Voices of RSE’24

Mr. S. N. Subrahmanyan (SNS) is the Chairman & Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, spanning across Engineering, Infrastructure, Information Technology and Financial Services. He also holds diverse leadership positions as Chairperson of L&T Finance Ltd. and Chairman of LTIMindtree, L&T Technology Services, and L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited.

SNS, over the years, has played a pivotal role in guiding the Company's infrastructure business to become the largest in India and among the biggest globally. Now, he is focused on driving L&T's diverse business interests towards new heights by leveraging the power of digitalisation, technology, transition to green energy and fostering a people-centric culture. This multi-pronged approach has already started pivoting L&T into a tech-driven engineering solutions and services powerhouse.

Hailing from Chennai, SNS embarked on his professional journey with L&T in 1984 as a Project Planning Engineer with a degree in civil engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra and a postgraduate degree in business management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune. He furthered his education with an Executive Management Programme from the London Business School. Mentored by industry stalwarts, he took on roles of increasing responsibility across various business verticals and joined the L&T Board in 2011.

Notable achievements under SNS's leadership include the execution of diverse projects like the Statue of Unity, ITER, Dual Feed Crackers, Offshore Platforms, K9 Vajra, Atal Setu, Ayodhya Ram Mandir, in the offing Bullet Train and more – each recognised for being the ‘tallest’, ‘largest, ‘longest’, ‘smartest’, ‘most complex’, or ‘first’ in their respective categories. His entrepreneurial mindset propelled L&T into untapped geographies, including the Middle East, Africa, and ASEAN, establishing the Company's credentials globally. This has led to L&T being recognised among Asia’s Most Honoured Companies by Institutional Investor, the Company of the Year by Business Standard in 2020, among the world's best employers on the Forbes' list and one of India’s Best Employers among Nation-Builders in 2023 by the Great Place to Work (GPTW) institute.

SNS himself has garnered numerous accolades. He won the Eminent Engineer award from the Engineering Council of India in 2024. Apart from being featured on the cover of Fortune magazine’s October 2023 edition as India’s Best CEO, he is also the winner in the Infrastructure & Engineering category of the Business Today-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking in March 2022, was ranked 8th in the Construction Week Power 100 Ranking for 2022 and was honoured as the Infrastructure Person of the Year in 2012. In 2020, he achieved the Top CEO (Sell Side) and the 3rd Best CEO (Overall) in the All-Asia Executive Team Survey conducted by Institutional Investor and recognised as the CEO of the Year by the leading Indian news channel, CNBC-Awaaz. His exemplary leadership was also recognised with the Emergent CEO Award in 2019, and he received the Leading Engineering Personality award from the Institution of Engineers (India) in 2014.

SNS holds prominent positions within various industry bodies, construction institutions and councils, showcasing his influential presence in these domains. As one of the nine founding members of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India, he actively contributes to bringing global scale and influence to this significant initiative. Additionally, he serves as the regular honorary chairperson of the Board of Governors at the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela, a position bestowed upon him by the Education Ministry. In February 2021, he was appointed by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment as the Chairman of the National Safety Council for two years. In this capacity, he guided the council in playing a crucial role in ensuring workplace safety under the new Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code, 2020).

Beyond his professional pursuits, SNS embodies a diverse range of interests that reveal the multi-faceted dimensions of his personality. A cricket aficionado and a passionate runner, he emphasises the importance of physical activity through his daily walks and runs. Notably, his appreciation extends beyond sports and fitness, as he also finds solace and passion in the world of Western classical music.

Mr. Rajesh Bansal is the CEO of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) a wholly owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that was set up to promote innovation in the financial sector. He has more than three decades of experience across digital financial services and infrastructure in Asia and Africa, and has been a key architect in India’s journey towards a cash-lite economy, playing a crucial role in the creation and design of Aadhaar, Direct Benefits Transfer, and IndiaStack.
As a highly regarded thought leader, Mr. Bansal has authored multiple pieces for reputed publications, and is recognised as one of India’s top 50 digital finance influencers of 2024. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Golden Jubilee scholarship from the RBI.

Amrish Rau has a strong track record in building and leading large startups, each valued at >$1 bn. today. He was one of the early entrepreneurs in the first wave of fintech and had a successful exit having sold his company Citrus Pay to Naspers in 2016. In the last four years, Amrish has led Pine Labs to grow in India and overseas, introduced new lines of business, and brought in a large number of shareholders. Under Amrish’s leadership, Pine Labs has raised over $1 billion in multiple rounds and made several strategic acquisitions in the fintech space to boost its capabilities. Amrish has over two decades of rich experience in the fintech industry, having run fintech organizations and having worked with large banks to implement payments and delivery channel strategies. Prior to joining Pine Labs, Amrish was the head of financial technology investments and partnerships for Naspers where he was responsible for increasing the company's footprint in the financial technology sector and helped create synergies between the group's portfolio companies. Amrish has also worked with other global organizations including First Data, NCR and Siemens Nixdorf. Over the years, Amrish has helped build new businesses and new divisions in global companies. Many of these continue to be market leaders in their respective category today. He started his fintech journey with First Data Corporation in 2005. Later, as Managing Director for First Data Asia he helped build a market-leading payments joint venture with ICICI Bank. As CEO of First Data MS Asia, he was responsible for all operations in the South and Southeast Asia markets between India and Hong Kong. Prior to First Data, Amrish spent eight years with NCR Corporation where he started in business development and went on to head the company's data warehousing and CRM division, Teradata, as managing director

Anurag co-founded OneCard in 2019, which is on a mission to re-imagine credit and payments from first principles using data & proprietary technology. OneCard has scaled to more than 2 million customers and is backed by marquee investors such as Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Temasek, GIC, QED Investors amongst others. 
Prior to this Anurag started his entrepreneurship journey in 2016 as a co-founder at Walnut app building up its lending business, Walnut Prime. Walnut scaled to more than 10 million users and got acquired in 2018.
Anurag Sinha is an alumnus of IIT BHU, Varanasi and IIM Bangalore. He is deeply passionate about Payments and Digital Finance. Before deciding to become an entrepreneur he spent 13 years at ICICI Bank scaling up businesses in areas of Cards & Consumer Credit, Digital Banking, Structured Finance and Stressed Assets. 

