About the Author: Anupam Shukla is the Director of Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat. Prior to this, he was the Director at the Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Pune. He has been a Professor in the Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at ABV-Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management (ABV-IIITM), Gwalior. Prof. Shukla has over 35 years of teaching, research, and administrative experience. He is globally renowned for his research in artificial intelligence and has won several academic accolades. He has been awarded 'Distinguished Professor' by the Computer Society of India, Mumbai, in 2017 and the Dewang Mehta National Education Award for Best Professor in 2016. He is the author of patents, books, 190 peer-reviewed publications, and mentor of 18 Doctorate and 116 postgraduate theses. He has completed 13 Government-sponsored projects developing information technology (IT) applications for Indian farmers, skill development of the Indian youth, and infrastructure development at parent institutes.
B.K. Murthy is the CEO of the Innovation and Technology Foundation at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bhilai. He has been Scientist G and Group Coordinator (R&D in IT) in the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), Government of India. He is responsible for the promotion of R&D in the area of IT. His research interests include artificial intelligence, software-defined networking, cloud computing, quantum computing, and blockchain technologies. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree by IIT Delhi. He has published and presented over 70 papers in various journals and conferences and is a regular speaker at international forums. He has been awarded the prestigious VSVIK industrial research award for the Year 2020 in the area of information and communication technologies. He has also been named as the 'Blockchain influencer' by the Indian Blockchain Association Forum.
Nitasha Hasteer is the Head of the Information Technology Department and Dy. Director (Academics) at Amity School of Engineering & Technology, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh. She has 22 Years of teaching, research, and academic administrative experience. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering. Her areas of interest include machine learning, cloud computing, crowdsourced software development, software project management, and process modeling through multi-criteria decision-making techniques. She has published over 60 papers in various international journals and conference proceedings of repute. She has organized many national & international technical conferences, seminars, workshops and chaired technical sessions in the conferences held in India and abroad. She has been awarded the 'longest continuous SBC' award by the Computer Society of India in 2019.
Jean-Paul Van Belle is a Professor in the Department of Information Systems, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and has been the Director of the Centre for IT and National Development in Africa (CITANDA). His research and teaching specializations are social networking, decision support, business analytics, open government data, E- & M-commerce, E- & M-government, ICT for development, organizational impacts and adoption of IS, fair labor practices in the gig economy, open-source software, IT/IS architectures, and artificial intelligence. He has active research collaborations with researchers in India, the UK, Ethiopia, Kenya, Ecuador, and Chile.
