Ms. Aruna Sundararajan is India’s Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission. A 1982 batch IAS officer from Kerala Cadre, Ms Sundararajan, is one of the most senior civil servants of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the country. She has over three decades of experience in a variety of leadership roles in the Central and State Governments. Presently, as the Secretary in the Ministry of Telecom, she is spearheading the rapid growth of telecommunications services, which is the basic underlying platform for comprehensive development of the country.
Ms Sundararajan is also spearheading the development of National Telecom Policy 2018, and the implementation of BharatNet, world’s largest rural broadband connectivity programme, which is aimed to connect 2.5 lakh Grama Panchayats with high-speed broadband by March 2019. She is also a member of the high level committee constituted by the Govt of India to identify key data protection issues in the country and recommend methods of addressing them.
She had held many important positions including the Country Head of the Global E schools Initiative of the UN and CEO of the prestigious Common Service Centre Project under the National E-Governance Project, of the Government of India. She has also served as the Secretary to the Ministry of Steel, Govt of India, Additional Secretary, Telecom & Administrator, Universal Service Obligation Fund, Government of India and CMD, BBNL [Bharat Broadband Network Limited]

Ram Sewak Sharma is a 1978 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre. He played a key role in implementing Aadhaar project and designing roadmap for government's Digital India program, before taking over the regulator responsibility at TRAI in mid-2015. Gopal Vittal, MD &CEO, Bharti Airtel.

Mr. Himanshu Kapania is the Managing Director of Idea Cellular Limited, a pure play pan-India mobile operator with revenues of over US$5 billion and 125 million GSM subscribers.

His first stint with Idea was from 1997 to 2003, when he managed Circle Operations. In 2006, he rejoined the company and was made the COO, managing the business in southern and western India. He is telecom industry veteran and has witnessed a number of industry landmarks like introduction of NTP and the launch of CDMA services.

Mr. Anupam Shrivastava is the Chairman, and Managing Director of the state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited (BSNL). Mr. Shrivastava served as Director of Finance and Director of Consumer Mobility at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. since February 2014 and May 2013 respectively and has been its Director since June, 2013.

Mr. Shrivastava has around three decades of experience in the field of telecommunications and has also been credited of taking telecommunication trainings in India & Japan.

Mr Savargankar has been Chief Technology Officer of Bharti Airtel Limited since April 2014. Mr Savargankar served as the Head of Operations and served as its Senior Vice President. He served as Chief of Technical of Bharti Airtel.

Amit Sinha Roy is Vice President of Strategy & Marketing, Marketing Centre of Excellence at Tata Communications, part of the $103.3 billion Tata Companies.
With over 20 years of experience in the global ICT industry, Amit defines marketing strategies for Tata Communications’ business, in both emerging and developed geographies.
This entails delivering market insights across customers, competitors, industry segments and geographic regions for enabling segmentation, targeting and positioning of our key products and services.
Amit is also responsible for partner marketing with a focus on achieving specific business outcomes by engaging and enabling Sell Through and With business models for specific products and services.
Prior to Tata Communications, Amit was Head of Marketing, Cisco India & SAARC He also held various senior marketing and strategy positions in Hewlett Packard, Syntel Inc. and Compaq India.
Amit has a MSc (Hons) degree in Physics and a Master of Management Studies from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, India.

Sanjay Kaul is currently working as Managing Director – India and SAARC for Services Provider Business since August 2014. Prior to joining Cisco Sanjay have had number of leadership roles including global head & VP for Service layer business based in Ericsson headquarters in Sweden and VP Bharti Group Business in India. During his 15 plus tenure in Ericsson he worked in Europe, Asia Pacific and South Africa.
Sanjay is a hardcore Telecom, media and IT professional with over 24 years of experience in truly international environment. During these years he has been working with number of prestigious companies in telecom industry like BT Consulting, Telia Sonera group, Ericsson group and Cisco.
Sanjay is a graduate in Telecom Engineering from NIT Durgapur, India and a postgrad in Business management from Harvard Business School, USA. He has been an active contributor to prestigious industry forums and has served as Board member in GSMA WAC board between 2010-12. He also has authored a book published by Wiley’s titled “Business Models for Sustainable Telecoms Growth”

LT Gen Kochhar has taken over as CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) after retiring as Signal Officer-in-chief.

The General Officer has had an illustrious career spanning almost four decades and has tenanted very prestigious Command and Staff appointments in the Indian Army. Lt Gen S P Kochhar was appointed as the 23rd Signal Officer-in-Chief on 01 Sep 2011.

Prior to taking over as the SO-in-C, the General Officer held the coveted appointment of additional director general of Personnel Services. During this assignment he undertook several innovative measures to empower the entire cadre of the Indian Army so as to facilitate a second career post retirement and to utilise their skills in the civil nation building process. Project ‘KSHMATA’ with Microsoft, Project ‘GYANDEEP’ with IGNOU, Project ‘SAMARTH’ and signing of MoUs with leading banks of the country are some of his major contributions towards this goal.

The first ever compendium of HR Policies and Court Cases was also produced under his tutelage, which is now often consulted in all Armed Forces Tribunals. The General officer also headed the Tri Service Pay Anomalies Resolution Committee and has actively contributed in resolution of many 6th Central Pay Commission anomalies towards the benefit of pensioners and serving personnel.

He serves as an Honorary Adjunct Professor with IGNOU and BITS Pilani, chairs the Army IGNOU Academic Council and is a member of the Integrated Academic Council of IGNOU. He is on the Board of Directors of ITI Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited and is also a member of working group on Convergence Communication and Broadband Technologies and the high level committee on National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). He has also been delivering talks on empowerment, leadership and team building in various forums both military and civil.

Highly qualified, he holds two MPhils and MTech from IIT Delhi, a graduate from Delhi University and is a fellow of IETE and AIMA, senior member of CSI and member of IEEE, C-DEP.

The General officer has to his credit some path breaking initiatives like the converged tactical data networks in deserts, video conferencing, networking in the mountains using sparsely held legacy equipment, protocol convertors, Multi RF Radio, Laser Radio and data warehousing.

He has published a number of papers on topical subjects and has also represented the country in international conferences on interoperability at Hawaii. His international exposure include official visits to the US, Europe, Africa, and SAARC Countries.