Professor Anurag Banerjee is a distinguished economist specializing in econometrics and applied economics at Durham University Business School. He also collaborates internationally, including as an affiliate at ESSEC Business School's Centre de Recherche Econo-financière et Actuarielle sur le Risque in Paris. His research focuses on econometric theory and policy analysis, with significant contributions to understanding economic and financial systems. In finance, he has examined the dynamics of income growth and credit risk, developing models that help assess financial stability. His work also explores the impact of macroeconomic policies on markets, and his research extends to emerging economies, particularly India.

Professor Banerjee's contributions in the Indian context include analyzing agricultural policies and financial reforms that affect the country’s economic structure. His work is instrumental in understanding how policy changes influence financial markets, income inequality, and economic growth in India. A prolific scholar, he has published extensively in leading academic journals, advancing econometric methodologies and providing insights that benefit both academia and policymakers.

Anirban Mukherjee is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PayU. In his role, he has orchestrated PayU’s unprecedented growth and success in India.

With a strategic mindset honed through decades of experience in the global financial services industry—spanning payments, credit, and digital banking across the US, India, and Southeast Asia—Anirban is a visionary leader who has held pivotal roles at various prestigious organizations.

He has long been at the forefront of the evolving financial services landscape and has a deep understanding of the opportunities in this space. Prior to joining PayU, he was part of the founding leadership team at Reliance JIO, where he drove payments, merchant services, and digital financial services as Co-CEO of Reliance Payments Solution Ltd. He has also held leadership roles at Standard Chartered Bank in India and APAC, as well as Capital One in the US, where he served as a Senior Executive Leader.

Anirban holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), and is an alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur.

Mr. Anup Bagchi is the Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited.

Prior to this Mr. Bagchi was on the Board of ICICI bank and has worked across various functions of the bank across retail , MSME, Corporate banking, Treasury in addition to credit policy and data analytics area.

Mr. Bagchi also has extensive experience in Capital markets and was the Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Securities. He has represented ICICI Group in various regulatory committees of key bodies such as RBI, SEBI and IRDAI.

Qualification: Management degree from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and an Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Dr. Debarag Banerjee is a seasoned executive and thought leader in AI, machine learning, and data science. Currently, he serves as the Chief AI and Data Officer at L&T Finance, where he is driving transformative AI initiatives to reshape financial services. With over two decades of experience, Dr. Banerjee has previously held senior leadership roles at prominent organizations, including serving as the Global Head of Data Science & AI at Agoda, where he led a team of 49 scientists across impactful projects. His tenure as VP and Head of AI & Data Science at Myntra, a Flipkart unit, saw him introducing generative AI-driven innovations in design.

Banerjee also played a pivotal role as SVP of Data Science and AI at Jio, where his contributions helped scale AI solutions across various business verticals. Beyond corporate leadership, he is a successful entrepreneur, having founded Avnera and WiViu, both focused on harnessing AI for product development. Banerjee holds a Ph.D. in AI from Stanford University, grounding his expertise in cutting-edge machine learning and deep learning methodologies. His combination of technical depth, strategic insight, and business acumen make him a highly sought-after keynote speaker, offering valuable perspectives on the future of AI in various sectors.

Dr. Shuki Idan is the former CEO and current Chief Scientist of SCB DataX, the Data and AI Technology company of the SCBX (SET: SCB.BK) FinTech group.

With a distinguished career spanning various industries, Dr. Idan has held leadership positions at prominent companies including Agoda (Nasdaq: BKNG), SAP (NYSE: SAP), Amdocs (NYSE: DOX), and Radvision. He also served in the Israeli Defense Forces and has been instrumental in launching several innovative ventures.

A pioneer in AI and Machine Learning, Dr. Idan is a three-time winner of the prestigious ACM KDD Cup for Machine Learning & Knowledge Discovery. His numerous publications focus on leveraging AI to create optimal business solutions. Dr. Idan's expertise extends to academia, where he holds joint faculty positions and serves as an expert evaluator for the European Research Agency.

As a key contributor to ITU standards that have shaped multimedia and internet technologies, Dr. Idan's influence reaches beyond the corporate world. His educational background includes a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Telecom ParisTech (Paris, France) and a B.Sc. in Computer Engineering from the Technion (Haifa, Israel).

Dr. Idan's multifaceted career exemplifies the intersection of cutting-edge technology, business acumen, and academic excellence in the rapidly evolving fields of AI and data science.

Prof.Ted Selker is an AI and User interface expert supporting L&T product development. He is BayCHI Chair. He is known for demonstrating and testing new ways of using technology and designing products. He works to create and guide emerging technology opportunities. Ted has helped create many companies and is a founder of MotoCarma.

Ted lectures internationally on innovation, invention, design, and User eXperience. He currently holds adjunct professor positions at several universities and has been a professor at CMU and MIT Media Lab. Prior to joining the MIT faculty, he gained the title of IBM Fellow, where he directed the User Systems Ergonomics Research Lab. He has served as a consulting professor at Stanford University, taught at University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Hampshire and Brown Universities, and worked at Xerox PARC and Atari Research Labs.

