Meet our Speakers for #TEDxSIBMBengaluru 2016 (Part 01)

February 18, 2016


Aditya Mehta was raised in a joint family, alongside 18 first cousins. Sensing the tough competition around him by the time Aditya was 18 years old; he had started his own business and taken it to new heights. On one unfortunate day, Aditya met with a road accident and his right leg had to be amputated from above his knee. The period of recovery was long and hard. For about one and a half months, he had to be in a state of complete bed rest. Eventually he started training to walk again and used to go for regular walks. 

 On one of these walks, Aditya came across the hoarding of local cycling club. This reminded him of the times he could cycle and hence decided to take up cycling. He believed that no one could stop him as he has no plans of being a mere spectator. Since that day, there was no looking back, he has gone to breaking a lot of records like he became the first Indian to secure two silver medals at the para-Asian cycling championship after completing a journey of 1,450 km from Delhi on his cycle. In this race unlike the others Aditya covered this distance without his prosthetic leg, with his left limb saddled onto the pedal. The aim of his adventure was to show support and respect to the paramilitary personnel who have lost their limbs in war.

The Aditya Mehta Foundation: In his new-found life path, Aditya came across several people hit with a stroke of bad luck. He says he has met a lot of para-athletes who have been suffering and have no support. He believes that he’s fortunate enough to make it all the way. With his foundation, he aims to raise funds for para-athletes across India.



Mr Abhayanand has completed his graduation from Science College in Patna. Later on he was selected as the IPS officer for the Bihar cadre after clearing UPSC Civil Services Examination in 1977. Later, during his tenure as the ADG of Bihar Military Police, Patna, he motivated the constables to donate generously from their salaries to metamorphose a dilapidated government hospital into a modern nursing home with state- of- the- art facilities for treatment of the police force and their family members. Abhayanand was appointed as D.G.P Bihar on 25 August 2011 and became the 48th D.G.P of the state of Bihar on 31 August 2011, following the footsteps of his father Late Mr. Jagdanand who was the 28th D.G.P, Bihar during 1985–86. Abhayanand is said to be the brain behind the speedy trial and convictions of criminals in Bihar. India. Bihar was infamous for notorious criminals. Abhayanand came up with the concept of speedy-trial to reign in the crime and criminal in Bihar. To manage deficiency of labor in the police, Abhayanand concocted the thought of enlisting resigned armed force men. He is now an IPS officer and educationalist who conceptualized Super 30 to teach poor students to crack IIT JEE. 



Super 30: Started in 2000, Super 30 is the route for the brightest amongst underprivileged children to get through the IITs. On an average, 27 to 28 of the Super 30 students make it to the IITs. Mr. Abhayanand, in particular, is recognized for taking Super 30 beyond its single unit in Patna, to several states across the country. As many as 102 underprivileged Super 30 students made it to IIT in the 2015 including a Kashmiri student from the Kashmir Super 30 centre – supported by the Dogra Regiment of the Indian Army.


Sundeep Rao is India’s only partially blind comic. He has been a professional comic since 2010, an improvisational actor and voice over artist. He aims to bring his unique style and dry humor to stages across India. Sundeep Rao has a condition, medically known as Juvenile Macular Degeneration, which he has worked to make an effort to turn it into an advantage instead of a disadvantage. During his earlier career days, Sundeep wasn’t open to the public about his condition. Now things have changed as he openly talks about it on stage. He has also admitted that early he did not want to be typecast as a Blind comic. Sundeep was once an IT company employee but realized after working for three years that it was not his cup of tea. One thing led into another from there on, Sundeep is today one of the most established comedians in India with gigs across Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Dubai and Singapore. Apart from physical limitations like not being able to drive or walk around freely on the streets Sundeep believes that there is nothing he can't do. The 31-year-old not only writes his own blog, he is prompt on email and text messages and is active on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter where he promotes himself as a comedian and puts up endless selfies.




Mrinal Pai has completed his graduation in Mechanical Engineering from 
R. V. College of Engineering, Bangalore. Later on he interned with Indian Institute of Science, and later on co-founded a startup company Skylark Drones. He and his partner Mughilan Thiru Ramasamy had been working on Drones for over six years but it is only in 2014 that they decided to formally start their company. He was a part of a team in R V College of Engineering, called Team Vyoma, which used to participate in an annual international inter-collegiate competition 
called SAE Aerodesign. 


It is during those years when he designed and developed drones and solved various engineering problems together with Mughilan. Right from then, they saw the potential in the applications of drones for non-military purposes and that is how Skylark Drones evolved. Skylark Drones currently offers services to startups in different market segments, mainly real estate, land survey and inspection, advertisements, sports and events. They are looking at various use cases for Drones which can help businesses in different ways, especially Arial Panoramas, UltraHD Videos and Images for different purposes. They have also moved into advertisements using Drones for which they have applied for patent as well. 




The Indian Jam Project



Tushar Lall, Samay Lalwani and Prathamesh Salunke have hit the right note with Indian Jam Project. This team takes popular soundtracks and gives them an Indian Classical twist. The group’s first video was a cover of the Game of Thrones theme song. The Indian Jam Project is a collaborative platform where different musicians come together to play Indian Adaptations of Western TV Show Theme Songs/ Movie Scores. The adaptations are arranged and composed by Tushar Lall (Founder), and are performed together along with him and some insanely talented musicians. 

Tushar is a self taught pianist/keyboardist who has been playing since the age of 4. His creative process for Indian Jam Project involves composing Indianised parts for his instrument (keys) as well as all the other instruments that are being played (flute, sarangi, sitar,etc.), blending them with the western pieces of music and putting them together as a single arrangement for the amazing musicians to replicate. 

Samay discovered music at a very young age. At the age of 4 he started taking lessons in tabla surprisingly enough as he has no family background in music whatsoever. He also plays drums and other percussion instruments which he taught himslef to play.

Prathamesh started playing flute when he was 13 years old, under the guidance of his father, Mr. Ravindra Salunke. Currently he is is studying under the renowned flute maestro - Pdt. Sri Rakesh Chaurasiya, with whom he performs too. Prathamesh has done many solo concerts like - R.D. Burman night, Mohammad Rafi Night, etc. and has played for many movies and TV serials.

The Indian Jam Project has received a lot of appreciation and love from all over the world for their fresh take on improvising western music with an Indian touch. Their work has been appreciated by Emmy Award winner, Michael Price, BBC Sherlock Producer/Actor- Mark Gatiss, legendary percussionist - Karsh Kale and many more!


In next part of this Blog Post, we will come up with more such insights on our speakers for #TEDxSIBMBengaluru2016. 

Stay tuned & Realize the #PowerofOne with us !!

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(This Blog post is written by Tanzila Merchant - tanzila@ssmc.edu.in & edited by Content Team, TEDxSIBMBengaluru)