Justice Ramesh Chandra Lahoti was the 35th Chief Justice of India. He was elevated to the Apex Court in December 1998 and was appointed as the Chief Justice of India in 2004.

He had joined the Guna District Bar in 1960 and was enrolled as an Advocate in 1962. In April, 1977, he was recruited directly from the Bar to the State Higher Judicial Service and was appointed as a District & Sessions Judge. After a year, he resigned in May 1978 and reverted to the Bar for practice mainly in the High Court. He was appointed as Additional Judge of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in 1988 and was made permanent Judge in 1989. He was then transferred to Delhi High Court in 1994.

Justice R V Easwar commenced his journey with the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) in 1991. He was promoted as ITAT President in 2010. Within a year, he was elevated to the Delhi High Court from where he retired in the year 2014.

Post-retirement, Justice Easwar was appointed as the Chairman of the 10-Member Committee, set up by the Government of India, in the year 2015, to simplify the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Many recommendations of the Committee were later accepted by the Union Government.

Shri Sumit Bose, an IAS officer of 1976 Batch, held several key positions, including Revenue, in the State and Central Governments. He retired as the Union Finance Secretary in the year 2014.

Educated at the Doon School, Dehradun (class of 1970), St. Stephen_’s College, Delhi, and the London School of Economics, Mr Bose had joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1976.

Ms. Praveen Mahajan holds the record of being the first lady IRS officer to head the erstwhile Central Board of Excise & Customs. She joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1976. She received Presidential Award for her exemplary service. Post-retirement, she was appointed as Member of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi.

Post graduated in English & History and also Diploma in ‘International Economic Relations’ from IIPA, Paris.

Mr. M C Joshi is 1974 batch IRS (Income tax) officer. Besides holding many sensitive posts in the Income Tax  Department, he was the Special Director in the Enforcement Directorate for several years. To his credit, he led a High-Level Committee set up to study the generation of black money in India and suggest legislative-cum-administrative measures.

Mr. A.K Bhattacharya, popularly known as AKB, is the Editorial Director of the Business Standard newspaper. He has authored a book titled “The Rise of Goliath” and writes a weekly column named Raisina Hill. He has been with the Business Standard for more than 23 years now.

He commenced his editorial journey with The Indian Express. Later, he worked for The Economic Times, Financial Express and The Pioneer.

Dr. Girish Ahuja is a veteran direct tax expert. He did his graduation from SRCC and Ph.D. from the Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). He is a Faculty Member of the SRCC, ICAI and ICSI.

He has been teaching Direct Taxes to students at various levels for more than 35 years. He was nominated by the Central Government to the Central Council of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India for two terms. He is also on the Board of Directors of many companies and has a vast and rich experience in the field of finance and taxation.

Arun Goyal is an IAS officer of 1985 batch from Union Territories Cadre. He is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering and post graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad with specialisation in Finance. He also has post graduate degrees in Economics and Development Management.

He is former Secretary to Government of India. He superannuated in August 2019 from the Cabinet Secretariat as Secretary (Coordination). Presently, he is member of the Advisory Committee for recommending division of assets and liabilities between the two newly created Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh.

During his 34 years in the Government, he has held many challenging and important assignments particularly in the areas of finance, commerce, industry and power. As Secretary (Coordination), he steered India’s Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Mission involving policy formulation & implementation in coordination with line ministries and State Governments. Prior to that as Special Secretary in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, he was closely involved in ensuring time bound launch of GST in India and its subsequent implementation.
He has also been part of other major reforms/ transitions in India including setting up of Financial Intelligence Unit & Anti- Money Laundering regime in India; stabilization of Delhi’s power reforms immediately after unbundling & privatization of distribution business and India’s transition from GATT to WTO.

He is widely travelled and has represented the country at various bilateral and multi-lateral fora. He is a regular speaker at academic institutions, apex chambers, industry bodies and also contributes to doordarshan & aakashwani talks, journals and newspapers.
He is a keen and passionate bridge player.