Our Board

Ratan Naval Tata
Avanti, was born out of Ratan Tata’s vision for financial inclusion, to provide affordable credit to underserved communities and empower individuals in rural India. This initiative was not just a business model, but a testament to his belief in using business as a force for good. Today, Avanti Finance continues to draw inspiration from his values, remaining dedicated to fostering financial empowerment and economic growth. As we move forward, we are committed to carrying on Ratan Tata’s legacy by upholding his ideals of financial inclusion, empowerment, and social responsibility. His leadership, humility, and philanthropic efforts have left an indelible mark on the world, and we remain inspired by his vision. At Avanti, we honor his legacy every day, ensuring that his vision continues to guide us as we serve and uplift the communities that need it the most.

Dr. Vijay L. Kelkar
Dr. Kelkar was the Chairman of a committee constituted for Revisiting & Revitalization the PPP Model of Infrastructure Development and the Chairman, Forum of Federations, Ottawa from January 2010 to March 2013. He was the Chairman of the Finance Commission in the rank of a Union Cabinet Minister, 2010. Earlier, he was the Executive Director for India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan at the IMF. He has held positions of Finance Secretary, GOI; Director & Coordinator, International Trade Division, UNCTAD, Geneva; Secretary, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, GOI, 1985–1988. Dr. Kelkar is Chairman and member of Board of Directors and on Board of Governors of various global companies and organisations. Dr. Kelkar holds B.S., from the University of Pune, India, 1963, M.S., from the University of Minnesota, USA, 1965 and Ph.D. from University of California at Berkeley, USA, 1970.

Nandan Nilekani
Nandan Nilekani is the Chairman of Infosys. Subsequent to Aadhar, Nandan has spearheaded architectures for national scale public good platforms popularly known as India Stack. Innovations he has mentored include the GSTN, ESign, UPI. Most recently, Nandan has co-founded philanthropic platforms like EkStep (universal literacy), Avanti (financial inclusion) and the Societal Platforms think tank. Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2006 & 2009. Nandan holds a B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay.

Manish Thakkar
Manish has over 23 years of experience in financial services, specialising in mergers and acquisitions, deal negotiation and transaction structuring. He turned entrepreneur after 17 years in Investment Banking including Nomura.

Sunil Kumar Tadepalli
Sunil has over 22 years of experience, across industries, in Organization Effectiveness, Strategy and Executive Coaching. He has worked in diverse cultural contexts & led global teams. Sunil has worked with C suite clients and has prior consulting experience in Financial Services. His previous role was with Accenture in Strategy.

Sukanya Kripalu
As one of India's first independent Marketing Consultants, Ms. Sukanya is a business and strategy consultant and an independent director across several boards. She has worked with several leading companies and in her most recent assignment she was CEO at Quadra Advisory – WPP Group Company. Sukanya runs an independent Marketing Consultancy.

Bindu Ananth
Bindu is the co-founder and Chair of Dvara Trust. She was Board Chair of Northern Arc Capital from 2009 – 2018. Prior to this, Bindu worked in ICICI Bank’s microfinance team between 2001 and 2005 and was head of the new product development team within their Rural Banking Group in 2007. She has an under-graduate degree in Economics from Madras University and Masters Degrees from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) and Harvard University’s John. F. Kennedy School of Government. Bindu has co-edited “Financial Engineering for Low-Income Households”, a book published by SAGE. She has also published in the Economic and Political Weekly, OECD Trade Paper Series and the Small Enterprise Development Journal. She was a member of three RBI Committees: financial inclusion, SME finance and housing securitisation. She was a member of the Government of India’s High Level Committee on Women (2014-15). She is a member of the Taskforce of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India (2017) She is an Independent Director of NeoGrowth Credit, Equalize Health, Syngenta Foundation and Lendable Credit Fund. She is also a member of the Executive Committee of CGAP. In 2017, Bindu was featured by Forbes as one of India’s leading women leaders.


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