Management and Board

Kushant Uppal, PhD
Founder, MD and CEO

Kushant has spent over 15 years developing industry leading technology products and businesses in the hotbed of innovation - Silicon Valley, California. He has incubated and managed multiple businesses with sales up to Rs1000 mio and has hands on experience in manufacturing, R&D and marketing. In 2006, Kushant decided that energy efficient products are the key to rural productivity with a tremendous market opportunity for a new venture. The passion to create an enterprise has driven him to Hyderabad, India- future hotbed of innovation- to assemble a team and drive technology and business with initial focus on rural India. Kushant has an MS and PhD in materials science from University of Southern California and a B-tech from IIT Madras.
 
 

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Anuradha Ramachandran
Partner, Venture East Tenet
Anuradha joined Venture East in 2007 after a decade long operating and investment banking experience with incubation exposure gained from the TeNeT group since 2005. Anuradha was Principal Consultant – Strategy & Business Development, to the TeNeT group companies, under which she has been instrumental in developing and monitoring business models, strategies and performance for companies. Prior to this she was with the Corporate Finance and Strategic Research Group at Lazard India in Mumbai where she worked on M&A deals and strategies across a range of sectors including life sciences, media, technology and consumer goods. She has advised prestigious clients including Pfizer, Colgate-Palmolive, A V Birla group, Microsoft, Hindustan Lever Ltd, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Nicholas Piramal Ltd, United Television and Sony Entertainment Private Ltd. Before Lazard, she worked with UTV Interactive Ltd., the internet division of UTV, a leading media content player in India and with Cadila Pharmaceuticals, a large pharmaceutical company in India in their Corporate Finance & Strategy divisions. She has a BSc (Physics) and MBA degrees from Madurai Kamaraj University.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is Professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India and was department Chair till recently. He received his B.Tech degree from IIT, Kanpur, MS and Ph.D degrees from the University of Maine. From 1979 to He was with Washington State University as Assistant Professor from 1979 to 1981 and has been with IIT, Madras since 1981.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. TeNeT group has incubated a number of technology companies to develop world class products for Rural Markets.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala is a recipient of the Padma Shri in 2002, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award in 1998, Dr.Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in 1997, Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress in the year 2000, H. K. Firodia for "Excellence in Science & Technology" in 2002, Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Foundation Award for Science & Technology in 2004, Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Lecture Award by INSA in 2006 and IBM Innovation and Leadership Forum Award by IBM in 2006. He is a Fellow of Wireless World Research Forum, Indian National Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Jhunjhunwala is a Director on the Board of SBI. He is also a Board member of several companies in India, including TTML, BEL, Polaris, 3i Infotech, Sasken, Tejas, NRDC, and IDRBT. He is a member of Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Committee
 
 
* Invited
Mr.Rajesh Jain
Managing Director, Emergic Venture Capital Private Limited
Rajesh is one of India's best known IT icons and is now Managing Director, Netcore Solutions. He is best known for his launch of the Indian web portal India World in 1995. From its pioneering start, India World grew to be one of the largest collections of India-centric websites, comprising Samachar, Khel, Khoj and Bawarchi. India World was acquired by Satyam Infoway (Sify) in November 1999 for $115 million in one of Asia's largest Internet deals. Rajesh is passionate about building a new India enabled by Internet and Information technology. His blog www.emergic.org is one of the best known sources on the advances in the computing world.
 

Kushant Uppal, see above

Rajesh Jain
Managing Director, Emergic Venture Capital Private Limited
Rajesh is one of India 's best known IT icons and is now Managing Director, Netcore Solutions. He is best known for his launch of the Indian web portal India World in 1995. From its pioneering start, India World grew to be one of the largest collections of India-centric websites, comprising Samachar, Khel, Khoj and Bawarchi. India World was acquired by Satyam Infoway (Sify) in November 1999 for $115 million in one of Asia 's largest Internet deals. Rajesh is passionate about building a new India enabled by Internet and Information technology. His blog www.emergic.org is one of the best known sources on the advances in the computing world.

 
 
* Ranjit S. Uppal
Ex-Founder and Managing Director, Grace Enterprises
Mr. Ranjit founded Grace Enterprises, a consumer product distribution company in 1982 and successfully grew it in multiple states in India till his retirement in 2005. Prior to Grace he held various management roles at Khaitan and Thappar industries. He has over 30 years of administrative, finance, sales and management experience while setting up and managing distribution channels across India. Currently, he has volunteered to setup administrative and accounting functions within Intelizon.
 
 
Board of Advisors
Mr. Hardeep Singh
Senior President, Polar Industries
Mr. Hardeep Singh is currently working as senior president at Polar Industries- a company engaged in marketing and manufacturing of renowned polar fans. He joined Polar in 1984 as the national marketing head and has been instrumental in increasing their market share from 4% to 15%. Mr. Singh is a guest faculty speaker at various reputed management institutes