etc. His interest lies in biodiversity and ecosystem services, climate action, freshwater, alternative livelihood, sustainable tourism issues. Currently, Pranab heads an Indo-American initiative – Global Foundation for Advancement of Environment. Pranab is an avid birder (life-lister) and self-taught nature photographer. He has also been members of several prestigious national and international bodies including IGU Commission on Tourism, Leisure, and Global Change, IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, IUCN Tourism and Protected Areas Specialist Group, Indian Tourism and Hospitality Congress, Indian Science Congress Association, to name a few.
An Environmental Communication Strategist, Prarthana Borah has over two decades of experience in strategic communication for mobilising communities for environmental conservation. A nature lover she has worked on diverse environmental issues including Air Pollution, Climate Change, Biodiversity Conservation and Urban Sustainability. As Country Director of Clean Air Asia, an international not for profit set up by the ADB, Prarthana presently leads the India strategy, working towards advancing better air quality in Indian cities. She has extensive experience in facilitating dialogue on environmental and development issues between and with governments, donors, civil society and private sector to influence policy and action. A strategic environment policy planning expert with experience in analysing political situations and global scenarios to design and formulate creative institutional responses and programs for leveraging growth, she advocates both technology and behavioural solutions for conservation of the planet. Prior to Clean Air Asia she has worked in communication projects at the Centre for Environment Education and National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Radhika Kothari is the Co-founder & Director at Jungwa Foundation that works on developing approaches to promote an interconnected worldview to support Nature and Culture conservation for the well-being of communities and ecosystems they inhabit. Radhika has previously worked in the Himalayan regions for conservation and climate change with organisations like Snow Leopard Conservancy, ECOSS, WWF, LEAD (India), among others. She was involved in strategizing a road map for rolling out an Ecosystem Based Adaption (EbA) for Birdlife International’s Africa Partnership. Working on various aspects of planning, design and project management with technical experiences on community conservation, climate change adaptation and other social aspects of conservation, she has practical field experience working with diverse rural communities in different mountain landscapes. Radhika holds an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge support by shared Cambridge Commonwealth Award and Robert Sansom Scholarship. She also the recipient of the LEAD Fellowship (2015) and the Dalai Lama Fellow (2018).
Santanu Ganguly is Delhi based Film Festival Curator, Film Critic, associated with Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) since 2003 under the guidance of veteran film historian, scholar Dr. Aruna Vasudev for Cinefan - Asian Film Festival and Cinemaya – The Asian Film Quarterly, then for Osian’s-Cinefan Film Festival with legend filmmaker Mani Kaul. He has curated the Kolkata International Film Festival, International Film Festival of India, Kolkata International Children Film Festival, Film Festivals - at Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Surat, Guwahati, Thrissur, Tripura, Ladakh. He is the Founder Curator of Dehradun and Chandigarh Film Festivals. Also curated International Film Festivals - Chungmuro; South Korea, Koushiang; Taiwan and Rafi Peer; Lahore, Pakistan. He has been Jury Member for the Bengaluru International Film Festival 2016, PRAKRITI: Festival of Documentary Films on Environment, Development and Human Rights by the Consortium of Educational Communication; University Grant Commission, NETPAC Jury – Kolkata International Film Festival.
Dr. Shalini Dhyani is Scientist with CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI), India and South Asia Regional Chair for IUCN CEM (Commission on Ecosystems Management) (2017-2020) and. She is IPBES Lead Author for Global thematic assessment on Sustainable Use of Wild Species (2018-2021) and has contributed to IPBES Asia Pacific regional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services in Asia Pacific (2015-2018). Dr. Shalini has more than a decade of experience on conservation and management of biodiversity across many parts of India. Her work in Himalayas was considered innovative by ICIMOD, Nepal in 2011 was among 10 best case studies of SAARC countries for sustainable forest management in mountains in 2014. She was awarded first “IUCN-CEM Chair Young Professional Award” at World Parks Congress, Australia in 2014 for her research on forests of Indian Himalayan region. In 2010 She was among 100 women for their exceptional work in Asia by Asian Rural Women's Coalition (ARWC), Malaysia. Shalini is passionate about science outreach and is a frequent blogger, popular science writer and has delivered many talks and webinars on conservation and biodiversity management to popularize importance of ecosystems, biodiversity, ecosystem approaches and nature-based solutions across India.