Jigar is Director of the Enterprise Solutions Architecture & Engineering team at NVIDIA, South Asia. He’s a versatile professional with closed to two decades of experience in Supercomputing / Big data/AI Infrastructure background encompassing operations, business system design, implementation, analysis, and process improvement in dynamic and challenging environments.

Recognized for outstanding contributions at Wipro previously where he was heading Wipro’s HPC & Big-data practice for India region. He got awarded as the Best technical manager by Mr. Azim Premji in 2017. His interests are in Parallel computing, Parallel file system, large Infrastructure HPC/Bigdata/AI cluster solutions.

Jigar is on the steering committee of HiPC conference where he volunteered for 15+ years in building the biggest community of HPC professionals.

Jigar graduated with a B. Tech in computer science in 2005.

Kunal Shah is the founder of CRED, a platform that brings the benefits of high-trust communities to millions of creditworthy individuals, brands, and financial institutions. Six years since inception, CRED processes over a third of India’s credit card payments and is used monthly by >14 million of India’s most affluent. His previous startup, FreeCharge, pioneered online payments in India over a decade ago.

Kunal has advised India’s most influential organisations: the publishers of The Times of India [the world’s highest circulating English daily], Pine Labs [a large fintech unicorn], and Sequoia Capital India (now Peak XV). He has also served as chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

Kunal champions India’s economic opportunity globally, with a focus on technology’s role in driving financial well-being, financial literacy and wealth creation. As a philosophy major in the technology sector, he brings a unique perspective to hundreds of founders whom he actively mentors and has invested in.

Kusal is a banker and management professional with 30 years of experience at Jio Financial Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank NA, Barclays Bank PLC, ICICI Bank ltd and Tata Capital Financial Services.

Accountable for driving the Consumer, Private and Business Banking business across products, segments, and channels through India Region.

Kusal graduated from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur in 1993, and post-graduated from Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad in 1995

Kusal interests in wildlife photography, Sports, Quizzing, Travel & Son Neel’s swimming career.

Mahendra Nerurkar is the Vice President of Emerging Countries Payments at Amazon, leading Amazon's payments operations for APAC, MENA and LATAM. He is dedicated to making digital payments trusted, convenient and rewarding ultimately simplifying customers' lives and helping them fulfil their aspirations. Previously, Mahendra led product and general management roles for various global businesses at Amazon. And prior to Amazon, he worked as a strategy and technology consultant at Oliver Wyman and Computer Sciences Corporation advising clients in North America, Europe and Asia. Mahendra holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, and a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

Madhura is a Technologist and Software Executive with broad experience in the Personal Computing and Deep Learning. She has been driving the NPU or AI Accelerator software stack readiness to launch a new category of Windows AI PC with Intel's Core Ultra products, which brings power efficient Machine Learning Inference to the edge and in the hands of the PC users.

Her expertise lies in Windows Operating System Software for NPU and in launching new technologies like Windows AI Co-pilot features on Intel NPU IP and Virtual Reality, AI rendering on integrated Graphics. She has a twenty plus years of experience in production software releases for Intel PC platforms. Currently on a break to explore her passions in Edge AI with a goal of democratizing AI and applying it for the greater good.

Neelkanth Mishra is Chief Economist, Axis Bank. He is also the Head of Global Research and a Whole Time Director of Axis Capital. He has been consistently rated the best analyst in India in investor polls over the years. A highly respected expert and media columnist on global and Indian macroeconomic trends, he joined Axis in May 2023 after a long and distinguished two-decade career at Credit Suisse, where he was Co-Head of Asia Pacific Strategy and the India Strategist. He is a part-time member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council as well as part-time Chairman of UIDAI (Aadhaar) and a part-time member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). He has also advised government bodies like the India Semiconductor Mission and the 15th & 16th Finance Commission. He is a member of the CII’s Economic Affairs Council, and a frequent presenter to corporate boards. He has also worked at HUL and Infosys. He is a gold medallist and Distinguished Alumnus Awardee from IIT-Kanpur, and was ranked fourth in the entrance exam to the IITs.

Prof. Paromita Goswami is Professor of Marketing and Social Innovation of School of Management and Entrepreneurship of Shiv Nadar University. She did her PhD from BITS Pilani under the mentorship of Sudas Roy of IIM Calcutta and her postdoctoral work as AAUW International Fellow at University of Pittsburgh under the mentor of Gerald Zaltman of Harvard Business School. She has been chair of the Internal Complaints Committee Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace, spearheaded NAAC accreditation efforts of her school, developed the bachelors program of the school that gets second highest number of applications in the university after computer science engineering, headed PhD committee in her stint at XIMB, the placement committee of her school and also served as the departmental head of the Marketing academic area at her current university and at XIMB.

She offers courses at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels on Sustainability Development Goals and and Social Marketing for Social Change using Performing Arts, Storytelling to tell Science to Non-Science Audience, Gender Violence and Social Marketing (with Duke University, NC), Critical Theories of Management, Publishing in Sustainability and Social Good, Business of Doing Good, SDGs and Social Marketing for Social Change using Performing Arts (with colleague in Performing Arts), Academic Excellence (with colleagues in English and Sociology), Storytelling for Social Marketing: from Romantic Well-being to Sexual Harassment, Executing Marketing Plans, Consumer Behavior/Insights, Doing Qualitative Research and so forth. With h and in-index of 10 as per google scholar she has published in areas such as social entrepreneurship, menopause and intimate violence, sustainable menstruation, sustainable development goals and ma eting, poetry in consumer behavior, youth consumer behavior, sexual harassment in workplace and public policy, mental health and marketization, addressing stigma in help-seeking for mental health, green marketing, effect of big retail on small retail, HIV/AIDS communication, gender discrimination and gender violence, consumer responsibilization, religious terrorism and role of social marketing in prevention thereof. She has 24 years’ academic experience and 4.5 years’ industry experience.

