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V Rajesh is a well-known and widely acknowledged retail and shopper behaviour expert who has been an integral part of the transformation of Indian Retail. He along with his team has successfully introduced several modern retail formats in India starting with supermarkets in the mid 1990s and various other mass merchandise, lifestyle and specialty stores. He is a prolific writer, having written several articles and case studies for leading publications. He is also the author of one of India’s first hands-on book on Indian retail titled The Indian reTALEs. His expertise comes from having handled varied functional roles, especially in the marketing and customer service function at a CXO level. Rajesh has been involved with strategy formulation before the roll-out of several start-ups. Through his work in consumer behaviour, Rajesh has been successful in influencing consumer mindsets with regard to large-format grocery shopping in a market dominated by traditional formats. He shares his expertise through consulting assignments and training programmes across the country. He has authored a practical, actionable book about career success titled Out Of Syllabus, based on personal learnings from his successful career. He conducts career success enhancing programmes based on his book.

A long-time 'deskie', Baskar has spent much of his journalism career on the editorial desk. A keen follower of economic and political matters, he likes to view economic issues from a political economy lens as he believes the economic structure of a society is deeply embedded in its political and social ethos. Apart from writing the PolitEco column for BLoC, Baskar writes book reviews and articles on politics, economics and sports for the BL web edition. Reading and watching films are his other interests, though the choice of books and films are rather eclectic. A keen follower of sports, especially his beloved Tottenham Hotspur FC, Baskar is an avid long-distance runner. He hopes to learn music some day!

The CEO and co-founder of TalentEase, Fernandez is a thought leader in education and a consultant and coach to school heads, teachers and parents. He has 18 years of outsourcing leadership experience in the Asia Pacific, consulting with and servicing global and regional clients. He was previously partner/managing director with Accenture, Singapore. He was the COO with Hewitt Outsourcing APAC, and President India Life Hewitt. He has overseen teams in sales, operations, client and account management, technology, finance and HR, and has extensive experience working with multinational clients across a wide industry and geographic spectrum. He is a sought-after speaker at education and industry conferences and is a columnist with Business Line on Campus.