Our speakers
Padmaja Ruparel, Co-Founder, Indian Angel Network
Padmaja Ruparel is the Founding Partner of the IAN Fund, a uniquely differentiated Rs. 450 crores (~$70mn) Fund which along with IAN, is set to create the largest horizontal platform in India for investing in seed and early stage ventures. She is also the Co-Founder & President of IAN, India's first & one of the world’s largest group of business angels, comprising the who's who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs from India and overseas.
Padmaja is a Co-Chair of Global Business Angel Network. She also operationalised TiE Delhi, which has been ranked as the number one chapter globally for the last 4 consecutive years. She played a key role as Executive Director in building the Indian Venture Capital Association, India's oldest and largest association of VC and PE firms. In addition, she helped the creation of Lankan Angel Network in Sri Lanka. She contributed actively in the Planning Commission’s Committee on “Angel & Early Stage Investing in India” which resulted in a seminal report: “Creating a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Eco system in India”. She is on the Committee of Telecom Centre of Excellence, Selection Committee of MSME and is actively engaged with the various committees of Ministry of Finance, SEBI, etc.
Padmaja is nationally recognised as a key player in the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem and has helped co-found many of the relevant institutions, besides being an active Angel investor herself. Her operating experience spans large corporates, M&A, and start-ups/early stage companies. She has been awarded as one of the 'Top 50 Most Powerful Women in Business' by Fortune India and has been listed in Forbes India’s W-Power Trailblazers and ‘30 Most Powerful Women in India’ by Business Today.
Padmanabh (Paddy) Sinha, Managing Partner, Private Equity, Tata Capital
Padmanabh (Paddy) Sinha is the Managing Partner of the advisory team for the flagship private equity fund of the Tata group – Tata Opportunities Fund. Prior to joining Tata Capital as a founding partner of the Tata Opportunities Fund, Sinha was the Managing Director for India at Temasek Holdings. Sinha was part of Temasek’s founding India team in 2004 and during his tenure at Temasek also led global special projects for Temasek. He has worked with ICICI Venture previously as well as an entrepreneur where he was the President of an e-learning company funded by ChrysCapital, Star TV and International Finance Corporation, which he eventually sold to a listed Indian corporation. Sinha has served on several corporate boards, including select Tata companies. He is the current Vice Chairman of the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA)
The Tata Opportunities Fund is a USD 600 million third party private equity fund which invests in select Tata group entities as well as other independent Indian businesses. The Fund’s investees benefit both from its capital as well as from access to the Tata group’s global reach and wide ranging long established industry presence. The fund is sector and stage agnostic and invests in both minority and control deals.
Padmanabh Sinha, Executive Director & CIO-Private Equity, National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF)
Padmanabh (Paddy) is a veteran of the Indian investing ecosystem with over 28 years of work experience, primarily in private equity investments, and also as an early tech entrepreneur in India. His investment experience spans several sectors, including industrial, technology, consumer, business services, infrastructure and financial services. He joined the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) in 2021 as an Executive Director and CIO-Private Equity and has been a member of all the Investment Committees for direct investing for NIIF.
Before joining NIIF, he was with Tata Group’s flagship private equity fund, the Tata Opportunities Fund, as its Managing Partner and co-founder. He was instrumental in raising the then-largest India-focused private equity fund in 2013 with investments from marquee global investors. Padmanabh was the Managing Director – India for Temasek where he cofounded and co-led the India office during its successful build-out phase in India. In his stint with Temasek from 2004 onwards Paddy consummated several investments in India and also successfully exited many of these. He additionally led large international projects, including Temasek’s global entry into the insurance sector.
Padmanabh was an early Edtech entrepreneur (eGurucool) in India and before that started his professional career journey with a JP Morgan-ICICI investment banking joint venture. Paddy was also the elected Chairman of the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA) between 2018 and 2020.
Padmanabh holds a Bachelor in Engineering degree in Computer Science from BITS, Pilani, and is an MBA from IIM, Calcutta. He completed an Executive Development Course in Private Equity from Harvard Business School in 2003.
Padmanabh Sinha, Managing Partner, Tata Opportunities Fund
Padmanabh (Paddy) Sinha is the Managing Partner of the advisory team for the flagship private equity fund of the Tata group – Tata Opportunities Fund. Prior to joining Tata Capital as a founding partner of the Tata Opportunities Fund, Sinha was the Managing Director for India at Temasek Holdings. Sinha was part of Temasek’s founding India team in 2004 and during his tenure at Temasek also led global special projects for Temasek. He has worked with ICICI Venture previously as well as an entrepreneur where he was the President of an e-learning company funded by ChrysCapital, Star TV and International Finance Corporation, which he eventually sold to a listed Indian corporation. Sinha has served on several corporate boards, including select Tata companies. He is the current Vice Chairman of the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA)
The Tata Opportunities Fund is a USD 600 million third party private equity fund which invests in select Tata group entities as well as other independent Indian businesses. The Fund’s investees benefit both from its capital as well as from access to the Tata group’s global reach and wide ranging long established industry presence. The fund is sector and stage agnostic and invests in both minority and control deals.
