Dr Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, the 48‑year‑old CEO of Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), has steered the think‑tank since March 2025, positioning it as a key voice in India’s science policy debate.
He spent ten years at IBM Research, including roles as co‑director of its Brunei centre and chief scientist in Australia, before moving to GE Power Conversion, where he ran the commercial and industrial solar business for seven months. His stint at Microsoft began in 2020, first as CTO of Energy and Mobility in India and later as CTO for the Asian energy industry until March 2025, earning the company’s Gold Club recognition for his contributions.
Kalyanaraman earned a BTech in computer science from IIT Madras in 1993, topped the IIT‑JEE South Zone in 1989, and completed a PhD at Ohio State University before an MBA at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. During his time at RPI, he co‑founded Premonitia Inc., a startup that predicted and managed network problems, and launched a website on Carnatic music that attracted tens of thousands of users before the iPod era.
The NDTV World Summit, scheduled for Oct 22‑23, 2026 in New Delhi under the theme “A World Between Orders,” will convene leaders, policymakers, and scientists to tackle global challenges. Kalyanaraman’s session on “Can India Build a Research Superpower?” will be followed by a panel with Professor Duvvuri Subrahmanyam, Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Institute of Science, to outline actionable steps for strengthening India’s research ecosystem.
The summit will also showcase the tangible impact of ANRF’s grants on scholars from across the country, highlighting how targeted funding can propel scientific breakthroughs even from the most remote regions. The outcomes of the panel are expected to inform the Ministry’s forthcoming policy brief on national research investment, setting the stage for a new era of scientific ambition.