Jumpstart: Beyond the Book

Neeraj Jain, Managing Director, Scholastic India Born and brought up in Delhi, Neeraj has a keen interest in sports and music. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in commerce from Hansraj College, University of Delhi, Chartered Accountancy from Institute of Chartered Accountancy in India, CMA and CFM from Institute of Management Accountants, USA and Executive MBA from ISB, Hyderabad. While doing his Executive MBA he attended programs in FDC Brazil, Kellogg School of Management and Wharton Business School in USA. Though a finance specialist by training, he discovered his interest in reading and education once he joined Scholastic. Since 2002 he has been working closely with the global teams of Scholastic to bring out the best books, reading programs, proven pedagogy, and latest developments to support the changing face of education in the Indian classroom. He has been involved in conducting focused group sessions on reading with school principals in different parts of India. He has been part of various principals’ and business conferences as speaker and moderator. Neeraj has also been on the Steering Committee of “Excellence in School Education”, an initiative by IIT Delhi.

Asad Lalljee is SVP Essar Group and CEO of Avid Learning, a public programming initiative and creative platform under the Essar Group. Asad brings several years of advertising, publishing, marketing and business development experience, both in international and domestic markets. Prior to relocating to India, Asad worked for 14 years as one of the ‘Mad Men’ advertising executives on New York's Madison Avenue. He was with McCann-Erickson, and earlier with Hill Holiday, a subsidiary of advertising giant IPG. Under Asad’s leadership AVID has distinguished itself with a wide variety of arts and cultural programming and is currently at the forefront of India’s cultural hub. AVID has grown its curatorial practice by leveraging international cultural collaborations through the diplomatic core and partnering with the existing ecosystem by creating opportunities at some of the country’s and region’s largest cultural platforms including JLF, The Serendipity Arts Festival and The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. Asad co-curated the Literature Section at Kala Ghoda for two years. Asad’s career also demonstrates his passion for technology and new media. Under his leadership AVID has a robust social media presence and uses social media as an integral channel for learning. In 2016, Asad was appointed curator of the newly restored Royal Opera House, Mumbai for which he has successfully designed a robust program. Under Asad’s guidance the Royal Opera House, Mumbai has re-established itself as a performance space of international quality, a cultural venue par excellence and a prime example of restored and renewed city heritage. In 2018 Asad was inducted into the prestigious FICCI Art and Culture Committee as a distinguished member. FICCI is the largest and oldest apex business organization of Indian business with a glorious history of nine decades. FICCI cuts across 72 different sectors and has started working for the cause of the Indian Art and Culture Industry since 2015. Asad holds a B.A. in Economics from St. Xavier's College (Mumbai) and an M.A. in Global Marketing Communications from Emerson College (Boston).

Devashish Sharma, Country Head, Wattpad India Devashish is the Country Head for Wattpad - a global entertainment company. Their apps lets their 75 million monthly users discover and share stories from science fiction to romance and everything in between. Leveraging the data and insights from more than 565 million story uploads, their studios then partner with the entertainment and publishing industries to turn the best stories with built-in audience into movies, TV shows, books, and new forms of digital media.

Jiggy George, Founder and CEO, Dream Theatre Jiggy George is Founder & CEO of Dream Theatre Group; Head of the India Chapter of the Licensing Industry Merchandiser’s Association (LIMA) and Founding Partner of Mojostar, Jiggy is a pioneer when it comes to the licensing and merchandising industry in India. He has set up and successfully ran the licensing business for Turner (Cartoon Network Enterprises) and prior to that at Viacom (MTV). In 2009 Jiggy founded Dream Theatre Pvt Ltd: India’s first professionally run Brand Management and licensing enterprise in India. Over time, Dream Theatre Group has evolved its model from pure representation to creating their own brands, syndicating content and distributing merchandise.

Sidharth Jain, Founder and Chief Storyteller, Story Ink Sidharth has founded India's First Story Company - The Story Ink & in a span of 12 months, has also become India’s No.1 Book to Screen Company, with over 75 book to screen adaptation deals. He has worked as a producer in Hollywood & Bollywood. A serial entrepreneur, he founded the World's First Online Auction Portal for Original Bollywood Memorabilia - BollywoodAuction.com (subsequently acquired by Baazee.com which is now Ebay India), he produced India's First 5-country co production international film - Marigold, Founded India’s First Script Development Company - IRock Films, Produced India’s First Found Footage Horror Film - Ragini MMS - shot on Digital and after a 2-year stint at India’s No.1 OTT platform - Hotstar.com, he is currently running - The Story Ink & producing a slate of projects. He is a collector of pop-culture memorabilia, shoes and speaks at 15+ forums a year, hosts a monthly talk series at Soho House Mumbai, and is a TEDx Speaker.

