Kris Gopalakrishnan

Last updated

Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan
Kris Gopalakrishnan - World Economic Forum on India 2012.jpg
Gopalakrishnan at the World Economic Forum on India in 2012
Born
Senapathy Gopalakrishnan

(1955-04-05) 5 April 1955 (age 69)
Education
Alma mater
Occupation(s) Executive vice chairman, Infosys
Years active1981–2014
SpouseSudha Gopalakrishnan
Children1

Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan (born 5 April 1955) is an Indian businessman and the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an accelerator that helps start-ups during the early stage of their business journey. [1] Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys. [2]

Contents

Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was elected president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013–14 and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.

In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honour.

Gopalakrishnan is the chairman of Itihaasa Research and Digital which publishes the history of the Indian IT industry as [3] microsite as well as reports on industrial and academic research in India. [4] He is the Co-author of Against All Odds – The IT Story of India.

Gopalakrishnan invests in promoting research on Brain sciences, ageing ageing-related disorders as well as investing in start-ups and start-up ecosystems. His family philanthropy is Pratiksha Trust and his investment arm is Pratithi.

Early life

Gopalakrishnan was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 5 April 1955. He studied at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School.

He obtained an M.Sc. in Physics in 1977 and M.Tech. in Computer Science in 1979, both from IIT Madras. He started his career as a software engineer with Patni Computer Systems, Mumbai, in 1979.

Positions held

Kris Gopalakrishnan has served in leadership roles in several research/educational and industry/startup institutions and forums.

Positions in Research / Educational institutions and bodies

Positions in Industry / Government institutions and bodies

Awards and honours

Philanthropy - Support for Research and Entrepreneurship in India

Through Axilor Ventures, Kris has invested in innumerable startups and venture funds. He has used some of his wealth - as of May 30, 2023, according to Forbes, estimated at $2.9 billion, towards causes such as health research, specifically brain science as well as technology-driven innovation that has a direct impact on society. [18]

Kris is supporting and guiding several world-class India-focused initiatives, through his leadership roles in various Government committees/bodies and philanthropic initiatives, in the following areas:

Brain Science and Computer Science

Kris has contributed 225 crores to develop a Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He is the donor of the largest philanthropic gift ever received by the 105-year-old institute from an individual. [19] He has contributed an additional ₹60 crores to set up distinguished visiting chairs in Neurocomputing and Data Science at the IISc Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology Madras of Chennai. [20] [21]

Another cutting-edge project Gopalakrishnan has funded at IIT Madras is the "Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre", which he says is the first of its kind in the world. The centre is undertaking the cellular-level image mapping of the brain. [22] [23] [24]

Kris is chairing the governing board of India's ₹3,660 crore National Mission on Cyber-Physical System Technologies which is overseeing the establishment of 25 hubs related to CPS and allied technologies.

Healthcare

Kris has furthered Ageing research in India through the Srinivasapura Aging Neuro Senescence and Cognition Study, [25] and GenomeIndia, a pan-India initiative focused on Whole Genome Sequencing of 10,000 individuals from representative populations across India. [26] He is also supporting the Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain Disorders using Stem Cells at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, Karnataka.

He is on the Board of Swasth Digital Health Foundation, a not-for-profit consortium charting an innovative healthcare model in India. [27]

Nurturing the Indian research and innovation ecosystem

Kris instituted the Gopalakrishnan – NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowships, focused on Industry 4.0, Smart Cities. [28]

He supports young researchers in India through the Pratiksha Trust Young Investigators Award at IISc, Pratiksha Trust Scholarship and travel grants for Winter Schools on Quantitative Systems Biology at ICTS, and the Young Faculty Recognition Award and Travel Grants at IIT Madras. [29] [30]

Kris established the Gopalakrishnan – Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Madras in August 2017, to be able to solve India's society's problems by applying the full capabilities of the scientific and technological knowledge of Indian academic institutions through world class innovation and entrepreneurship. [31]

Creating social impact and rediscovering Indian science / technology

Kris supports the nurturing of livelihoods of farmers through programs like the Naandi Foundation [32] and Centre for Collective Development.

He has supported several interesting history projects – such as the History of Indian IT through itihaasa.com and a research project on History of Mathematics in India at IIT Gandhinagar. [33]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian Institute of Science</span> Public university for scientific research and higher education in Bangalore

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) is a public, deemed, research university for higher education and research in science, engineering, design, and management. It is located in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, Karnataka. The institute was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and thus is also locally known as the "Tata Institute". It is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in India and has the highest citation-per-faculty among all the universities in the world. It was granted a deemed university status in 1958 and recognized as an Institute of Eminence in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IIT Bombay</span> Public engineering institution in Mumbai, India

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay is a public technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is India's top Engineering institute.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandan Nilekani</span> Indian businessman

Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani is an Indian entrepreneur. He co-founded Infosys and is the non-executive chairman of Infosys replacing R Seshasayee and Ravi Venkatesan, who were the co-chairs of the board, on 24 August 2017. After the exit of Vishal Sikka, Nilekani was appointed as non-executive chairman of the board effective 24 August 2017. He was the chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). After a successful career at Infosys, he headed the Government of India's technology committee, TAGUP. He is a member of Indian National Congress but not active in politics as of 2019.

