Event Schedule
09:00-10:00 | Registration followed by Welcome Breakfast
10:00-10:45 | Inaugural and Context Setting
This opening session will frame the objectives and ambitions of KlimaNEXIS 2026 by situating India’s climate, weather, sustainability, and carbon removal innovation agenda within national development priorities. It will outline the opportunity and the challenges of translating India’s strong scientific and entrepreneurial capabilities into scalable, real-world impact. The session will set the stage for the day’s discussions by highlighting key gaps across policy, capital, markets, and institutions, and by articulating why coordinated, science-led approaches are critical to building durable, equitable, and globally competitive climate and sustainability enterprises in India.
10:00-10:05 Inauguration
10:05-10:10 Welcome address: Prof. Somnath Baidya Roy, Professor, IIT Delhi, The Rockefeller Foundation Climate Science and Technology Chair
10:10-10:20 Inaugural address: Deepali Khanna, Senior Vice President & Head of Asia Asia Regional Office, The Rockefeller Foundation
10:20-10:30 Keynote Address: Deepak Bagla, MD, Atal Innovation Mission
10:30-10:45 Interaction: Q&A with Deepali Khanna and Deepak Bagla
10:45-11:30 | Fireside Chat
Jayant Sinha, President, Everstone Group and Eversource Capital
Rangan Banerjee, Director IIT Delhi, Adjunct Faculty, Carnegie Mellon University
Moderator: Pratibha Jain, Head of Strategy & Group General Counsel, Everstone Group
11:30-11:45 | Tea Break and Networking
11:45-12:45 | Moderated Panel Discussion: Building India’s Carbon Removal Opportunity
Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is emerging as an essential part of global climate action, complementing strong emissions reductions by addressing residual emissions and the legacy CO₂ that continues to warm the planet. At KlimaNEXIS 2026, the discussion on CDR will explore both nature-based solutions (NBS) and engineered pathways that can store carbon in long-lived reservoirs. India has significant potential across these approaches, supported by a growing community of innovators, optimal climatic conditions, vast resource potential, and strong scientific capability. The session will invite insights from on-ground start-up project developers and ecosystem players about the opportunities and challenges for undertaking CDR projects in India, and explore how India can build a credible supply base for global carbon markets, while also creating domestic demand, strengthening measurement and verification systems, and ensuring that CDR solutions align with national development and climate resilience priorities.
Moderator: Asitava Sen, Co-Founder and CEO, Carbon Removal India Alliance (CRIA).
Shantanu Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Mati Carbon
Arnav Mariwala, Founder and CEO, MariTide
Umang Agarwal, COO Carbon, Grow Indigo
Siddhant Jayaram, Founder, Equilibrium
Rohit Nagargoje, Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, MASH Makes
12:45-14:00 | Lunch Break and Networking
14:00-15:00 | From Science to Scale: Investing in Climate Innovation
This panel will examine climate, weather, sustainability, and green startups from an investor’s perspective, focusing on how risk, returns, and exit pathways are assessed in these emerging sectors. The discussion will explore why strong climate science often struggles to scale commercially, what makes deep-science innovations investable, and how scientific differentiation can translate into defensible, venture-scale businesses.
The session will also highlight financing gaps across the startup lifecycle, including the roles of venture capital, blended finance, and project or infrastructure capital, with speakers sharing practical insights on what works, what breaks, and where capital is most effectively deployed to scale climate solutions.
Moderator: Abhishek Mittal, Partner, Aavishkaar Capital
Ruchira Shukla, Founder and CEO, Green Marble VC
Shailesh Vickram Singh, Climate Angels
Harsh Singhal, Partner, ProsperETE
Shiva Shanker, Partner, Ankur Capital
Nikhil Agarwal, MD, FITT, IIT Delhi
15:00-16:00 | Recent Developments in Science and Tech
This session will frame the objectives and ambitions of KlimaNEXIS 2026 by situating India’s climate, weather, sustainability, and carbon removal innovation agenda within national development priorities. It will outline the opportunity and the challenges of translating India’s strong scientific and entrepreneurial capabilities into scalable, real-world impact. The session will highlight key gaps across policy, capital, markets, and institutions, and by articulating why coordinated, science-led approaches are critical to building durable, equitable, and globally competitive climate and sustainability enterprises in India.
Moderator: Sandeep Sukumaran, Associate Professor, Centre for Atmospheric Sciences IIT Delhi, Mittal Foundation Chair in Climate Sciences
Rajarshi Dasgupta, Associate Professor, School of Public Policy IIT Delhi, Fellow Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan
Ashim Kumar Mitra, Head, Geospatial Applications, India Meteorological Department
R.N. Sahoo, Principal Scientist, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute Sarita Ahlawat, MD, Co-Founder, BotLab Dynamics/ Vayudh
16:00-16:15 | Tea Break
16:15-16:30 | Special Address
Prof. Ajay Mathur, Professor, School of Public Policy, IIT Delhi
16:30-17:30 | Startup stories
This session will feature candid reflections from founders across the climate, weather, sustainability, and green startup ecosystem, sharing both success stories and hard-earned lessons from ventures that did not scale or were ultimately wound down. Moving beyond celebratory narratives, the discussion will surface real-world insights into what worked, what didn’t, and why.