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Ajit Balakrishnan

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Ajit Balakrishna
Born (1948-07-22) 22 July 1948 (age 76)
CitizenshipIndia
Alma materIIM Calcutta
University of Kerala
OccupationChairman & CEO of Rediff.com

Ajit Balakrishnan is an Indian entrepreneur, business executive and administrator.[1] He is the founder, current chairman and chief executive officer of Rediff.com, an internet company based in Mumbai.[2][3] He was chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM Calcutta) for two five-year terms ending in March 2017.[4]

Education

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Balakrishnan holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Kerala and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management with Master in Business studies (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (1971).[5]

Business

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Balakrishnan's first business was Rediffusion, now known as Rediffusion DY&R (Dentsu Young & Rubicam), which he co-founded when he was 22. In 1995, he founded Rediff.com, which became a highly successful internet site, and was listed on NASDAQ in 2001.[6]

Writing

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He writes a column in Business Standard[7] and has written a book published by Macmillan Publishers[8] called The Wave Rider.[9] He has co-authored a research paper, Generic Framework for a Recommendation System using Collective Intelligence,[10] with Alkesh Patel which was presented at the International Conference on Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 2009.

Public service

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Balakrishnan served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta for two five-year terms ending in March 2017.[11] He has in the past served on the Governing Council of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).[12][13] He was named Chairman Emeritus of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).[14] He served as the chairman of the Govt of India, Ministry of Information Technology Working Group on Internet Governance and Proliferation. He chaired a committee appointed by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development on 'Research and Faculty Enhancement at the 7 IIMs'. He was a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education of the Government of India.[15]

References

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  1. ^ "Ajit Balakrishnan: India's 'Internet genius'". afaqs!. 1 August 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  2. ^ Stephen Wilmot (26 May 2011). "How I made it: Ajit Balakrishnan". Financial Times. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  3. ^ "Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff.com". dare.co.in. 1 June 2008. Archived from the original on 17 December 2011. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  4. ^ "Speaker Corner: Ajit Balakrishnan". Forbes. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  5. ^ "Ajit Balakrishnan". NDTV. Archived from the original on 26 September 2012. Retrieved 8 February 2012.
  6. ^ Rediff listed on NASDAQ in 2001.
  7. ^ "Columnists - Business Standard". Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Book Review: The Wave Rider". Retrieved 8 March 2024.
  9. ^ Balakrishnan, Ajit (6 December 2012). The Wave Rider: A Chronicle of the Information Age. Pan Macmillan. ISBN 9781447241157.
  10. ^ Patel, A.; Balakrishnan, A. (2009). "Generic framework for recommendation system using collective intelligence". 2009 International Conference for Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, (ICITST). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/ICITST.2009.5402612. ISBN 978-1-4244-5648-2. S2CID 818956.
  11. ^ Board of Governors - IIM Calcutta.
  12. ^ Centre for Development of Advanced Computing
  13. ^ "Council". cdac.in. Archived from the original on 26 September 2017.
  14. ^ "Chairman Emeritus at IAMAI". Archived from the original on 24 September 2015.
  15. ^ Central Advisory Board of Education [permanent dead link].
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