Expert Profiles

As the Information Technology & Bio Technology Secretary, Government of Karnataka, he was instrumental in building world-class IT & Biotech institutes and events in Karnataka.

During his tenure as IT Secretary, every week Bangalore has seen one new 100% foreign equity firm setting their office. He has been widely quoted in several best sellers as well as newspapers like New York Times, London Times, several European newspapers, FOX TV and a large number of Indian media.

Prior to this, he was the Finance Secretary (Resources) of Karnataka. He was Division Chief Securities & Exchange Board of India, a regulator of Capital markets, and Head of Advisory Services in CRISIL – a rating agency now taken over by S&P. Vivek was the Director as well as Chairman of the Technology Committee on the Board of the Bombay Stock Exchange, the oldest exchange in India.

Vivek is a gold medalist in Bachelor of Engineering from Karnataka University and also an MBA in Finance & Information Systems from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. He has taught MBA students in various universities in Boston. Vivek is also visiting faculty for finance at the Indian Institute of Science and Defense Institute of Advanced Technologies.

His past positions include Director, Institute for Social and Economic Change (1998-2002) and Fellow, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia and Professor at NIPFP. He was a Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India; a Member of Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission and High Level Expert Committee on Universalizing Healthcare, Member, High-Level Expert Committee on Efficient Management of Public Expenditure, Advisory Group of Eminent Persons to advise the Finance Minister on G-20 matters. His past advisory roles include Chairman of the Committee for the Implementation of Value Added Tax and Chairman, Expert Group on Taxation of Services. He is a Member, Board of Governors in Institute of Economic Growth, Institute for Social and Economic Change and Madras School of Economics. Dr Rao’s research interests include fiscal decentralization and federalism, state and local finances, tax policy and reforms, public expenditure management.

He has taught finance and capital markets as visiting professor at IIM Ahmedabad and IIM Indore for many years. He has about forty years of experience. He was Officer on Special Duty at the National Institute of Securities Markets, Mumbai. He has served on many committees in the Indian capital markets. He has been a member of board of directors of many companies in India.He is an Adjunct Professor at the Kautilya Entrepreneurship and Management Institute, Jain University Bangalore and a Professor at the Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai.

In his 13 years of service at ING Vysya Bank Ltd., he was involved in all aspects of credit risk management function, for 10 years. This included regulatory & credit policy matters, credit appraisal of wholesale and retail borrowers, delinquency management, and portfolio reviews. The last position held by him was as Chief Audit Executive, responsible for the Internal Audit function of the Bank. M S R Manjunatha is a Post Graduate in Science from the University of Mysore, and Graduate in Law from the Bangalore University.

Prior to joining IIMB, Sankarshan has also worked with ICICI Ltd. (now ICICI Bank Ltd.), as well as been a teaching faculty at London School of Economics and Political Science and Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. Sankarshan has also been a Visiting Professor at University of Twente, Netherlands and Gothenburg University, Sweden.

Sankarshan is very well travelled and has presented his works at a number of international conferences. He also has to his credit a number of papers in various international journals. At IIM Bengaluru, Sankarshan is involved in teaching (both regular programs and executive development programs) consulting assignments as well as in a host of administrative activities, as mentioned above.