Session 7
Balancing success & Happiness School and College Life
In today’s fast-paced academic environment, students often struggle to balance success and happiness. This session offers practical strategies to help students excel in their studies without compromising their mental and emotional well-being.
27 April 2025 10:30AM (IST)

Featured Speakers
Dr. Mushtaq Margoob
Dr. Mushtaq A. Margoob, Former Professor & Head, Post Graduate Department of Psychiatry, Government Medical College, Srinagar and Director Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience, Srinagar, Kashmir is an internationally recognized expert on humanitarian emergencies and disaster mental health. Dr. Margoob's innovative research work over more than four decades encompasses a wide range of topics ranging from seasonal mood disorders to drug use problems and stress. Over the past thirty years besides behavioural neurosciences, the focus of his work has been on coping, resilience and vulnerability following traumatic stress resulting from man-made and natural disasters in the developing world and its impact on the individuals as well as communities as a whole. Dr Margoob is on the Editorial board of a few leading international and national journals .He is a member/fellow of a number of international professional bodies. In Kashmir he is known for his professional leadership and outstanding contribution in transforming the most stigmatized and neglected sole psychiatric service setup to the present advanced territory care Mental Health treatment and research Institute ( IMHANS).
As a clinician, Dr. Margoob has provided more than half a million psychiatric consultations/counselling to suffering masses in the community, Government hospital settings and in his private centre over past 40 years. His innovative self-reliant psychosocial/psychiatric intervention model for disaster survivors in impoverished regions of the world has been appreciated globally across all professional levels. He continues to spend most of his time with different stakeholders in the community for promotion of mental health and prevention/treatment of mental health problems.
Dr. Mushtaq Margoob
Renowned Psychiatrist
Srinagar, India
Sabbah Haji
Sabbah Haji is an educator, teacher and community activist from Doda District in Jammu Kashmir. She is a Founder Trustee of Haji Education Foundation, which oversees the Haji Public School, a remote Himalayan village school run by her family. The school was established in 2009 with a simple goal: to provide education to the inaccessible. It has been a remarkable success over the years, providing quality education and opportunities to hundreds of first-generation learners from very challenging geographic, social and economic backgrounds. This unique, progressive K-10 school has delivered remarkable academic results consistently. Sabbah Haji is proud to be a part of the creation of a well-educated, confident new generation, as well as positive changes spilling over into the community as a whole through the school’s activities. Sabbah was born and raised in Dubai, UAE, then studied and worked for a decade in Bangalore before leaving the city life and heading up to her ancestral village in the Doda mountains of Jammu Kashmir, to establish and run Haji Public School. She has lived there ever since, teaching daily, managing and building the school from a small village set-up to a renowned institute in the State. She is dedicated to bringing about reform in schooling, governance and education policy. Sabbah uses social media to garner support for running the school, crowdfunding, keeping the outside world up to date with all the happenings in her small village in the mountains, and for showcasing the beauty and talent of the kids that live and study there.
Ms. Sabbah Haji
Haji Education Foundation
Doda, India
Altaf Lal
Altaf Lal (PhD), is the President of Global Health and Pharmaceuticals Consulting Inc., a firm offering consulting and advisory services to both for-profit and not-for-profit organizations in the fields of health sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, product development, regulations, and disease control and elimination. He graduated with honors from Kashmir University, earned a postgraduate degree in Biochemistry from Lucknow University, India, and obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Kanpur University, with research conducted at the Central Drug Research Institute in Lucknow.
Dr. Lal serves on the boards of the Foundation for Disease Elimination and Control of India (FDEC) and Sun Pharma Healthcare Society (SPHS), India. He has also held board positions with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership to End Malaria (RBM) in Geneva, the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance (APLMA) in Singapore, Chinar International, and the Centre for Kashmir in the USA.
In addition, Dr. Lal is a Senior Advisor for Global Health and Innovation at Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Limited, India. He previously served as the US Health Attaché and Regional Representative for South Asia at the US Embassy in New Delhi. Dr. Lal was the founding CEO of Hilleman Laboratories, a company focused on developing low-cost, heat-stable vaccines for use in developing countries. He also held the role of Director of the FDA India Office, where he developed policies and strategies for inspecting pharmaceutical products imported into the US.
Dr. Lal has published over 260 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He is the founder and president of the Kashmir Care Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in the USA.
Dr. Altaf Lal
Kashmir Care Foundation
Atlanta, USA
Insights from Our Esteemed Panelists
Expert Perspectives and Inspiring Stories
Videos will be available shortly. Stay tuned to gain valuable insights from this impactful discussion.