Mr. Ramanathan Ramanan is the Advisor/Board Member for Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainability to Schools, Universities, and NGOs. He is the Former Mission Director of the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Additional Secretary at NITI AAYOG. He was previously the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of CMC Limited and Senior Vice President of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Mr. Ramanan earned his B.Tech. degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1981. He completed his Advanced Management Programme AMP 187 from Harvard Business School in 2014 and was Accredited in Sustainability Leadership from Cambridge, UK in 2013.
Mr. Ramanan joined TCS in 1981 after graduating from IIT Bombay and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company. He retired as the Senior Vice President of TCS in 2021. Prior to joining TCS, Mr. Ramanan was the Managing Director and CEO of CMC Limited, a government-owned public sector organisation between 2004-2016, which was acquired by TCS as a 51% subsidiary, with 49% in public and financial institutions, and transformed it into a vibrant multinational organisation with significant benefits to all stakeholders and shareholders. He served the government of India as Additional Secretary at NITI Aayog, and Mission Director of ATAL Innovation Mission, and helped drive the creation of a vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem between 2017-21 across schools, universities, research institutions, and NGOs. Mr. Ramanan continues to drive the creation of a vibrant innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem and helps student and women empowerment with NGOs.
His contribution to his field of work include: Helping drive the creation and promotion of a vibrant ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship through the establishment of 10000+ Atal Tinkering Labs in schools across 650+ districts of India (70%+ in government, govt. aided and girls/coed schools).
He also set up 68+ Atal Incubators in Universities and Institutions fostering 2800+ startups (650+ women-led startups), 56 Atal New India challenges / ARISE challenges for the MSME sector, and 19 Atal Community Innovation centres in Tier 2, Tier 3 cities, and rural India, to promote local innovation and local job creation, all aligned with the UN Sustainability Development Goals. He also championed sustainability, youth empowerment, and women empowerment initiatives along with UNICEF, UNDP, NGOs, and within the Tata Group of companies as a part of the Tata Group Innovation Forum member.
Mr. Ramanan has received the most valuable CEO award twice in succession by Business World in 2011 and 2013. He was awarded the Asia CEO of the Year award in 2015 by CMO Asia Singapore, the Digitalist of the year award by SAP MINT in 2018, and an Honorary Doctorate by Gujarat Law Society.
Any other interesting fact about yourself that you would like to share:
“I am greatly inspired by the writings of Swami Vivekananda and am a fan of P. G. Wodehouse’s books and humour. I am deeply indebted to the values instilled in me by my parents and sister. My wife Gita and daughters Tara and Sneha remain my greatest influencers in terms of what I learn and do every day, how I adapt to contemporary thinking, and support me/sharpen my focus on societal needs.”
Hobbies:
“Reading, Traveling, Trekking, Poetry Writing (occasional), Photography, Philosophy, Playing the Harmonica.”