Agenda

Nehal Vora is the Managing Director and CEO of Central Depository Services (India) Limited (CDSL), India's largest depository and the only listed depository in Asia-Pacific region, with a market cap of USD 4.2 billion. (as of January 2025). With over 27 years of experience in significant roles at BSE, DSP Merrill Lynch, and SEBI, Nehal has driven transformative growth at CDSL since September 2019, overseeing it become the custodian for over 14.5 crore demat accounts. Nehal's achievements have earned him numerous accolades, including the recent “Global Custodian Legend Award, Asia”, in May 2024, "CEO of the Year Asia" by Asia Asset Management. Additionally, under his leadership, CDSL has received several prestigious awards such as the 'Central Securities Depository of the Year' at the Asset Servicing Times - Industry Excellence Award 2023, and the Best Market Infrastructure Institution of the Year 2024 by Regulation Asia..

Kaku Nakhate is the President and India country executive of Bank of America and is on the bank's Asia Pacific Executive Committee since 2010.

With nearly three decades of experience, Kaku is an industry veteran having deep insights and knowledge of India's growing banking and financial services sector. Kaku is responsible for building a market-leading franchise in India, overseeing strategy and direction. In this role, Kaku leverages her international experience, having interacted with many major Corporates and Financial Institutions across major markets, enhancing existing client relationships, developing new clients, and building business opportunities for the firm.

Kaku started her career with Merrill Lynch in 1989 and grew through ranks to eventually head the Global Markets business. After Bank of America's global acquisition of Merrill Lynch, Kaku was appointed as the chief executive of the merged entity in the country. She briefly worked with JP Morgan, India as Vice-chairperson in charge of Equities.

In addition to her responsibilities as the chief executive, Kaku is a member of National Executive Board of the American Chambers of Commerce (AMCHAM) and is on the Board of Governors of IIM, Ahmedabad. She is also a member of the CII National Committee on Banking, CII National Committee on MNCs and CII National Council on Corporate Governance.

She holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce and a Master's in Management Studies (Finance) from the University of Mumbai.

Kaku is a passionate advocate of adolescent girls getting access to quality education, skills development, and sanitation. Kaku also actively participates in various skill-based volunteering programs of the bank over and above spending time mentoring numerous NGO leaders. Under her leadership, Bank of America in India won the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Award for Corporate Excellence (ACE Award) for efforts in strengthening women's economic security in the country.

Mr. Ananth Narayan is currently a Whole Time Member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), looking after Market Regulation Department (MRD), Alternative Investment Fund and Foreign Portfolio Investors Department (AFD), Enforcement, Enquiries and Adjudication Department (EAD), Office of Investor Assistance and Education (OIAE), and Department of Economic and Policy Analysis (DEPA).

Prior to this current role, Ananth had extensive experience of academia, governance, and international banking.

Between 2018 and 2022, Ananth was an Associate Professor at S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai. He also served on several boards, including as Independent Director on SBI Capital Markets, Additional Director (appointed by RBI) on Yes Bank Ltd., Public Interest Director (appointed by SEBI) on NSE Clearing Limited.

Between 2009 and 2017, Ananth was with Standard Chartered Bank, last as Managing Director and Regional Head of Financial Markets, ASEAN and South Asia. Between 2006 and 2009, he was with Deutsche Bank, last as Managing Director, Global Rates, South Asia. Between 1993 and 2005, he was with Citigroup, last as Director, Financial Markets, South Asia.

Ananth has also served on several RBI and SEBI committees and working groups.

Ananth holds a Post-graduate Diploma in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, and is a Bachelor of Technology (Electrical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Dr. K. Kasturirangan is currently Chairman, National Steering Committee for National Curricular Framework; Chairperson, NIIT University, Neemrana; Member, Atomic Energy Commission, Honorary Distinguished Advisor, ISRO. Earlier, as Chairman ISRO, he oversaw the space programme of India for nearly a decade. He was a Member of Rajya Sabha and of the erstwhile Planning Commission. He was the Chairman of the Committee that drafted the new National Education Policy.

He is a Member of all the four National Science Academies and several International academies. He is an Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Vatican City and is the only Indian to be conferred the Honorary Membership of the International Academy of Astronautics.

He has been conferred with the highest civilian honours Padma Shri (1982), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Padma Vibhushan (2000) by the President of India, Rajyotsava Prashasthi (2014) from Government of Karnataka and Award of ‘Officer of the Legion d'honneur' (2002) by the President of the French Republic, France among others.

