Our speakers

Rakesh Anand, Ex-Chairman & MD, Mazagon Dock

Rakesh Bhardwaj, Group CIO, & SVP, Ola

In his role, Rakesh works closely with businesses, corporate functions and partners, providing strategic direction to the Group's IT initiatives. These initiatives cover the broad spectrum of Information Systems, Tools, Security, IT infrastructure & assets across the group. In today’s connected and tech-led world of mobility, we are building not just a global talent organization but a world class business processes enabled by IT, which will serve as the backbone to help our businesses deliver higher growth and superior customer experiences.

Rakesh has over two decades of experience with expertise in Global IT software outsourcing, vendor management and Lean Six Sigma. In his last role at Cognizant as SVP & Global CIO, Rakesh played an instrumental role in keeping the company at the forefront of innovations by enabling digital capabilities further allowing the organization to be more flexible and resilient. Under his leadership, Cognizant rapidly developed new analytics tools to respond to COVID-19 at various levels of businesses. He has also worked in leading companies such as Microland Limited, GE Healthcare and GE Aviation & Transportation.

Following his graduation in Computer Science engineering, he did his Business Administration and Management from GE Management Development Institute - Crotonville. He has received an accolade for Digital leadership by Dataquest in 2018.

In his spare time, Rakesh loves to listen to music, exercise and play volleyball. He is happily married to Sangeeta and has a daughter and a son.

Rakesh Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Reliance General Insurance Company Limited

A Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant, Rakesh Jain is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Reliance General Insurance Company Limited. 

Since the past 8years, Rakesh has been instrumental in driving Reliance General Insurance's continuous growth, innovation and expansion and the company today is ranked amongst the leading private general insurance companies in India. In addition, under his leadership, Reliance General Insurance has been recognized at various prestigious forums and received several accolades. 

He strongly believes in cultivating Pure Relationship and Risk based approach towards sustainable growth with Technology playing the role of an operating integrator in the evolving General Insurance industry in India. 

Rakesh has a rich and varied work experience of over 20 years in leadership role in business development, corporate accounting, risk management, etc. Rakesh has been conferred with prestigious accolades like 'Best CFO award in the Financial Services Sector' by the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI). 

Rakesh Jain is an avid reader and is a technology enthusiast. His futuristic outlook and technology bend has helped in propelling the success of Reliance General Insurance

Rakesh Kalra, Founder & CEO, UrbanPro.com

Rakesh has over 15 years of experience in working with different Internet startups in US and India. Prior to founding UrbanPro.com in 2011, Rakesh was the Vice President of Technology at Care.com.

Rakesh holds a BE degree from PEC, Chandigarh, and a Masters degree in Computer Science from Boston University. When not working, Rakesh loves to play badminton and spend time with his 8-year old son and 5-year old daughter.

Rakesh Kapoor, Managing Director, IFCI Factors

Rakesh Kapoor is a Techno-financial professional with over 30 years experience in the Corporate and Financial sector. He has experience for about 20 years in project financing with IFCI, a premier financial Institution in various capacities (presently Chief General Manager) and dealt with various projects across different sectors viz. Steel, Cement, Chemicals, Textile, Sugar/co-generation/ethanol and also oil and infrastructure projects. He has also represented IFCI on various High Level Committees set up by Government of India relating to Sugar/Co-generation/ ethanol and textile sector. With effect from July, 2008 Rakesh has been deputed as Managing Director with IFCI Factors Limited, a subsidiary of IFCI, which is involved in the business of factoring i.e. short-term receivables financing.

Rakesh Malhotra, Founder, SAR Group & Managing Partner, Ncubate Capital Partners

Mr. Rakesh Malhotra studied to be an engineer and after a brief stint in the industry, decided to become an entrepreneur. Starting in 1998, he built Luminous Power Technologies into a leading Indian brand for inverters and Uninterrupted Power Systems.

After divesting a 74% stake in Luminous Power Technologies to French major Schneider Electric for INR 1,400 crore in 2011, Mr. Malhotra has expanded the SAR Group across sectors like Water Purification, Energy Storage, Clean Energy, Telecom and Electricals.

The Group’s investment arm, Ncubate Capital, partners with PE/VC firms to invest capital across multiple entrepreneurial ventures.

