Speakers
Farming has always been based on reading data: the rhythm of seasons, the cycles of rain, the subtle signs a landscape gives before it fails. Water, more than any other signal, has long determined success or failure. This panel explores how remote sensing and ground-collected data can offer early indicators of landscape health, flagging agricultural challenges before they escalate.
Bringing together voices from research, government, and technology, the panel asks what unlocking water data, in all its old and new forms, could mean for the future of Indian agriculture. What possibilities remain untapped in the data already available, and what other sources might still be unlocked?
Tea will be served from 6 pm onwards.
Presented by:
Venue: Gallery
Speakers
P. Somasekhar Rao
Dr. P.S. Rao holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, and brings over twenty years of experience across the water and agriculture sector. He has worked with the United Nations, the Government of the Netherlands, and various Indian state governments on water policy and river basin management. He helped establish ACIWRM in 2015 and continues to guide Karnataka’s water resource management as its Director (Technical).
Alok Talekar
Alok Talekar is a software engineer at Google Research, where he leads an effort on sustainable agriculture in India. His work centres on remote sensing, machine learning and multi-agent systems, with a particular focus on climate solutions for the Global South. He is also a founding member of Climate TRACE, an initiative that tracks global emissions using remote sensing data.
Veena Srinivasan
Dr. Veena Srinivasan leads WELL Labs’ mission to translate scientific research into real-world impact, designing solutions that create livelihoods while conserving the environment. In 2022, she was named among the most-cited scientists in the world. She holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and founded the Centre for Social and Environmental Innovation (CSEI), which later evolved into WELL Labs. She currently serves on the board of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).
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