Top Indian tech advocacy group replaces Big Tech execs after criticism

The Internet and Mobile Association of India, an influential body in the technology industry, has appointed Dream Sports co-founder and CEO Harsh Jain as the association’s new president. many Indian startups.

Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group director of MakeMyTrip, will now serve as vice president of IAMAI, while Times Internet’s Satyan Gajwani has been appointed as treasurer of the industry association. Magow takes over from Meta’s Shivnath Thukral, while Jain takes over from Google India head Sanjay Gupta.

The appointments, the result of an internal election, come in the wake of numerous top Indian businessmen claiming that the IAMAI had lost credibility because of the stances it took on regulations and policies set by New Delhi.

Shaadi.com’s Anupam Mittal claimed that IAMAI’s views, which largely coincided with those of Big Tech, indicated that the influential lobby group had become a “mouthpiece” for US tech giants.

The recent tension is the latest indication of a rift in the relationship between Google, Amazon and other major US companies, and Indian companies.

Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft have pumped tens of billions of dollars into India over the past decade. This investment aims to transform the world’s most populous country into a major international market, especially as user growth slows in other parts of the world.

“The new 24-member Board of Directors and the new Executive Council of the IAMAI will take the lead from the current Boards at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. The election of the IAMAI Board of Directors is held every two years. Eighty-three members of the IAMAI contested this year’s elections following the end of the two-year term of office of the previous council,” IAMAI said in a statement on Thursday.