Apart from his strong capabilities in technology, manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and brand development, Mr. Malhotra has a very deep understanding of entrepreneurial environment in the country.

Rakesh Malhotra, Founder, SAR Group of Companies & , Managing Partner, SAR Family Office

Range of Experience
Mr. Rakesh Malhotra, Founder, SAR Group, carries an illustrious business background spanning close to 28 years of experience in the field of design, development & marketing of power conditioning & electronics products, telecom equipment & projects, corporate management, human resource development, financial management, venture negotiations and business leadership. Mr. Rakesh Malhotra studied to be an engineer (B.E.) and after a brief stint in the industry (Siemens, Nelco and Mitsui) decided to become an entrepreneur who built Luminous Power Technologies (founded in 1988) from scratch. After entering into a joint venture with Schneider Electric in 2011 through majority stake sale of Luminous Power Technologies, he decided to start all over again. He is incubating a number of new businesses - Water, Energy Storage, Renewable Energy and B2B Ecommerce. He brings strong capabilities in technology, manufacturing, supply chain, distribution and brand development, besides a very deep understanding of entrepreneurial environment in the country. He also has wide experience in building brands and distribution in India, Asia and Africa with five successful businesses. Livpure Pvt. Ltd., (founded in 2012) one of the key ventures in the SAR Group, was established by him with a vision to be a global leader in water purification driven by innovative technology and excellence in manufacturing and services. Livguard Energy Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (founded in 2014) is the second incubation of the Group established with a vision to become a global energy storage venture.  

Additional Background Information
Rakesh is a  B.E. (Electronics & Telecom) graduate from Jadavpur University in West Bengal and a highly successful serial entrepreneur, Since then he has been instrumental in founding several other ventures in areas such as Electric Vehicle and Electric Drive Train, Engineering Design Outsourcing, Telecom Energy Efficiency and Mobile Handsets Manufacturing.

Mr. Malhotra regularly spends time with B school /engineering students across the country to share experiences and to develop interest in entrepreneurship among students. He serves on various industry and technology committees and regularly presents papers at conferences in the power space. He has many patent applications to his credit in the field of power electronics, storage and renewable energy.

Mr. Malhotra is a family person & loves to spend good quality time with his family. He is very fond of travelling, listening music and business reading.

Rakesh Pande, CEO, Kaya Skin Care Ltd

Rakesh Pandey, 50, is the Chief Executive Officer, Kaya Ltd. A Bachelor of Technology (Honours) in Chemical Engineering from ITBHU, he has also attended Management Development Programmes at University of Michigan (USA) and IIM-Ahmedabad amongst other centres of management excellence.

Rakesh has over 25 years of experience in India and Europe in the arenas of Projects, Manufacturing, Business Development, TQM, HR and Business Strategy. This included stints at British Oxygen, UK, Indian Oxygen and Hindustan Levers Ltd.Through his experience and knowledge, Rakesh has contributed hugely to the success of the companies that he has been with.

Rakesh Pandey has been the Chief Executive Officer of Kaya Skin Care ltd since 2002., the first service business foray for the company. As CEO of the Kaya Skin Clinic both for India and International, he aims to bring effective and innovative skin solutions to the Indian consumer, backed by world class technology and service and also extend the Kaya brand to other innovative solutions for the consumer.

Rakesh Pozhath, Partner, Bain & Company (Moderator)

Rakesh Pozhath is a Partner in Bain & Company’s Bengaluru office and is a leading member in the Financial Services practice in India. He has deep expertise in payments, transaction banking, banking tech, blockchain, fintech, and retail/SME lending. He is also an active contributor to the firm's Customer and Enterprise Technology practices. With nearly a decade of experience in management consulting, Rakesh has worked closely with multiple global and Indian payment infrastructure providers and large banks on real-time A2A payments, credit cards, and payment tech. He has led multi-year customer experience and digital transformation programs for top-tier regional and local banks, serving clients across India, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Rakesh has notable experience in advising clients on a variety of issues, including growth strategy, customer experience transformation, digital transformation, new product design and monetization, operating model redesign, and performance improvement. He earned an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, and a B. Tech in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

Rakesh Pozhath, Partner, Bain & Company