Ajit Balakrishnan

Balakrishnan holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of Kerala and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (1971).^[5]

Balakrishnan's first business was Rediffusion, now known as Rediffusion DY&R (Dentsu Young & Rubicam), which he co-founded when he was 22. In 1995, he founded Rediff.com, which became a highly successful internet site, and was listed on NASDAQ in 2001.^[6]

He writes a column in Business Standard^[7] and has written a book published by Macmillan Publishers^[8] called The Wave Rider.^[9] He has co-authored a research paper, Generic Framework for a Recommendation System using Collective Intelligence,^[10] with Alkesh Patel, which was presented at the International Conference on Internet Technology and Secured Transactions, 2009. He has recently (9th January 2026) written another book:Technology Innovation: Sword or Plough. Inkscribe Publishing. ISBN 978-1-971036-98-4.

Balakrishnan served as the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta for two five-year terms ending in March 2017.^[11] He has in the past served on the Governing Council of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC).^[12][13] He was named Chairman Emeritus of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).^[14] He served as the chairman of the Govt of India, Ministry of Information Technology Working Group on Internet Governance and Proliferation. He chaired a committee appointed by India's Ministry of Human Resource Development on 'Research and Faculty Enhancement at the 7 IIMs'. He was a member of the Central Advisory Board of Education of the Government of India.^[15]

Sanjeev is mentioned as one of the pioneering Indian dotcom founders of the 21^st century. ^[16]