Pravin Gandhi is currently the managing partner of SEED Fund, an early-stage venture capital fund based in Mumbai. Google and Sierra Ventures recently invested an undisclosed amount in Seedfund.

In 1972, Pravin co-founded the Hinditron group of companies (India’s first IT Company) which subsequently merged with Digital Equipment Corporation in 1988 (now HP). Pravin serves on the board of several public and private corporates in India.

He is currently the president of TiE Mumbai and a past president of the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology, (an IT manufacturers association in India). He was also formerly a member of the NASSCOM executive council.

Pravin holds a BS in Industrial Engineering from Cornell University.

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Kanwal Rekhi is the founding father of the IndUS Entrepreneurism (TiE). He is actively focused on helping young entrepreneurs getting started.

In this interview, Kanwal shares why he started TiE and his keen interest in politics among other things.

Kanwal recently gifted $2 million to IIT Bombay, his alma mater, to help set up a new School of Information Technology.

Kanwal is also involved at the Board Level in many companies including 123signup.com, Instantis, Mediaway, Sierra Atlantic and Versata.

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Pradeep Kar founded Microland in 1989. Microland manages the IT infrastructure of companies worldwide.

Pradeep also founded Planetasia, Indya.com which was acquired by News Corporation, and Net Brahma, which was acquired by a U.S. telecom equipment company in 2001.

Pradeep is member of the Technology Advisory Panel to the Government of Karnataka and has received numerous accolades including Indian Express “India Young Business Achiever Award,” the World Economic Forums award for the “Global Leader for Tomorrow.”

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Amit Pande manages Oracle’s user experience practice in Bangalore. This practice defines the user experience of Oracle’s Applications Unlimited and Fusion product lines and provides comprehensive interaction design, usability engineering, and user interface and HCI research for Oracle’s enterprise applications.

Amit talks about how usability is picking up among Indian companies, what it takes to set up a usability design lab and payscales among other things.

Prior to working with Oracle, Amit started PeopleSoft’s user experience operations in India in 2004.

Amit graduated from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and also holds an undergrad degree in engineering from the National Institute of Technology (formerly MNREC), Allahabad, India.

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Abhi Shah is a sharp guy and it would definitely make sense to keep track on his progress. Be it corporate business or politics, he seem to be making the right moves and more importantly he has the passion, zeal and age on his side.

Abhi Shah is the CEO of JuriMatrix, an offshore legal solutions company. Prior to this, worked with Accenture, Compaq Computer Corp. and Thomas Nelson, Inc.

He is the co-founder and vice president of the U.S. India Business Alliance (USIBA) and also serves as the founder/chairman of the Youth Committee of U.S. India Political Action Committee (USINPAC).

Abhi holds an Honors BBA degree in marketing from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School.

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