and 
CAII: CEO's Association for Inclusive India
Who Are We?
Inclusive growth is a critical success factor for India's long-term prosperity and public safety. There is no other forum committed to this cause as it takes a huge amount of inner calling, domain expertise, field research, community involvement along with linkages into policymaking to be able to make meaningful interventions. In an attempt to bring together enlightened stakeholders who can not only manage bottom lines well but also see beyond them, and envision a resurgent India standing the tallest in the league of nations, we have formed an association called: CAII: CEOs Association for Inclusive India
How are we different?
- – felt-needs v/s gut-feel
Inputs to policy based on primary and field research - – knowledge management approach v/s event management approach
Multi-stakeholder representation as a collective rather than a charter of demands coming from vendors
- – Inclusive agenda v/s pursuing vendor agenda
Inclusive approach in practice too - – Inclusive approach v/s vendor’s approach
Public policy advocacy v/s lobbying
Objectives
The objective of the association is to bring expertise from industry, academia, practitioners and civil society to bear on various facets of inclusive growth of India including Financial, Social and Digital Inclusion. It would act as a think tank to bring felt needs up-front and focus on aligning policy and governance with the aspirations of India, better. Our guiding principles include ethical conduct, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and good corporate governance. In pursuance of these objectives, CAII has formed the following National Missions:
National Mission on Defeating Poverty
National Mission on Smart Governance
National Mission on Smart Cities, Infrastructure and DMIC
National Mission on Federalism
National Mission on e-Economy
National Mission on Insurance
National Mission on Social Security
National Mission on Sanitation
CAII is Led By
Karan Bajwa
Chairman, CAII and Vice President, Asia Pacific, Google Cloud
Karan Bajwa joined Microsoft India in November 2007 and after serving in senior leadership roles. He was appointed as Managing Director of the sales and marketing operations of the subsidiary in 2013. In this capacity, his responsibilities include growing the sales and marketing operations, driving strategic partnerships and alliances with global platform partners, channel partners, international and local OEMs services, telecommunications industries and the system builder community. Karan brings with him an excellent understanding of enterprises as well as insight into the Indian public sector, having led teams for these businesses for the company in the last seven years.
Karan Bajwa joined Microsoft India in November 2007 and after serving in senior leadership roles. He was appointed as Managing Director of the sales and marketing operations of the subsidiary in 2013. In this capacity, his responsibilities include growing the sales and marketing operations, driving strategic partnerships and alliances with global platform partners, channel partners, international and local OEMs services, telecommunications industries and the system builder community. Karan brings with him an excellent understanding of enterprises as well as insight into the Indian public sector, having led teams for these businesses for the company in the last seven years.
Sameer Kochhar
Secretary General, CAII and Chairman, SKOCH Group & SKOCH Foundation
Mr Sameer Kochhar is a social scientist, leading reforms historian in India and an acclaimed author. His domain expertise on socio-economic issues has been used by the government and private sector alike for consultancy on public policy and strategy. He has published 16 books including Defeating Poverty, ModiNomics and The Untold Story of Indian Reforms. He is privileged to have his books released by Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Narendra Modi, Mr Arun Jaitley and Mr P. Chidambaram, among several other luminaries. His mantra is growth, livelihoods and equity.
He is an industry veteran with a multifaceted career spanning over 37 years with extensive experience in using action research to bring felt-needs to policy and strategy. He is credited with several well-performing public policy interventions in areas of digital, financial and social inclusion. Considered fearless, he is often seen standing up to be counted on issues of national importance, asking difficult questions and offering seasoned advice. He has assessed first-hand a large number of projects in India and has also created one of the biggest independent knowledge repositories on what works/ This also serves as perhaps the only institutional memory of reforms in India.
He has been a member of several expert groups and committees constituted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Government of India, advocating a case for a strengthening of local self-governance through use of technology; and, the Ministry of Communications and IT on the evaluation of National e-Governance Plan. He was on the advisory committee of College of Agricultural Banking of Reserve Bank of India for nearly 6 years. He has represented India in inter-governmental conferences.
Kulmeet Bawa
President, CAII and President & Managing Director, SAP India
Kulmeet Bawa is the chief architect of SAP’s growth and innovation strategies for the Indian Subcontinent. He is responsible for delivering bold transformations and exceptional SAP experiences to customers across the ecosystem, as well as guiding businesses in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to adopt a digital-first mindset.
Over his 25 years of cross functional experience, Kulmeet has orchestrated business revolution by providing proven business outcomes for organizations across various industries and portfolios. Kulmeet was previously the Chief Operating Officer for Resulticks where he led the growth strategy and execution of go-to-market for the organization.
While at Adobe as Managing Director for India and South Asia, Kulmeet was instrumental in accelerating the organization’s growth momentum by expanding the business footprint within the Enterprise, SMB and Consumer sectors. Prior to Adobe, he has held various leadership roles managing enterprise development and business processes for major tech companies such as Microsoft Corporation and Sun Microsystems.
