Shradha Sharma Interviews Mohandas Pai: Inside Infosys and BYJU's 

#mohandaspai #yourstory #shradhasharma
This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation, part two coming soon!
The Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Deewar is a perfect embodiment of India in the 1970s. Bachchan’s Vijay Verma was a victim of circumstances, engulfed in the social-political turmoil of the 1970s rife with unemployment and exploitative work conditions. In the real world too, there was an angry young man like him, called TV Mohandas Pai. The man, Pai, whom we know today as one of the architects of India’s technology industry, grew up in a radically different country. This, he says, shaped his worldview.
“I was brought up amidst challenging situations. My parents sacrificed everything to ensure that I had a good upbringing. But it was a time when people like us stayed poor and those in power got richer. Deewar is an apt portrayal of the bubbling anger of my generation,” says Mohandas Pai in an interview with Shradha Sharma.
He may have had a humble upbringing, but Pai worked his way up the corporate ladder, joining Infosys as a consultant, then taking on a finance role, and eventually becoming a board member at the IT giant. In his second avatar as an investor, Pai became the co-founder of Aarin Capital and Exfinity Venture Partners.
Today, you may know him for his fiery debates on television channels and social media platforms, but Pai has been a “rebel” from his childhood days. In fact, it was his relentless pursuit of seeking answers and calling out unjust practices that led him towards the corporate world.
Watch this riveting conversation between Shradha Sharma & Mohandas Pai!
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Mohandas Pai's Path
13:41 The Driving Force
19:21 Establishing Corporate Governance
28:41 "Corporate Governance as a Culture & Way of Life"
36:02 Insights on the Startup Landscape
40:30 Crafting Role Models
44:59 Startups with Diverse Orientations
50:24 The Influence of the Board
01:03:41 To Be Continued
ABOUT SHRADHA SHARMA:
Shradha Sharma is the Founder & CEO of YourStory. She started YourStory in 2008 to tell stories of entrepreneurs - something that mainstream media was not ready to do in 2008. Since then, Shradha has scaled YourStory to become one of India’s leading digital media platforms covering every aspect of India’s new economy.
She was featured on Fortune’s list of the best 40 under 40 entrepreneurs in India for three years in a row. In 2018, she won the Forbes Power Trailblazers award and was twice featured on LinkedIn’s list of powerful influencers, along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and actor Priyanka Chopra.
Follow Shradha on LinkedIn here: / sharmashradha
ABOUT YOURSTORY:
YourStory is India’s biggest and definitive platform for startups and entrepreneurs related stories, resources, research reports, and analyses of the startup eco-system, mobile app developers, and more dedicated to promoting the startup ecosystem
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