Kiran Karnik is a prominent figure and guiding force behind the Indian outsourcing industry. He has formerly been the president of NASSCOM (The National Association of Software and Services Companies), and is now one of its trustees. Mr. Karnik has recently been selected as one of three boards members as well as Chairman of Satyam Computer Services after Government of India disbanded the Satyam board owing to severe irregularities and fraud in accounting.
Kiran Karnik, took up the position of President of NASSCOM in September 2001. As the chief executive of the apex body representing India’s IT software and service industry, he works very closely with the industry, the Indian Central & State governments to formulate policies and strategies for the advancement of this sector locally as well as internationally. One of his key functions is to build global brand equity for the Indian software and service Industry and aligning NASSCOM to be a more corporatized organization to fulfill the industry’s objectives.
Prior to joining NASSCOM, Mr. Karnik was the Managing Director at Discovery Networks in India from 1995 - 2001. He spearheaded the launch of Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet in 1999.
Mr. Karnik worked for over 20 years in the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). He held various positions related to the conception, planning and implementation of applications of space technology, focusing especially on the use of communications for development. He was deeply involved in the conception and, for many years, overseeing the Kheda Communications Project. This pioneering effort won wide national and international acclaim, including the first UNESCO-IPDC Prize for rural Communication. Karnik was a key member of the management team for the India – USA Satellite Instructional TV Experiment (SITE), the first every large scale use of satellite direct broadcasting (1975-76), which took education and development to remote parts of rural India. In 1998, Mr. Karnik was awarded the Frank Malina medal for Space Education by the International Astronautical Federation. From 1983 to 1991, Mr. Karnik held the position as Director of the Development and Educational Communicational Unit.
In 1991, Mr. Karnik joined the Consortium for Educational Communication (CEC) as its first Director. CEC is the apex body set up by University Grants Commission to co-ordinate and oversee the functioning of media centres in the universities, and is responsible for ensuring the production and transmission of educational TV programmes for college students.
Mr. Karnik has worked briefly with the United Nations in New York and Vienna, serving as Special Assistant to the Secretary-General of UNISPACE 82. He has done an extended consulting assignment for UNESCO in Afghanistan, and has also been a consultant for World Health Organization, The World Bank, UN Institute for Disarmament Research and the Ford Foundation. He has been involved with many committees of the government, including the Prasar Bharati Review Committee.
Karnik has authored/edited a large number of publications, and lectures occasionally at major national institutes. His educational background includes an Honours degree in Physics from Bombay University, followed by post-graduation from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