Prior to her stint at Shiv Nadar University, she was associated with St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, ICFAI Business School Kolkata and Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar. In her corporate stint, she led the Indian operations of TMRC, the sole licensee of world’s first patented consumer research tool, Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET), in India, China and South-east Asia. Her clients included Godfrey Philips India, United Breweries group and Unilever Indonesia.

Sachin Seth is the Regional Managing Director, India and South Asia for CRIF S.p.A. group companies and also serves on the board of CRIF High Mark Credit Bureau.
Sachin is a thought leader with almost 3 decades of rich global work experience across Fintech, Digital and Technology space. Before joining CRIF this year, he has been a Partner and Digital, Fintech leader with EY and Executive Director with IBM focusing on India and overseas markets.
In his career, he has worked with leading BFSI organizations in helping them build new business models and transformational platforms. Previously he has been on the board of Insurance JV of BSE and Ebix and Advisory Board Member of IIM Udaipur Fintech COE. He holds an Engineering degree with Master’s in management.

Sameer Singh Jaini, a visionary fintech leader, with a 26 years of experience in BFSI industry, architects digital shifts as CEO of The Digital Fifth. Mastermind behind India's Fintech Bazaar & Bharat Fintech Summit, he pioneers open banking, reshaping finance. Impressive track record includes pioneering digital initiatives for DCB Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and Citibank. Expertise showcased through India's First Fintech & Open Banking Masterclass and Fintech Podcast. Awarded for Best CIO and Innovation, his legacy shapes finance's future, forging global fintech alliances.
Profile highlights:
As CEO of The Digital Fifth, revolutionized banking through open banking strategies, reshaping customer experiences.
Innovatively crafted India's Fintech Bazaar, igniting collaboration and industry-wide transformation.
Spearheaded pioneering turnkey solutions, driving fintech alliances and propelling financial institutions into the digital age.
Transformed DCB Bank as CTO, launching India's First Aadhaar-based ATM and pioneering omnichannel platform.
Led digital initiatives at Kotak Mahindra Bank and Citibank, driving core banking transformations and innovative digital solutions.
Spearheaded Finacle Core Banking implementation for Discover Bank in the US, achieving rapid program turnaround and enhanced customer service.

TransUnion CIBIL- India’s pioneer Credit Information Company, has been a partner of choice to India’s credit industry and Rajesh holds the mantle to further build on the trust that both lenders and borrowers place in the company. He remains committed to driving the organization towards achieving its vision of ‘Information for Good’ and strengthening the credit information ecosystem for the public good. His core focus is to enhance financial inclusion across the country through innovative solutions for the banking and financial services industry.
Prior to joining TransUnion CIBIL in 2020, Rajesh was the Group Head for Retail Credit & Risk at HDFC Bank where he led a team comprising more than 3,000 bank officers. He was a key member of the leadership team, responsible for conceptualizing, growing and managing the bank’s retail credit portfolio (comprising personal loans, commercial loans, vehicle loans, agriculture loans, micro finance etc.) along with the payments businesses of the bank. Over two decades, Rajesh’s credit risk management expertise and leadership helped HDFC Bank achieve market leading asset quality & loss parameters, while growing its loan book to over 60 bn USD.
With his 28 years of experience in the Indian Banking Industry, Rajesh provides thought leadership in driving digital transformation through extensive use of data and analytics.
He is a member of various Industry Associations and a regular speaker at Industry events. He also conducts training sessions on Credit Risk at the College of Supervisors, RBI.

Mr. Aithal is a Senior Technology Executive with a proven track record of transforming digital landscapes by formulating strategic plans, ensuring operational success in execution, and delivering results.

He comes with over 25-year track record of leadership in public technology companies, startups and fintech industry with grounds up experience in setting up, scaling, and managing cross-functional global teams

Mr. Aithal served as Site Lead, India and Head of Engineering & Centre Head, India in Elastic and Zenefits Technologies respectively, where he was involved in establishing the development centres in India. He has also led strategic technology initiatives within the Fixed Income and Derivatives trading and Risk management areas at Goldman Sachs and has been associated with Ness Technologies and Citibank N.A in his previous stints. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Electronics and Communication from National Institute of Technology, Surathkal.

Rishabh Goel is the Co-founder and CEO of Credgenics, a leading technology solutions provider for loan collections and debt recoveries to banks and other financial services companies worldwide.

He holds a B.Tech degree in Engineering Physics from IIT Delhi, and has completed certifications in Financial Risk Management (FRM) and Chartered Financial Analysis (CFA). While he was working with Deutsche Bank and Blackrock, he recognized the prevailing challenges in debt recoveries and the detrimental impact caused to the economies by the rising burden of bad loans. This motivated him to create Credgenics, a unique data driven SaaS based technology platform, which aims to not only address these issues but also disrupt the loan collections segment.

As the CEO, Rishabh drives the strategic business direction and growth agenda for Credgenics. He is an inspiring young leader with a sharp business acumen, deep expertise in the banking domain, and a passion to innovate with smart use of technology. Rishabh interacts and works closely with the banking industry leaders worldwide to help them address their business challenges, serve their end customers better and realize business value from technology.

