The Indian startup ecosystem has produced excellent IT talent for many years. From developing consumer apps to developing robust B2B commercial software products employing cutting-edge technology, Indian technologists have consistently provided additional comfort to users. While India has the world’s largest reservoir of technical talent, their work can now be seen all over the world, with nearly all of the major US technology corporations employing technology pioneers of Indian heritage. A chief technology officer (CTO) is the highest technology executive position within a company and leads the technology or engineering department. They develop policies and procedures and use technology to enhance products and services that focus on external customers.
Here is a list of CTOs who have created an impact in their field.
Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar
Company – Reliance Industries
Linkedin – Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar
Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar is The Group Chief Technology Officer – Mobility at Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (India), an Indian multinational telecommunications services company, headquartered in [ Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra], India, it operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. Jio does not offer 2G or 3G service, and instead uses voice over LTE to provide voice service on its network.
K ANANTH KRISHNAN
Company – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Linkedin – K ANANTH KRISHNAN
Around 25 years of experience in Information Technology and capital market (DP, Custody, Equities and Derivatives markets, Portfolio Management System, Mutual Fund, core and retail Banking, Credit Cards/Channels etc). Technology professional with the proven ability to deliver impetus to business and operations via efficient deployment of Information Technology. His specialties are People Management, Technology alignment with Business Plan, Capital Market, Preparation and Implementation of Policies and Procedures, Information Security, Vendor Management, Technical Architecture, Project Management.
RAFEE TARAFDAR
Company – Infosys
Linkedin – Rafee Tarafdar
Rafee is a VP and Unit Technology Officer (CTO) within Global Delivery organization at Infosys. In this role, he leads the Enterprise Architecture practice across industry segments, driving enterprise architecture and technology solutions for large and complex transformation programs cutting across Custom Application Development, BI & Data Analytics, Cloud & infrastructure and Enterprise Packages & Platforms. Additionally he also provides technology leadership to the Legacy Modernization solution across the organization and mentors, guides architects within the global delivery organization. Rafee has played diverse roles from setting up successful architecture & technology teams globally, providing advisory services to senior executives of fortune 500 organizations and playing the role of CTO & Enterprise architect for large transformation programs. Prior to Infosys he used to architect, design and develop products and platforms for Virtusa, Misys and Cadem
SUDIPTA BHATTACHARYA
Company – Adani Group
Linkedin – Sudipta Bhattacharya
Sudipta Bhattacharya is the CEO for the Adani Group – North America. He is also the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the Group. Prior to his current roles he has also held the positions of CEO Adani Ports and SEZ (APSEZ) and Chief Strategy Officer for the Group. Before joining the Adani Group he was the CEO of the Invensys’ Safety and Control and Software business. Prior to Invensys he was the Senior Vice President for SAP’s Supply Chain Management, Manufacturing and Engineering product portfolio. He has also worked for 10 years for the Tata Group in India managing chemical plant operations, engineering projects and supply chain operations.
Balaji Rajagopalan
Company – State Bank of India
Linkedin – Balaji Rajagopalan
Balaji Rajagopalan is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at State Bank of India. IT veteran with global experience primarily in Banking & Financial services. Distinguished thought leader with proven strong Techno Functional experience . Unique experience in Leading IT companies (developer to Leadership role ) as well as in Bank Technology Group.
Currently working as CTO at State Bank of India. Led the complete Banking Technology (India & international geographies) of Assets & Liabilities, Digital channel services, Trade Finance, Payment systems, Treasury, Capital Markets, Finance, Compliance… across all businesses in ICICI Bank
Intelligent Automation for the Bank.
Anurag Jain
Company – Bajaj Finance
Linkedin – Anurag Jain
Anurag Jain is the Chief Information & Technology Officer of Bajaj Finserv. He have 25 years of experience in managing Business/Function Unit with P&L ownership. He have experienced in managing Technology and Analytics functions including System Software, Assets & Servers, Data & Cyber security, Network infrastructure, End User Services, BCP & DR models, Technology Innovation, Advance Analytics, Business Intelligence and Regulatory Compliance and Expert in defining IT Strategy and Policies, setting Unit Operations and Delivery Excellence processes. Member of board executive committees for IT Strategy, Risk and Audit Governance. Successfully handled several multi-million dollar deals across the globe with large team size and complex solutions involving cross functional teams, vendors and third parties for complete System Integrated Solution Management. He is the winner of prestigious Bajaj Finserv Group Leadership Award, CIO100 Honoree 2020 (IDG), CIO Power List 2020 (Core Media), BFSI Digital Innovation Award (Express Computers/Indian Express), Super Hero of the Moment (BHFL) and many more.