The General officer has successfully done the prestigious National Defence College Course, the Higher Command, Senior Command, Technical Staff Officers Course, Advance ADPS and various other professional courses with aplomb. He has also had grounding in management from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon and College of Defence Management, Secunderabad.

In recognition of his distinguished services and path breaking initiatives, he has been awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Bar, Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India. He has been made the Honorary ADC to the President of India from 01 Jan 2012.

T.V. Ramachandran, widely known in the telecoms industry as 'TV', is a passionate devotee of Mobile Telecommunications in India since it was first introduced in 1994.

He was the 1st CEO of one of the earliest cellular ventures in India - Sterling Cellular Ltd (Essar Cellphone), Delhi - and led the establishment and successful launch of the largest Indian cellular network of that time. Sterling Cellular was incidentally the original predecessor of what is today Vodafone Delhi.

TV then moved on in 1997 to establish and lead the industry body -Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) to the position of being one of the most credible and vibrant professional bodies that became accepted as the effective voice of the industry.

During his long 12 year stint with COAI, TV passionately championed the cause of the industry in many areas and played a key role in the achievement of many significant successes for the sector.

TV has a Master's in Physics (specialisation in Wireless& Electronics) with distinction and University rank, from Madras University.

Rajan presently serves as the Director General of COAI. Prior to joining COAI as DG in April 2010, Rajan served in many senior executive positions such as CEO, COO and CFO of such major companies as Telargo (a JV of NTT DoCoMo), Afghan Wireless, Call Sciences, AT&T Wireless, Birla-AT&T (now IDEA), and as a senior financial executive at Beatrice International, Columbia-Tri Star Pictures, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Rajan specializes in international operations and start-up ventures, turn-arounds, mergers & acquisitions and venture financing.

With more than two decades of exposure and experience in Information Communications and Technology sector, Mr Sridhar now leads Tikona Infinet Limited (TIL) growth plans as Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to joining Tikona Infinet, Sridhar has been a part of the senior management team at Reliance Communications Limited (RCom), building strong business customer relationships amongst Indian Enterprises and establishing company leadership in MPLS and Metro Ethernet based Data Networks. In his most recent assignments at RCom he was Executive Sr. Vice President and Zonal Head Global Enterprise business Unit (covering North and South Zones).

He was instrumental in introducing cutting edge technology during his leadership stints with various companies. He played a key role in driving market leadership in the GSM Infrastructure segment in India for Ericsson.

Mr Sridhar has held senior leadership positions at AT&T Network Systems (Lucent Technologies) a joint venture with Tatas, to bring SDH and FTTB technologies to India. He also made significant contribution at Tata Telecom Limited (now Avaya Global Connect), to launch leading edge Enterprise Solutions in India.

Mr Sridhar has a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and MBA.

LV Sastry is a seasoned Enterprise B2B and Mobile Banking business leader with over 27 years of experience in IT, Technology, Mobile Banking & Commerce related industries. He has been one of the most prominent subject matter expert in these areas.
LV Sastry has management qualifications from Graduate School of Business, Stanford University US, INSEAD and Manchester Business School.
In his current assignment as the VP &National Business Head, LV Sastry is the CXO Profit Center Head holding overall responsibility for the Mobile Banking & Commerce Business at Aircel and overseeing the conceptualization, strategy and execution of Aircel’s foray into mobile payments, digital payments and mobile commerce business.
In his previous roles as the CXO National Business Head of Enterprise Business/ B2B verticals at Aircel and BhartiAirtel, LV had started and set up the businesses in bith these companies responsible for Sales, Marketing, Products and Customer Operations including designing Sales and Operation strategies at the regional level across, verticals and ensuring in the areas of sales, revenue, profitability, market penetration,Customer care, Technical Services.
In his previous role L.V.Sastry, worked as the Business Group Director Xerox GlobalServices business group for Xerox.He was responsible for both the strategy design and deployment of Global Services Business whichincluded development of Global Services business strategies in areas of Office Services,Production services and Document Management solutions for critical document processesin large and major customers across India.
He has participated in over 200 seminars and conferences in both India and abroadas speaker / presenter on thought leadership during last 15 years. He writes forprofessional journals in areas of Telecom, Technology & IT Services.
LV is a keen golfer in his pass time

Mr. Vishant Vora is the Director of Technology at Vodafone India Limited, one of India's leading telecommunications services providers.

Mr. Vora has over two decades of experience in Mobile Telecom spanning three continents - USA, Europe and Asia. As a member of the top management; he plays a strategic role in the technology and network infrastructure for the company in India.

Ankit Agarwal joined Sterlite in 2007 and heads the Telecom Products division. He has an experience of above 10 years. In addition, he is responsible for identifying and executing strategic opportunities for Sterlite globally, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and greenfield projects. Ankit holds a Bachelor's degree from University of Southern California and MBA from London Business School.

Dr.AnandAgarwal is Chief Executive Officer of Sterlite Technologiessince 2003. Under his leadership, Sterlite Tech has grown from an optical fibre manufacturer to one of the leading global providers of products, solutions and services for telecom & power industries.
Anand joined Sterlite Tech in 1995 after a brief stint in Siemens. Since then he has held various key positions across the company in operations, projects, business development and sales. He has led Sterlite Tech’s foray in infrastructure development for optical transmission, resulting in Sterlite Tech being the largest private developer of such assets in India.
Anand serves as a Director on the Board of Sterlite Technologies, and its subsidiaries in infrastructure development as well as joint ventures in Brazil and China. Anand has completed Bachelor’s in Engineering with specialisation in Metallurgical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur, Masters’ and Ph.D. from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA.
He holds strong capabilities in global leadership and team building, creating growth opportunities in new business verticals and niche market segments, strong decision-making, managing execution of plans with acute clarity of roles and effective metrics.
About Sterlite Technologies:
Sterlite Technologies Limited designs, builds and manages smarter data networks for telecomsglobally. Sterlite Tech is a pure-play telecom focused business that develops & delivers opticalcommunication products, network & system integration services and software solutions. SterliteTech is among the leaders in all its business areas and has operations on a global scale withmanufacturing presence in India, China and Brazil. Sterlite Tech aims to transform everydayliving by delivering smarter networks. Sterlite Tech is India’s only fully integrated provider ofoptical fibre preforms, optical fibres and cables. With a strong portfolio of over 125 patents,Sterlite Tech is home to India’s only Centre of Excellence for broadband research. Projectsundertaken by the company include intrusion-proof secure network for the Armed Forces, ruralbroadband for BharatNet, Smart Cities? development, and establishing high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home(FTTH) networks.
For more details, visit www.sterlitetech.com

