Our speakers

Smt Mercy Epao, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Government of India

Ms. Mercy Epao is Joint Secretary in Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises. Prior to the current posting, she has served Govt. of India in various capacities across the Ministries/ Departments for the past 25 years.   Some of her important postings inter alia are Ministries of Finance, Housing & Urban Affairs and Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) etc. During her service, she handled different subjects viz. Agriculture and Allied Sector in DoNER, externally aided projects for the NER, Pay related matters, Cadre review of All India Service (AIS), works related HR and Administration.

She is a Post Graduate from Delhi University. As Joint Secretary she is in charge of implementation of various Schemes pertaining to Small and Medium Enterprises.  Some Schemes are the National SC/ST Hub Scheme, which is dedicated to support SC/ST entrepreneurs. The International Co-operation Scheme entails her to tie-up / negotiate / interact and enable MoUs / FTAs/ sharing and exchanging of best practices in the SME sector with other countries.  M/o MSME participates in Bilateral and Multilaterals Forums to strengthen the MSME sector through capacity building, technology intervention, G2G, B2B networking and explore possible partnership.

In the Ministry, she also looks after the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), National Institute of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (NiMSME), which is CPSE and an Autonomous Organization respectively.  She also handles Media vertical which gives wide coverage of the Schemes/initiatives of the Ministry on all Social Media Platforms. ‘Insider’ which is a monthly magazine is also brought out which is shared with all Udyam Registration holders.  For supporting the Women entrepreneurs, WEC has been set up to handhold women. Her passion is to see women and weaker / marginalized section entrepreneurs to attain knowledge for gainful employment and successful entrepreneurship which will lead to social upliftment and economic empowerment.

She has been given the additional charge of CMD, Director (Planning & Marketing) and Director (Finance) of NSIC until a regular incumbent is posted.

In addition, she also looks after coordination vertical in the Ministry which also handles Vision India @2047, Toy Manufacturers Hub, Swachhta Campaign.  She is also Director in the Board of few Autonomous Bodies.

Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, GOI

Sneha Shah, Deputy Editor, Mint (Moderator)

Som Satsangi, SVP and MD, Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, Co-Founder & Partner, BIF Ventures

Somshubhro Pal Choudhury is a Co-Founder and Partner at BIF Ventures (Bharat Innovation Fund). Previously, Som was the Managing Director of Analog Devices India, wholly owned subsidiary of $12B+ global semiconductor company headquartered in Boston, and was based for almost 2 decades in Silicon Valley in various roles: Global Product Management & Marketing Director at NETGEAR, first employee of an early M2M/IoT startup in the energy management/Smart grid space and held several management and engineering roles at Cadence Design Systems. Som is currently on the board of US India Science and Technology Fund (USISTEF), a grant initiative by both Governments to foster cross-border joint collaborative research and Entrepreneurship. He is on the board of multiple deeptech startups, and in semiconductor startup selection committee of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). He was previously a board member of Industry Body, IESA (India Electronics & Semiconductor Association). Som is an active advisor and mentor to several startups and co-chairs India's Deeptech ecosystem building thinktank and community, TiE MatrixForum and the conference TiE Matrix Global Summit. He is an MBA from Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, and an engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and North Carolina State University. He is also a co-author of a book “New Kind of Computational Biology” that was recently published by Springer.

SONAL KALRA, Chief Managing Editor, HT

Sonalde Desai, Distinguished University Professor Emerita, University of Maryland; Professor, National Council of Applied Economic Research

Sonalde Desai is Distinguished University Professor Emerita at University of Maryland College Park and leads the National Data Innovation Centre at NCAER, New Delhi. She is one of India’s most respected demographers, dealing primarily with social inequalities in developing countries. The India Human Development Survey, which she leads, is a pioneering large-scale national panel survey tracking changes in Indian society since 2004. Desai’s scholarly work has been published widely across the world. She also serves on several government committees such as the Steering Committee for NSS and Expert Committee on Benchmarking RBI Statistics. She was elected president of the Population Association of America in 2022. 

Sonali Jindal, Co-Founder and COO, Ring/ Kissht

Sonali Kulkarni, MD and Lead, Financial Services, Accenture in India

Sonia Dasgupta, MD & CEO, Investment Banking, JM Financial Ltd.

Ms. Sonia Dasgupta is the Managing Director & CEO of the Investment Banking division at JM Financial. A seasoned investment banker, Ms. Dasgupta brings over 25 years of rich experience. A graduate of the prestigious Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, she has held key leadership positions in JM Financial, including Head of FIG Coverage, Head of M&A Origination, and Head of Group Borrowings. During the journey, she has been at the helm of numerous landmark transactions as well as led advisory and fund- raising transactions for a large number of domestic and overseas clients.

Ms. Dasgupta's leadership experience and proven track record in structuring marquee transactions has earned her multiple recognitions. In 2023, she was named one of India's 100 Most Influential Women by Business World. Earlier, in 2019, she was honoured as one of the Top 100 Women in Finance by the Association of International Wealth Management of India(AIWMI).