Milind Nagnur
Company – Kotak Mahindra Bank
Linkedin – Milind Nagnur
Milind Nagnur is the Chief Technology Officer at Kotak Mahindra Bank. He is leading the teams responsible for technology and engineering of solutions across all our businesses – consumer banking, corporate and commercial banking, wholesale, wealth management and investment banking. Positioning the firm for the future (product engineering, cloud engineering, data analytics, innovation) and fortifying the core (resiliency, reliability, end to end infrastructure, cloud/data centers and cyber security) are key areas of focus.
Prior to joining Kotak Mahindra Bank in 2022, I served as the CTO for fintech firm Early Warning, the parent company for Zelle payments. Prior to Early Warning, I served as EVP & Chief Information Officer for Innovation & Strategic Services at Wells Fargo Bank. In previous roles I led Citigroup’s global data, advanced analytics and regulatory services technology; and payments technology at JPMorgan Chase. I hold a Bachelor of Technology Degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and an MBA in Computer Information Systems and Finance from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta.
Randeep Sekhon
Company – Bharti Airtel
Linkedin – Randeep Sekhon
Randeep Singh Sekhon is Chief Technology Officer for Bharti Airtel India and South Asia. He is passionate about transforming the position of Mobile operators from access providers to digital lifestyle providers delivering value to its customers via customer first and digital first strategy. He has a unique mix of business leadership experience and deep technology understanding to drive business success and turnaround. His experiences in technology leadership roles have enabled him to leverage technology and digital first approach for enterprise value generation.
Kalyan Kumar (KK)
Company – HCL Technologies
Linkedin – Kalyan Kumar (KK)
Kalyan Kumar (popularly known as “KK”) is the Global CTO & Head – Ecosystems for HCL Technologies. As Global CTO, KK plays a pivotal in defining Product & Technology Strategy, building strategic partner ecosystems, and blueprinting next-gen technology through startup exploration, incubation and open Innovation/open source. As the Head of Ecosystems, KK is responsible for all Cloud Ecosystem Units (AWS/Google/Microsoft/IBM-Redhat/SAP) as well as Tech OEM Ecosystem Units (Dell Tech/VMware/Cisco/Intel). KK also leads the company’s Cloud Offering – #HCLCloudSmart which includes Cloud Strategy, Industry Cloud Consulting, Offering Management and Cloud Native Labs network accelerating the journey to cloud across all the segments of HCL businesses. In his technology exploration avatar, KK heads the Enterprise Technology Office (ETO) driving next-gen technology choices for breakthrough innovation and leapfrog growth. Steering through multiple new tech engagements over the years, KK is quite active within Venture Capital, Growth Equity and Start-up circle across the globe and also is spearheading the HCL Open Source, Open Innovation with Startups and Industry Forums. Over the past two decades, KK has been instrumental in driving HCL’s multiple Practices including Digital Foundation (Hybrid Cloud BU, Digital Workplace BU, Enterprise & Telco Networks), Integrated IT Operations (AI Centric), Autonomics and Unified Service Management (XAAS/SIAM Orchestration), Security & GRC and Cross Functional Services. Right from conceptualizing the Industry’s First BSM SaaS offering with MTaaS in 2008 and to establishing the DRYICE.AI Software Division which pioneered new way to deliver outcome based AIOPS Products & Platforms and has been involved in various new initiatives and incubation over the past decade.
Ajay Shah
Company – Axis Finance Limited
Linkedin – Ajay Shah
Ajay Shah is a Chief Technology Officer at Axis Finance Limited.
RAMAN C V
Company – Maruti Suzuki
Linkedin – Raman C V
Raman C V is the Chief Technology Officer of Maruti Suzuki. He is the Product design & product development in passenger car industry. Headed various product development teams. Project management from concept to SOP. Experience in vendor development & supply chain management including supplier upgradation through joint venture & technical collaborations. His specialties are Product design & development. Vendor development & supply chain management.
Rajesh Chavan
Company – Avenue Ecommerce Limited – DMart
Linkedin – Rajesh Chavan
Rajesh Chavan is the Chief Technology Officer at Avenue Ecommerce Limited – DMart. As a Chief Technology Officer– Rajesh is accountable for all the technology directions, Engineering and Deployment of Business initiatives of Avenue Ecommerce Limited – DMart. Rajesh directly owns all the aspects like strategic roadmap, team ramp-ups, vendor, alliance and partner management, Solution Designs, Architecture, Engineering and Quality Assurance of below focus areas. Digital Channels – Revamp of the Mobile Apps and responsive Retail Commerce Experience, decoupled with power of IBM WCS Commerce Engine. Enterprise Platform – Development and rollouts of Retail Enterprise Platform for enabling Warehouse Operations and Last Mile Delivery. Infrastructure – All the physical architecture and infrastructure for running Digital and Enterprise platforms in-house. SAP – Development and enhancements of SAP, connecting to Digital channels and DMarReady pick-up points and smaller store formats.