Shyam Mardikar looks after network strategy, architecture and planning as Chief - Architecture and Planning. In this profile he is responsible to create the network architecture blueprint to seamlessly move to a multi technology, data centric and customer experience aware network which is closer to the customer and dynamically adapts itself for the best user experience. Spectrum strategy, IP'fication of network, engineering for co-existing 4G and 3G networks, low cost small cells and inducting capabilities like SON and SDN are some of his current priorities.
Prior to his current stint with Airtel, Shyam was the group CTIO for Lebara group based out of UK. He managed group's network and IT functions across its seven countries of MVNO operations across Europe and Australia.
Shyam started his career as a software research engineer with CDOT, India's telecom research organisation and then worked with Department of Telecom in various capacities in network installation, planning and operations. In an earlier stint with Airtel, as head of network services and engineering, he was responsible to run Airtel's pre-paid platform, packet core, VAS and core network systems.

Rajesh Chharia born in Calcutta on 5th March is a Postgraduate in Commerce having completed his Bachelors degree from Delhi University and Masters Degree from Meerut University in Commerce Honors.

In 1999 Mr. Rajesh started M/s CJ Online Pvt. Ltd., the first Operational Private ISP on 100% digital platform in Ghaziabad (NCR Town of Delhi) and its adjoining areas. Mr. Rajesh is also the Member in Regional Advisory Committee of Central Excise & Service Tax under Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

Mr. Chharia was elected the President of the Internet Service Provide Association of India in September 2006 and for the consecutive term also. Prior to this he has also served as the Vice President for the same organization in 2002.

He has also played a major role in creating National Internet Exchange of India; presently he is one of the Director of NIXI.

Prasanto K Roy is Vice President at NASSCOM, heading its Domestic Council and Internet Council secretariats. As the apex industry association representing India’s $150 billion IT-BPM and related industries, NASSCOM works closely with industry and government on policy, market development and other issues.
A technology journalist for over two decades, he was president and chief editor at CyberMedia, India’s largest technology publishers, for over ten years. He has written for BBC News, Al-Jazeera India, et al, and has appeared as a tech expert on shows for television channels NDTV, CNN-IBN, Headlines Today, BBC and other TV and radio channels. He is a member of juries for NDTV, Nasscom, DEF, Vodafone Foundation, CyberMedia, and others. He has also been a media and digital consultant writing and speaking on technology, digital and green issues.

Srikanth Balachandran is the Global CHRO of Bharti Airtel, the world’s third largest mobile operator in customer terms. Srikanth passionately leads Airtel’s ‘winning with people’ agenda, which motivates its 22,000 employees in 17 countries to learn, lead and grow. Airtel’s unique initiative of ‘Career Fairs’ inspires employees to AIM (aspire, invest and move), and build fulfilling careers in telecom. A Chartered Accountant by qualification, he started his career with Unilever as a Management Trainee in May 1985, and went on to do several leadership roles across Finance, Supply Chain and HR in Unilever for 23 years. In Nov 2008, he joined Airtel as Global CFO, a position that he held for nearly 7 years. In June 2014, CNBV-TV18 presented him the award for the “Best Telecom CFO”. In Aug 2015, he made a transformational shift in his career to become the Global CHRO of Airtel.
As part of Srikanth’s vision Airtel has tied up with different vendors to build digital capabilities in the organization.
Airtel today has partnerships with Coursera, Lynda, HMM and PluralSight to provide courses and specializations to our employees in building their digital skills and partnerships with different vendors who are partnering with us to enhance our functional technical capabilities, digital capabilities and digital leadership.

Pravin Bhagwat is an entrepreneur and a wireless security researcher. He is the Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Mojo Networks -- a provider of highly scalable & secure cloud-managed Wi-Fi solutions. Mojo Networks has built a world-class engineering team in Pune which is successfully launching ‘first-of-its-kind’ Cloud-managed Wi-Fi products in the global market.
Prior to starting his entrepreneurial career, Pravin was a lead researcher at AT&T Research and IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, New York where he was a member of MobileIP, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth research teams. He also served as a visiting faculty member at Computer Science Department, IIT Kanpur. Pravin also has 27 patents to his credit.
For the past five years, Pravin has also been experimenting with a couple of non-tech ideas, such as leading a community level green/recycling initiative, jumpstarting an eco-restoration project near Pune and making a feature film length documentary. Pravin has a B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT Kanpur, India and MS/Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Sandeep leads Service Provider Key Business customers for Cisco India & SAARC.
His mandate is to drive the overall growth strategy and sales operations for the Telco/ Cable segment. IPNGN growth, Mobility Solutions, DC/Cloud, Collaboration, Video and enabling Service
Providers to take new value added services to market will be his areas of focus.
Sandeep has a broad gamut of telecom experience spanning 17 years with a comprehensive knowledge of business dynamics and services, market transitions, architecture/solutions, standards and practices. He is passionate about building high performance teams, nurturing strong executive relationship and delivering business results for Customers, Partners and Cisco. Sandeep holds an MBA from FSM, Delhi and Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics & Telecommunications from Manipal Institute of Technology India. He has earlier worked with leading Telecom companies including
Huawei, HFCL and Pirelli.

Sukanta Dey is a leading industry icon in the growth of new fmcgs(fast moving consumer goods &services) in India. He has over forty years of experience in developing brands and in sales, marketing and profit centre management in Fortune100 companies, viz, Unilever, PepsiCo, Idea Cellular (AT&T wireless),and Tatas.
He started his career in telecom in 2001 when he joined Idea Cellular Ltd. (a subsidiary of AT&T Wireless/Tatas/Birlas) as chief operating officer and later as chief marketing and commercial officer powered the Idea brand to its current national stature, going head-on against entrenched giants like Vodafone, Airtel, and Reliance. Later as Emerging Business President, he built the wireless data business for Tata Teleservices/Tata DoComo for the brands of Tata Photon. In 2014 he was appointed as Advisor to the Board of GlobaCom Limited, a Telecom Major in West Africa/UK.
Prior to Telecom, he was Executive Vice President at PepsiCo .He joined PepsiCo’s India startup team in 1989 and during his ten year tenure with the company the Pepsi brands became a formidable player against entrenched giants like Coke. Prior,he started his FMCG career at Hindustan Unilever.
Sokanta’s over four decades of rich experience in marketing and communications is laced with impressive industry accreditations. In PepsiCo, he was awarded the global leadership award my Margaret Thatcher (the ex-PM of Great Britain) at PepsiCo’s centenary celebration at Hawaii in 1998. He was named one of the top 50 marketing professionals in the country by marketing industry panel of Pitch Magazine in November 2004 upon successful national brand launch of Idea Cellular. He was invited to chair the GSM World Series, India Conference for a continuous period of four years and has been the moderator/keynote speaker in International Telecom conferences. He is Past President of Delhi Management Association.
Sokanta is an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, and an engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, both being the crème de la crème of Global Academia. He was an Institute Scholar throughout his 7 years at IIM and IIT.

