Kiran Karnik was President of NASSCOM, the premiere trade body and the "chamber of commerce" for the IT software and services industry in India, till January 2008. During his 6 years at NASSCOM, Mr. Karnik was widely recognized as a thought-leader and guiding force for the Indian IT industry, and for promoting "Brand India", especially by show-casing India's technological strength to the world.
Prior to joining NASSCOM in 2001, Mr. Karnik was the Managing Director and CEO of Discovery Networks in India where he spearheaded the launch of Discovery Channel in South Asia in August 1995 and Animal Planet (a Discovery - BBC joint venture) in 1999. From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Karnik was Founder-Director of the Consortium for Educational Communication, which was responsible for UGC's Countrywide Classroom broadcasts and other ICT initiatives.
Earlier, Mr. Karnik worked for over 20 years at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), where he held various positions including that of Founder-Director of ISRO's Development and Educational Communicational Unit. His work in ISRO involved conceptualizing and managing applications of space technology. He was a key player in the pioneering India-USA Satellite Instructional TV Experiment (SITE) and the Kheda Communication Project, which won wide international acclaim.
