The visionaries guiding RBIH
Board of Directors
Shri. Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan
Shri. Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is one of the co-founders of Infosys and was the CEO of Infosys. Presently, he serves on the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He is also the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an early stage startup accelerator and venture fund, started by S.D. Shibulal, Srinath Batni, Tarun Khanna, Ganapathy Venugopal and Kris in 2015. He actively shapes the technology and startup ecosystem through myriad roles.
Shri. Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore, and is also on the Board of Trustees of the Chennai Mathematical Institute. He serves on the Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology (OIST) and is the Chairman of the Vision Group on Information Technology of the Karnataka Government and the Chairman of CII Startup Council.
Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor’s inaugural ranking of Asia’s top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was also selected to Thinkers 50, an elite list of global business thinkers, in 2009. He was elected president of India’s apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14, and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014. In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Shri. Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honor.
He holds a Master’s degree in physics and computer science from IIT, Madras. Kris is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) and an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) of India.
Shri. P. Vasudevan
Shri. P. Vasudevan is the Executive Director in Reserve Bank of India, responsible for handling activities relating to FinTechs, Currency Management and Corporate Strategy.
He is a career central banker with over 30 years of experience in matters relating to payment and settlement systems, banking and non-banking supervision, including a stint as Member of Faculty in Bankers’ Training College. He has headed and successfully implemented many large payment system projects in the country.
He has represented Reserve Bank on various international fora including the Committee for Payments & Market Infrastructures (CPMI), the SAARC Payments Council (SPC), the SEACEN Payments Group and the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) Regulatory Oversight Committee.
He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce and is a Fellow of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India. He has a Master’s Degree in Finance and Certifications in Information Systems Audit (CISA), Information Security Management (CISM) and FinTech (National University of Singapore). He is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers (CAIIB) and an alumnus of the Wharton School.
Shri. Shailendra Trivedi
Shri. Shailendra Trivedi, a career Central Banker, is presently a Chief General Manager-in-charge in the Reserve Bank’s Department of Information Technology. In addition to an MBA in IT with specialisation in Database Systems, he holds a Master’s Degree in Industrial Psychology. Just prior to his current assignment, he was in charge of RBI’s Data Centres.
In his over three decades of working with RBI, he has handled a variety of IT driven responsibilities in areas of Government Accounts, Public Debt Management, Liquidity Management, Project Management, Clearing House operations etc.
In addition, he has handled responsibilities relating to Construction Management, Project Delivery, Human Resource Management, Recruitment and Financial Supervision. He was also associated with setting up of the RBI’s Data Centres and has been a part of the Bank’s initiatives like SFMS, INFINET etc. In the recent past, he led the team that managed the RBI’s BCP arrangements and during the same period launched RTGS 24 X 7.
Shailendra has travelled extensively in India and abroad, interacting with Governments, various Central Banks and other agencies on diverse subjects and has received trainings at various institutions in areas ranging from Payment and Settlement Systems to Public Procurement and Performance Management Systems and Leadership.
Reading is his main hobby and in IT sphere he has a keen interest in areas of Data Centre Technologies, Database Systems, Computer Networks, Programming Languages and Blockchain Technologies. He also serves as a Director on the Boards of Indian Financial Technology and Allied Services (IFTAS) and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is an Institute Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras since 1981. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), USA, and a fellow of IEEE and World Wireless Research Forum (WWRF). He is also a fellow of the four S& T academies in India, namely, INSA, NAS, IAS, INAE. He is currently the Chairman of Technology Advisory Group of Securities Exchange Board of India and Chairperson of the Board of Governors of educational institutes like IIIT Kottayam and College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Kerala. Prof. Jhujhunwala recently completed a year and a half of his services as Principal Advisor to Minister of Power, MNRE and Railways, Government of India, New Delhi.
Prof. Jhunjhunwala is considered a pioneer in nurturing Industry-Academia interaction in India towards R&D, Innovation, and Product Development.
He conceived and built India’s first university-affiliated business park (IIT Madras Research Park) to promote Industry-Academia R&D collaboration. It has taken innovation to a new height as about 100 established industries and over 150 incubated startups work with IITM’s faculty and students within the innovation system of IITMRP. He has been developing products for the masses; affordable yet technically advanced products in India, like Wireless in Local Loop, Remote health monitoring system, ATM, Solar-DC to homes, Affordable electric vehicles, etc.
Prof. Jhujhunwala was conferred the highest civilian honor, Padmashri in India. He has received a number of awards in India including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award, Vikram Sarabhai Research Award, H. K. Firodia Award, Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress, UGC Hari Om Ashram Award, IETE, Ram Lala Wadhwa Gold Medal, JC Bose fellowship, Dronacharya Award and Lifetime Achievement Award by TIE, Chennai among others. He has also received Silicon India Leadership Award in the USA. He has also been conferred an honorary doctorate by the University of Maine, USA and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. He was an Assistant Professor at Washington State University, USA.
Prof. Jhunjhunwala has been on the boards of a number of public and private companies and has driven comprehensive changes, especially in the area of technology, in these companies. He was a Director on the board of State Bank of India, Bharat Electronics Limited, HTL, NRDC, IDRBT, BIRAC, VSNL, and BSNL as well as in Tata Communications, Mahindra Electric, Sasken, Tejas Networks, TTML, Intellect, and Exicom.
He has a B.Tech degree from IIT Kanpur, MS, and a Ph.D. from the University of Maine, USA.