With a relentless focus on driving customer experience Kulmeet believes in nurturing and mentoring team members, promoting design thinking, creativity and innovative culture. He also actively contributes towards social initiatives which focus on education and women empowerment.
Prior to his corporate avatar, Kulmeet Bawa spent 12 years with the Indian Armoured Corps as a Cavalry officer. During his tenure with the Indian army, Kulmeet was Aide de Camp to the Governor of an Indian State and taught Strategy at the prestigious Armoured Corps Centre and School.
Kulmeet is a graduate from the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, and an alumnus of the prestigious National Defence Academy.
Committees
- National Public Affairs Committee to be announced to be headed by two people.
- National Future of Governance Committee to be announced to be headed by two people.
- National Committee on MSME
- National Committee on $1 Trillion Digital Economy
- National Committee on Connected Government
U K Sinha
Former Chairman, SEBI
Indian capital markets never had it better than when U K Sinha was at the helm of the corner office at SEBI. His tenure as Chairman, SEBI is marked by the wide ranging market reforms. He ensured that the regulator shifts its focus from surveillance to supervisory. In regulatory changes, his tenure at SEBI saw the strengthening of insider trading rules, listing and delisting norms and a widened definition of an insider.
The market regulator, which had become a beehive of activity under his leadership, expanded its territory as a market developer, reworked and re-examined the SEBI Act to effect more than 50 amendments—a bold and unprecedented move that added dynamism to the regulator—cleaned up the primary markets and opened the Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) for listing of SMEs. The SME success story in the Indian market today is reflective of the regulatory support—all Sinha’s doing. He is also credited with allowing Real Estate Investment Trusts, Infrastructure Investment Trusts and municipal bonds.
Given his commitment and passion to see the SMEs grow, he is now heading a committee constituted by RBI to making suggestions for long-term solutions for economic and financial stability of the sector.
Gulshan Rai
Former National Cyber Security Coordinator
Gulshan Rai is Former National Cyber Security Coordinator at the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India.
Dr. Rai has over 30 years of experience in Information Technology, including e-governance, cyber security and cyber laws. He led a team to set up the National Watch and Alert System in India. Dr. Rai has over the years helped in the drafting of national policies on cyber laws and cyber security.
As the Executive Director at ERNET India, Dr. Rai was instrumental in setting up the first large scale education and research network in close collaboration with leading educational and research institutions. During his tenure, the project — National Knowledge Network — was designed and evolved.
Dr. Rai has represented India in official forums, bilateral discussions and negotiations in the areas of cyber security and internet governance.
Dhanendra Kumar
Former, Chairman CCI, ED World Bank & Secretary Government of India
Mr. Dhanendra Kumar was the first Chairman CCI. He was instrumental in setting up its enforcement machinery, regulations, systems and procedures, and steering the Commission in its initial years of existence ( 2009-11), specially its M&A regime.
On completion of his term in CCI, he headed the Experts’ Committee to frame the Draft National Competition Policy, and suggesting amendments to the Competition Act, 2002, He also Chaired the Committee of experts of the Ministry of Housing to suggest regulatory reforms in the real estate and housing sector.
Mr. Kumar is currently advising, among others, the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (of Ministry of Corporate Affairs) as Hony Principal Advisor, and Chief Mentor for the School of Competition Law and Policy- the National Centre of Excellence in Competition and Regulatory Affairs. He is frequently invited to deliver lectures at NLU Delhi, and elsewhere.
Before joining CCI, Mr Kumar was India’s Executive Director at the World Bank ( 2005-09) where he also represented SriLanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. He was also Secretary in Ministries of Defence Production, Transport, etc. He also served in Haryana, where he is known for development of Udyog Vihar, Manesar, and industrial development.
Sudhir Nayar
MD, Commercial Sales, Cisco India and SAARC
Sudhir Nayar is Managing Director for Commercial Sales for Cisco India & SAARC where he leads a high performing team to drive sales and increase adoption of Cisco’s products and solutions across the Commercial segment.
Sudhir has 27 years of extensive experience in business management, sales/partner management and leadership in the Technology industry. Prior to joining Cisco, Sudhir worked with Microsoft where he led Sales and Marketing for the SMB segment in India. His role included formulating and executing strategies to establish Microsoft as a thought leader for 51 million SMBs and leveraging India’s largest IT network of 3,000+ partners. He was responsible for transforming India’s largest partner ecosystem to enable the digital transformation of Indian businesses.
Earlier at Oracle, Sudhir lead the Corporate Strategy & Business Development function where he was responsible for developing and executing Oracle’s growth plan in India. Sudhir also worked in Sun Microsystems for 10+ years, where he held leadership roles for BFSI, ITS, and the Partner Sales organization.
