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BNP Paribas Honcho Praveen Chakravarty Boarding UID Project

By Madhav A Chanchani

  • 20 Sep 2010

BNP Paribas Securities' India Managing Director of Institutional Equities Praveen Chakravarty, who is leaving the firm, is said to be joining Nandan Nilekani's Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Electronic media reports last week said Chakravarty was in exit mode from BNP Paribas after a three-year stint.

He could be associated with UIDAI's financial inclusion platform which would cover plans to extend banking coverage of the rural population riding on the back of the ambitious programme, said sources.

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Chakravarty becomes the first senior private banking professional to be part of the project spearheaded by co-founder and former managing director of Infosys Technologies Nandan Nilekani.

A panel of PSU bank heads are believed to be in advisory role to the financial inclusion part of the UIDAI project, which is heavily backed by the incumbent United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and its main constituent, the Congress.

In August, noted journalist Govindraj Ethiraj quit as editor-in-chief of BloombergUTVi to join Nilekani's project. He was one of the core founding members of the business television channel.

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Chakravarty helped set up BNP’s equities business in India when he moved as Chief Operating Officer & Head of Research in 2007 and was one of the founding members of the business in India. Chakravarty has been closely working with 'young turks' in Congress party on public policy initiatives.

Chakravarty is also the co-founder of Mumbai Angels, India’s most active angel investing group and is an angel investor and board member in various start-ups. In 2007, he was a founding board member and investor in Inmobi (erstwhile mKhoj), making it one of the most successful angel investments in the country. He also invested in movie rental firm MadHouse, which was acquired by Seventymm.

In his previous stints, Chakravarty has worked with Microsoft and IBM. He received his MBA from the Wharton School and an undergraduate degree from BITS, Pilani.

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