Dr. Shashi Tharoor was the official candidate of India for the succession to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2006, and came a close second out of seven contenders in the race. He currently serves as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information. His career began in 1978, when he joined the staff of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, and includes key responsibilities in peace-keeping after the Cold War and as a senior adviser to the Secretary-General.

Dr. Tharoor is also the award-winning author of nine books, as well as hundreds of articles, op-eds and book reviews in a wide range of publications, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, Time, Newsweek and The Times of India. He has served for two years as a Contributing Editor and occasional columnist for Newsweek International. Since April 2001 he has authored a fortnightly column in The Hindu and since January 2007 in The Times of India.

His five non-fiction books include: Reasons of State (1981), a study of Indian foreign-policy making; India: From Midnight to the Millennium (1997), which was cited by President Clinton in his address to the Indian Parliament; Nehru: The Invention of India (2003), a biography of India's first Prime Minister, and a collection of literary essays, Bookless in Baghdad (2005). His three novels are the classic The Great Indian Novel (1989) which is required reading in several courses on post-colonial literature; Riot (2001), a searing examination of Hindu-Muslim violence in contemporary India, and Show Business (1992) which received a front-page accolade in the New York Times Book Review and has since been made into a motion picture, "Bollywood". Shashi Tharoor's books have been translated into French, German, Italian, Malayalam, Marathi, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Spanish.

Born in London in 1956, Dr. Tharoor was educated in India and the United States, completing a Ph. D. in 1978 at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, where he received the Robert B. Stewart Prize for Best Student. At Fletcher, Shashi Tharoor helped found and was the first Editor of the Fletcher Forum of International Affairs, a journal now in its 31st year.

In January 1998, Dr. Tharoor was named a "Global Leader of Tomorrow" by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He is the recipient of several awards, including a Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and was named to India's highest honour for Overseas Indians, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, in 2004. He serves on the Board of Overseers of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the board of trustees of the Aspen Institute India, and the Advisory Board of the World Policy Journal. He is also a Fellow of the New York Institute of the Humanities

Hon. Ronen Sen Indian Ambassador to the United States http://www.indianembassy.org

Mr. Sen was born on 9 April, 1944. After graduation, he joined the Indian Foreign Service in July 1966. From May 1968 to July 1984, he served in Indian Missions / Posts in Moscow, San Francisco and in Dhaka and in the Ministry of External Affairs, and had also been Secretary to the Atomic Energy Commission of India.

From July 1984 to December 1985, Mr. Sen was Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs. He was thereafter Joint Secretary to the Prime Minister of India from January 1986 to July 1991, responsible for Foreign Affairs, Defence and Science & Technology.

Mr. Sen was Ambassador to Mexico from September 1991 to August 1992; Ambassador to the Russian Federation from October 1992 to October 1998; Ambassador to Germany from October 1998 to May 2002; and High Commissioner to the United Kingdom from May 2002 to April 2004.

Mr. Sen participated in summit meetings in the United Nations, Commonwealth, Non-Aligned Movement, Six Nation Five Continent Peace Initiative, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, IAEA, G-15 and other forums and also in over 160 bilateral summit meetings. He had several assignments as Special Envoy of the Prime Minister of India for meetings with Heads of State or Government of neighbouring and other countries.

Mr. Sen is married and the couple have one daughter.

Mr. Sen assumed charge as Ambassador of India to the United States of America in August 2004.

Rajat Gupta Former Managing Director McKinsey & Company http://www.mckinsey.com

Rajat Kumar Gupta is the former Managing Director of McKinsey & Company, Worldwide. He joined the firm's New York Office in 1973, assumed leadership of its Scandinavian Offices in 1981, and joined the Chicago Office in 1987. He assumed the role of Office Manager there in 1989, was elected Managing Director of the Firm in 1994 and re-elected twice, once in 1997 and again in 2000.

Since joining the firm, Mr. Gupta has directed a number of projects aimed at helping companies develop new product/market strategies and reorganize for improved effectiveness and operations capabilities. He has a broad range of consulting experience with a variety of industries, including telecommunications, energy, and consumer goods.

Mr. Gupta is Chairman of the Board of the Indian School of Business, and is associated with many other professional and business affiliations. Some of the positions he holds are: Trustee of the University of Chicago, Chairman of the Board of Associates of the Harvard Business School, Member, Advisory Board, Harvard School of Public Health, Member Advisory Board, Kellogg School of Management, Member, Board of Governors of the Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Cochair of the American India Foundation (AIF), and Dean’s Advisory Council, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School of Management.

Mr. Gupta holds a bachelor of technology degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

G V Prasad Vice Chairman & CEO Dr. Reddy's Laboratories http://www.drreddys.com

Mr. G V Prasad leads the core team that is driving the company's growth and transformation from a company predominantly selling API, Branded Formulations & Generics to achieving its vision of becoming a discovery-led global pharmaceutical company.

As CEO, Mr. Prasad has championed the globalization of the company and has played a vital role in the company's evolution. He has been the architect of the company's global generics strategy. He has helped create new platforms of growth for Dr. Reddy's, in the Custom Pharmaceutical Services, Discovery Services and Specialty Pharmaceutical segments. He has built a diverse, talented and experienced senior management team in India, Europe and the US. Currently he is focused on driving Dr. Reddy's growth in the two largest geographies - US and Europe.

Mr. Prasad has a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago (1982), and a Masters in Industrial Administration from Purdue University (1983).