Snehlata Krishnan is having a teaching experience of nearly 18 years and administrative experience of four years. Had been part of research team working on isolation of Photosystem two so as to find solution to energy needs of the world. She mentored students for various science and technology related projects and actively involved in teacher training programmed related to classroom management and best teaching learning practices. She is passionate about innovation in educational practices, environment related issues and student counselling. Working presently as Principal Sanskar World School she is actively involved with various organizations and programmes related to inclusion of technology in education and environment awareness.
Shailja Chandar is the finalist of Haut Monde Mrs India Worldwide 2019, season 9 and will be competing for finals in Greece in October 2019. She is an educator by profession, wanderer by choice and a designer by chance. She is an artist and love to do creative things with paper. Having a teaching career of 25 years, was Headmistress Pre-Primary Wing in Sri Venkateshwar International School, Dwarka, New Delhi.
Bhavya Sareen is currently a Film student at Amity University, Noida. He has actively been a part of several institutional projects. He has worked in an Award winning Feature Film “Kuch Der Aur” As an assistant art director. He has been involved as cinematographer and editor in Kala utsav 2017-2018, 2018-2019 . He has also been involved as an intern in projects with ”wildlife crime control bureau” as a cinematographer and an editor. He was also part of the Organising team for the 15th Edition of IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival 2019. Currently he is working as a cinematographer at WCCB.
Harnaaz has recently graduated from Amity School of Communication in Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication . Throughout these years, she was a merit scholar interested in content production who aspires to be an entrepreneur. On her Concluding Ceremony, she was recognised with the Achiever’s Award for Best in Leadership Qualities. She has worked on three student films: a feature, an ad and a short film; all belonging to different genres. She headed the art direction of these films and even acted in them, playing the lead roles. She has attended various events across India, UK and US to get knowledge on topics like online trolling, music marketing, short filmmaking, different uses of social media in different communities, media rumble, talk journalism, financing your film, BBC’s documentary making etc.
Prachi Ankita has graduated from St. Xavier’s college with a degree in Mass Communication and Video Production . She worked on the documentary “Tribal Literature” and have a good research on tribal lifestyle. Her documentary was screened in Alpirama in 2018 and in samvaad in 2018. She was also the part of Paryavaran Sanrakshan as the Directorate of Advertisment and publicity. Recently as a part of summer internship she has worked with Jio Studios where she was involved in some big projects which involved Boman Irani , Milind Soman, Mukesh Chabbara (casting director) and many more. Currently she is pursuing her masters in public relations and event management from amity university.
Aman Khan is currently a student in Amity University. He had worked as an intern for Results Advertising and marketing associates. He was responsible for communicating with clients. Later he also worked as the marketing and Communication head of the UP Mango Festival held in Lucknow. He was also part of the Organising team for the 15th Edition of IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival 2019 He has worked on a Student feature film. He directed produced and acted in the film. Currently, he is working as an intern in Voice Monk Recording Studio in partnership with Thompson Digital a company that deals in the Production of Corporate films and Virtual Class Lectures.
Purvasha Dutta has graduated from Amity University with a degree in film and TV production and has been actively part of several institutional productions in the last 2 years. She worked as an organizing team member for “Timecode Film festival” held in 2017 in the Amity Youth Fest as the Art Director. Also, she has been involved in projects with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau as an Assistant Director and scriptwriter. Her research interests include social media effectiveness and wildlife awareness. At present,she is the Student Coordinator/ representative of Amity School of Communication for a Capacity Building Films project in collaboration with the WCCB.
Sagar Jain is currently pursuing MJMC from Amity University, Noida and is a graduate in BAMC from Prestige Institute of Management and Research (2015-18). He has interviewed renowned personalities like Jyotiraditiya Scindia and Tarek Fateh. He has been a part of the segment “Pariksha Pe Charcha 2.0” under NCERT Team. He has a work experience of 2 years with Prestige Media (YouTube Channel) as an Anchor, Reporter and Editor. He was the student coordinator for Prestige Cinevision film festival2018 and Principal Secretary of Prestige Cultural Fest Manthan2018. He has attended 3 International Conferences at Graduation level and was a part of the Organizing committee for the International Conference at Amity University. He has worked as an Organizing Committee member for Sangathan Cultural Event 2019 held at Amity University and Jashn Ae India organized by Radio Amity 107.8 FM. He has participated in the NDTV, LOKSABHA TV and TIRANGA TV for several discussions. He has been an active volunteer and participant for the events at the Graduation and Masters level.
Our Partners