Mr. Pradeep Gupta is the CMD of Cyber Media (India) Ltd., South Asia's leading specialty media house.

He is an industry veteran of over 30 years, and is recognized for the key leadership role he has played in promoting the interests of the globally dispersed Indian IT-ITeS industry. He is also a Founder Director of SQL Star International and Member of the TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Global Board. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award of IIT Delhi and many other industry accolades.

Sanjay Kaul is currently working as Managing Director – India and SAARC for Services Provider Business since August 2014. Prior to joining Cisco Sanjay have had number of leadership roles including global head & VP for Service layer business based in Ericsson headquarters in Sweden and VP Bharti Group Business in India. During his 15 plus tenure in Ericsson he worked in Europe, Asia Pacific and South Africa.
Sanjay is a hardcore Telecom, media and IT professional with over 24 years of experience in truly international environment. During these years he has been working with number of prestigious companies in telecom industry like BT Consulting, Telia Sonera group, Ericsson group and Cisco.
Sanjay is a graduate in Telecom Engineering from NIT Durgapur, India and a postgrad in Business management from Harvard Business School, USA. He has been an active contributor to prestigious industry forums and has served as Board member in GSMA WAC board between 2010-12. He also has authored a book published by Wiley’s titled “Business Models for Sustainable Telecoms Growth”

Sandeep leads Service Provider Key Business customers for Cisco India & SAARC.
His mandate is to drive the overall growth strategy and sales operations for the Telco/ Cable segment. IPNGN growth, Mobility Solutions, DC/Cloud, Collaboration, Video and enabling Service
Providers to take new value added services to market will be his areas of focus.
Sandeep has a broad gamut of telecom experience spanning 17 years with a comprehensive knowledge of business dynamics and services, market transitions, architecture/solutions, standards and practices. He is passionate about building high performance teams, nurturing strong executive relationship and delivering business results for Customers, Partners and Cisco. Sandeep holds an MBA from FSM, Delhi and Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics & Telecommunications from Manipal Institute of Technology India. He has earlier worked with leading Telecom companies including
Huawei, HFCL and Pirelli.

Ekow has over 25 years’ experience in telecoms, media and information technology with a track record of selling and delivering IT /Telecom consulting services and solutions in over 40 countries.
Over the past 17 years he has successfully delivered business and technology consulting engagements, strategic thought-leadership and managed large-scale IT Transformation projects in the Telecoms industry.
He was previously Head of Consulting and Systems Integration and ICT Engagements at Ericsson in the Middle-East. Prior to joining Ericsson in 2012 he held senior industry and management consulting positions at IBM and with PwC Consulting for over 15 years.
He is the author of several publications in telecoms and media.

Ankit Agarwal joined Sterlite in 2007 and heads the Telecom Products division. He has an experience of above 10 years. In addition, he is responsible for identifying and executing strategic opportunities for Sterlite globally, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and greenfield projects. Ankit holds a Bachelor's degree from University of Southern California and MBA from London Business School.

Aditya leads the Communication, Media and Technology (CMT) practice for Accenture in India. He is responsible nurturing the growth of Accenture businesses and teams with new skills and capabilities to resolve real-time complex business problems for clients.
As a Telecom and IT professional, Aditya has held many leadership position across organizations and led many high performance teams. These teams have consistently and successfully delivered on business transformations and turnarounds; helped clients monetize their offerings better by improving their return on investment (ROI); nurtured businesses and ran global operations for various organizations.

Mr. Himanshu Kapania is the Managing Director of Idea Cellular Limited, a pure play pan-India mobile operator with revenues of over US$5 billion and 125 million GSM subscribers.

His first stint with Idea was from 1997 to 2003, when he managed Circle Operations. In 2006, he rejoined the company and was made the COO, managing the business in southern and western India. He is telecom industry veteran and has witnessed a number of industry landmarks like introduction of NTP and the launch of CDMA services.

Mr. Anupam Shrivastava is the Chairman, and Managing Director of the state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nagar Limited (BSNL). Mr. Shrivastava served as Director of Finance and Director of Consumer Mobility at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. since February 2014 and May 2013 respectively and has been its Director since June, 2013.

Mr. Shrivastava has around three decades of experience in the field of telecommunications and has also been credited of taking telecommunication trainings in India & Japan.

LT Gen Kochhar has taken over as CEO, Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) after retiring as Signal Officer-in-chief.

The General Officer has had an illustrious career spanning almost four decades and has tenanted very prestigious Command and Staff appointments in the Indian Army. Lt Gen S P Kochhar was appointed as the 23rd Signal Officer-in-Chief on 01 Sep 2011.

Prior to taking over as the SO-in-C, the General Officer held the coveted appointment of additional director general of Personnel Services. During this assignment he undertook several innovative measures to empower the entire cadre of the Indian Army so as to facilitate a second career post retirement and to utilise their skills in the civil nation building process. Project ‘KSHMATA’ with Microsoft, Project ‘GYANDEEP’ with IGNOU, Project ‘SAMARTH’ and signing of MoUs with leading banks of the country are some of his major contributions towards this goal.

The first ever compendium of HR Policies and Court Cases was also produced under his tutelage, which is now often consulted in all Armed Forces Tribunals. The General officer also headed the Tri Service Pay Anomalies Resolution Committee and has actively contributed in resolution of many 6th Central Pay Commission anomalies towards the benefit of pensioners and serving personnel.

