Screening Committee
Mr. N S Raghavan
Prof K Kumar
Prof Rishikesha T Krishnan
Prof Srinivas Prakhya
Prof Krishna S
Dr. Parameshwar Iyer (IISC)
Mr. Sanjay Anandaram (Jumpstartup)
Mr. Vinay Deshpande (Ncore)
Mr. N S Raghavan
Indian entrepreneurs have the skills and the ability to create enterprises that can thrive in the global marketplace. This belief was the driving force that led a group of visionaries to action and Infosys was founded. N.S. Raghavan, a founder and former Joint Managing Director of Infosys was one of those visionaries.
NSR as he is known took voluntary retirement from Infosys in 2000 to promote his vision of entrepreneurship and India-based global companies on a broader scale. To help create world-class enterprises and to support Indian entrepreneurs, he, along with a few associates, started Nadathur Holdings & Investments. To encourage entrepreneurship in the country and help incubate start-ups, he helped set up the N. S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB). NSRCEL has been set up with a generous contribution by N S Raghavan.
Over the years, the companies have grown and so has the investment portfolio. He together with his team, are now developing strategies and plans that will lay the foundation for growth over the next couple of decades - both as a major private equity player as well as the wellspring for tomorrow's leading companies. They are now increasing their investments in the Life Sciences as well as aerospace and engineering services domains.
NSR was selected by a reputed panel of International judges to receive the Dhirubai Ambani Award for the year 2004 on the 57th India's Independence Day banquet held in Los Angeles on August 15. The award was given to him for his outstanding contribution to Entrepreneurship and was given by FOIAC, City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles and Orange County, State of California and the Congressional offices of the USA.
Current Responsibilities
- Non-Executive Director Corporate Board, IDFC Private Equity Ltd.
Largest Indian Private Equity Fund focused on Infrastructure - Non-Executive Director Corporate Board,
ABB India Limited ABB is a global leader in Automation & Power Technologies - Chairman Advisory Council, N. S. Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning,
Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India - Founder Director Nadathur Holdings and Investments Pvt Ltd, India
- Founder Chairman Nadathur Fareast Pte Ltd, Singapore
- Chairman Indegene Lifesystems Pvt Ltd
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Founding Trustee FAME (India), Foundation for Action, Motivation & Empowerment, focused on imparting training and education to children with developmental disabilities (mentally challenged)
K. Kumar is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Chairperson in the N.S. Raghavan Center for Entrepreneurial Learning at IIMB. He had earlier served as a Visiting professor in the Corporate Strategy and Policy area at IIMB before taking over his current position. His research and teaching interests are in the area of entrepreneurship, innovation and strategic management of new ventures, both in the entrepreneurial and large corporate settings. He has a keen interest in the development and nurturing of technology led innovations into viable new businesses and revenue streams. He is actively involved in consulting with many corporate organizations and entrepreneurial ventures, guiding them in the areas of strategy, resource mobilization, organization building and managing growth and innovation. He has also been playing a consulting and advisory role in to the government in the areas of innovation and commercialization of technology.
Kumar has over 18 years of experience in the industry in various capacities. He was the first CEO of Trigent Software Ltd, a mid-sized, Bangalore based software services company, between 1995 and 2001 and later served as its President between 2005 and 2006. His previous assignment was as a Management Consultant at Tata Consultancy Services for over four years, wherein he was involved in assisting many corporate and family businesses in building and implementing strategies to cope with the liberalized and globalized environment.
He started his career with a two-year stint as a Marketing Officer with Crompton Greaves Ltd, responsible for marketing a wide range of power equipment. He spent the next three years during his career as an entrepreneur, and successfully co-promoted two ventures in the services and consumer products domains. He also served as a Product Manager at Computer Point (I) Ltd, responsible for developing a nascent market for PC based software solutions, before moving on to pursue doctoral studies at IIMB.
Kumar has a B.E degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (Madurai University) and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from IIMB. He is a Fellow of IIMB (equivalent of a Ph.D), with specialization in corporate strategy.
Rishikesha T Krishnan is a Professor in the Corporate Strategy & Policy Area & Jamuna Raghavan Chair Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), India. His research interests are in the areas of strategy, innovation and competitiveness.
Prof. Krishnan has been a consultant to, or conducted management development programs for, British Telecom, Daimler Chrysler, Wipro, Siemens, Sasken Communication Technologies, the Murugappa Group, the Aditya Birla Group, Kochi Refineries and the Governments of India and Karnataka.
