Ms. Karuna Gopal, is an Internationally acclaimed Thought Leader, Keynote Speaker and a Futurist. She is the Founder President of Foundation for Futuristic Cities a think tank that has influenced Urban Transformation in India for two decades.
Her work is at the Intersection of TECHNOLOGY | INNOVATION | FUTURE CITIES
As a Plenary Speaker, she represented India at the Commonwealth Local Government Conference (CLGC) 2023 Rwanda, AFRICA|BRICS Innovation Forum 2023 Moscow, RUSSIA and COP21-UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) Paris, FRANCE 2015. In 2018, Ms Gopal was invited by the Prime Minister of UAE to address their flagship event – World Government Summit at Dubai.
Governments of USA, Sweden, South Korea, Russia, UK, Philippines, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Turkey, Sri Lanka and Israel have invited her for inputs on Smart Governance.
Ms Gopal contributed to the design of the '100 Smart Cities Mission' of India and has been invited to speak at the launch of the Mission by the Prime Minister. Her innovation SCULPT YOUR CITY- 2009 (Crowd Sourced Protocol for Co-Creation) has shaped the Mission guidelines and has been declared a National Best Practice.
In the past, she served as an Urban Expert for The WORLD BANK, DFID (Department for International Development, UK), USAID (United States Agency for International Development) &ADB (Asian Development Bank).
Ms Gopal lectures senior IAS officers at India’s Premier Academy LBSNAA (Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration) Mussoorie, WBI (World Bank Institute) and ASCI (Administrative Staff College of India).
Ms Gopal has given more than 100 Keynote addresses globally and was invited to address HARVARD ASIA – BUSINESS CONFERENCE 2020 at Harvard University, USA. She has been widely published with columns and articles in National & International publications and her articles have been incorporated into Parliamentary Documentation of Lok Sabha for their policy relevance.
Her Innovation (IWIN) International Women Innovators Network has been launched by the Vice President of India. Her current initiative SURGE (Smart Urbanization Reinventing Growth with Equity) is about transformative policies for ushering a NEW INDIA. She currently serves as the Distinguished Advisor for COWE India (Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs) and has contributed to INDIA TECHNOLOGY Roadmap 2047.
Ms. Gopal has been inducted into BJP, (Bharatiya Janata Party) in 2014 and she hails from a family of freedom fighters and IAS officers.
She currently heads the Policy Research division for Women in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She serves on the Board of Engineers India limited, under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India.