Harish Mehta is one of the co-founders of NASSCOM and served as its first elected Chairman. To promote innovation-driven entrepreneurship, he brought Silicon Valley's TiE to India in 1999. As the founder and Executive Chairperson of Onward Group, Mr. Mehta led Onward Technologies to become a leading global player in engineering and digital services. He is also the award-winning author of The Maverick Effect, a national bestseller published in 2022. It has led to the creation of the 'Maverick Effect Awards' category by IMC under their annual Digital Business Innovation Awards. Additionally, he is a venture capitalist - a founding member of Infinity Ventures Fund, and a promoter of the Indian Angel Network. Mr. Mehta holds a bachelor's in electrical engineering from COEP and a master's in computer science from Tandon School of Engineering NYU

Amit Mahajan currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL), the only listed depository in India.

A seasoned technocrat with a robust business acumen, Amit Mahajan brings a wealth of expertise in web technologies, application development, and procurement. With an illustrious career spanning nearly three decades, his professional journey includes the proficient management of IT application portfolios across diverse sectors, including stock exchanges, depositories, eCommerce, and telecommunications domains.

Amit Mahajan has earned recognition for his outstanding contributions to the technology landscape, being honoured among the top 100 Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) in India by StartupLanes, an esteemed ecosystem for startups.

Educationally, Amit Mahajan holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from BITS Pilani, India. He furthered his academic pursuits with an MBA from Mumbai University, enhancing his leadership acumen and strategic vision.

Amit Mahajan's distinctive combination of technical proficiency, leadership acumen, and strategic foresight positions him as a notable and influential figure within the technology domain.

Shravan is the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) at Zerodha. He is an information security enthusiast with a deep passion for advancing cybersecurity practices. His doctoral research focuses on leveraging artificial intelligence to develop innovative intrusion detection systems.

As the Data and AI leader for Microsoft Azure's India and South Asia business, Swami leads a team of Sales and Technical (Architecture) Specialist to help customers in Enterprise, Digital Natives and Public Sector to adopt Azure's marquee Data and AI offerings like Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Services, Azure Databricks, Microsoft Fabric, Azure Cosmos DB, SQL Server and among many others.

Previously Swami led the Big Data Analytics and Machiner Learning business for AWS in India and South Asia. Swami was also responsible for setting up AWS's Private Equity practice in India where Swami worked closely with PE investors and their portfolio companies on value creation, digital modernization and innovation.

Swami has held Global and Regional P&L responsibilities for Cognizant's Data Science, AI and Analytics business. Swami was a part of the founding team that set up Equifax in India. Swami has helped set up Nigeria's first Credit Bureau CRC Nigeria and helped launch innovative data products at UAE's first credit bureau.

Post complete acquisition of WealthDesk and OpenQ in 2022, Ujjwal is currently heading PhonePe's Wealth and Broking business as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Share. Market, a brand of PhonePe Wealth Broking and affiliates.

Ujjwal has a BE Computer Science and Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and is a CFA Charterholder, and has more than 14 years of experience working at the confluence of Computer Science, Technology, Capital Markets, and Investment and Wealth Management space. Right after completing his Engineering in 2009, Ujjwal joined Hedge Fund D. E. Shaw where he worked on scaling the treasury function and building a full stack Treasury platform.

In 2016, Ujjwal began building WealthDesk and created a curated research baskets category on Broking called WealthBasket to address the challenges faced by the funds and broking industry as a whole. Later in 2018, Ujjwal co-founded OpenQ, a full stack Quantitative research Platform on top of WealthDesk to bring global standards quantitative research led offering including WealthBaskets on Indian Broking Platforms.

WealthDesk and OpenQ were acquired by PhonePe in 2022 with an aim to widen PhonePe's offerings in the wealth management space.

Prof. Varsha Apte is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay and is currently the Head of the Department. She completed her M.Sc. from Pune University in 1989, and PhD. from Duke University in 1994, both in Computer Science.

After her Ph.D., she joined the Teletraffic Theory and Performance Analysis department in AT&T Bell Labs as a Member, Technical Staff, which later became the Network Design and Performance Analysis department of AT&T Labs. She joined as faculty in the Computer Science and Engineering Dept, IIT Bombay in 2002. During the academic years 2009-2011, she was on leave from IITB and Visiting Faculty at the Computer Science and Automation Department, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. While in Bangalore, she also worked at IBM Research Labs as part-time Visiting Researcher from June 2009-May 2010. From February 2016 to February 2019, she served as the Head of the Network and Computing Infrastructure department (called "Computer Centre") of IIT Bombay. Her areas of interest are performance analysis of computing systems and networks and building applications for online programming education, including AI for programming education.

Srikanth is the Co-founder and Group Chief Executive of Fractal. Fractal is an AI firm that powers decision-making for some of the world's largest and most admired companies on the planet.

Srikanth serves as the Vice-Chairman of NASSCOM. The apex body for the $250 billion tech industry in India. He is also a Founder and Trustee at Plaksha University, where he teaches a course on decision-making.

