Closing Keynote: Web 3.0 - Promise of NFTs and Crypto
When & Where
About This Talk
Closing keynote of the Global Connect track will be a fireside chat between Asha Jadeja and Vasudev Bhandarkar. In this fireside chat, Asha explains her vision for Web3.0, the new web powered by blockchain and new crypto currencies. She explains the birth of the Creators Economy, empowerment of individuals, with an underlying secure, trusted, autonomous, decentralized decision-making platform. This has led to the creation of new applications in new digital marketplaces, powered by Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), with implications for a borderless world by 2040.
Speakers
Asha Jadeja is a Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist who has invested in over 200 technology startups in the Bay Area. As an entrepreneur herself, her investing philosophy is designed to ignite young entrepreneurs into becoming disruptive change makers. “Making a dent in poverty requires money. Without a strong focus on economic growth, developing countries like India will continue to be stuck in a cycle of poverty.
The need of the hour is to let technology-driven growth enable India to break out of the cycle of poverty. It is critical that we identify and remove legacy obstacles to growth as fast as possible."
All of Asha's venture and philanthropic initiatives in India have been designed to help the nation break free of this cycle of poverty. "Exponential growth is possible through technology-enabled entrepreneurship, lean government, world-class education, and women's leadership."
Gender equality, inclusive growth, lean government, and national security are core interests of MITLI (Motwani Institute for Thought Leadership in Innovation) - an unprecedented bridge between the US and India. Asha created MITLI as an advocacy platform designed to drive policy changes in India.
A firm believer in the power of grassroots socio-economic movements Asha created MakerFest in 2013. A powerful network of makers and innovators that pro-actively problem-solve for their own communities. Makerfest is now prolific in Africa, India, and more recently in Brazil. She created India’s first network of dozens of Fablabs designed to spark a just in a time manufacturing environment in India.
With help from Prof Sugata Mitra, Asha also set up India's first self-supported School in the Cloud in Ahmedabad. This has now grown to over 60 locally managed and sustained "schools in the cloud" within South Asia.
Asha is a prolific thought leader rooted within the milieus of Stanford, UC Berkeley, Google, Hoover Institute, Council on Foreign Relations, and Brookings USA. She is a limited partner in over 20 Bay Area venture funds, Acumen Fund NY, and Kawasafi Fund, Africa. As a prolific collector of Indian art, Asha is currently engaged with Stanford University Cantor Art Museum in bringing top Indian artists into a global forefront.
Vasudev Bhandarkar (Founder/CEO, ScoreData Corporation) is a veteran of the enterprise software industry. As co-founder and executive Vas has successfully co-founded and helped build several highly valued companies Selectica & Remedy (both IPOed on the Nasdaq), and outsourced product engineering company Globallogic (recently acquired by Hitachi for $9.6B. Vas has also been an active angel investor in leading edge technology companies for over a decade has invested in bitcoin and blockchain companies since 2012, including DMGGF (Blockseer) and Maicoin (Coinbase of Taiwan), in healthcare data exchange company Innovaccer, and 5G company Highway9Networks.
Vas is a strategic thinker envisioning breakthrough product lines linked to the realization of business objectives. He has recruited and led high performance executive/professional teams and has in-depth operating experience building multi-disciplinary organizations from founding to IPO. Vas earned his spurs building complex software teams and products at AT& T Bell Labs, Apple Computer, and Hewlett-Packard Corporation.
His innovative approach to building companies involves the execution of a global vision at inception, indirect versus direct approach to selling, and establishing cross-border teams, and targeting global markets. Vas is an active angel investor and has been a mentor and investor in several successful startups in India and the US. Vas has been an enthusiastic supporter of AIMA and the organization’s cross-border initiatives.
Vas holds Masters degrees in Computer Science from Colorado State University, and Physics from IIT-Bombay, and pursued graduate studies and executive education in business, corporate governance, and finance, at Santa Clara University, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
He is a Distinguished alumnus of the Colorado State University. He is an avid bicyclist, has completed several 100-mile rides, an avid hiker, and a prolific photographer. He has scaled several 14Kft. mountains in continental North America, and recently climbed to the Everest Base Camp at the foot of the Khumbu Falls.