Mr. Utkarsh Palnitkar is a Chartered Accountant and has completed the Advanced Management Program of The Harvard Business School. He has over 35 years of experience in strategic planning, policy development and program management across multiple sectors with both public and private sector entities. He has advised several leading global life science entities with respect to their India entry strategy apart from funding, human resources development, and investment promotion initiatives of several state governments.

He is on the board of number of life sciences related trade bodies and has chaired several committees on policy making in India. He has been associated with pioneering initiatives, such as the country’s first and largest biotech cluster – Genome Valley, the creation of Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) under the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), and the country’s first biotech incubator. He has also advised a leading European Biopharmaceutical Company on its entry strategy and Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in India. He has also assisted multiple clients in conducting feasibility studies and business plan development for setting up of life sciences infrastructure projects.