IAMAI rejigs top team to include CEOs of Indian startups, unicorns after outcry over pro-Big Tech views

After facing an outcry from the Indian startup ecosystem for promoting views that are "anti-Indian and pro-foreign Big Tech", the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Thursday announced a new leadership that has founders and CEOs from homegrown startups and unicorns.

Harsh Jain, Co-founder, and CEO of Dream Sports has been elected the Chairman of the association. He replaces Sanjay Gupta, Vice President and Country Manager, Google India.

Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, and Satyan Ganjwani, Vice Chairman, Times Internet, have been elected as Vice Chairman and the Treasurer, respectively.

Magow replaces Shivnath Thukral, Director and Head of India Public Policy, Meta and Ganjwani replaces Harshil Mathur, CEO and Co-Founder at Razorpay.

The new team members will form the association's executive council along with the ex-officio member Dr Subho Ray, President, IAMAI. The new 24-member Governing Council and the new Executive Council of the IAMAI will take charge from the present councils at the upcoming annual general meeting, the association announced.

Earlier this month, several founders and CEOs of Indian startups and unicorns slammed the IAMAI, saying it was sad to see an organisation originally founded by and for Indian companies being taken over by Big Tech representatives.The IAMAI has members who are the top Indian heads of Big Tech firms like Google, Microsoft, Meta and others.

The association also prepared a draft submission on whether India needs a separate law to tame Big Tech's anti-competitive practices.

Rohan Verma, CEO and Executive Director, MapmyIndia, had said that IAMAI views and submissions to the government and media on digital policies, regulations, laws etc are completely wrong and antithetical to what Indians -- consumers, industry, government -- need. "Every country has its own trade bodies that promote their domestic companies in their domestic market and enable them internationally. Sad to see various Indian trade bodies lured by and acting on behalf of the interest of foreign companies," added Verma.

The Indian tech sector has made significant contributions to the Indian economy, creating jobs and driving growth in various sectors.

However, the growth of the industry is being hampered by the unfair practices of Big Tech companies, according to the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), the apex body for Indian startups. The ADIF had also said that India has initiated the groundwork to understand the nuances of digital markets and reflect on the need for such a law.