Ruchin is a Managing Director and Senior Partner in the Mumbai office of The Boston Consulting Group. He leads the Financial Institutions practice of BCG in South Asia.

He joined BCG in 2004, and since then he has worked extensively with clients in financial services, including banks, asset management and insurance companies. His experience ranges from working on large-scale transformations, growth strategy, digital transformation, operational improvement, sales and organizational effectiveness.

Mr. Roy is a consumer banking and payments professional with over 24 years of financial services experience. He joined the Company from ICICI Bank, where he served as Group Head and managed diverse businesses like Unsecured Assets, Cards, Payment Solutions, Student Ecosystem, E-commerce and Merchant Ecosystem, Millennial Banking and API Banking. Before his assignment with ICICI Bank since 2010, he has worked for Citibank and Deutsche Bank.

Mr. Roy has a deep understanding of consumer finance, cards and retail loans, lending and payments technology systems and associated risk management practices and has worked extensively in India, China and Canada in the consumer lending and payments business, having built green-field lending and cards businesses in all three countries.

He was voted as one of the Top 50 Digital Finance Influencers in the country in 2024 as well as the top 30 Fintech Influencers in India in the year 2021 and is a speaker at various forums on Retail Lending and Credit, History of Payments, Risk and Fraud Control and Future of Payments business.

Mr. Roy has also been a part of several Government and Reserve Bank of India committees in areas of transit payment systems, banking security and retail payments.

He is a chemical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and MBA from XLRI School of Management, Jamshedpur

As CEO of Perfios, a leading global B2B SaaS fintech, Sabyasachi Goswami pilots the organization's evolution as the preferred tech partner for financial institutions worldwide. Under his leadership, Perfios has grown nearly 250X over the past decade, from $0.4 million to a projected $100 million, now powering over 90% of digital loans processed in India.

With over 2 decades of industry experience, having held leadership roles at prominent banks like Axis, Standard Chartered, IDBI, HDFC, and Citi, Sabya holds a deep understanding of the global financial ecosystem. Today, his visionary thinking and industry prowess cements Perfios’ position as a tech product leader in the BFSI segment.

Sabya strongly emphasizes customer-centricity and steady, sustainable growth, both of which are key strategies through which he enables Perfios to stand firmly as the trusted partner for 1000+ financial institutions. His hands-on leadership, focused on innovation and long-term partnerships, empowers Perfios’s 1600+ team to drive transformative outcomes.

Beyond Perfios, Sabya is a distinguished thought leader in the BFSI and FinTech communities. He significantly contributes to the growth of the sector by furthering industry breakthroughs and initiating impactful dialogue at global forums. He Co-Chairs Fintech Council at ASSOCHAM, National Fintech Committee at FICCI, and Fintech Committee at CII. Sabya’s sharp insights and deep industry expertise have made him an advisor to both industry peers and aspiring professionals, serving also as a visiting faculty member at leading institutions like IIM-C.

An avid traveler and adventure enthusiast, Sabya has summited Everest Base Camp, undertaken River Rafting expeditions, and is a national level Rock Climbing and Badminton champion.

Sudipto Nag is President and Head – Retail Portfolio Management group at Axis Bank. Sudipto has more than 2 decades of rich experience in Banking and Financial Service Industry spanning across Business, Credit Policy, and Debt Service Management of Retail Assets, Rural and SME, he was associated with ICICI Bank for last 23 years, wherein he worked in multiple roles across Retail Lending. In his last role with ICICI Bank, Sudipto was head of Mortgage Business and prior to that he was heading Debt Service Management Group and Credit Policy Group where he was responsible for Credit policy design, Debt service management architecture and portfolio management of all the Retail Asset and SME products covering secured, unsecured, and rural loans.

Sunil Patel has over 8 years of expertise in deep learning, with a focus on NLP, computer vision, and large language models (LLMs). He is currently driving innovations in optimizing these models on GPUs, contributing to widely adopted frameworks like Nvidia TensorRT and DeepStream SDK, used by millions of developers worldwide. Sunil has led large-scale application deployments across more than 1000 GPUs, enhancing performance for mission-critical workloads in media & entertainment, financial services, and global conglomerates. His work also spans generative AI, including Stable Diffusion. With multiple publications and four patents, Sunil is helping accelerate AI and its real-world applications.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an Indian technology entrepreneur who has played an instrumental role in revolutionizing the digital payments and financial services landscape in India as the Chairman, Managing Director and CEO of One97 Communications and its consumer brand Paytm. Under his guidance, Paytm is on a mission to bring half a billion Indians into the mainstream economy.

He is a strong believer in the power of emerging technology and a true supporter of India’s journey to become a fully digital economy. With this vision, Paytm pioneered the digital payments revolution in India by taking the QR code to every small shop in the country and is now driving financial inclusion in India with offerings across lending, wealth, insurance and more.

He has been featured in ‘2017 Time 100’ list of ‘hundred most influential people in the world’ by Time magazine. Vijay has also been bestowed with multiple industry honours such as the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award in 2018 by All India Management Association, ’Entrepreneur of the Year’ at ET Awards for Corporate Excellence’ in 2016 and ‘GQ Man of the Year’ in 2016.

Zia J. Mody, Co–Founder and Managing Partner of AZB & Partners, is one of India’s foremost corporate attorneys. Zia is widely acknowledged for her expertise, ranking No. 1 in Fortune India’s‘India’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business’ list in 2018 & 2019 on which she has consistently ranked in the top 20 since 2011. According to the RSG India Report, clients praise Zia as a “problem solver,” who is “meticulous,” “thorough” and “accessible,” and comes highly recommended for “any complex legal matter.” Zia is dually licensed to practice law in India and the United States, holding an LL.M. from Harvard and having passed the New York State bar.

