It is this panel's responsibility to review all submissions and identify a winner for recommendation to MMRDA. The panel reserves the right to modify any and all aspects of the competition without prior notice. The jury's decisions are final and not subject to appeal. The composition of the jury is subject to modification. Please note that any changes to this panel will be posted on this website.
Mr UPS Madan graduated in Commerce and Law from Panjabi University, Patiala, and has a Masters in Development and Project Planning from Bradford University, UK. Prior to his appointment as the Metropolitan Commissioner, MMRDA, he served the government in several key positions which included: Vice Chairman & Managing Director (In Charge), Maharashtra Airport Development Company Ltd.; Vice President & CEO, Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA); Project Director in Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA); Commissioner, Kalyan Municipal Corporation; Project Manager, Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU). He also served as Deputy Secretary and Director of Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India and was the Chief Electoral Officer of Maharashtra.
Noted art historian, environmentalist and writer, Dr Pheroza Godrej is well-known for promoting young talent and bringing to the world stage contemporary Indian art. She is on the board of governors of the Maharashtra Nature Park Society. An advocate of the vast and rich art history of India, Dr Godrej is the Honorary Secretary of the Museum Society of Bombay and a member of the Regional Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. She is President of the National Society of the Friends of the Trees, and one of the three Vice-presidents of the Bombay Natural History Society (founded in 1883). Her interaction with the corporate world enables her to connect industry with environmental activism in nature protection, including scientific research and green education.
Mr Sudheendra Kulkarni is a public spirited intellectual and author. He served as a special aide to India's former Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the Prime Minister's Office between 1998 and 2004. He played an active role in conceptualising and driving several landmark initiatives including, the Prime Minister's Task Force on Information Technology, New Telecom Policy, National Highway Development Project, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (a national programme for rural connectivity), and a national scheme for urban sanitation. He was an activist of the Bharatiya Janata Party for many years and served as its national secretary until he resigned from the BJP in January 2013. In 2012, his book, Music of the Spinning Wheel - Mahatma Gandhi's Manifesto for the Internet Age, was published. As a political analyst and a keen observer of national and international politics, he is called to present his views on many public forums including social media and television. Since October 2009, Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni has been providing leadership to the Observer Research Foundation Mumbai as its chairman. Under his visionary stewardship, the organisation has grown in size, stature and relevance. He is keenly interested in the future of public spaces in Mumbai and urban India and has pushed for their protection and activation for the benefit of all citizens. Sudheendra Kulkarni holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.
Ton Venhoeven, is a well experienced and much sought after consultant for various international public and private organisations, advising on Smart City, Micro City and Healthy City developments, integrated planning (‘Dutch Approach'), multimodal mobility networks and strategic planning issues. Currently Ton Venhoeven works as TOD consultant for the World Bank in China. He has a background in the business of design and engineering, but also in government and academia. In 2008 he was appointed Chief Government Advisor on Infrastructure, when he advised the Dutch National Government on sustainable design quality of infrastructural, urban and regional plans. Projects ranged from improvements in national highways and widening rivers for flood prevention to integration of different mobility networks in multimodal node development, transit oriented development and integrated urban and regional planning. From 2005 until 2009, Venhoeven was Professor of Architectural History and Theory at Eindhoven University of Technology. With his extensive network of experts in different fields, and with his broad and interdisciplinary experience, Venhoeven has been leading several Dutch delegations on urban development missions abroad, working with local stakeholders on a range of challenging urban issues.
Dr Patel has over 25 years of professional, research and teaching experience in architecture, urban design and urban planning. He is President of CEPT University in Ahmedabad and also leads HCP Design Planning and Management Pvt Ltd, a leading architecture, planning and project management firm. Dr Patel founded Environmental Planning Collaborative, a not-for-profit, planning research and advocacy organization. Dr Patel's practice has focused on transforming urban design and planning practice to make them more effective in improving Indian cities. His research interests are in Land Use Planning, Real Estate Markets, Building Regulations, Land Management and Urban Planning History. EPC, the NGO founded by him was one of the very first non-government organizations in India to successfully work with government on statutory planning and one that has been impactful in the rejuvenation of city planning in a variety of ways. In 1998, UNCHS Global 100 Best Practices Award commended EPC for its revitalization plan for Surat's inner city. In 2003 EPC's work on the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project won the Prime Minister's Award for Excellence in Urban Design and Planning.