Padmanabhan Raja Jaishankar, Managing Director, IIFCL
With his rich experience of around 33 years in Development Banking and Financial Domains, Mr. Jaishankar expertizes in Structured Project Finance, New Financial Product Development, Risk Management and other functions. He structured the first ever Mortgage Securitisation transaction in India along with a number of other structured financial solutions such as Credit Enhancement, Takeout Finance and Reverse Mortgages.
He has been actively engaged in assisting the Government in its various Committees on Sectoral Policies, which includes leading the initiative for the First Dedicated Credit Enhancement Company for the infrastructure sector. He is also a leading member of the project finance group of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC) for financing of infrastructure investment under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) announced by the Government of India.
Before his current position as Managing Director, IIFCL, Mr. Jaishankar has graced various key positions such as Executive Director of National Housing Bank, Director&CEO of IIFCL Projects Ltd. (IPL), Chairman (Board of Trustees) of IIFCL Asset Management Company Limited (IAMCL) and was Chief General Manager, IIFCL.
Mr. Jaishankar holds a Master's degree in Technology from IIT, Delhi and is an MBA (Finance) from FMS, Delhi University.
Padmasingh Isaac, Founder & Chairman, Aachi Masala Foods (P) Ltd
Mr. A.D. Padmasingh Isaac, Chairman and Managing Director of AACHI Group of Companies was born in Dec 1955 in a middle class family at Nazareth, Tirunelveli District. He did his graduation in Business Administration from Aditanar College, Tiruchendur and joined for Godrej Soaps as Sales Officer. In view of his excellent and meritorious performance, within two years he was promoted as Area Sales Manager in charge of Tamil Nadu. His 10 years of experience in Godrej Soaps that kindled his entrepreneurial spirit in Mr. Isaac! In 1998, he started with a product of Liquid Blue and thereafter, introduced AACHI MASALA products in rural and semi urban areas of Tamil Nadu. He is well knowledged in the abundant market potential of all standards of work life before several MNCs stepped in aggressive rural marketing.
Pallabi Ghosal, Partner, Trilegal
Pallabi Ghosal is part of the Corporate practice group at Trilegal and a very well-regarded partner specialising in investment funds and asset management practice. She also regularly advises on financial regulatory matters. She also assists funds in their portfolio investments, joint ventures, and other corporate restructurings.
Pallabi has drafted many submissions (as a part of requests from various industry bodies) for changes in laws framed by Indian regulators including SEBI, RBI, IRDA and the Government of India.
Pallav Mohapatra, MD & CEO, Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Limited
Pallav Nadhani, Co-founder & CEO, FusionCharts
Pallav is the co-founder and CEO of FusionCharts. He started FusionCharts at the age of 17 without any external funding. Today, FusionCharts has over 21,000 customers and 450,000 developers. His entrepreneurial journey has been covered by various magazines like Forbes, Entrepreneur, Business Today, Economic Times and numerous blogs & websites.
Pallav holds an MS in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh, UK. He has co-authored a book on combining the power of Flash and .NET called 'Flash.NET' in 2002 and has written several technical articles for international journals ever since.
Pallav also holds the position of Chief Gardener at Seeders, an angel fund which he co-founded for seed funding technology companies in India. In his free time, he loves traveling, cricket and poker.
Pallavi Joshi Bakhru, Partner and Leader - Private Client Services, Grant Thornton Bharat (Moderator)
- simplified the global structure of some large groups
- institutionalized a royalty payment system
- resolved some high-pitched tax litigation and
- done Advocacy
- business restructuring / evaluate reducing ETR for promoters
- succession planning
- she has helped clients re-organize their business and take their geographic footprint overseas.
- help draft a Family Constitution
- acquire second residences overseas
- set up and manage Family Offices
Pallavi drives the tax and regulatory services group of the firm, which specializes in cross border transactions, investment and business structuring, compliance, transaction advisory services, transfer pricing and indirect taxes.
Pallavi has over 21 years of post-qualification experience in the field of taxation. Her area of expertise includes inbound and outbound structuring advisory (including regulatory compliance) for both Indian and overseas investors. She has also advised clients on re - structuring and advisory on mergers and slump sale.
Pallavi is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and an active member of International Fiscal Association - India Branch.
Pallavi has over 30 years of experience spanning solutions and clients in different sectors. She was the Head of Tax at a large $ 15 Billion natural resources group for five years and worked closely with the Promoters and assisted with growth strategies.
Currently, Pallavi is the Head of the Private Client Service offering at Grant Thornton Bharat and also heads the UK Corridor, In 2015, Pallavi was recognized as one of the Top 10 Women in Tax in India by the International Tax Review.
Her specialties include corporate tax, litigation, including being a part of a team that ran an international arbitration under Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), tax structuring and regulatory matters pertaining to FEMA.
Over the years, she has
Pallavi works closely with Promoters on critical aspects of business, including decisions related to
Her clients range from large listed to privately held companies and high-net worth-individuals.
Sector Experience
Natural resources, consumer and retail, aviation, manufacturing, and education
Professional qualifications and memberships
Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
Member, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs
Pallavi sits on the Boards of two listed and 3 unlisted Companies as an Independent / Non-executive Director