Zia J. Mody, Co–Founder and Managing Partner, is one of India’s foremost corporate attorneys. She began her career as a corporate associate in the New York office of Baker & McKenzie, where she worked for 5 years before moving to India to establish the Chambers of Zia Mody, which became AZB & Partners in 2004. Her key practice areas include M&A, Private Equity, Restructuring, General Corporate, Compliance & Investigation, Dispute Resolution and Regulatory & Securities Law.

It has been said that few of Zia’s peers can match her skills when it comes to acquisitions, joint ventures, company restructuring, foreign inward investment related practice and corporate law.

Zia is widely acknowledged for her expertise, ranking No. 1 in Fortune India’s “India’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business” list in 2018 & 2019, on which she has consistently ranked in the top
10 since 2011. She has been ranked an (i) “Eminent Practitioner” (2023) and “Star Individual” (2012 – 2022) for Corporate / M&A by Chambers Global; (ii) “Eminent Practitioner” (2023 – 2024), “Star Individual” (2018 – 2022) for Corporate / M&A by Chambers Asia–Pacific; and (iii) “Eminent Practitioner” for Private Equity by Chambers Asia–Pacific (2018 – 2024).

Kedar Kulkarni is the co-founder and CEO of HyperVerge, a Silicon Valley-based deep-learning start-up funded by NEA (US), Milliways Ventures and Dallas Ventures Capital that has developed patent-pending algorithms for facial recognition for identity verification and fraud detection.

He, along with his partners Kishore Natarajan, Vignesh Krishnakumar, Sai Venkatesh and Praveen Kumar went on to co-found HyperVerge, a Silicon Valley-based AI company in 2014. Kedar, from bringing together the founding team that has been working on computer vision since 2009, to leading the team and now becoming the industry leader in digital KYC with 800 million+ digital KYCs, Kedar’s focus has always been to build a meaningful company - for the employees and for the partners.

Kedar has directed the company's growth to reach $12M+ in ARR, with over 100+ large enterprise clients, spread across 5+ geographies. He also makes corporate decisions, manages the overall operations and resources of the company. Kedar also spearheads all communication for external and internal stakeholders. Kedar embraces his experience, with intense zeal and a highly focused approach.

Kedar holds a graduate degree from IIT Madras. While studying in IIT, Kedar founded Computer Vision Group (CVG) in 2009. CVG is an R&D group under the Center for Innovation (CFI) at IIT Madras and is the first-ever student-driven group to take up consulting assignments through IC&SR, IIT Madras. The team represented India in International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC) winning the title of the best Computer Vision Team in 2010. The group also prototyped vision systems for Indian Railways, ITC, MRF, and other Indian companies. It was this Computer Vision Group team that later went on to become the present-day HyperVerge.

He has achieved several milestones throughout his prolific career and is passionate about contribution to society, using technology as a tool to drive value. Kedar founded his first company, Lema Labs, an education group that focuses on teaching students about emerging technologies. Some of their initiatives include the Kaizen Robotics Program that has trained more than 15,000 students, till date, in advanced robotics some of whom have gone to become assistant professors at US universities.He resides in Bangalore. He is a strong believer in mindfulness practices and achieving inner peace.Away from work, Kedar lists Yoga and meditation as his number one priority. These help him stay focused on the “80-20s,” i.e. the main few things that will achieve high impact. He is passionate about food and ensures that he reads 2 books a month. He also believes in contributing to people and society. During his leisure time, he also likes to mentor young entrepreneurs.

Latha began her career in CNBC-TV18 as chief of the Mumbai News Bureau.Over the years, she has come to be recognized as one of the keenest watchers of the Reserve Bank of India and a respected commentator on banking sector issues, money markets and macroeconomic trends.

She has been a business journalist for years and has specialized in covering all markets - stocks, currency debt and commodities. She has also had stints in all major streams of media having worked in Economic Times and Dow Jones newswires for five years each. Latha graduated in Economics and Politics and has a doctoral degree in Political Science.

Having more than 20 years experience in AI/ Machine Learning in the Financial Services and Healthcare Domains, I have set up data science and AI centres working across global MNCs such as American Express , Royal Bank of Scotland amd United Health group in USA, EU and India. I have a Masters in Economics and Certification in Risk Management from Stanford University , USA and PhD in Public Health.

With over 26 years of experience across diverse sectors, Mr. Garyali in his role as the head of the Urban Finance business oversees the urban lending vertical of the company including Housing Finance and Personal loans businesses. He is also responsible for expanding the already established Two-Wheeler Finance business. Driving retailisation to help accelerate the growth momentum of the company is a core focus area for Mr Garyali and he will be driving a high-performance culture, concentrating on achieving operational excellence, strengthening processes and adding value to all the stakeholders.

Mr. Garyali specializes in strategy, scaling businesses and has built a solid track record in building customer-centric organisations as well as distribution networks. With a deep understanding of retail businesses, he is well experienced across retail collections, consumer durables and Two-Wheeler sales, branch banking, retail liabilities, NRI banking as well as investments and mortgages. Mr Garyali has worked with Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, GE Capital and Idea Cellular in the past.

An MBA from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Mr. Garyali also holds a B.E. (Electronic and Communications) degree from BV College of Engineering, Pune.

Manish Jain, a seasoned professional with an illustrious career spanning over two and half decades in financial services and technology sector. Prior to joining Experian, Manish led transformative initiatives in global organisations, ensuring sustainable business expansion. He has an exceptional ability to navigate complex markets and a keen understanding of industry trends.