Ms. Debjani Ghosh
Ms. Debjani Ghosh is the President of NASSCOM since April 2018 and Distinguished Fellow at NITI Aayog. A veteran of the technology industry, she is the first women at the helm of the organization’s three-decade history. Under her leadership, nasscom has actively promoted the need to accelerate the responsible development and adoption of AI across various sectors for inclusive growth and development. In addition to amplifying India’s voice on AI, Debjani has been instrumental in developing ‘Think Digital, Think India’ strategy aimed at establishing India as a hub for digital talent and innovation. In 2020, under her leadership nasscom coined the term “Techade” to define a decade where technology will transform from being merely an enabler of business to becoming the foundation of how we live, work, and play.
Debjani Ghosh is a vocal advocate for gender diversity in the technology sector. In January 2018, Debjani was felicitated by the President of India under the auspices of the ‘First Ladies’ program, which honors exceptional women pioneers in their respective fields. In 2020, she has been honored by Vogue as the Tech Leader of the year 2020. Recognizing her contribution in the field of technology, she was also facilitated in ‘40 over 40 – World’s Most Inspiring Women’ list by Fe:maleOneZero (F10) Magazine in 2022.
With multiple feathers in her cap, before joining nasscom, she was the first woman to lead Intel India and the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), she was also a member of the executive council at nasscom. She believes that learning never stops, and a trainable mindset is the biggest strength one can have.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Osmania University in Hyderabad, India, and an MBA degree in marketing from S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai, India.
Shri. Gopal Srinivasan
Shri. Gopal Srinivasan is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of TCF and a third-generation member of the TVS Family. A passionate entrepreneur and an avid angel investor, he is actively involved in the promotion of Entrepreneurship. He is the Founding member of “The Chennai Angels”, one of the premier angels investing networks in India. Gopal is a non-official member on the National Start-up Advisory Council (NSAC), formed by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPITT) to advise the Government of India on measures needed to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and start-ups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.
He is also actively involved in knowledge initiatives through his involvement in academic institutions and is a member of the University of Michigan’s India Advisory Board.
Gopal is also the Chairman of Chennai International Centre, a think-tank that brings together a cornucopia of thought leaders from the spheres of business, the economy, policymaking, science, art, culture, and entrepreneurship. Gopal has been recently appointed as the Honorary Consul for the Kingdom of Netherlands in Tamil Nadu.
Over an entrepreneurial career spanning 30 years, he has incubated 8 companies operating in diverse sectors including technology, financial services & auto components. Gopal takes a keen interest in public policy matters of the VC/PE Industry, being actively involved with the regulators for the financial markets by dint of his engagements with SEBI, the Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) & Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); He was also the Member of the Venture Capital Investment Committee for SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for Start-ups (FFS) program in ’18-’19.
Shri. Gopal Srinivasan is an MBA from the Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
Shri. A. P. Hota
Shri. A.P. Hota retired as Chief General Manager from the Reserve Bank of India. He was the architect of NPCI and served as its Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) between 2010- 2017. Presently, he is advising SWIFT India Domestic Services Pvt Ltd as a consultant to help design the National Trade Platform for India since September 2017. He is the Part Time Chairman & Independent Director of Federal Bank.
He has been the recipient of the Aadhar Excellence Award, Skoch Business Leadership Award, M R Pai Memorial Award, FFIFS Life Time Achievement Award in addition to the Forbes Leadership Best Public Sector CEO Award for 2017 and Pathbreaker Award 2016 from DataQuest.
A significant part of his career in the Reserve Bank of India from 1982 to 2009 has been in the area of design and implementation of Payment systems in India. He has played a key role in the implementation of MICR technology in Cheque Clearing, Electronic Funds Transfer, Automated Clearing House, Cheque Truncation systems, and RTGS system in India. Under his leadership, NPCI has launched India’s own card scheme ‘RuPay’ in the record three years’ time which is now accepted on all three channels, viz. ATM, PoS, and e-Commerce with an issuance figure of 400 Million plus RuPay cards.
Prof. H. Krishnamurthy
Prof. H. Krishnamurthy serves as Chairman/Member of several technology initiatives of RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, and PFRDA. He is on the Boards of the Insurance Information Bureau (IIB) and Institute of Insurance and Risk Management (IIRM).
He was with the Indian Institute of Science for more than three decades and retired as a Chief Research Scientist in 2017. His focus areas are Networks and Security in particular and Banking Technologies in general. He served on the Boards of the Indian Institute of Banking and Finance (IIBF), IDRBT, and Canara Bank in the past.
Shri. Mrutyunjay Mahapatra
Shri. Rajesh Bansal
A highly regarded thought leader in the areas of digital financial services and digital infrastructure, Mr. Bansal has nearly three decades of global experience in designing digital IDs, electronic payment products, and cash transfers, to enable inclusive development in multiple Asian and African markets. Prior to joining RBIH, he was a senior adviser at Carnegie India, where he led the center’s Technology and Society program.
Mr Bansal has previously served at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in various capacities, including in areas of technology, payment systems, and financial inclusion. He is one of the key architects of India’s journey from cash to cash-lite by actively promoting policies, strengthening institutions, governance frameworks, and designing new products and solutions for scale and adoption.
Mr Bansal was a member of the founding team of Aadhaar and specifically led the design of India’s Direct Benefits Transfer system which is benefiting hundreds of millions of low-income clients. He also played a key role in creating India Stack, digital ID-based infrastructure for a presence less and cashless service delivery platform in India. He has been a member of a number of committees of the Government of India and the RBI.
Mr Bansal is a frequent speaker, moderator, and panellist on financial innovation and inclusion in academic circles, conferences and fintech festivals nationally and internationally. He has authored a number of articles and opinion pieces in leading publications ranging from The Economic Times to The Print. A recipient of the prestigious Golden Jubilee scholarship scheme of the RBI, Mr Bansal holds a Master’s degree from Duke University in International Development Policy, USA.