Sudhir has a B.Tech in Electronics and Communications from REC, Warangal.
Advisory Board
Advisory Board consists of practitioners, domain experts, academia, members of civil society and senior functionaries from the Secretariat. The Board supports the Secretariat and the Governing Council with domain-based and felt-need-based inputs.
U K Sinha
Former Chairman, SEBI
Indian capital markets never had it better than when U K Sinha was at the helm of the corner office at SEBI. His tenure as Chairman, SEBI is marked by the wide ranging market reforms. He ensured that the regulator shifts its focus from surveillance to supervisory. In regulatory changes, his tenure at SEBI saw the strengthening of insider trading rules, listing and delisting norms and a widened definition of an insider.
The market regulator, which had become a beehive of activity under his leadership, expanded its territory as a market developer, reworked and re-examined the SEBI Act to effect more than 50 amendments—a bold and unprecedented move that added dynamism to the regulator—cleaned up the primary markets and opened the Institutional Trading Platform (ITP) for listing of SMEs. The SME success story in the Indian market today is reflective of the regulatory support—all Sinha’s doing. He is also credited with allowing Real Estate Investment Trusts, Infrastructure Investment Trusts and municipal bonds.
Given his commitment and passion to see the SMEs grow, he is now heading a committee constituted by RBI to making suggestions for long-term solutions for economic and financial stability of the sector.
Dhanendra Kumar
Former, Chairman CCI, ED World Bank & Secretary Government of India
Mr. Dhanendra Kumar was the first Chairman CCI. He was instrumental in setting up its enforcement machinery, regulations, systems and procedures, and steering the Commission in its initial years of existence ( 2009-11), specially its M&A regime.
On completion of his term in CCI, he headed the Experts’ Committee to frame the Draft National Competition Policy, and suggesting amendments to the Competition Act, 2002, He also Chaired the Committee of experts of the Ministry of Housing to suggest regulatory reforms in the real estate and housing sector.
Mr. Kumar is currently advising, among others, the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (of Ministry of Corporate Affairs) as Hony Principal Advisor, and Chief Mentor for the School of Competition Law and Policy- the National Centre of Excellence in Competition and Regulatory Affairs. He is frequently invited to deliver lectures at NLU Delhi, and elsewhere.
Before joining CCI, Mr Kumar was India’s Executive Director at the World Bank ( 2005-09) where he also represented SriLanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan. He was also Secretary in Ministries of Defence Production, Transport, etc. He also served in Haryana, where he is known for development of Udyog Vihar, Manesar, and industrial development.
Deepali Pant Joshi
Former ED, RBI
Dr Deepali Pant Joshi is the former Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India. She is a development Economist and a writer on economic subjects. Her professional responsibilities have included the Department of Currency Management, Legal Department and Premises Department. She was the First Appellate authority under the Right to Information Act, as well as the RBI nominee on the Governing Council of the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) and Director on the Board of Bharatiya Reserve Bank Note Mudran Private Limited (BRBNMPL).
Dr Joshi has also served as the RBI Regional Director of Rajasthan. Prior to her appointment as Executive Director, Dr Joshi was responsible for the Customer Service Department and Rural Planning and Credit Department.
Dr Joshi is a fellow of Harvard University Asia Centre where she did postdoctoral research in the areas of Finance and Economics. She holds a doctoral degree from the University of Allahabad and Law and Management degrees. She joined the Reserve Bank of India as a direct recruit in 1981 and has been with the Reserve Bank since. She has held several important professional responsibilities as Chief General Manager in charge of Urban Banks and Currency Management and administrative responsibilities at RBI Hyderabad. She was the Banking Ombudsman for the State of Andhra Pradesh and Principal, Bankers Training College and Director on the Board of Andhra Bank. Her previous professional responsibility was Chief General Manager in Charge of Rural Planning and Credit Department. She is a prolific writer and has four significant books to her credit. She renders faculty support to the College of Agricultural Banking and has lectured extensively at the IAS Academy at Mussoorie, at the Administrative Staff College, Hyderabad and at several Indian and foreign Universities. She has represented the RBI in several important International Conferences and is the India representative on the Financial Inclusion Expert Group of the G-20. Her policy interests lie in the area of welfare and development economics, law and currency management.
Gulshan Rai
Former Chairman, SEBI
Gulshan Rai is Former National Cyber Security Coordinator at the Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India.
Dr. Rai has over 30 years of experience in Information Technology, including e-governance, cyber security and cyber laws. He led a team to set up the National Watch and Alert System in India. Dr. Rai has over the years helped in the drafting of national policies on cyber laws and cyber security.
As the Executive Director at ERNET India, Dr. Rai was instrumental in setting up the first large scale education and research network in close collaboration with leading educational and research institutions. During his tenure, the project — National Knowledge Network — was designed and evolved.