Bilal Siddiqi, Author, Bard of Blood (A Netflix Adaptation) Bilal Siddiqi is a student of St. Xavier College, Mumbai with a bachelor's degree in mass media. He wrote the official blog for the Kolkata Knight Riders team of the Indian Premier League in 2014. He is currently working at Red Chillies Entertainment. He is the author of Bard of Blood.

Shilpa Ranade, Animator and Faculty at IIT Mumbai Shilpa Ranade teaches Animation at IDC School Of Design, IIT Bombay, a discipline she has helped establish in 2006. An alumnus of IDC, she later completed her MPhil in Animation from the Royal College of Art, London. Shilpa Ranade has directed short animation films for Channel 4, UK; her films have traveled all over the world winning accolades in some of the most prestigious film festivals. She is a founding member of Damroo, a project involved in creating content for children where she has produced books and films while working closely with children to produce the content. She has also illustrated numerous books for children for leading publishers in the country including Scholastic, Eklavya, Pratham and Karadi Tales. Her curatorial work includes two large volumes; ‘Plant Life’ - an anthology of children’s writing and drawing on how they perceive higher and lower plants as students of a Waldorf Steiner School, and ‘Child Farmers’ a book based on the lives of children of Vidarbha who have lost their farmer fathers to suicides. She has made an Animated feature film for the Children’s Film Society of India, ‘Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya,’ based on the original text ‘Goopi Gayne Bagha Bayne’ by Upendrakishore Raychowdury. Her film has won several Indian and International awards and nominations and has premiered at TIFF Toronto, Busan Korea, MAMI India, and has been showcased at DIFF Dubai, Colombo International Film Festival, Trinidad Film Festival, Lucas International Children’s Film Festival, Frankfurt, PISAF Korea among several other film festivals. Her current work includes Animation films based on the lives of Buddha, Milarepa and Padmasambhava in a project on the resonances of Ajanta, an animation and graphic novel project on Lal Ded, poet mystic of Kashmir, and illustration for children’s books.

Venke Sharma, Digital Marketing Practitioner and Author Venke Sharma is a leading digital marketing practitioner, recognized by SAP as India’s most influential Digital thought leader in the domain of marketing for the year 2015. He built a digital agency- Tribal DDB India and an integrated marketing services agency -Arc Worldwide (India) and digital capability in Leo Burnett Indonesia. Agencies under his leadership won various awards for creativity and effectiveness including India’s first Cannes Cyber Lion. He has worked with clients such as Coca Cola, P&G, Samsung, Philip Morris, McDonald’s, Citibank, HDFC Bank, Common wealth Bank, British Telecom, KLM Air France, Carrefour, Reliance, Madura Garments etc. Crisis in today’s consumer age can just be a tweet away. His book “The Indestructible brand: Crisis management for the Social Age” illustrates the kind of crises modern companies can face in a socially charged world. It suggests practical ways and means of dealing with such situations.

Mita Kapur, Founder and CEO, Siyahi Mita Kapur is the founder and CEO of Siyahi, India’s leading literary consultancy. She also conceptualises and produces literary festivals and events. Her first book, The F-Word, is a food book, memoir and travelogue. She has edited Chillies and Porridge: Writing Food, an anthology of essays on food. As a freelance journalist, she writes regularly for different newspapers and magazines on social and development issues along with travel, food and lifestyle.

Paro Anand, Children’s Author Paro Anand writes for children, young adults and adults. She won the Sahitya Akademi Bal Sahitya Puruskar in 2017 for her anthology Wild Child (now published as "Like Smoke).She has spoken about and written extensively on children's literature in India. She headed the National Centre for Children's Literature, The National Book Trust, India, the apex body for children's literature in India. She also runs a podcast on HubHopper called Literature in Action, and was an invitee to the India Conference at the Harvard Business School in 2018. She was awarded the Kalinga Karubaki Award for fearless writing, 2019. She is well-known for her work with children in difficult circumstances including those impacted by violence in Kashmir and has written extensively on the subject.