As the former Co-Founder and CEO of Excelrate, Manish advised organisations on their growth strategies and implemented large scale plans in the banking industry for the faster realisation of their revenue goals. Before Excelrate, he held leadership roles in the credit bureau industry for over 12 years, driving growth and earning recognition as a thought leader in the industry.

Gautam Aggarwal oversees all of Mastercard’s activities across South Asia and India, including business strategy, sales, product management, marketing and engagements with customers and regulators. As head of the company’s South Asia division, he leads operations across the subcontinent, covering Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, and Bhutan, in addition to India.

With more than two decades of experience across technology, sales & business development, product management strategy, mergers and acquisitions, Gautam joined Mastercard in 2014 and has since held several leadership roles across the company. In his role, he is also a member of Mastercard’s Asia-Pacific Management Team.

From 2019-2022, Gautam served as Regional Chief Technology Officer for Asia Pacific, spearheading Mastercard’s $1Bn+technology investments in key markets including India, Australia, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. This included leading the build-out of the first PBOC-certified bankcard clearing switch developed by a foreign network that enabled Mastercard’s domestic market entry in China; overseeing development and operations of a regional-hub for real-time payments; and delivering various on-soil/domestic switching projects in India, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam.

Prior to this, Gautam was senior vice president of Domestic and Real-time Payments (RTP), where he led discussions with financial institutions, governments, policymakers, regulators, domestic networks, and digital players to enable their inclusion agenda through Mastercard’s multi-rail strategy while also shaping the company’s early thinking on digital identity. In this role, he executed the commercial agreement with BancNet, the Philippines’ domestic switch, to provide managed-service operations for a new national RTP infrastructure, provided support to Indonesia’s on-soil effort, and led other strategic APAC-wide initiatives.

Earlier, Gautam spent more than two years leading corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions where he was the architect of Mastercard’s RTP initiatives that resulted in Mastercard’s $1 billion+ acquisition of UK-based Vocalink, the leading provider of RTP technology globally. In addition, Gautam formulated Mastercard's country strategy that propelled Mastercard to committing multi-million-dollar investments for India; designed a playbook to respond to growing Localization in payments by taking a partnership-led approach with domestic schemes and regulators; and shaped Mastercard’s Digital Identity strategy.

Before joining Mastercard, Gautam worked in Silicon Valley start-ups for eight years before moving on to a four-year stint at McKinsey and Company in New York, USA. Gautam holds an MBA (with honors) from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees in computer science from Cornell University and Manipal Institute of Technology (India), respectively.

After working in the United States for nearly 20 years, Gautam moved to Singapore in 2018, before relocating again to Mumbai in 2023.

Rajni Thakur is the Chief Economist at L&T Finance. With her unique experience across Policy, Consulting and Banking domain, Rajni brings in a deep understanding of financial sector across India, Middle East, and Europe.

She has closely covered multiple transitions in the financial sector over the last 2 decades, in her various stints with some of the leading financial institutions including Credit Suisse, RBL Bank and Deutsche Bank. Along with London Business School, Rajni counts the prestigious Delhi School of Economics and Miranda House as her alma mater.

Rajni is also actively involved in various global professional women platforms including Lean In circles and Elevate network and spends her free time mentoring young students in their pursuit for higher education and career development.

Nitendra works as the Senior Vice President and Head of AI Garage in Mastercard, which builds AI-based products in the area of Cyber and Intelligence.

He has 25 years of experience in the area of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Mobile Interactions. He has authored over 100 publications at top international ACM and IEEE venues, owing to which he has been recognized as an ACM Distinguished Scientist and a senior IEEE Member. He has delivered several tutorials and conducted workshops in AI and speech areas at top ACM venues. He has over 50 granted patents to his name. In 2012, he coauthored a book titled Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments that was published by John Wiley & Sons. In 2021, he was recognized with the Technical Role Model in AI award at Zinnov Awards. In 2022, he was recognized as an ACM Distinguished Speaker and also as Top AI Leader by Analytics India Magazine. In 2024, he was recognized as top 100 AI Thought Leaders by H2o.ai.

Before joining Mastercard, he spent 18 years at IBM Research, working on different aspects of machine learning, HCI, software engineering and mobile sensing. He then spent 2.5 years at InfoEdge as EVP and Head of Analytics from 2017 to 2019. Nitendra holds a Masters degree from IIT Bombay.

Nitendra is also an Ironman finisher, blind-folded Rubik’s cube solver and advanced meditation practitioner and teacher.

Subhranshu Mondal is a dynamic professional whose career is defined by a passion for understanding client needs in the realm of Unsecured Asset & Payment products. With a relentless focus on executing customer-centric solutions, he has consistently contributed to client acquisition and enhanced product profitability. Throughout his career, he has excelled in balancing strategic vision with impeccable execution, spearheading revenue enhancement initiatives, and optimizing digital payment solutions.

Subhranshu’s approach is deeply rooted in an understanding of market dynamics, which allows for the delivery of customer value and the driving of sustainable growth. As he continues his professional journey, he remains committed to pushing boundaries and leading with purpose, ensuring that the products and strategies he champions not only meet but exceed customer expectations within an ever-evolving financial landscape.

What drives his professional ethos is the ability to lead teams with a start-up mentality—fostering innovation, agility, and an unyielding pursuit of excellence. Whether mentoring a team of professionals or collaborating with cross-functional teams across geographies, he is dedicated to creating an environment where ideas flourish and strategic goals are consistently achieved.

