ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

BA: National Law School, Bangalore

MBA/PGDM: Indian School of Business (ISB)

PROFILE SUMMARY

Strategic and regulatory advisor with 20+ years of experience across Big Tech, government, real estate and international policy environments. Brings deep expertise in AI governance, data protection, digital regulation, public policy and regulatory advocacy, with experience navigating complex cross-border and stakeholder environments. Has advised global organisations and government-affiliated institutions on emerging technology, regulatory risk, compliance and policy strategy, including hands-on exposure to responsible AI and data governance.

CONSULTING EXPERIENCE

9 years

EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS

Gestalt Strategy Consulting — Independent Consultant
2017 – present · New Delhi
Public policy, government affairs, and regulatory-advocacy practice. Engagements have ranged from cross-border digital cooperation to telecom crisis evaluation to civic data governance — the consistent thread being that he is brought in when the conventional advisor (a law firm, a strategy consultancy, a PR agency) is not quite the right shape or size for the problem. Selected mandates:
– European Commission — Focal Point & Senior Expert for India, Project on International Digital Cooperation (data protection and cross-border data flows) Assessed through research and stakeholder engagement, personal-data-protection legislation policies in India over a six-year period and tested convergence with GDPR and EU AI Act.
– Founded and grew the Federation of European Business in India (FEBI) from scratch for the EU Delegation — from zero to 75 paying member companies in under eight months.
– Developed the Data Trust & Assurance Framework de novo for administrators of the India Urban Data Exchange under the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission.
– Government-engagement framework for a leading international cross-border online marketplace — solving for seller-side blockers with an emphasis on policy-implementation reform.
– Crisis evaluation for an APAC telecom company in Nepal facing a hostile tax and regulatory environment driven by special-interest groups, following an on-the-ground sentiment audit in Kathmandu.
– Digital-health engagement strategy for a major social media company for a large South Asia market, part of a South and Southeast Asia project to assess public-health priorities and identify digitally capable external partners.
– Other clients include the Centre for WTO Studies (research arm of India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Ergo, the Asia Internet Coalition, and Hawthorn Advisors.
– Quoted on the pre-ban TikTok wave in India by Reuters, the Hindustan Times, and the South China Morning Post.

Microsoft, India Region — Public Policy Attorney, Corporate, External & Legal Affairs (CELA)
2011 – 2017 · New Delhi
Six years inside a Big Tech in-house function, at the point in the industry’s history when platform and intermediary rules, competition law, and trust in the public cloud were all being defined in real time.
– Managed the legal, regulatory, safety, and reputation considerations — alongside product managers — for “Ruuh,” Microsoft India’s AI-enabled consumer chatbot; an early, hands-on encounter with the content-safety, data-protection, and responsible-deployment questions now at the centre of frontier-AI governance.
– Led the high-profile civil and criminal litigation defence in the 2012 intermediary-content cases against Microsoft.
– Worked with safety teams at Microsoft HQ to lead engagement in the Supreme Court of India non-consensual intimate imagery matter, which involved then-state-of-the-art image-matching technology (PhotoDNA).
– Ran the India response to the Edward Snowden / PRISM disclosures concerning Microsoft — stakeholder briefings, regulator engagement, and trust positioning with government and security regulators.
– Managed antitrust litigation and merger clearances — instrumental in Microsoft’s win before the Competition Appellate Tribunal in a copyright-related case, and worked with corporate and APAC antitrust teams on the Competition Commission of India’s approval of Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business.
– Represented Microsoft for four years in the iComp lobby group, contributing to regulatory outcomes relevant to both India and global strategy.
– Shaped the regulatory-differentiation strategy for Microsoft’s public cloud in India — using contractual commitments and audit provisions to underwrite higher security, reliability, and compliance standards for the most demanding regulated customers in finance, insurance, and government.
– Executed long-horizon (five-to-ten-year) advocacy positions on issues including standard-essential patents and Computer-Related Inventions (CRIs).
– Introduced contracting innovations that brought risk-averse public institutions onto Microsoft’s cloud, including an innovative hosting arrangement for the student test data of a government education board.
– Authored political and economic briefs for Microsoft’s CEO and General Counsel ahead of their India visits.

DLF Ltd. — Manager, Strategy (CEO’s Office); Lead Member, Compliance Task Force
2008 – 2011 · Gurugram
Inside India’s largest real-estate development group — testing his skills within a domestic, family-run business culture under regulatory pressure, in contrast to multilateral and Big Tech environments.
– Worked with McKinsey & Company to design and implement the group’s first comprehensive compliance-management system across the entire conglomerate following its public listing.
– Led the response, with outside counsel, to the Competition Commission of India’s investigation of the company — at a very early stage, when antitrust jurisprudence in India was just beginning.
– Maintained business oversight (MIS) of budgets, operations, and regulatory approvals across 50 projects.

UNCTAD — Trade Officer, Project on Strategies and Preparedness for Trade and Globalization in India
2003 – 2007 · New Delhi
The formative experience, at a specialised agency of the United Nations — leading the stakeholder consultations, government engagement, and research that fed into India’s positions in trade negotiations.
– Led multi-stakeholder consensus building — across government, industry, farmer groups, research institutions, and NGOs — to develop India’s trade-policy positions.
– Led consultations and SWOT analysis ahead of India’s FTA negotiations with Thailand and ASEAN; presented scenario findings on the India–Thailand FTA to the Commerce Secretary of India.
– Conducted consultations, modelling, and research to support India’s negotiations with SAARC, Brazil, and South Africa, and in the WTO Agriculture and industrial-goods tracks.
– Provided research and review inputs into the Report on Product Patents: Implications for the Pharmaceutical Industry and Consumers (2005), prepared for the DIPP.
– Co-authored Services Liberalization: Challenges and Opportunities for India and Impact of Trade Liberalization on Indian Agriculture (UNCTAD / Macmillan, 2006); Trade Liberalization and Poverty in India (Macmillan, 2005); and Trade and Gender: A South Asian Regional Perspective (UNCTAD–UNIFEM, 2004).

CREDENTIALS
– Certified AI Governance Professional (AIGP), issued by the IAPP — certified through April 2028.
https://www.credential.net/9b6f9fb3-1451-4b23-b9f5-c7049db576e1#acc.LBiafcVA?key=366c24a389bf8b0fbc9251fa70509a80150ac529656f7938cc01a73aecd2b6ac
– IIIT-Delhi — Post-Graduate Diploma in Data Science (applied track: Health and Climate Change for Social Impact), 2025–26, in progress (degree expected in December 2026).

I consult for other platforms like GLG, VISASQ/COLEMAN, Guidepoint and Quandrant Strategies.