Dr. Rai has represented India in official forums, bilateral discussions and negotiations in the areas of cyber security and internet governance.
Experts Panel
Madan Mohan
Madan Mohan is a post graduate from IARI and had his management education from IIM Ahmedabad and Asian Institute of Management, Manila. As development management professional, he did pioneer work in developing SHGs in the state of J&K, skilling and financing of rural enterprises in Punjab. He has been to Harvard for advance course in appraisal of agri projects. Formerly, CGM, NABARD and CEO of NABARD Consulting, he consults with ministry of Agriculture and is a faculty with National Institute of Banking studies and Corporate Management (NIBSCOM).
Updesh Kumar Sharma
Updesh Kumar Sharma is a former Adviser (Infrastructure and S&T) Planning Commission and NITI Aayog. He is an Electrical Engineer, MBA and MA (Public Policy & Sustainable Development). He has played a key role in setting up Atal Innovation Mission at NITI Aayog for radically transforming innovations and entrepreneurship eco-system in the country. He has also worked with NHPC and BHEL in various capacities and been on the Board of Central PSUs. He has participated in various academic and training programmes at leading Universities of US, Australia, South Korea.
Bhushan Mohan
Bhushan Mohan is an industry veteran and worked as Principal Consultant, NeGD, MeitY, Govt of India. He was responsible for formulation of policies, guidelines and strategy for implementation of NeGP with a vision to bring public services within reach of every citizen. He has contributed extensively in areas of policy formulation, strategic planning, procurement and technology assessment. He is an independent Consultant and a Mentor and also works as Advisor to PWC.
Gopo Bihari Panda
Gopo Bihari Panda is the Managing Director of Hewlett-Packard India. She has countrywide responsibility for revenues and profitability and ensuring the greatest leverage from HP’s Services, Personal Systems and Imaging & Printing businesses. With a portfolio that extends to offshore activities, BPO, Software Engineering, Research and IT Services, Neelam is focused on shaping the company’s overall business agenda and leading its strategy and corporate development efforts to make HP the most admired company in India. Previously, Neelam was the Managing Director of Microsoft India, a position she held from 2005 to 2008. During her tenure, she sharpened Microsoft’s strategic focus and improved its operating efficiency and execution, as well as its financial performance and customer focus.
Prior to this assignment, Neelam held a varietGulshan Raiy of successful leadership positions in leading Indian IT companies, including HCL and IBM. Neelam holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, New Delhi and a Masters in Business Administration from the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University.
Subodh Shukla
Mr Subodh Shukla, Senior Fellow, SKOCH Development Foundation, is a Mechanical Engineer from IIT-Kanpur, is Former Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre. He is one of the rare professionals who worked on Mainframe Computers for years. After a brief stint abroad, he joined NIC in 1989. The I&B Ministry and its affiliates. He subsequently handled and implemented Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance (AEBA).
Ram Kishore Gupta
Ram Kishore Gupta was Adviser (Communications and IT), Planning Commission where he played a key role in formulation of Science and Technology Policy. He was associated with the formulation of National Telecom Policy, 2012, National Policy on Electronics, 2012 and Spectrum Auction, besides the establishment of the Office of Adviser to PM on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. He has also participated in various training programmes, e.g., John F Kennedy School of Government; Asian Productivity Organisation, Tokyo.Ram Kishore Gupta was Adviser (Communications and IT), Planning Commission where he played a key role in formulation of Science and Technology Policy. He was associated with the formulation of National Telecom Policy, 2012, National Policy on Electronics, 2012 and Spectrum Auction, besides the establishment of the Office of Adviser to PM on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations. He has also participated in various training programmes, e.g., John F Kennedy School of Government; Asian Productivity Organisation, Tokyo.
Nirmal Bansal
Nirmal Bansal is a Certified Corporate Director-IOD/ MCA/IICA, M.IOD, Post graduate in commerce, CA IIB, PGDPR and Senior Fellow, SKOCH Development Foundation for over a decade. He is a Banking and Financial services professional with Public Affairs expertise. He was EVP & Govt Business Head with HDFC Bank; Director, Business & Government Affairs, FINO - responsible for establishing BC network for various banks across the country. He was instrumental in devising various digital initiatives like MCA21; payment of Scholarships at MHRD and so on.
Surinder Singh Sur
Surinder Singh Sur, Former Adviser, NITI Aayog is an Electrical Engineer by profession. He is a Master of Electrical Engineering from Delhi Technological University, MBA from University of Hull, UK and Master in Public Policy from TERI University. He was India’s representative at Development Policies programme in International Development Centre, Tokyo, Japan. He put together the blueprint for Integrated Energy Policy, 2008; represented India at G20 in China, Germany and Argentina. Now, he is an emeritus faculty in Pusa and Aryabhatt Institute of Technolgy, Delhi.