He serves as an Honorary Adjunct Professor with IGNOU and BITS Pilani, chairs the Army IGNOU Academic Council and is a member of the Integrated Academic Council of IGNOU. He is on the Board of Directors of ITI Limited, Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited and is also a member of working group on Convergence Communication and Broadband Technologies and the high level committee on National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN). He has also been delivering talks on empowerment, leadership and team building in various forums both military and civil.

Highly qualified, he holds two MPhils and MTech from IIT Delhi, a graduate from Delhi University and is a fellow of IETE and AIMA, senior member of CSI and member of IEEE, C-DEP.

The General officer has to his credit some path breaking initiatives like the converged tactical data networks in deserts, video conferencing, networking in the mountains using sparsely held legacy equipment, protocol convertors, Multi RF Radio, Laser Radio and data warehousing.

He has published a number of papers on topical subjects and has also represented the country in international conferences on interoperability at Hawaii. His international exposure include official visits to the US, Europe, Africa, and SAARC Countries.

The General officer has successfully done the prestigious National Defence College Course, the Higher Command, Senior Command, Technical Staff Officers Course, Advance ADPS and various other professional courses with aplomb. He has also had grounding in management from Management Development Institute, Gurgaon and College of Defence Management, Secunderabad.

In recognition of his distinguished services and path breaking initiatives, he has been awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and Bar, Sena Medal and Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India. He has been made the Honorary ADC to the President of India from 01 Jan 2012.

He joined MTS India in 2009 and has been a key figure in network planning and strategy for the company.

Prior to MTS India, Yadav served Idea Cellular for almost three years. He had also served Tata Teleservices and Bharti Airtel in the past.

Mr. Arvind Bali is currently heading Videocon Telecom and is actively involved in Business Development, Project Management & Telecom Infrastructure Development.


An accomplished business leader, Mr. Bali has 30+ year's expertise in management of various business streams ranging from telecom, plant & operations, manufacturing & utilities with globally respected outcomes. He possesses capabilities of transforming under-performing organizations with powerful analytical skills, potent communication capability & strategic vision.

Mr. RK Bahuguna is the Chairman, and Managing Director of Railtel India. He is associated with RailTel since October, 2001 and is responsible for all marketing of RailTel services and network planning of RailTel network.

Gopal Vittal in his role as the CEO of country’s largest private integrated telecom operator, is responsible for defining and delivering the business strategy and providing overall leadership for Airtel’s India and South Asia operations.

Sandip Das is currently the Chairman and Senior Partner with Maitreyi Capital Advisors, a Private Equity and Venture Capital firm focused initially on Digital Funds. In addition, he is also a Senior Advisor to the UK headquartered Telecom consultancy, Analysys Mason, for India and Emerging markets and a member of the Board of Advisors at Astrum, India's first reputation management advisory.
Das was one of the founding members of private telephony in India and was part of the group of individuals who founded Hutchison Max Telecom (now called Vodafone India) in 1994 with a paging business.

Anil Tandan is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Sustainability Officer for Idea Cellular, and has been with the company since April 2003. In his present role, he is responsible for evaluation and introduction of new technologies and VAS, Network Planning, Optimization, Roll Out, and Operation and Maintenance of Networks, pan-India. MTech from IIT, Kharagpur in Microwave and Radar Technologies, he has vast experience in the field of telecommunications. He has served in the Corps of Signals of the Indian Army for 30 years before he took premature retirement as a Brigadier in 1998. He has been associated with the GSM industry for the last 18 years.

Mr. Partho Banerjee is the President & Managing Director of Hughes Communications India Ltd., Asia Pacific’s largest VSAT service provider. Hughes Communication is the largest satellite based connectivity service provider in India with more than 100,000 sites in remote areas of the country & also the leading satellite systems provider for Government projects & Defence services.
Mr Partho Banerjee had been associated in Satellite communication services in India since 1994 & had been extensively involved in policy areas for NTP 94 & NTP 99.
Mr. Banerjee is an Electronics Engineer from Delhi College of Engineering (class of `82) and Masters in Business Administration from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi (Class of `97).
Mr. Partho Banerjee is also the former President of VSAT Service Association of India (VSAI).

Dr.AnandAgarwal is Chief Executive Officer of Sterlite Technologiessince 2003. Under his leadership, Sterlite Tech has grown from an optical fibre manufacturer to one of the leading global providers of products, solutions and services for telecom & power industries.
Anand joined Sterlite Tech in 1995 after a brief stint in Siemens. Since then he has held various key positions across the company in operations, projects, business development and sales. He has led Sterlite Tech’s foray in infrastructure development for optical transmission, resulting in Sterlite Tech being the largest private developer of such assets in India.
Anand serves as a Director on the Board of Sterlite Technologies, and its subsidiaries in infrastructure development as well as joint ventures in Brazil and China. Anand has completed Bachelor’s in Engineering with specialisation in Metallurgical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur, Masters’ and Ph.D. from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA.
He holds strong capabilities in global leadership and team building, creating growth opportunities in new business verticals and niche market segments, strong decision-making, managing execution of plans with acute clarity of roles and effective metrics.
About Sterlite Technologies:
Sterlite Technologies Limited designs, builds and manages smarter data networks for telecomsglobally. Sterlite Tech is a pure-play telecom focused business that develops & delivers opticalcommunication products, network & system integration services and software solutions. SterliteTech is among the leaders in all its business areas and has operations on a global scale withmanufacturing presence in India, China and Brazil. Sterlite Tech aims to transform everydayliving by delivering smarter networks. Sterlite Tech is India’s only fully integrated provider ofoptical fibre preforms, optical fibres and cables. With a strong portfolio of over 125 patents,Sterlite Tech is home to India’s only Centre of Excellence for broadband research. Projectsundertaken by the company include intrusion-proof secure network for the Armed Forces, ruralbroadband for BharatNet, Smart Cities? development, and establishing high-speed Fibre-to-the-Home(FTTH) networks.
For more details, visit www.sterlitetech.com

With more than two decades of exposure and experience in Information Communications and Technology sector, Mr Sridhar now leads Tikona Infinet Limited (TIL) growth plans as Chief Operating Officer.

Prior to joining Tikona Infinet, Sridhar has been a part of the senior management team at Reliance Communications Limited (RCom), building strong business customer relationships amongst Indian Enterprises and establishing company leadership in MPLS and Metro Ethernet based Data Networks. In his most recent assignments at RCom he was Executive Sr. Vice President and Zonal Head Global Enterprise business Unit (covering North and South Zones).