Srikanth believes in extreme client-centricity and taking a long-term view of business. He considers himself a lifelong student of mathematics and the behavioural sciences.

Vinay Madan is a Seasoned Risk Management Professional having 20+ years of experience in Risk Advisory, Enterprise Risk Management, Management of Operational and Fraud Risks, IT Risks, Credit Risks, Regulatory Risks, Market Risks and Liquidity Risks.

Vinay has held Senior Management positions covering various business lines including Corporate and Investment Banking, Retail and Business Banking, Wealth Management, Mutual Funds, Custodian Services, Retail and Institutional Brokerage, NBFC, Global Captive Centres, Market Infrastructure Institution and Credit Card Business. A Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

He started his post qualification journey with KPMG Risk Advisory where he assisted clients across the globe and industry sectors in the areas of business process improvement, enterprise risk management, internal audit, internal controls frameworks and change enablement.

He has then worked with various financial services majors like American Express, Barclays and BNP Paribas Group. Presently he is working as the Chief Risk Officer of CDSL.

Avneesh Pandey is Chief General Manager, Information Technology at Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). At SEBI he is presently leading security and audit practice for the organisation and is responsible for cyber security oversight of the securities markets.

He has about three decades of securities market regulatory experience in business process innovation, big data analytics, enterprise IT solutions, IT and Cyber security etc. He has led technology committees on regulatory oversight and strategy implementation.

He sees himself as a technology strategist and a process innovator.

He has obtained MPhil in Technology Policy from the University of Cambridge, UK, and has been an ADB-Japan Scholar for management studies at Asian Institute of Management, Manila, Philippines.

25 years of Capital market experience, work across multiple areas like Operations, Risk, Business and Product.

Shubhosree is the Chief Data Officer and Head of Data and analytics Office, HSBC India and its South Asian cluster markets. The Data and Analytics Office looks after data architecture, executes data and AI backed commercial use cases, governs data risks and owns data policies for the bank.

Shubhosree has extensive, diverse experience in US, Asia and India Markets across Retail and Corporate Banking verticals, with specialization in Business Strategy, Machine Learning, Data commercialization, Digital Journeys, Credit Risk Management and data governance. She has proven track record of setting up high performing teams and successfully leading cross border workforces to deliver analytics driven material business outcomes.

Shubhosree has also transcended roles between banking and strategic consulting. In one of her earlier roles , she worked as a principle with worked with Boston Consulting Group where she was a core member of Asia FI Practice and a topic lead for hyperpersonalised digital offerings.

Shubhosree has been called out in the list of 40 influential data leaders in India by AIM Council in 2024, is a member of India EDM council as well is HSBC's own Women in Data program co-chair for India cluster.

Shubhosree lives in Mumbai with her Husband and her teenaged daughter. She is a travel and history enthusiast and enjoys living like local wherever she goes.

Prof. Umesh Bellur is currently a faculty at Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay.

He has completed his PhD, Department of Computer Science and Engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY USA and B.E., Electronics and Communication Engineering from Bangalore University.

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 and 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

Kunal is a Partner at KPMG. He has over 25 years diverse experience with KPMG in advising clients across the globe.

He is National leader Digital Trust Services - Financial Services Sector, National Co-lead Digital Risk and Cyber. He is also part of KPMG Global Payments Leadership Team.

Kunal has extensively worked with Banks, Fintechs, Payment Cos, Brokers, Funds, MIIs, Insurance Cos, Central Banks and Telcos on:

• Defining and implementing Tech enabled operating model, digital transformation, Tech Strategy, Architecture, sourcing and PMO.
• Advising and building capabilities to manage risks emanating from Digital Operations, Data, Tech, Cyber.

He has experience of working on emerging technology enabled use cases like Blockchain, Cloud, AI.

He has authored, contributed a number of Thought Leadership publications, has been a speaker / moderator at number of events focusing on IT strategy and governance, Security and Resiliency, Data Privacy, Digital Banking, Mobility, Payments, etc. These include World Economic Forum (WEF) white paper on payments interoperability, “ET-KPMG Banking Technology Conclave TL for five years, “KPMG - Mobile Payment Outlook”, KPMG in India - Blockchain Auditing Framework - Ki-Chain, etc.

Kunal is a B. Tech (Gold Medalist) and an MBA. He is CISA, DCPLA, ISO27001 LI and has cleared CISSP.

Dhiraj Relli oversees all aspects of the company's institutional, retail business and operations. With a career span of over three decades, he is the member of HDFC family since 2008. He has served as Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Branch Banking at HDFC Bank, where he managed Retail Branch Banking spreading across 800 branches geographically.

Prior to this, he worked as the Country Head, Branch Banking with Centurion Bank of Punjab, held various posts with ICICI Bank and other well-known financial services organisations. Mr. Relli is a member of various key advisory committees in exchanges across the country.

