Ronnie Screwvala

Ronnie’s first foray was Cable TV in India and for the first two years of that journey he found no takers and only advise was to treat it as a failed start up and move on, but with him staying at it he was credited with having pioneered Cable TV for all of India. Entrepreneurship is about finding and seizing opportunities and moving on from failures and Ronnie saw an opportunity in toothbrush manufacturing and after many setbacks went on to build one of the largest toothbrush operations in India. Ronnie went on to build a media and entertainment company - UTV, where post many pivots and four almost near bankruptcies and 15 years of focused work with strong co-founders and a large team, it scaled to a size spanning all aspects of Content and Platform and then he divested UTV to The Walt Disney Co in 2012. Newsweek termed him the Jack Warner of India, Esquire rated him one of the 75 most influential people of the 21st century and Fortune as Asia’s 25 most powerful. he has authored 2 books : ‘Dream With Your Eyes Open’and ‘Skill It, Kill It’. Ronnie in his second innings decided to deepen his commitment to making India a better place through a focus on two of the largest sunrise sectors - Online Education & the not-for-profit rural / social space. He is Co-Founder & Chairman of upGrad which zeros in on the massive Online Education market and the fact that Learning for every working professional is now a lifelong commitment.