He was instrumental in introducing cutting edge technology during his leadership stints with various companies. He played a key role in driving market leadership in the GSM Infrastructure segment in India for Ericsson.

Mr Sridhar has held senior leadership positions at AT&T Network Systems (Lucent Technologies) a joint venture with Tatas, to bring SDH and FTTB technologies to India. He also made significant contribution at Tata Telecom Limited (now Avaya Global Connect), to launch leading edge Enterprise Solutions in India.

Mr Sridhar has a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and MBA.

Prior to this appointment as the Chief Executive Officer, Sergey was the Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer of MTS India.

Sergey has been with MTS India for the last eight years, right from the inception of the company and was responsible for the overall supervision of the finance, legal and compliance functions, implementation of best practices of management and control, the company said.

During his stay with the Sistema Group, Sergey has worked on various assignments which included being the Vice President and Financial Director of Sistema Group, First Vice President for Finance and Investments at Sistema Telecom (Managing Company for all Sistema Telecom Assets).

He was also Vice President of Moscow Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Deputy CEO of Infrastructure Company.

Narang is Managing Director for BT’s India operations since December 2007, He manages Business Operations of the BT Global Services, BT’s India strategy and promoting presence and services in the Indian sub-continent including outsourcing and captive operation centers. He also handles sales across Asia pacific/Japan region. He is a core committee member of British Business Group. Sudhir was Board member of Accel Frontline between 2008 and 2011. Prior to joining BT, Sudhir was CEO of Tulip IT services; He was also senior vice president, India and SAARC, at Cisco. Before joining Cisco, he was general manager at HCL Comnet, Sudhir has over 24 years’ experience in the Indian IT/Telco sector. An alumnus of BITS Pilani, Sudhir also holds Post-Diploma in International Business.aa

Mr. Vishant Vora is the Director of Technology at Vodafone India Limited, one of India's leading telecommunications services providers.

Mr. Vora has over two decades of experience in Mobile Telecom spanning three continents - USA, Europe and Asia. As a member of the top management; he plays a strategic role in the technology and network infrastructure for the company in India.

Mr Savargankar has been Chief Technology Officer of Bharti Airtel Limited since April 2014. Mr Savargankar served as the Head of Operations and served as its Senior Vice President. He served as Chief of Technical of Bharti Airtel.

Amitabh recently completed an ISOC appointed 6 year Board Termas a Director and Secretary of the Board of .ORG, the Public Interest Registry, based in Reston, USA. He is the Founder/Director of Telxess Consulting Services Pvt. Ltd.
He was a Founder and former President of Internet Service Providers Association of India. He also was a Founder, Board Director and CEO of National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI), which runs Internet Exchanges, .IN Domain Registry, Root Servers, etc. He is on the Boards of some NGO’s/Non Profits, where he focuses on improving Governance standards.
He was also on the Expert Group of the Prime Minister’s Committee on Telecom and IT Convergence back in 1999-2000, where he pushed to dismantle the overseas communications monopoly and usher in privatization of International Gateways.
He helped shape public policies in the telecommunication sphere as a member of various governmental and industry committees, expert groups and task forces.
In 2008, he helped set up and operate the Delhi Disaster Management Authority’s 24x7 Emergency Operations Center tasked with organizing response to citizens calls on natural and/or man made disasters.
He holds a Law degree, PG in Marketing and Certificate in Corporate Directorship (where his dissertation was on Building High Performance Boards).

LV Sastry is a seasoned Enterprise B2B and Mobile Banking business leader with over 27 years of experience in IT, Technology, Mobile Banking & Commerce related industries. He has been one of the most prominent subject matter expert in these areas.
LV Sastry has management qualifications from Graduate School of Business, Stanford University US, INSEAD and Manchester Business School.
In his current assignment as the VP &National Business Head, LV Sastry is the CXO Profit Center Head holding overall responsibility for the Mobile Banking & Commerce Business at Aircel and overseeing the conceptualization, strategy and execution of Aircel’s foray into mobile payments, digital payments and mobile commerce business.
In his previous roles as the CXO National Business Head of Enterprise Business/ B2B verticals at Aircel and BhartiAirtel, LV had started and set up the businesses in bith these companies responsible for Sales, Marketing, Products and Customer Operations including designing Sales and Operation strategies at the regional level across, verticals and ensuring in the areas of sales, revenue, profitability, market penetration,Customer care, Technical Services.
In his previous role L.V.Sastry, worked as the Business Group Director Xerox GlobalServices business group for Xerox.He was responsible for both the strategy design and deployment of Global Services Business whichincluded development of Global Services business strategies in areas of Office Services,Production services and Document Management solutions for critical document processesin large and major customers across India.
He has participated in over 200 seminars and conferences in both India and abroadas speaker / presenter on thought leadership during last 15 years. He writes forprofessional journals in areas of Telecom, Technology & IT Services.
LV is a keen golfer in his pass time

Shyam Mardikar looks after network strategy, architecture and planning as Chief - Architecture and Planning. In this profile he is responsible to create the network architecture blueprint to seamlessly move to a multi technology, data centric and customer experience aware network which is closer to the customer and dynamically adapts itself for the best user experience. Spectrum strategy, IP'fication of network, engineering for co-existing 4G and 3G networks, low cost small cells and inducting capabilities like SON and SDN are some of his current priorities.
Prior to his current stint with Airtel, Shyam was the group CTIO for Lebara group based out of UK. He managed group's network and IT functions across its seven countries of MVNO operations across Europe and Australia.
Shyam started his career as a software research engineer with CDOT, India's telecom research organisation and then worked with Department of Telecom in various capacities in network installation, planning and operations. In an earlier stint with Airtel, as head of network services and engineering, he was responsible to run Airtel's pre-paid platform, packet core, VAS and core network systems.

Deepak Maheshwari heads government affairs across India, South Asia and South East Asia in Symantec, the world-leader in cyber security. A public policy and regulatory affairs professional with more than two decades, he has played a pivotal role in development of Information & Communication Technology policy over the past two decades and has a keen interest in the interplay of technological innovation and socio-economic development. An oft-invited speaker, his views & reviews have been widely published. He has been associated with various industry and professional forums like NIXI, ISPAI, IAMAI, BSA, CCICI & IEEE. He served for two consecutive terms as the elected secretary of ISP Association of India (ISPAI), co-founded National Internet eXchange of India (NIXI) and currently chairs BSA Policy Committee for Asia Pacific. He is co-editor of CCICI’s newsletter Meghvaani and was the program chair of IEEE’s Internet Inclusion in India. An IIT engineer, he is also a law graduate and has previously worked with Microsoft, MasterCard, Sify and HCL.

