Our Speakers

Venkateswaran Anand is a Science Graduate of the Punjab University, Chandigarh. He joined the Indian Railways as an Officer Apprentice in 1963 and retired as General Manager of Southern Railway, Chennai. He graduated from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London, and the Institution of Production Engineers, London. After retirement, he was an Advisor to The Delhi Metro Railway Corporation, New Delhi. He was associated with manufacturing passenger coaches for the DMRC at BEML Bangalore. He has visited Canada, the USA, Germany, Switzerland, and the UK in connection with modernizing maintenance practices for diesel locomotives, introducing 3-phase technology, and setting up tunnel ventilation arrangements. 

Sushil Kumar Luthra

SK Luthra has been a career Railwayman with Indian Railways. He joined IR in 1980

after his Mechanical Engineering degree and the Special Class Railway Apprenticeship at Jamalpur. In his initial service he worked on Central & Eastern Railways in various assignments in Locomotive and Coach/Wagon maintenance and operations and in RDSO in Diesel Engine Research & development, where he worked primarily on development of next generation turbochargers and improving the fuel efficiency of the ALCO locomotive fleet. In between Mr. Luthra was on deputation with IR’s consultancy company – RITES Ltd. – where he managed its O&M Business Unit supporting railway systems outside IR, both in India & abroad including an important project in Saudi Arabia. He is credited with introducing the concept of wet Locomotive leasing in the Indian Power & Steel units and Ports, using railway as their main mode for raw and finished material transportation. He was also deputed to the Indian Embassy in Paris as IR’s Railway Advisor where he was responsible for scouting for new technologies for its factories and rolling stock. He retired from active IR service in 2017, and is presently engaged in editing “Rail Business”, a leading journal espousing the cause of domestic railway industry. He has also been associated as a Director of a start-up engaged in improving the cold chain and post-harvest of domestic fruit supply chain processes. He lives in New Delhi.

Chitresh Shrivastva

Chitresh Shrivastva, obtained his M.Phil. in Public Policy from JAIN (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, and his Masters in International Relations from CHRIST(Deemed to be University). He is currently pursuing his PhD on the topic “Governance of High–Speed Rail in India: A Case Study of Mumbai – Ahmedabad Region” He is currently associated with the Department of Media Studies, as an adjunct faculty at CHRIST (Deemed to be University). He is also an honorary member in the capacity of board of advisors and Senior Non–Resident Fellow, Railways and Critical Transport Infrastructure at the Global Policy Insights, a Delhi-based think tank. He has 42 publications to his credit. The publications predominantly focus on Domestic and International Railway Policies. His first international focus was a comparative study on the Indian and Chinese Railway Diplomacy published in South Asian Voices by Stimson Centre, a Washington-based Think Tank, and Indian approach to Indian approach to railway diplomacy published in South Asian Monitor by Centre for Policy Studies. He has also written articles for newspapers such as Dainik Bhaskar, The Hindu. He has written for other renowned publications such as The South Asia Centre, London School of Economics, The Asia and Pacific Society, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University, Down To Earth, Rail Business [FOCUS INDIA], Global Railway Review, International Union of Railways. He has contributed chapters to edited volumes published by Springer Nature, Jain University Press. He has presented papers on high-speed railway at the Fifth International Conference on Railway Technology held at Montpellier, France and the 17th Conference on Public Policy and Management hosted by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. In November 2022, he was invited by the Ministry of Railways, Government of India to speak on railway diplomacy at the 6th Edition of Rail India Conference hosted jointly by the Ministry of Railways and Messe Frankfurt, India.