The Department of Management Studies of IIT Madras, also known as DoMS, IIT Madras is a business school under the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai, India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IIT Madras</span> Public engineering institution in India

Indian Institute of Technology Madras is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), IIT Madras is also recognized as an Institute of National Importance.

Mriganka Sur is the Newton Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Simons Center for the Social Brain at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also a Visiting Faculty Member in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and N.R. Narayana Murthy Distinguished Chair in Computational Brain Research at the Centre for Computational Brain Research, IIT Madras. He was on the Life Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2010 and has been serving as Jury Chair from 2018.

Ashok Jhunjhunwala is an Indian academic and innovator. He received his B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and PhD from the University of Maine. He has been a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras since 1981. He is the President of IIT Madras Research Park and Chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. During his career, he has contributed extensively to technology innovation and adoption in the Indian context.

Swami Manohar, otherwise known as Manohar Swaminathan, is a co-founder and the CEO of PicoPeta Simputers Pvt. Ltd. He completed his undergraduate program in Electronics and Communication Engineering in Government College of Technology, Coimbatore during which he was a part of a campus team that designed an Electronic Voting machine in the year 1981, which was actually the first designed in India. After obtaining his PhD in Computer Science from Brown University he was a faculty at the University of North Carolina for two years and then was at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, between 1990 and 2005. He was on the faculty of the department of Computer Science and Automation (CSA) and the Supercomputer Education and Research Center (SERC) at the Institute. He has been a visiting faculty at Columbia University, University of Missouri and the University of Texas. While at IISc, he co-invented the Simputer, was awarded the Dewang Mehta Award for Innovation in IT, and pioneered the faculty entrepreneurship activity at IISc, which has since catalyzed similar activity in IITs and other educational institutes in India. He co-founded Strand Life Sciences, and String Labs, the first academic incubating company in India.

Chennai is home to many educational and research institutions. IIT Madras, located in South Chennai is considered as the premier centre of engineering education in India. Anna University and the University of Madras are the oldest state owned universities which are ranked among the best universities in India. The College of Engineering, Guindy and Madras Institute of Technology, which are the constituent college of Anna University along with Alagappa College of Technology are the pioneer institutes of engineering education in India. Some of the oldest medical colleges India, the Madras Medical College (1835) and Stanley Medical College (1938) are located in the city. Notable, liberal arts colleges in the city include Loyola College, Madras Christian College, Presidency College, Stella Maris College, Women's Christian College and Ethiraj College for Women.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are a network of engineering and technology institutions in India. Established in 1950, they are renowned for their academic excellence. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India and are governed by the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961. The Act declares them as Institutes of National Importance and lays down their powers, duties, and framework for governance as the country's premier institutions in the field of technology. The act currently lists twenty-three IITs. Each IIT has autonomy and is linked to others through a common council called the IIT Council, which oversees their administration. The Minister of Education of India is the ex officio chairperson of the IIT Council.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prem Chand Pandey</span> Indian scientist

Prem Chand Pandey is an Indian space scientist, planetary scientist, and academic in the fields of satellite oceanography, remote sensing, atmospheric science, the Antarctic and climate change, and also he is the founding director of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR).

Venu Ramgopal Rao is an Indian academic currently serving as the Group Vice Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani for campuses located in Pilani, Dubai, Goa, Hyderabad and Mumbai. He was previously the Director of IIT, Delhi for six years during 2016-2021.

Suman Chakraborty is a professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and Sir J. C. Bose National Fellow. He has been the first in the history of IIT Kharagpur to be bestowed by the National Award for Teachers in the Higher Education Category by the honourable President of India. He is also Institute Chair Professor Awardee of 2023. He has served as the Dean, Research and Development, Associate Dean and the Head of the School of Medical Science and Technology of the Institute. He has also been National Academy of Engineering Chair Professor. He joined the Institute in 2002 as Assistant Professor and has been a Full Professor since 2008.

