The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) has appointed Google India managing director and angel investor Rajan Anandan as its new chairman.
Anandan will be taking over from FreeCharge co-founder and chairman Kunal Shah, who was appointed in January 2016.
Deep Kalra, chairman and group CEO of online travel agent MakeMyTrip, is the new vice-chairman of the association, IAMAI said. Kalra takes over from Vinodh Bhat, co-founder and president of audio and music streaming service Saavn.
Umang Bedi, managing director, India and South Asia at Facebook, has been elected as the new treasurer, while Dr. Subho Ray will continue as the IAMAI president. The tenure of the new council will be for two years.
IAMAI is the country’s leading association of digital companies. It has a membership of nearly 300 Indian and overseas companies, and has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
Anandan, who led Microsoft India as its managing director for two years and was responsible for its software, OEM and services business, had joined Google India as vice-president, sales and operations, in early 2011.
He has an MSc from Stanford University and a BSc from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked as a principal partner with McKinsey & Company in Chicago between 1992 and 2003, before joining Dell Inc as vice-president. He was also the executive assistant to Michael Dell till 2004. In 2006, he was made the vice-president and country general manager of Dell India.
In September 2008, Anandan joined Microsoft Corporation India Pvt. Ltd to head its sales and marketing operations. Under his management, Microsoft India was recognised as the top subsidiary among emerging markets, including China, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, South Africa and India.
Anandan is also a top angel investor and has invested in several internet, mobile and software startups, which include ZipGo, Lucideus, Omnify, POPxo, Sheroes and Unacademy.
The association said the new council will work towards increasing the internet user- base, especially in rural areas, promote local language content and the digital startup ecosystem in the country.
“Currently, much of the content on the internet is in English, and accounts for nearly 56% of the content on the worldwide web, while Indian languages account for less than 0.1%. Enabling Indic content on the internet will lead to a growth of 39% with the current internet user base of India,” IAMAI said in a statement.
