Karuna Gopal Vartakavi

Ms. Karuna Gopal, is an Internationally acclaimed Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker and a Futurist. She is the Founder President of Foundation for Futuristic Cities (2005) a think tank that has influenced Urban Transformation in India.

Her work is at the Intersection of TECHNOLOGY |INNOVATION| FUTURE CITIES.

Governments of USA, Sweden, South Korea, UK, Philippines, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Israel have invited her for inputs on Smart Governance. In 2018, was invited by the Prime Minister of UAE to address WORLD GOVERNMENT SUMMIT at Dubai.

Ms Gopal contributed to the design of the ‘100 Smart Cities Mission’ of India & was Invited to speak at the launch of the Mission by the Prime Minister. Between 2004 & 2016 she served as Urban Expert with the WORLD BANK, DFID (Department for International Development, UK), USAID (United States Agency for International Development), ADB (Asian Development Bank).

Ms Gopal has given around 100 Keynote addresses so far Globally and In 2020 she has been invited to address Harvard Asia Conference at Harvard University.

She lectures senior IAS officers at India’s Premier Academy LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) Mussoorie&WBI (World Bank Institute). She has been interviewed widely by National and International Media and is also widely published. Her articles have been incorporated into Parliamentary Documentation of Lok Sabha for their policy relevance.

Her current initiative SURGE (Smart Urbanization Reinventing Growth with Equity) is about transformative policies for ushering a NEW INDIA.

She is currently National In-charge for Policy & Research BJP women wing and has served on the National Manifesto Committee of BJP for 2019 General Elections.

Ms. Gopal hails from a family of freedom fighters and IAS officers.