The Social Service Committee of Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research in association with Soroptimist International Bombay Chembur observed World Environment Day with an online webinar on 5th June, 2022. The esteemed speakers were Mr. Pashupathy Gopalan, CEO of Sunedison and Vilasini Housing and Dr. Pranjal Kumar Phukan, Thought leader and industry expert.
The theme for World Environment Day this year is ‘Only One Earth’. The objective of this webinar is to raise awareness about the dangers that growing pollution levels and climate change pose to the ecosystem.
Mr. Pashupathy Gopalan is a thought leader and visionary in energy and sustainability. He is currently focused on building out a portfolio of companies in distributed energy and affordable housing to positively impact the environment and lives of the less privileged. He is the Co-chairman and CEO of SunEdison. He is also Co-founder and CEO of Vilasini Housing, an innovation platform to transform low-cost housing development for blue collar workers. He is also an advisor to Ohmium which is focused on Green Hydrogen production using PEM technology in India. Previously, Pashu was the President and CEO of SunEdison for Asia, Africa and Australia. He built SunEdison’s renewable energy business in these regions including over 1 GW of renewable energy power plants in India, Thailand, Malaysia, South Africa, China and Japan. Under his leadership, SunEdison was named India’s Best Solar Power Producer by IPPAI (Independent Power Producers Association of India) and Deloitte, and was recognized globally for the groundbreaking Gujarat Narmada Canal Top Solar project in 2012. SunEdison was also named as India’s most Innovative Developer for 2014. Pashu was also named the Solar Power Person of the Year for 2015 in India. Pashu led Lightsource BP and Everstone’s bid to win the process for Green Growth Equity Fund, now called EverSource, run by National Infrastructure and Investment Fund of India and Department for International Development of UK government in 2017. Pashu led Cypress’s efforts in Image Sensors, Memory Devices in Mobile Handset markets and held roles leading strategy, marketing, M&A, VC Investments and various Business Units. In Bloom Energy, based out of NASA, Moffett Field, he shaped the strategy and led Sales and Marketing. Thank you so much for joining us today. Mr. Gopalan spoke on the topic “Igniting young minds with Solar Energy”.
Dr. Pranjal Kumar Phukan is an internationally acclaimed industry professional having more than 25 years of experience with industries & academia in domains related to supply chain, operations management, project management, project management, economics, business analytics, entrepreneurship, learning & development. He has a degree in logistics and supply chain management from the Swiss School of Business and Management. Dr. Phukan has supported 650+ Micro / Small enterprises & more than 60 Startups across India encompassing sectors like, Agritech, fintech, construction, FMCG, health-care, tourism. organic farming and animal husbandry. Other prominent topics covered for online & offline training / workshops conducted for professionals & startups are big data analytics, image processing, cloud computing, ICT / IoT / IIoT and IPR. He has conducted Entrepreneur Awareness Camps for may orgnaisations, some of them are IIT Guwahati, Down Town Venture Lab (Assam Down Town University, Guwahati), Siemens Incubation Lab etc., Institute for Industrial Development (MSME, Govt. of India owned) among others. He is a member of many prominent associations line Member CII Eastern Region, Global General Secretary, World Mathematics Association (WMA) and Advisor to Japan Education & Skill Development Council among others. He has Authored the book titled “Limits to Infinity”. He spoke on the topic “Using Technology to mitigate Climate Change”.
The sessions were really informative and helped the participants to deeply think about the theme ONLY ONE EARTH and do our bit to save the environment. The speakers shared some measures that each one of us can take to mitigate these threats of climate change and said that each one of us has to take the resolve and responsibility to change age old habits and bring in the culture of saving the environment. 50 students, faculty and Soroptimists from all over India attended the webinar and was appreciated by all.
