Manjeet Kripalani, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Gateway House was a panelist on a discussion on “Government 2.0: What is Your Brand?” How Governments Approach Marketing and Public Relations organised by the Harvard Club of Mumbai and the HBS India Research Centre in association with the International Advertising Association.
This panel discussion looks at the strategy and tactics behind the creation of different government brands from President Obama to Prime Minister Modi. Will branding help economic growth, attract foreign investors and allow governments to share success stories with a global audience, and the public relations lessons to successfully market government.
The panelists:
· Walter Douglas, Minister Counselor for Public Affairs, US Mission
· Indrani Bagchi, Senior Editor, Times of India
· Manjeet Kripalani, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Gateway House
· Moderated by Shloka Nath, Co-President, Harvard Club of Mumbai
Walter Douglas, US Mission
Walter Douglas is the Minister Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Mission in New Delhi. The Mission includes the Embassy in New Delhi as well as the Consulates in Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.
Prior to arriving in New Delhi in August, Walter was a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. He wrote a report on public diplomacy and the Muslim world.
Until October, 2011, Walter was based in Islamabad as the Director of Communications for the U.S. Mission in Pakistan. Before that, he served in Washington as Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs and as the Director of the Office of Press and Public Diplomacy in the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau. This followed a tour as Public Affairs Officer at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Walter also served as a Public Affairs Officer at U.S. diplomatic missions in Turkey, Cyprus, and Iceland. He was Deputy to the Spokesman at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations when Madeleine Albright was Ambassador. Earlier, he served at the U.S. Missions in South Korea and Cote d’Ivoire.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Walter worked as an advertising executive in New York and as a legislative assistant to a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Walter graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in history in 1977. He is joined in New Delhi by his wife and three daughters.
Indrani Bagchi, Times of India
Indrani Bagchi is the Senior Editor for The Times of India, New Delhi. Indrani joined the newspaper in 2004. In this capacity, she covers foreign policy issues for the paper. Her areas of specialisation include nuclear issues, India’s engagement with the world, the changing nature of diplomacy and immigration issues as part of new foreign affairs issues. She has also focused on energy, technology as issues that are covered under foreign policy.
Indrani also writes extensively on terrorism issues. Between 2003–04, she was the Associate Editor for India Today covering foreign affairs. From 1998–2003, she was the Deputy Foreign Affairs Editor with the Economic Times. Indrani was the Deputy Features Editor for the Economic Times in Calcutta from 1993–98 and an Editorial Assistant with The Statesman in Calcutta from 1988–93.
Manjeet Kripalani, Gateway House
Manjeet Kripalani is the co-founder of Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations, and acts as the executive director of the institution. Prior to the founding of Gateway House, Kripalani was India Bureau chief ofBusinessweek magazine from 1996 to 2009. During her extensive career in journalism (Businessweek, Worth and Forbe
Kripalani holds two bachelor’s degrees from Bombay University (Bachelor of Law, Bachelor of Arts in English and History) and a master’s degree in International Affairs from Columbia University, New York. She is a member of the Asian advisory board of the International Centre for Journalists and the Overseas Press Club, and sits on the executive board of Gateway House, the Indian Liberal Group and Emancipaction, all of which are non-profit organizations.
Shloka Nath, Harvard Club of Mumbai
Shloka has over a decade of extensive experience in journalism and public policy, along with social sector expertise. She is currently Co-founder and Managing Partner, Sankhya Women Impact Funds, India’s only impact investment fund dedicated to women investors and supporting early stage enterprises impacting primarily economically disadvantaged women.
Shloka has worked in print & broadcast journalism with the BBC in London, as a news anchor with New Delhi Television (NDTV) & Principal Correspondent with Forbes in Mumbai, with a special emphasis on financial inclusion, social enterprise and legal affairs. In 2010, she was nominated for India’s highest awards in journalism for her reportage on microfinance in India. Industry experts such as CGAP, Financial Access Initiative, and leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times have repeatedly cited her work. She has also been involved in the publication of several groundbreaking industry reports, including Beyond the Pioneer, Monitor Inclusive Market’s recently published report on impact investing, and has authored a special report on innovations and barriers to scale in financial inclusion in India for Forbes. Shloka has spoken at several conferences as an expert on Financial Inclusion and was a Director of Harvard’s 2012 Social Enterprise Conference. She was also Managing Editor for the Kennedy School Review, Harvard’s premier public policy journal.
Shloka has a Master in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a BSc in Government from The London School of Economics and Political Science. Shloka joined Sankhya Partners in June 2014.