Startup Executives Participate in IAMAI Elections for Digital Industry

In an effort to have a greater voice in determining policy for the digital industry, Indian startup entrepreneurs have banded together and nominated themselves in IAMAI elections for digital industry this week.

Harsh Jain of Dream 11, Rajesh Magow of Makemytrip, Sameer Nigam of PhonePe, Harshil Mathur of RazorPay, Satyan Gajwani of Times Internet, and Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com are among the contenders.

Others who are famous involve Sandeep Aggarwal of Droom, Ashish Kashyap of IndMoney, Ritesh Malik of Innov8, Suchi Mukherjee of LimeRoad, Rohan Verma of MapmyIndia, Upasana Taku of MobiKwik, Dinesh Agrawal of IndiaMart, Vishwas Patel of InfiBeam Avenues, Umang Bedi of Verse (DailyHunt), and Alok Bajpai of Ixigo between others.

Additionally competing are executives from BharatPe, BillDesk, Cred, InfoEdge, InMobi, and Paytm.

According to those in the know, the goal is to increase the “representation of Indian firms” in the important lobby group’s 24-member governing council, which is now “dominated and led by foreign big tech companies.”

Members are urging one another to cast many votes this time for candidates from locally owned businesses.

IAMAI’s chair and vice-chair are currently from Google and Meta, respectively.

It is essential for Indian startups to be on the executive council of the IAMAI as it is one of the oldest internet and mobile associations in the nation, according to Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO of BharatMatrimony and a candidate in the elections, who spoke to ET.

The worldwide major tech corporations, which make up only 5 to 10 percent of the organization’s 400 members, have taken control of the narrative and the decision-making process in recent years, according to the speaker.

The reason we are running in every one of these elections is so that we may join the executive council and establish the agenda to support Indian startups.

On May 22, the vote will come to an end.

The elections for the 24-member IAMAI governing council feature a total of 83 executives running for office.

Representatives from companies like Airbnb, Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Google, Netflix, and Visa are among the MNCs that are competing.

According to Rohan Verma, CEO and executive director of MapmyIndia, “IAMAI must replace the leadership of its governing council and the representations it is making to the government in order to effectively reflect Indian interests.

As of Monday afternoon, emails sent to the businesses had not received a response.

Sanjay Gupta, vice president of Google for the country, Shivnath Thukral, director of Meta and head of India public policy, and Harshil Mathur, CEO and cofounder of RazorPay, are the outgoing executive council members.

The announcement of the elections comes just after IAMAI’s submissions drew severe criticism from well-known Indian startup founders, who said the organisation promoted the viewpoints of major tech corporations.

The top internet entrepreneurs in India are upset about what they see as IAMAI’s lack of “credibility,” according to a May 2 story from ET. These founders are calling for a change in the top body’s leadership because they believe it has turned into a “mouthpiece of big tech” and is not acting in the best interests of locally developed digital businesses.

At the time, Verma had stated, “It’s distressing to know that IAMAI is parroting and promoting views that are anti-Indian and pro-foreign big tech. I hope everyone is aware that IAMAI’s vice chair and chair are both from the international major IT industry. Sad to see an institution taken over and now spreading a false narrative after being formed by and for Indian companies”.

Anupam Mittal, the creator of Shaadi.com, also spoke at the time on Twitter, writing, “Startups are strongly in favour of a strong anti-monopoly Digital Act. In actuality, IAMAI is a failing lobby promoting misinformation and big tech propaganda”.

IAMAI announced 83 IAMAI members would be running in the election in a news release.

The chairperson, vice chairperson, and treasurer of the association would be chosen from among the nominees of the top three firms according to the number of votes cast in this election, and they would also make up the executive council.

At the conclusion of May 2023, the election results will be announced, and the new governing council will assume office following the annual general meeting in June 2023.

“IAMAI has a very open and regular system for holding elections to the extent that we do not allow fundraising and post-election, if anyone has a problem, the results can be duly audited,” said IAMAI President Subho Ray in a news release.