Akhil is the Vice Chairman of Bharti Group and Executive Chairman of Bharti Infratel Limited. He has played a pivotal role in Bharti’s phenomenal growth right since inception and has been closely involved from the very beginning in the growth of Bharti in the telecommunication services sector – both organically and by way of various acquisitions. He has led the formation of various partnerships for Bharti with leading international operators like British Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom and Vodafone in addition to induction of leading financial investors like Warburg Pincus, Temasek, KKR, Qatar Foundation Endowment, AIF and Sequoia among many other Private Equity funds. He has also been instrumental in raising several billion dollars by way of project finance for the Group over the years from global banks & bond markets.
He has conceptualized and implemented the transformational initiatives that include the outsourcing deals undertaken by the group in the areas of Information Technology (IT) with IBM, Network Management and has also been responsible for the separation of passive mobile infrastructure and forming Indus Towers - a Joint Venture with Vodafone and Idea, which has become the largest tower company in the world and is a unique example of collaborating at the backend while competing at the front end. With innovative thought leadership, he has helped Bharti Airtel in becoming the lowest cost producer of minutes worldwide while ensuring that it provides good margin despite the lowest tariffs in the world. In June 2010, he was instrumental in executing the acquisition of Zain Group’s mobile operations in 15 countries across Africa for an enterprise valuation of USD10.7 billion which is the second largest outbound deal by an Indian company.
He has also spearheaded the successful public listings of both Bharti Airtel (2002) and Bharti Infratel (2012) and has been instrumental in introducing Global benchmarks like full Quarterly audits and transparent Quarterly reports to provide all relevant information to investors & stakeholders. Consequently, Bharti Airtel has been constantly awarded highest ratings for Corporate Governance and is acknowledged globally for highest standards of ethics. He is currently the Chairman of TAIPA (Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association) and President of TSSC (Telecom Sector Skill Council). He represents the Indian Telecom Industry and Bharti regularly at various forums and important seminars in India and abroad.
He is a Chartered Accountant by qualification with over 30 years of professional experience. He has also done an “Advanced Management Program” at the Harvard Business School in the year 2002.
He is the recipient of numerous awards which include “CEO of the Year” award at National Telecom Awards 2012, “CA Business Achiever” award, “Asia Corporate Dealmaker” award at the Asia Pacific M&A Atlas Awards, “Best CFO” awards in multiple categories at CNBC – TV18 & induction to “Hall of Fame“ by CFO India.

Mr. Pradeep Gupta is the CMD of Cyber Media (India) Ltd., South Asia's leading specialty media house.

He is an industry veteran of over 30 years, and is recognized for the key leadership role he has played in promoting the interests of the globally dispersed Indian IT-ITeS industry. He is also a Founder Director of SQL Star International and Member of the TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Global Board. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award of IIT Delhi and many other industry accolades.

Deepak Kumar is the lead analyst for the V&D100 surveys and research, and the founder-analyst at B&M Nxt – a market research and advisory firm. He was earlier research director for telecom and other ICT practices at IDC in India. His focus areas are strategic business and marketing advisory, including sales enablement. His association with Voice&Data and CyberMedia dates back to year 2000, and has continued across editorial, market research and consulting roles.

Munish is Head of Strategy and Innovation, Ericsson with 20 years of experience in the ICT industry where he has led growth and strategy-related initiatives specifically in Sales and Product development functions. He has an international MBA from Helsinki School of Economics & also holds a degree in Electrical engineering from Chandigarh. Munish is based out in Stockholm , Sweden

Amit Sinha Roy is Vice President of Strategy & Marketing, Marketing Centre of Excellence at Tata Communications, part of the $103.3 billion Tata Companies.
With over 20 years of experience in the global ICT industry, Amit defines marketing strategies for Tata Communications’ business, in both emerging and developed geographies.
This entails delivering market insights across customers, competitors, industry segments and geographic regions for enabling segmentation, targeting and positioning of our key products and services.
Amit is also responsible for partner marketing with a focus on achieving specific business outcomes by engaging and enabling Sell Through and With business models for specific products and services.
Prior to Tata Communications, Amit was Head of Marketing, Cisco India & SAARC He also held various senior marketing and strategy positions in Hewlett Packard, Syntel Inc. and Compaq India.
Amit has a MSc (Hons) degree in Physics and a Master of Management Studies from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani, India.

Presently, Mr. Tyagi, as Executive Director & Chairman of the Board, is heading C-DOT, which is engaged in development of various projects at the frontier of Telecom technology in the areas of Optical communications, Next Generation Networks and Wireless technologies. C-DOT is also playing important roles in ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ programs launched by Govt. of India, Department of Telecommunications. Digital communication infrastructure required for smart cities and smart buildings is also being innovated by C-DOT.
Mr. Tyagi is an innovation and Business Leader from Information Technology and Telecommunication Industry for over 35 years. He had founded and led a Company out of New Delhi for 12 years as Board Member and Global CEO. He has headed global business in India, Japan, Australia, USA and Europe. He has actively worked towards Research and Development of large systems, Organizational Development and creation of high performance teams. In October, 2009, Vipin decided to promote National level R&D and joined C-DOT.
Some of the notable projects are :
1. India’s first 100 Gigabit per wavelength commercial grade optical fiber link in 2015 while at C-DOT. 2. Innovative Access product for providing internet based services to illiterate and technology unaware rural population through a product called GYANSETU in 2015. 3. India’s first Indigenous Gigabit Passive Optical Network (G-PON) development & deployment while at C-DOT, 2010. 4. World first Broadband Network based Video on Demand System with ATM Switches, Video Servers and set-top boxes for TV sets with global delivery teams in 1997 while at Network Programs. 5. India’s biggest and most successful project for development of electronics switching systems for rural India and towns while at C-DOT. 1986 – 1993. 6. India’s first Large Scale Message Switching Systems Development, while at ECIL, 1984. 7. Development of over 50 Products in area of Enterprise and Telecommunications Industry.
Achievements :
• Launch of Broadband Products developed by C-DOT aimed to enable Digital Broadband Connectivity by Hon’ble MOC&IT at C-DOT Delhi in July, 2015 during Digital India week. • Launch of “GyanSetu” and MAX-NG, C-DOT’s Next Generation Network (NGN) technologies as part of Good Governance Day in December, 2014. • Inauguration of C-DOT Terabit Router & Fiber to the Desk (FTTD) by Hon’ble MOC&IT in October, 2014.