Arcot Ramachandran (1923-2018) was an Indian scientist, anthropologist, author and a former Under-Secretary General of United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, known for his scholarship on the subjects of heat and mass transfer and environment and his social commitment to the cause of sustainable development. The Government of India honoured him in 2003, with the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award, for his services to the fields of Science and Engineering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. G. Ramakrishnan</span> Indian electrical engineering professor (born 1958)

Angarai Ganesan Ramakrishnan is a senior professor of electrical engineering and an associate faculty of Centre for Neuroscience, both at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. He also holds an adjunct faculty position in the Department of Heritage Science and Technology at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad. He heads the Medical intelligence and language engineering lab. He also won the Manthan Award 2015 for his project, “Madhura - the gift of voice”, under the category, e-education, learning, and employment. He is also one of the founder directors of RaGaVeRa Indic Technologies private limited recognized by the Karnataka Government as one of the Elevate 2019 Startup winners. He is one of the advisors of Bhashini AI Solutions private limited also recognized by the Karnataka Government as one of the Elevate 2019 Startup winners. From January 2017 to June 2020, he was a Member of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) since November 2019. Since August 2022, he is also the Advisor - Neuroscience to Feedfront Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a startup based in Bangalore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan</span> Indian aerospace and computer scientist

Narayanaswamy Balakrishnan is an Indian aerospace and computer scientist. He is a Professor of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Supercomputer Education Research Centre of Indian Institute of Science and a visiting professor of Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research. Balakrishnan was honored by the Government of India, in 2002, with the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri

Budaraju Srinivasa Murty is an Indian metallurgical engineer. He was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, the highest science award in India, for the year 2007 in engineering science category. From August 2019 he serves as the Director of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad., NIT Andhra Pradesh from 14 Feb 2024 and he was also director of IIIT Raichur till 2022 Nov. Prior to that he was head of department at Indian Institute of Technology Madras and professor at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.

Yendluri Shanthi Pavan is an Indian electrical engineer and a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He is known for his studies on mixed signal VLSI circuits and is an elected fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He is also a fellow of IEEE. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Engineering Sciences in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Center for Computational Brain Research</span>

The Center for Computational Brain Research (CCBR) is an Interdisciplinarity research centre located at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. CCBR was set up in 2015 with funding from the co-founder of Infosys, Kris Gopalakrishnan. The stated objective of the center is "to explore the interface between Neuroscience and Engineering disciplines".

References

  1. "Investors – Axilor Ventures:: Axilor Ventures is an Active Seed Fund" . Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  2. "Infosys - S. Gopalakrishnan: Co-founder | Management Profiles". infosys.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  3. "itihaasa.com".
  4. "Home | Itihaasa". itihaasa.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  5. "National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS)". nmicps.gov.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  6. "Board of Governors". Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University OIST. 14 June 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  7. "Mr. S Gopalakrishnan Chairman". iiitb.ac.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  8. "GAIN Distinguished Speaker Series". Research. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  9. "Infosys Prize - About Us". infosys-science-foundation.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  10. "Infosys - Kris Gopalakrishnan in the UN Global Compact Board". infosys.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  11. MeitY Office Memorandum No. 24(4)/2019-CLES dated 13.09.2019
  12. ETBFSI.com. "Kris Gopalakrishnan appointed first chairperson of Reserve Bank Innovation Hub - ET BFSI". ETBFSI.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  13. "CII Start up Centre". cii.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  14. "CII". cii.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  15. "Press Information Bureau". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  16. "KU to confer honorary doctorates on Narlikar, Kris Gopalakrishnan". The Hindu. 21 August 2019. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  17. "Infosys - Kris Gopalakrishnan recognized as a Global Business Thinker". infosys.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  18. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/why-kris-gopalakrishnan-is-spending-hundreds-of-crores-to-study-the-human-brain/85249/1
  19. "Infosys co-founder gives IISc Rs 225 crore | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. TNN. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  20. "Infosys Co-founder Sets Up 3 Chairs at IISc With Rs 10 Crore Corpus". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  21. https://joyofgiving.alumni.iitm.ac.in/data/utilreports/Shri-Kris-Report.pdf IIT Madras website, Joy Of Giving section, Impact of Giving by Kris Gopalakrishnan, access-date=2022-09-30
  22. https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/why-kris-gopalakrishnan-is-spending-hundreds-of-crores-to-study-the-human-brain/85249/1
  23. https://acr.iitm.ac.in/iitm_in_news/iit-madras-launches-sudha-gopalakrishnan-brain-centre-to-map-human-brains-at-cellular-level/
  24. https://iitm.humanbrain.in/
  25. India, The Hans (11 February 2020). "Gene-mapping project can transform country's healthcare". thehansindia.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  26. "Indian Institute of Science" . Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  27. "Swasth.app". Swasth.app. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  28. "PM Modi Singapore visit: PM Narendra Modi visits NTU in Singapore, interacts with students | India News - Times of India". The Times of India. PTI. 1 June 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  29. "Indian Institute of Science" . Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  30. "ICTP - ICTS Winter School on Quantitative Systems Biology". ICTS. Retrieved 30 September 2022.
  31. "GDC - Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship". gdc-iitm.org. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  32. "Naandi". naandi.org. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
  33. "Home". sites.iitgn.ac.in. Retrieved 13 June 2021.