His extensive experience includes prominent leadership roles such as Head of Strategy and Business Head for Personal Loans at L&T Finance, Executive Director and Head of Products for Credit Cards, Personal Loans & Payments at Standard Chartered Bank, and Head of Products & Portfolio for Credit and Debit Cards at ICICI Bank. Through these roles, he has built a substantial record of success that showcases his expertise in the financial services industry.

Dr.Sanyal advises Financial Institutions in the area of Analytics, Digital Lending and Risk Management. He brings in deep domain expertise in driving digital transformation, particularly in the area of retail & SME lending with use of data and analytics. He is also widely acknowledged for his expertise in various areas of Risk Management like ERM, Risk Appetite, ECL estimation and Capital Allocation. Prior to his current career as advisor, he had been associated with ICICI Bank for nearly two decades in various roles. He last role was as the Head of Retail & Operational Risk and had been responsible for carefully crafting and managing the retail portfolio post Global Financial Crisis, balancing risk & growth. He has also been an architect of Digital Lending.
He had been on the board of TransUnion CIBIL and is a regular speaker at NIBM and CAFRAL (RBI subsidiary). He also conducts training sessions on Risk Management at the College of Supervisors, RBI. He has also been member of various working groups at industry level in relation to Basel II/III and ECL estimation.
He has published in national and international journals both in the area of Science and Finance. His current research interest is in the area of application of Deep Learning in retail lending, and Risk Management in general.

Experienced Digital Transformation Leader and Technology Officer with 26+ years of demonstrated success in transforming businesses around the potential of digital and a proven track record of creating new digital products, services and business model innovations.

Change catalyst with strong negotiation and influencing skills, a well rounded management style that creates a common vision, forges positive relationships and builds high performing teams. Domestic and international P&L and operations management background, with a track record of delivering profitable revenue growth and margin expansion.

An entrepreneurial and inspiring leader, driving impact for global companies without losing sight of the need to 'roll up the sleeves' when required. Focused on cloud computing (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) with particular interest and knowledge of IoT, I4.0 ,Machine Learning and Big Data Analytics.

Highlights:

• 26+ years of Digital, Technology and strategy experience

• Managed teams of 2000+ global staff

• Led growth and scale from Digital Business from $0 to $150M

• Commercialized 14+ new product offerings

Awards & Recognition:

• Won ET CDIO Award for Best Digital Enterprise for Larsen and Toubro Limited - 2024

• Won ET Future Ready Digital Organization for Larsen and Toubro Limited - 2023

• Won Global Industrial IOT & Digital Award at IoT World Congress

• Winner of AWS Digital Product Innovation Award for 2021-22

• Winner of Top Digital Business Growth Awards @ Bosch for Consecutive years

• Top Division Percent to Goal and Dollar Growth Contribution

• Top Employee Engagement Scored Division

• Top Executive Management for certifying Impelsys as Great Place to work 2021-22

Omkar Sawant is a highly accomplished Data & Artificial Intelligence Lead at Google, where he empowers organizations to unlock the transformative power of data. With a proven track record of success across both dynamic startups and Fortune 500 companies, he is a trusted advisor who drives impactful solutions. For startups, Omkar acts as a catalyst for growth, guiding them to leverage data-driven insights, scale their technology infrastructure, and build a solid foundation for future success. With enterprise clients, he tackles intricate industry-specific challenges, delivering tangible business outcomes through the strategic implementation of Google Cloud's cutting-edge Data & AI solutions.

Nishit is a seasoned technology professional with over 20+ years of experience in the IT industry specializing in the areas of Large Scale Data Platforms and Artificial Intelligence.Nishit is part of the Specialized Data and AI Group within Google that helps top 10 Indian conglomerates design their Group-wide Data Strategy and Data Platforms leveraging the new age LakeHouse and Data Mesh Architectures and help these enterprises embrace the cutting edge innovations by Google in the areas of Custom and Generative AI to digitally transform their business and realize tangible outcomes.

Sridhar is a Senior Director with Salesforce India. He leads the Technology Advisory team that helps customers solve complex business problems with Salesforce technology and platform. He has over 25 years of experience across the entire spectrum of technology sales, strategy, solutioning and customer success. He has authored numerous articles/blogs as well as spoken on topics relating to Digital Transformation, Customer Experience and AI applications and use cases in leading Industry. forums and events across India and APAC such as CII, NASSCOM and events across India and APAC such as CII, NASSCOM and others.

As the Data & AI leader for Microsoft Azure’s India and South Asia business , Swami and his team are responsible to help customers in Enterprise , Digital Natives and Public Sector to drive business outcomes leveraging Microsoft's Data & AI Offerings.

Previously as a senior leader with AWS, Swami was responsible for AWS Big Data Analytics and Machine Learning business in India & South Asia. Swami also set up AWS's Private Equity Practice in the country helping PE Portfolio companies on their digital transformation.

Swami has held Global and Regional P&L responsibilities for Cognizant's Data Science, AI & Analytics business. Swami was a part of the founding team that set up Equifax in India. Swami has also been instrumental in setting up credit bureaus across Middle East and Africa.

Sumit Borar is the Head of AI/ML for Google Pay, where he spearheads efforts to enhance user experience and enable financial services through cutting-edge AI/ML initiatives. With a career spanning nearly two decades, Sumit has been instrumental in building and scaling data and machine learning products. He has a deep understanding of how to leverage AI to drive innovation and efficiency in areas like ecommerce, financial services. He is passionate about ethical AI development and data privacy, and he believes in the transformative power of AI to empower individuals and businesses in the digital economy.