Rajeev Batra’s journey through the world of technology is not defined merely by roles or titles—it is shaped by a relentless pursuit of transformation. With nearly 35 years of leadership across telecommunications, media, financial services, and technology, he has consistently stayed ahead of change, often anticipating it. From the early days of large-scale telecom expansion to today’s era of AI-driven enterprises, Rajeev has helped organizations reimagine what’s possible.
His career spans some of the most influential organizations, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance ADA Group, Sistema JSFC (MTS India), Bennett & Coleman (The Times of India), eVector Inc. (USA), Escotel (Vodafone Idea) and DHL. In each, he has held pivotal leadership roles, shaping strategy at the highest levels while remaining deeply connected to execution on the ground.
What sets Rajeev apart is his ability to translate emerging technologies into tangible, measurable business impact.
As CIO at Bennett & Coleman, he led what is widely regarded as the world’s first implementation of Generative AI for content creation, research, curation, and advertisement compliance, driving a 40% productivity improvement and redefining how media organizations scale intelligently. Building on this foundation, he has pioneered Agentic AI models on AWS Bedrock, enabling autonomous workflows in business areas of finance, supply chain and sales.
His work has consistently operated at scale. As CITO at MTS India, he built a real-time analytics platform on HPE Vertica that powered marketing campaigns for over 30 million subscribers. As President of Reliance Communications, he led technology operations with an annual budget of USD 350 million, overseeing more than 3,000 professionals across seven business verticals of the conglomerate, specifically BFSI, Insurance, Power and Infra, in addition to telecom.
Earlier in his career, as Chief Architect at the Bharti Group, Rajeev designed one of the most significant outsourcing partnerships in the telecom industry -- the USD 3.2 billion Bharti Airtel–IBM deal. This transformation was so impactful that it became a Harvard Business School case study. In 1999, when the Service Delivery Platform (SDP) concept was still emerging, Rajeev, as Head of Global Solutions Consulting, established an SDP competency centre in Fairfax, VA (USA), delivering mobile value-added services globally. He also led the implementation of first of a kind SDP deployment for a telecom operator -- Centennial de Puerto Rico (now AT&T) in 2001, which became a benchmark for telcos.
Across every phase of his career, one theme remains constant: a deep belief that technology is not just an enabler, but a strategic force capable of reshaping industries.
Today, Rajeev continues to champion the convergence of AI, data, and digital ecosystems—helping organizations move faster, think smarter, and build for the future.