Ashish Khushu
Company – L&T Technology Services Limited
Linkedin – Ashish Khushu
Ashish Khushu is the Chief Technology Officer of L&T Technology Services Limited. He will be with us as our jury member for MG Developer Program And Grant, Season 3.0. He has around 30 years of experience spanning across Technical & High-performance Computing. He is also an important member of NASSCOM’S committee.
SUDHAKAR MARUR
Company – Tata Steel
Linkedin – Sudhakar Marur
Sudhakar Marur is the Chief Technology Officer of Tata Steel. He has more than three decades of technical and leadership experience in industrial R&D of reputed organizations such as TATAs, EATON, SABIC, GE-GRC, EASi & OMC Computers. His areas of expertise include Technology & Innovation Management, Carbon products, Thermoset & Thermoplastic Composites, Automotive Technology, Computational Mechanics & Geometry. He received his PhD from IIT Bombay, in Computational Nonlinear Structural Dynamics and subsequently continued his Post-Doctoral work on Nonlinear Vibrations & Elementology, at National Aerospace Labs. A certified six-sigma Black Belt, he has several scientific journal publications, patents, corporate awards and a research monograph to his credit. Under his leadership, teams have developed and successfully launched software systems, plastics applications, new products and materials in global markets.
Prem Thudia
Company – Nestlé India Limited
Linkedin – Prem Thudia
Prem Thudia Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer – Persona, a Nestlé Health Science company. He had 20 years of experience in the IT industry to help companies achieve success. By taking a founding principle and fully developing it into an automated technology solution, he enable companies to rapidly grow and develop from a sound foundation. For the past 14 years, he had focused on the development of all technologies as the CTO for companies co-founded by Jason Brown, including the most recent personalized nutrition startup, Persona, which was acquired by Nestlé Health Science Company in August 2019. I developed and implemented the Partner web portal for Amadeus Global Travel Network, as well as solving complex issues through my database management experience.
SANDEEP DEB
Company – Larsen & Toubro Infotech
Sandeep Deb is the Chief Technology Officer of Larsen & Toubro Infotech. He is a seasoned technology leader with over 20 years of experience spanning across Banking & Financial Services, Manufacturing, Healthcare and Education sectors across multiple geographies and with a reputation for achieving business growth objectives through technology-driven strategy and execution. He had an innovative strategist with deep experience in building and managing niche technology groups, long-term client relationships, and highly motivated teams. Passionately grooms and nurtures teams to be creative, innovative, and bring about unique value propositions for customers. He did his graduation from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a Bachelor of Technology degree in Aerospace & Aeronautical Engineering, avid reader, loves teaching, carpentry, electronics, metalworking and applying technology, in general, to change the world around him.
DR. ASPI N. PATEL
Company – Aditya Birla Chemicals
Linkedin – Aspi Patel
Aspi N. Patel is the Chief Technology Officer of Aditya Birla Group. He is an accomplished and proven leader with more than 30 years experience stewarding technical, manufacturing and marketing functions in global flooring markets, auto, construction materials, building products, filtration and packaging industries. With demonstrated ability to lead and mentor cross-functional teams with responsibility for research, development and commercialization of new products and processes, manufacturing and sales. Established track record working with multiple stake holders. He is also proficient in identifying key technology acquisitions, scientific opportunities and competitive threats to the technology base of the business.
MOHIT KAPOOR
Company – Mahindra Group
Linkedin – Mohit Kapoor
Mohit Kapoor is the Chief Technology Officer of Mahindra Group. He is the business technology leader with 30 years of experience across industries, with the last 20 years focused on innovation, digital technology, process & product quality, company culture and customer experience. Currently leading Digital transformation at the Mahindra Group. An electronics engineer with advanced management & professional degrees from Cornell University and Georgia Institute of Technology. Key strengths include global technology & operations, global delivery & workforce strategy, application development management, risk management, enterprise CIO, CISO, CTO functions & data/analytics.
GUNJAN PATIDAR
Company – Zomato
Linkedin – Gunjan Patidar
GUNJAN PATIDAR is the Chief Technology Officer of Zomato. He started as an intern at the company, and went on to build the foodtech unicorn’s core tech systems. Gunjan handled the tech and websites for an entrepreneurship development cell run by IIT-Delhi student bodies. It was during this time, around 2007, that they did a business plan competition where Bain & Co was a sponsor. Zomato CTO Gunjan Patidar makes it a point to code every day. The most important thing for any techie is to be in touch with the times and understand what is happening around you. Find time to understand the business, product, what users want, and how they are impacted is his belief.