Awards : In Leadership of Mr. Tyagi • Received Excellence Award from Minister of State (Communication) for development of Digital Switching System. • C-DOT won the National Intellectual Property (IP) Award in April 2016 under the category of "R & D institution/organization for Patents" on outstanding innovators, organizations and companies in the fields of patents, designs, trademarks and geographical indications. • C-DOT's GPON was awarded the "Most Innovative Product" at IESA (India Electronics and Semiconductor Association) Technovation Awards in Feb. 2016. • C-DOT GyanSetu was awarded the "Recognition of Excellence" award at ITU Telecom
World, Budapest, Hungary in October, 2015.
• C-DOT received “Certificate of Merit” Award by ELCINA-EFY Awards 2014-15 in Sept.2015 for Green Power Supply Unit. • C-DOT received an Award by ELCINA-EFY Awards For Excellence in Electronics for 2011-12.
Education :
Master of technology (Computer Science and Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT,Delhi). Bachelor of Electronics & Communication Engineering and Post Graduate Diploma in Management (2 years, from AIMA)

Secretary General at Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI)

Telecommunications’ professional of 20 years’ with experience in projects, business development, operations and regulation.

Since August 2012, he has been the Secretary General of the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), the trade association of dual technology (CDMA and GSM) mobile service providers.

In 2008, he moved to Unitech Wireless Ltd., a startup venture for providing pan - India GSM based mobile services, as President - Corporate Affairs. The company subsequently was taken over by Telenor, and emerged as Uninor, where he continued as Chief Regulatory Officer till July 2012.

Before that he was President – Corporate Regulatory Affairs, and Member of the Management Council at Tata Teleservices Ltd., a leading telecom operator providing mobile, fixed wireless and wireline services across the country. He was the public face of the company, responsible for building relationships with the Government, and Trade Associations.

He was also past President, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India (AUSPI), member of ASSOCHAM’s Management Committee, and of CII’s Telecom Committee.

Specialties: Regulation, business development, projects

Dr. Rahul Khullar joined Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as Chairman on 14th May 2012.

Prior to joining TRAI, he was Commerce Secretary in Ministry of and industry, Government of India. He also served as Secretary, department of Disinvestment, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. He is a permanent civil servant who joined the Indian Administrative Service since 1975.

He has served in various capacities and at various levels in the Central and State Government. He has served as Director in the Prime Minister’s Office, Private Secretary to Finance Minister, Development Commissioner for Delhi, Commissioner of Sales Tax, Delhi and Principal Secretary (Planning), Delhi.

He has also served as Additional Secretary and Special Secretary in the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. He has been Chief Negotiator for India in the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations at the WTO. He was also Chief Negotiator for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU.

He has worked as a professional economist in the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Manila between 1994 to 2000. In this assignment he worked as a Lead Economist for the Pacific, and later for the Philippines, and, thereafter, for Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, etc.).

He also served as Senior Economist in the Strategy and Policy Office attached to the President of the Asian Development Bank.

He has a Ph.D. in Economics and has been a Visiting Professor in the Department of Economics, Boston University (1990-91), and a Lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge USA (1982-84).

Sukanta Dey is a leading industry icon in the growth of new fmcgs(fast moving consumer goods &services) in India. He has over forty years of experience in developing brands and in sales, marketing and profit centre management in Fortune100 companies, viz, Unilever, PepsiCo, Idea Cellular (AT&T wireless),and Tatas.
He started his career in telecom in 2001 when he joined Idea Cellular Ltd. (a subsidiary of AT&T Wireless/Tatas/Birlas) as chief operating officer and later as chief marketing and commercial officer powered the Idea brand to its current national stature, going head-on against entrenched giants like Vodafone, Airtel, and Reliance. Later as Emerging Business President, he built the wireless data business for Tata Teleservices/Tata DoComo for the brands of Tata Photon. In 2014 he was appointed as Advisor to the Board of GlobaCom Limited, a Telecom Major in West Africa/UK.
Prior to Telecom, he was Executive Vice President at PepsiCo .He joined PepsiCo’s India startup team in 1989 and during his ten year tenure with the company the Pepsi brands became a formidable player against entrenched giants like Coke. Prior,he started his FMCG career at Hindustan Unilever.
Sokanta’s over four decades of rich experience in marketing and communications is laced with impressive industry accreditations. In PepsiCo, he was awarded the global leadership award my Margaret Thatcher (the ex-PM of Great Britain) at PepsiCo’s centenary celebration at Hawaii in 1998. He was named one of the top 50 marketing professionals in the country by marketing industry panel of Pitch Magazine in November 2004 upon successful national brand launch of Idea Cellular. He was invited to chair the GSM World Series, India Conference for a continuous period of four years and has been the moderator/keynote speaker in International Telecom conferences. He is Past President of Delhi Management Association.
Sokanta is an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, and an engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, both being the crème de la crème of Global Academia. He was an Institute Scholar throughout his 7 years at IIM and IIT.

Rupinder Goel is “Senior Vice President - Chief Information Officer” in TCL. Rupinder’ s work area covers- evolving our company’s Information Technology team and assets into a more flexible and creative platform that will greatly accelerate how we use IT as a competitive differentiator going forward. Rupinder is based out of Pune. Rupinder has 20+ years of functional and general management experience in Information Technology with experience working in India, the US, Singapore, and the UK.

He was in Lebara previously where he was the company's CIO. Lebara is an MVNO with operations across Europe. He was on the executive leadership team and responsible for the Lebara network, IT, and Business Operations systems that supported operations in eight countries. All of this work and support was aimed at supporting the very dynamic mobile service provider space.

Previous to Lebara, Rupinder was CIO for Bharti Airtel’s International Business. Rupinder holds two masters degrees (one in Science and one in Philosophy) from Delhi University in India, and an Executive MBA from Purdue University. In his spare time, he enjoys the study of nature and travel.