Vishwa Konkani Alumni Association to host “PRERNA 2020” on Mar 7

Press Release, Mar 6, 2020, 12:46 PM IST

Mangaluru: VAA, the Alumni Association formed by the recipients of Vishwa Konkani Scholarships instituted by World Konkani Centre, Mangaluru, is organising a day-long mega event called Prerna – A Confluence of Ideas and Motivation on 7th March 2020 at T V Raman Pai Convention Hall, Mangaluru. The conference is one of the initiatives as envisaged by VISION TVM of World Konkani Centre.  The event will be inaugurated by T.V. Mohandas Pai, in the gracious presence of, Basti Vaman Shenoy, President and Founder World Konkani Centre, Ramadas Kamath U, Chairman, Vishwa Konkani Student Scholarship Fund, Sandeep Shenoy, Chief mentor, Prerna and Pradeep G. Pai, Secretary, VKSSF. Nirosh Kumari, the president of VAA will deliver the welcome address.

‘Prerna’, an event graced by many wonderful personalities over the past three years, is here again with 8 speakers who have not only been inspiration and role models for youth all over the country, professionally and personally but have established a strong foothold in every sphere of their life. Sahil Kini, CEO and CoFounder of Setu, Chetan Sashital, the famous voice actor and exponent, Lalit Pai, CEO and CoFounder Medwell Ventures, Sudhir Shenoy, CEO & Country President, Dow Chemicals International Pvt Ltd., Cmdr. N. P. Shenoy, Indian Navy Officer and Former Director General of Weapons System DRDO, Ajay Prabhu, COO, Quest Global, Ullas Kamath K, Jt. Managing Director, Jyothy Laboratories, and T.V.Mohandas Pai, Social Entrepreneur and Corporate Mentor will be enthralling the young minds with their insights this year.

VKSSF Alumni Association has been established to foster the ideals of giving back to society under the VISION TVM programme of the World Konkani Centre. Today, the members of VAA have spread across the world, occupying coveted positions in various corporations and organisations. As true bearers of the spirit of Konkani speaking people who have wholeheartedly contributed to the region’s all-round development, VAA is initiating a platform event where all the established alumni can interact with the student population of the region, motivate and inspire them and foster creativity and innovation.

Brief introduction of the speakers:

Sahil Kini: Sahil is the Founder and CEO of Setu, a Bangalore based startup that offers API infrastructure for financial services. His mission is to make formal finance accessible to all in India. A B.Tech from IIT Madras, he had stints at McKinsey, Titan Industries and Ezetap, before becoming a Principal at Aspada Investment Advisors, an India focused startup fund. As an early team member of Aadhaar Implementation team, he is a member of iSPIRT, which works to evangelize the India Stack for financial ecosystem. He writes regularly on these topics in various publications and has a print column in the Mint newspaper titled the Bharat Rough Book.

Chetan Sashital: Chetan, a BE, MTech, started his career as a CAD/CAM designer. As he had found his calling in voice modulation during his college days he was always on the lookout for opportunities in that segment. His ‘big break’ was the legendary ‘Mango Moods’ ad which defined his present career. Since then, he has been the voice of characters like Baloo the bear, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Genie in Aladdin and dabbled in Hindi film playback singing. As a professional voice counsellor, he also doubles as an audio and speech therapist. He is also a keen photographer, a singer, a CAD/CAM teacher, cartoonist and a good cook!

Lalit Pai: Lalit, B.E and an MBA from IIM, started his career as a banker with Citibank. After a stint with the house of Tata’s, he handled operations for the IT giant Mphasis. Post that, he moved on to become a part of the emerging contract research (CRO) sector in India. After a stint of 10 years in Quintiles, he turned into an entrepreneur. His company, a new age healthcare enterprise, Medwell ventures, wants to redefine the landscape of home care health services in India and has managed to evoke good interest from private equity players. A certified scuba diver, he is also an avid trekker and usually explores uncharted jungles of India.

Sudhir Shenoy: Sudhir, is an Engineer-cum-MBA and started off his career as a sales officer in a small chemical trading company. The learning from the role came in good stead when he moved onto Dow chemicals in the sale function. A ‘lifer’ Dow employee after that, he has had stints in various functions like sales, manufacturing etc., that too in countries like Switzerland and China. Presently, as the CEO of Indian operations, he is spearheading his company’s market expansion in the South East Asian region. As an avid runner, he is a regular Marathoner and mentors challenged people who aspire to run the marathon.

Cmdr. N. P. Shenoy: Nagaraj, an Engineer, got selected by the Indian Navy in his college and he joined it right away. His career led him to postings in over 17 locations where he managed functions ranging from HR, Software development, Dockyard management and weapon design. During this, he also got his MTech in Radar communication from IIT Delhi. He has been the Commanding Officer of the largest missile base of India and received Vishist Seva Medal in 2017. His final stint in Navy was as Director General of Weapons system in DRDO Delhi. A professional Trekker, he is a keen reader of Indian history and also updates himself by reading technical and naval journals.

Ajay Prabhu: Ajay, after a B.Tech. from NIT Surathkal, set off to University of Massachusetts, USA, for his Masters with meagre resources in his pocket. He also got his doctorate there in Microwave Electronics. After successful stints with tech majors like HP and Agilent Technologies in the US, he came back to join QuEST Global, a fledging company in India started by his brother. QuEST now has a presence in 14 countries and with over 12,000 professionals employed. Apart from being the current NASSCOM Engineering R&D Council Chair, he also is an active Angel Investor and a passionate educationist for the underprivileged.

Ullas Kamath K.: Ullas, a CA, CS, LLB is one of the well-known brand builder in the Indian FMCG industry. With an established track record of acquiring and turning around sick units, he crafted the most audacious move in the domestic FMCG industry, in which a homegrown company took over an MNC operation in India in 2011. Under his stewardship, Jyothy Laboratories has transitioned from 60 employees and Rs. 6 crs revenue in ‘90 to an entity with over 5000 employees, having Rs 1,750 Crores revenues and Rs. 6000 Crores market cap.

T V Mohandas Pai: T V Mohandas Pai, after having a stellar career in the corporate sector which he capped as a Director in Infosys Technologies, has now emerged as a tech mentor, venture capitalist and start up evangelist. Apart from corporate responsibilities he also strives for facilitating social change and is known for his association with high impact organizations like Akshay Patra and BPAC. Apart from being on the board of various bodies and organizations like NSE, Havells Ltd, Ascendas India etc, he also is an active part of many Think tanks and social organisations.