Sanjay Suri
Company – Nykaa
Linkedin – Sanjay Suri
Sanjay Suri is the Chief Technology Officer of Nykaa. He is an accomplished and enterprising Senior Software Development Executive with keen interest in building high impact teams and scalable software platforms. Specialties: bootstrapping startups, building Engineering organizations, prototyping solutions, heading product and engineering.
SUNIL SHARMA
Company – MothersonSumi INfotech & Designs Ltd.
Linkedin – Sunil Sharma
Sunil Sharma is the Chief Technology Officer of MothersonSumi INfotech & Designs Ltd. He is the senior executive with 25 years of strong, decisive executive leadership in well known organisations in IT domain. Extensive background in complex and challenging environments with proven ability to represent the company with Customers and Business Partners. Strong business acumen with skills to remain on the cutting edge; drive new business through conceptualizing strategies, augmenting & streamlining networks. Extensive experience in complex and challenging real time market environments. An accomplished professional who has successfully managed Business Operations and Service Delivery Functions as well as achieved year on year growth in business and revenue targets across assignments.
Created Centre of Excellence in the Service Management space to consult, propose, deploy and implement thereafter provide annuity support for tools and technologies. The stints with leading organisations in diverse sectors have honed abilities in identifying potential, deconstructing complex situations and further conceiving and implementing streamlined solutions that have led to increased revenues, profitability and overall success.
Geena Malhotra
Company – Cipla
Linkedin – Geena Malhotra
Geena Malhotra is the Chief Technology Officer of Cipla. She is spearheading the global manufacturing, supply chain and respiratory discovery engine of a company which adopts an innovation-driven and patient-centric approach to R&D is a huge responsibility and honour. It’s been over three decades now since she became part of the Cipla family – leading the manufacturing transformation agenda and launching innovative products in the respiratory therapy in line with Cipla’s global lung leadership aspirations. She believe innovation is staying relevant and true to the promise of delivering the future. As she provide technical leadership to cross-disciplinary teams, my utmost focus is to ensure that synergies between manufacturing and SCM are leveraged to further the business agenda and ensure smooth and consistent supply of quality products to our customers and easing their distress. She believe that it’s in giving that we receive and in #CaringForLife, we receive in equal, if not greater, measure.
Girish Nayak
Company – ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd.
Linkedin – Girish Nayak
Girish Nayak is the Chief Technology Officer of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd. He is an associated with ICICI Lombard General Insurance as Chief – Customer Service, Operations and Technology and responsible for managing technology, as well as, operations for the largest private non-life insurer in India. He also spearhead the Customer Service function, responsible for maintaining the overall quality of service delivery. Joined ICICI Group in 1994 and after initial stint in the Project Finance Group, moved into the Oil & Gas Group, a strategic business unit, for Project and Corporate financing of large Oil & Gas projects across India.
Sudhakar Mhaskar
Company – Marico Limited
Linkedin – Sudhakar Mhaskar
Sudhakar Mhaskar is the Chief Technology Officer of Marico Limited. Dr. Mhaskar currently heads the Research & Development team at Marico. He is responsible for Basic Research, New product development, Consumer in-sighting, Regulatory and Quality Assurance. He works across categories to ensure that the company continues to leverage scale and create new opportunities for products based on diverse consumer needs. He leads a team of doctorates, technologists and chemists to create innovative and differentiated consumer products that delight consumers. He also represents Marico on several government committees, associations and federations. Prior to Marico, Dr. Mhaskar was associated with Hindustan Unilever Research Centre for twelve years, during which he handled a diverse range of responsibilities including natural product isolation, industrial and edible fat processing, perfumery chemicals, detergents, skin cleansing and skin care. His valuable insights in consumer mapping and market research played a crucial role in concept formation, product launch and product development. Dr. Mhaskar holds a Ph.D in Organic Chemistry from Bombay University and a Bachelors of Edible Oils technology degree from the University Department of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. He has several national and international papers as well as patents to his credit and has received the S. Hussain Zaheer Award for basic research in Oil Chemistry in 1993.
KVGK RAJU
Company – Gland Pharma Limited
Linkedin – Kvgk Raju
Kvgk Raju is the Chief Technology Officer of Gland Pharma Limited. He is the association with the company goes back since its inception and he has closely been connected in putting into place quality control norms and practices as envisaged by our founder. With over 38 years’ experience in Quality Assurance, Quality Control and Regulatory Affairs, Mr Raju holds a Master of Science in Organic Chemistry and Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Microbiology.
Congratulations 🎊 Balaji R.