Speakers
Arti Ahuja
Former Union Secretary for Labor and Employment, Indian Administrative Service
Government of India
Arti Ahuja is a retired IAS officer with a distinguished career in public service spanning over three decades. She has held several high-level positions in both central and state governments, demonstrating expertise in policy framing, social security, public health and skills development.
As the Union Secretary for the Ministry of Labor and Employment, Ahuja focused on strengthening social security and addressing skill gaps for India's workforce. She spearheaded initiatives to provide agency to 300 million unorganized sector workers through the e-shram portal, linking them to skilling, entrepreneurship, and job search opportunities. On the international stage, she successfully represented India in the ILO Governing Body, chaired the Asia Pacific conference of the ILO, and was a key negotiator for the country as a member of BRICS.
Ahuja holds a Master in Public Policy from Princeton University, where she was a World Bank Robert S. McNamara Fellow, and a Master of Public Health from Harvard University, where she received a Harvard Presidential Fellowship.
Currently she advises or serves on the boards of various national and multilateral organizations. She is also a special monitor for the National Human Rights Commission on matters relating to business and human rights.
Manoj Ahuja
Former Secretary, Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare
Government of India
Shri Manoj Ahuja is a senior Indian Administrative Service officer and a distinguished public policy leader with over three decades of experience in governance at both the state and union levels in India. He retired as chief secretary to the government of Odisha in 2025, after leading the state’s administrative system through a phase of institutional strengthening and economic expansion.
He has held key leadership roles in the Government of India, including secretary of theDepartment of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare from 2022 to 2024), where he contributed to national policy on agricultural productivity and farmer welfare. As chairman of the Central Board of Secondary Education (2020–2022), he led one of the world’s largest school systems through major academic reforms, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ahuja has also been closely associated with the advancement of Public Digital Infrastructure (PDI) in governance, contributing to the use of digital platforms for service delivery, transparency, and large-scale program monitoring. His work reflects a broader emphasis on technology-enabled governance and institutional efficiency.
His work lies at the intersection of policy design, institutional reform, and implementation.
He holds degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology, an MBA from Punjab University, and a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University.