Layoffs @ Indian startups cross 11,000
What can youngsters do to navigate the downturn?

Mayank Kumar is the Co-founder & MD of EdTech major - upGrad, which within 6 years of its inception, has impacted over 3 million total registered learners over 100 countries.Co-founded by Ronnie Screwvala, and Phalgun Kompalli, upGrad started with a conviction to bridge the gap between working professionals and rapidly evolving industry requirements to now reshaping online education globally. Mayank has spent most of his professional career in the education sector, where he has been involved in deals with over a billion dollars flowing into the sector. He has served as VP - Education at Bertelsmann, Europe’s largest media and education conglomerate, where he oversaw the education strategy and its multi-million-dollar investments in India.

Rituparna Chakraborty is an accomplished business leader. She has business experience of 23 years and as Co-Founder of TeamLease she has been instrumental in making TeamLease India’s largest people supply chain company. She has joined the board recently as an Executive Director. Besides scaling the business to over a $ 750 million business since its inception she has played an active role in driving several various public policy changes - the four labour codes being one of the primary ones. She continues to be involved in forums like CII, FICCI, ILO, ISF within India and internationally to give a voice to important issues in the area of employment & employability.

An industry veteran, Sekhar Garisa joined Quess with around two decades of experience in business strategy and development. He is currently the CEO of Monster India, having occupied the role for over two years and successfully propelled the company to one of the leading talent management platforms in the country. Before joining Quess, he was the Senior Director of Partner Development at Microsoft, where he was responsible for leading the company’s go-to-market activities through their 10,000 strong partner network.

Hari TN wears different hats: Author, Angel Investor, Advisor to VCs, former CHRO Bigbasket, among others. In the last 5 years, Hari has been an advisor and sounding board to numerous young entrepreneurs and startups. He is a mentor at accelerators like Techstars, Silicon Road, India Accelerator, and NUMA. He is an advisor to VC funds like Arkam Ventures and Fundamentum. He is a prolific author and has authored 7 books so far.

Ayush is the Founder/CEO of Pesto. Pesto is India's first CBC up-skilling platform focused on helping developers break into their international careers via full time remote jobs.