A B.Com. (Honours) graduate from Delhi University, Mr. Relli is a qualified Chartered Accountant from The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and also did an Advance Management Program from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.

Manohar Hotchandani is the Director of Business Development, AI and Reality Labs Partnerships for Meta in India. As a part of this role, he leads the charter for developing the ecosystem for Meta Gen AI, Reality Labs, Gaming and Payment partners in India.

Manohar has more than 25+ years of experience working with leading companies in a variety of roles. Prior to joining Meta, Manohar was with Amazon where he led the Alexa voice service (AVS) business after a long stint at Microsoft across multiple roles.

Manohar has a Computer Engineering degree and loves to incubate new business ideas and is passionate about enabling the buzzing developer and startup ecosystem in India. He aspires to incubate ideas and businesses that can be relevant to a billion Indians via the use of technology.

Outside of Meta, Manohar loves to share experiences with students in a variety of forums and is also involved in contributing to the academia by keeping the curriculum current keeping in mind the evolving needs of the industry. He also dedicates his personal time to volunteering for charities focused on geriatric and elder care.

Mr. Rajesh Panwar, Director, Ministry of Finance, brings over two decades of diverse experience spanning law enforcement and economic administration. During his tenure in the Delhi Police (2005–2012), he successfully led investigations into cases of cheating and capital market offences. Transitioning to economic administration, Mr. Panwar served in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), where he significantly contributed to improving India's ease of doing business ranking and played a pivotal role in the launch of the Startup India policy.

In the Ministry of Finance, he has been deeply involved in India's budget preparation exercises. Among his notable achievements is the drafting of the PM CARES for Children Scheme in 2021, designed to support children orphaned due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also played a key role in launching the Guarantee Scheme for Corporate Debt, a landmark initiative to provide a backstop for the corporate debt market.

At present, Mr. Panwar serves as Director in the Ministry of Finance, overseeing the Financial Markets Division. In this role, he is focused on fostering a robust and resilient financial market ecosystem.

Satyadarshi Behera is a seasoned Data Science leader with over 18 years of experience applying machine learning and data science to drive impact in fintech, e-commerce, and logistics. He currently heads the Data Science and Machine Learning teams at CRED, where he collaborates across functions to develop AI-driven solutions for personalization, fraud detection, risk assessment, and customer experience. Before CRED, he held key leadership roles at Amazon, Media.net, Rivigo, and Star India, spearheading transformative initiatives and building high-performance ML teams. Satyadarshi holds a master’s degree in Statistics from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.

Siddharth Sureka is the appointed Chief AI Officer at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited (MOFSL), where he is tasked with driving AI initiatives across the MOFSL group. With over 20 years of experience in transformative leadership roles, Siddharth is well-equipped to guide MOFSL into an AI-first era. Before joining MOFSL, Siddharth served as a Director at Charles Schwab, where he played a pivotal role in integrating cutting-edge AI solutions into the business. His expertise lies in bridging the gap between AI technology and business strategy, ensuring that AI investments yield tangible value.

Akhilesh is a senior partner and part of leadership team of KPMG India. He leads the Global Cyber Security business for KPMG Global and also the leader for India Clients and markets.

As Global Cyber Security Leader, he has transformed KPMG's cyber security service portfolio and enhanced its leadership in the Cybersecurity consulting market, demonstrated in the recent IDC MarketScape in System Integrators/Consultancies for Cybersecurity Consulting Services. Akhilesh has led complex consulting engagements in over 40 countries. Akhilesh is a globally recognized thought leader, and a member of the World Economic Forum's Centre for Cybersecurity, wherein he recently contributed to developing a framework for Digital Trust, and regularly contributes on panel discussions at events such as Davos.

In his India role, he leads the India firm's go-to-market strategy and is responsible to drive growth for the firm. Under his leadership, the firm has a developed a strong sector and accounts program; India Global and Alliances programs that act as the accelerator to the firm's growth.

Relevant experience

Akhilesh has over two decades of experience in advising clients on matters relating to cyber security strategy, transforming cyber security posture and dealing with cyber incidents. He has led large teams and advised global corporations and governments with respect to the protection of mission-critical business assets, infrastructure and information.

Akhilesh has received Consulting Magazine's Global Consultant of the Year award for 2019. Akhilesh has also advised regulators in the banking and services industry to help build frameworks for enhancing cyber security, privacy and fraud management practices. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is often quoted in business and technology publications.

Akhilesh is actively involved in and has published many thought leadership reports on the future of cyber security, being the primary author of KPMG's annual Cyber Considerations report. He frequently contributes to KPMG's Global CEO Outlook report and Global Tech Reports, and recently worked with the UAE Cyber Security Council and KPMG UAE on its Cyber Next 50 report - examining how the cybersecurity world will evolve in the next 50 years.