Dr Rakesh Kumar is a Director Grade Scientist in Mumbai Zonal Lab of National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Mumbai, having about 25 years of experience in the field of environmental science and engineering. He is MTech in Environment Science and Engineering from IIT Bombay and PhD in Environmental Engineering from Nagpur University, India in 1994. He has published more than 65 papers in international journals and 43 papers in national refereed journals with four books and nine chapters in different books. He has eight patents to his credit. Additionally, he has published several technical reports on research/consultancy conducted for government agencies and private industries. He has led and worked on several projects on developing technologies for automobile pollution control which also led to his PhD in Environment Engineering. His experience has been in all the fields of environmental science and engineering, especially air pollution control and management, urban air quality monitoring, emission inventory and modelling, Environmental Impact Assessment and EA and Climate Change and Health. He has been working on climate change mitigation technology development. Dr Kumar had given immense contribution in reuse and recycle technology for domestic and industrial wastewater treatment which brings a paradigm shift. Dr. Kumar has been a member of the Mithi River Redevelopment and Planning Authority.
Mr Ethan Kent works to support Placemaking organizations, projects and leadership around the world. During over 17 years at PPS, Ethan has travelled to more than 750 cities and 55 countries to advance the cause of Placemaking and public spaces. Ethan has been integral to the development of Placemaking as a transformative approach to economic development, environmentalism, transportation planning, governance and design. Having worked on over 200 PPS projects, Ethan has led a broad spectrum of Placemaking effort s, providing comprehensive public engagement, planning and visioning for many important public spaces. Highlights have included: Times Square in New York; Kennedy Plaza in Providence, RI; Pompey Square, Nassau, Bahamas; Garden Place in Hamilton, New Zeala nd; Sub Centro Las Condes in Santiago, Chile; and The Porch, Philadelphia, PA. He has also worked with some of the most high profile developments in the world to help maximize public space outcomes in Hong Kong, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Auckland, Parramatta and Sao Paulo.
Mr Pravin Darade has a Masters in Structural Engineering from IIT Mumbai. A member of the prestigious Indian Administrative Service, he has handled many high-profile assignments including Director General, Maharashtra Energy Development Authority, Pune; Chairman of the Nagpur Improvement Trust; Collector of Kolhapur and Nagpur. Mr. Darade is known for his invaluable contribution to the metro projects in Nagpur that is currently underway. Mr. Darade continues to hold the post of Secretary to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra State.
Gautam has over a decade of work experience in the domain of urban renewal with a focus on Mumbai. He is a post graduate in Environmental Sciences from the University of Mumbai. He has extensively studied and worked on Water Supply, Sanitation and Solid Waste Management in all cities of Maharashtra and is very familiar with Mumbai's urban renewal owing to his time on the Mumbai Transformation Project. Gautam was posted for a year in Yokohama with CITYNET where he facilitated knowledge and technology transfer between member cities. He brings a strong corporate experience from Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd, where he helped formulate and establish a sustainability reporting structure and subsequently drafted and developed the group's first sustainability report in 2008. Gautam played a key role in the development of data collection formats and indicators related to Water Supply, Sanitation, Sewerage and Solid Waste Management for all cities in Maharashtra state as part of the Performance Assessment Systems Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At ORF Mumbai he is working on placemaking in the city since 2011.
Nidhi Gulati works on all aspects of public space transformations into centres of life and activity in cities, towns and neighborhoods. In addition to transportation research and resource development, she has been involved with several community-specific Placemaking projects across the world including downtowns and multi-use destinations, plazas, squares, parks and greenways. Nidhi has a multidisciplinary background in architecture, urban design, urban research, park planning, leisure studies, environmental psychology and community development. She has also been involved with education and knowledge exchange between PPS and Placemaking advocates in the global south. Born and raised in India, Nidhi chooses to be a non-driver and has been an advocate for re-inclusion of walking and biking in transportation corridors since the start of her career.
Bobby Desai is an award-winning architect from London who joined HCP as Director of Design in 2012 where is responsible for design direction across all projects, contributing to the impressive design legacy and culture of the practice. He brings over 25 years of international design leadership and experience across a broad range of architectural and urban design projects. Bobby has taught at many of the world's top architectural schools including Architectural Association, (London), CEPT, (Ahmedabad), JJ School of Architecture, (Mumbai), and RMIT, (Melbourne). For nearly a decade, he taught a postgraduate design in the Master's program at the Royal College of Art. He continues to contribute to architectural education in the UK through his role as guest critic. He has worked with Ron Herron, Terry Farrell and Balkrishna Doshi and has contributed his original thought and flair to projects in across the world.