Prof. Krishnan worked for four years as the General Manager of a small high technology company in the telecom sector from 1987-91. During this period, he also co-founded a software company working on specialized engineering application software. From March 2001 to October 2001, he worked with a software product start-up in the knowledge management space founded by an IIMB alumnus.
Prof. Krishnan holds a M.Sc. in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur; an M.S. in Engineering-Economic Systems (now Management Science & Engineering) from Stanford University; and a Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, where his thesis proposal won the outstanding thesis proposal award instituted by the Industrial Finance Corporation of India.
Prof. Krishnan has been a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Panel on Intellectual Property, R&D, Technology and Innovation, the Advisory Council of CII’s National Innovation Mission and on the jury of Nasscom’s innovation awards. He has been a member of government committees to review the performance of the National Innovation Foundation, and to study “The Future of Aviation and Aeronautics in India.” He has done external reviews of the plan schemes of India’s Department of Scientific & Industrial Research and the Department of Biotechnology’s SBIRI scheme.
Srinivas Prakhya is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He has a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He worked for six years in Retailing and General Management with OMC Computers and Mothercare India Ltd. He obtained his doctorate in Marketing at the Graduate School of Industrial Administration, Carnegie Mellon University. He is a Visiting Assistant Professor.
His research and teaching interests include Individual Choice Behaviour; Econometric Modeling of Consumer Behaviour; Knowledge Creation and Transfer; Leadership; Self-Enquiry and Management.
Krishna holds two Ph.Ds in Computer Science and Physics from IIT Kanpur. Earlier, worked with IIT, Kanpur; Raman Research Institute; Regional Computer Centre, Chandigarh; and National Informatics Centre, New Delhi; in very senior and senior positions.Has 20 research publications and technical reports in international journals and conference to his credit.A book entitled Introduction to database and knowledgebase Systems has been published abroad. Has planned and implemented systems for Government of India and State Governments. Taught at IISc. and IIT-Kanpur. Expert for faculty appoints at IISc., IIM, and CAIR. Member of Programs committees for international conferences and examiner for Ph.D. theses.
Dr. Parameshwar Iyer (IISC)
Dr. Parameshwar Iyer is the Principal Research Scientist and Head, Placement and Industrial Liaison at the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. He is involved in Teaching, Research and Consultancy Services including Management Development and Continuing Education Programs. He has specialised in
- Project Management and Communication
- Entrepreneurship Research and Education/ Training
- Strategic Management
- Management of Intellectual Property Rights
- Business Systems Design and Analysis
Sanjay Anandaram has more than twenty years of experience as an entrepreneur, investor and corporate executive. As a passionate advocate of entrepreneurship and innovation, he works with various startups in the US and India as a mentor, board member and occasional angel investor; He’s also an advisor to early stage cross-border VC funds and serves on the board of a social entrepreneurship venture in Bangalore, India.
Sanjay is a founding partner of JumpStartUp Venture Fund, one of the pioneering early stage US-India cross border VC funds, set up in 2000 to invest in software, communications, services and embedded technologies. JumpStartUp’s portfolio includes companies such as Meru Networks, Hellosoft, Customer Asset (part of the publicly listed Firstsource), Jareva (now part of publicly listed Symantec), Netkraft (now part of Adea) and Aaarohi (now part of publicly listed Emulex).
Prior to JumpStartUp, Sanjay co-founded Neta, a Silicon Valley VC backed internet personalization software company where he wrote the business plan, drove business development and was actively involved in its becoming a part of Infoseek/Disney. Consequently, he returned to India in 1999 and started Venturekatalyst, India’s first e-magazine aimed at entrepreneurs.
Sanjay writes and speaks frequently on innovation and entrepreneurship. His column Indipreneur is published in The Financial Express and on various blogs. He teaches Business Plan Workshop as an adjunct faculty at INSEAD business school, Singapore campus. He is a member of TiE Bangalore’s Leadership Committee where he co-chairs the Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme, is a member of NASSCOM initiatives in innovation and entrepreneurship, an advisor to the NSRCEL at IIMB, and has been a working group member of the Indo-US Council on Entrepreneurship in Academia.
Vinay Deshpande is the principal founder and Chairman and CEO of Encore Software. Encore is a Bangalore based software technology services company, focusing on data communications and Digital Signal Processing based solutions. He has had a long track record of over twenty years as an entrepreneur, founding or co-founding several IT ventures. He is currently President of MAIT.