Speakers' Forum

Keynote Address
Mr.Pranesh Prakash is a founder member and Policy Director of the Centre for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based non-profit that engages in research and policy advocacy. He was selected as an Internet Freedom Fellow in 2012 by the US State Department, and was appointed by the Indian Government to a Group of Experts on Privacy. He currently works with delegations from multiple Southern countries at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and participates actively at the Internet Governance Forums around the World. Mr. Prakash has several Publications to his credit and has participated at conferences on policy issues and activism, and in academic networks and conferences from time to time. He has also taught a short course for Masters’ students at the Centre for Culture, Media, and Governance at Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi. He has previously worked at Hindustan Unilever Limited in Mumbai, and at various law firms across the country. He holds a BA, LLB (Honors) degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and was also part of the Editorial Board of Indian Journal of Law & Technology.

Plenary Address
Dr.Ravindran Gopalan is the current Professor and Head of the Department of Journalism and Communication, University of Madras. He is also a Syndicate member and Campus Director for University of Madras (Chepauk campus). Dr.Gopalan has previously taught in the University of Manonmaniam Sundaranar, Tamil Nadu, and the School of Communication in Universiti Sains (Science), Malaysia. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Department of International Communication, Nagoya University, Japan. He holds a Masters degree in Communication, an M.Phil in Journalism and Communication, and a Doctorate in Journalism and Communication, all pursued from the University of Madras. He has published several articles in internationally reviewed journals and is a member of the International Communication Association (ICA) as well as the Editor of Widescreen, a Peer Reviewed International Journal on Film Studies, UK. Additionally, he also holds the position of President of the Association of Communication Teachers, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. His areas of interest pertain to film cultures, diasporic cultures, digital cultures, political economy of space, media and communication, cross cultural communication and critical communication studies

Valedictory Address
Dr. Keval J. Kumar is the founder-director of the Resource Centre for Media Education and Research (RECMER), Pune. He is a former Professor and Director of the Symbiosis Institute of Mass Communication (SIMC), Pune and former Reader and Head of the Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune, where he continues to guide PhD students. Currently, he is Adjunct Professor at the Fellow Programme in Communications at the Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA) and Visiting Faculty at the International School of Business and Media (ISB&M), Pune, and the Indira School of Communication. He has been a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Media Studies, Siegen University, Siegen, and Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany. Dr.Kumar has also taught at Ohio State University, Columbus (USA), and Bahrain Training Institute, Manama. He holds a Doctorate in Mass Communication from the University of Leicester (UK). He has published widely in academic journals and also in a number of edited books on the discipline of Communication such as Mass Communication in India (Jaico Books), and co-author of Environmentalism and the Mass Media (Routledge). Additionally, he has chaired the Media Education Research Section of the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR), from 1998 to 2006. He is an Associate Member of ORBICOM, the Association of UNESCO Chairs in Communication, and the Chief Advisor to the NCERT's syllabus and textbook committee on Media Studies.