Pradeep Kar (born March 11, 1958) is the Founder, Chairman and Managing Director of Microland, a digital transformation company.[3][4][5] [6] Kar also founded and sold three technology companies, including Indya.com, which he sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation;[7] Planetasia.com, India’s first internet professional services company and Net Brahma Technologies.[8]
Pradeep is also associated with the Bengaluru Literature Festival.[9]
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 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.[10][11][12]
He also started Planetasia.com, ITspace.com,[13] Media2India.com, and Indya.com which were sold to take advantage of the dotcom bubble.[14][15][16]
Kar has been recognized with the Indian Express ‘India Young Business Achiever Award’[17] and was selected by the World Economic Forum as a ‘Global Leader for Tomorrow’.[18] He has been featured in ‘Newsweek International’ as ‘Stars of Asia’ and in ‘Business India’ as ‘Stars of India’.[19]
Boards and affiliations
Kar served as a Non-Executive Director of UBM plc.,[20] a global events-led marketing and communications services business listed on the London Stock Exchange 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,[21] and serves as Chairman of the Governing Council of Srishti Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore.[22] He was President of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Bangalore Chapter[23] and Founding Member of the Bangalore Chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. He chairs the Infrastructure Management Services Forum of NASSCOM,[24] the apex body of the Indian software & services industry
