Pradeep Kar (born March 11, 1958) is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Microland, a digital transformation company. Kar also founded and sold three technology companies, including Indya.com, which he sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation; Planetasia.com, India’s first internet professional services company and Net Brahma Technologies.

Early life and career

Kar graduated from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in 1981, and then received a master's degree in business administration from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research. He joined

Wipro Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing director ...

and soon relocated to US to run Sonata Software for three years. Returning to India he founded Microland, where he has served as the Chairman until now. He also started Planetasia.com, ITspace.com, Media2India.com, and Indya.com which were sold to take advantage of the dotcom bubble. Kar has been recognized with the ''Indian Express'' ‘India Young Business Achiever Award’ and was selected by the World Economic Forum as a ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’. He has been featured in ‘Newsweek International’ as ‘Stars of Asia’ and in ‘Business India’ as ‘Stars of India’.

Boards and affiliations

Kar served as a Non-Executive Director of UBM plc., a global events-led marketing and communications services business listed on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

for 10 years from 2006 to 2016, and is on the Board of Telstra Telecommunications India. He is a member of the Provost's Council of

Trinity College, Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and serves as Chairman of the Governing Council of Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore. He was President of

The Indus Entrepreneurs Tie has two principal meanings: * Tie (draw), a finish to a competition with identical results, particularly sports * Necktie, a long piece of cloth worn around the neck or shoulders Tie or TIE may also refer to: Engineering and technology * Ti ...

(TiE), Bangalore Chapter and Founding Member of the Bangalore Chapter of the

Young Presidents Organization YPO (formerly Young Presidents' Organization) is an American-based worldwide leadership community of chief executives with approximately 29,000 members in more than 130 countries, according to the organization's 2019 YPO international fact sheet. ...

. He chairs the Infrastructure Management Services Forum of

NASSCOM The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) is an Indian non-governmental trade association and advocacy group, focused mainly on the technology industry of India. Established in 1988, NASSCOM is a non-profit organis ...

, the apex body of the Indian software & services industry

References

Businesspeople in information technology Businesspeople from Bangalore S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research alumni Living people 1958 births {{India-business-bio-stub