India Summit
Shaping for Change
November 20, 2025
Learn | Explore | Network
NOTE: All times noted are in India Standard Time.
The agenda may be subject to change.
India Summit Sessions
November 20th
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
9:00 AM - 9:10 AM
Registration and refreshments
2025 India Summit: Shaping for Change
Welcome!
Speaker Details
Full Name
Lisa Yee
Job Title
President and CEO
Company
Silicon Valley Employers Forum
Biography
Lisa Yee is the President and CEO of SVEF, based in Northern California, leads and engages with employers and partners to drive change in global benefits. She enjoys spending time with her family and two rescue dogs, Daisy & Gryffin, volunteering with animal rescue organizations, traveling, and baking.
9:10 AM - 9:40 AM
Flexible, Personalized, and Cost-Effective: The New Benefits Paradigm
Presented by Prudent Brokers
As employee expectations shift and healthcare costs rise, organizations must reimagine how benefits are designed and delivered. This session explores a new paradigm—flexible, modular, and data-informed benefits that empower employees with choice while maintaining cost efficiency for employers. Learn how Indian companies are adopting tiered and customizable benefits strategies to meet diverse workforce needs, improve satisfaction, and drive ROI without overspending. Ideal for benefits and total rewards professionals and leaders navigating complexity in today’s hybrid, multi-generational environment.
Key Takeaways:
- How to build flexible benefits frameworks that align with workforce diversity and preferences.
- Strategies for maintaining cost control while enhancing employee value perception.
- Real-world examples of modular and tiered benefits in Indian and global organizations and Technology is playing a vital role in offering all generations benefits options and assisting them in electing their benefits today and in future and Technology is playing a vital role in offering all generations benefits options and assisting them in electing their benefits today and in future.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Surinder Bhagat
Job Title
Vice President & Head the Employee Benefits Practice and Employee Benefits Claims
Company
Prudent Brokers
Biography
Surinder Bhagat is Vice President & Head the Employee Benefits Practice and Employee Benefits Claims at Prudent Insurance Brokers. He is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and has vast experience in the general insurance space in India. With a cumulative experience of over 15 years, he has held vital positions in organisations such as Marsh India Insurance Company as National Head Corporate and ICICI Lombard as National Head SME, to name a few.
He started the SME vertical at ICICI Lombard, which grew to approximately INR 10 BN+ premium for the company during his tenure. He collaborated with Pavanjit Singh Dhingra of Prudent Insurance Brokers to launch the first OTC group health cover in India in 2008.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Geetika Kapur
Job Title
Vice President - Employee Benefits
Company
Prudent Brokers
Biography
Geetika Kapur is Vice President - Employee Benefits at Prudent Insurance Brokers. She has over 14 years of industry experience in Employee Benefits with specialisation in advising, designing, implementing and managing flexible benefits programs for clients.
In her role, she is responsible for health and benefits consulting and broking. She works closely with her team in preparing analysis of client’s requirements, marketing specifications, and innovative, sustainable solutions.
Prior to joining Prudent, she worked at Marsh & McLennan Companies and Royal Sundaram Alliance Insurance Company Limited.
She is adept at project management, team management, and problem solving.
9:45 AM - 10:25AM
Wellbeing 360°: Integrating Physical, Mental, Financial, and Social Health
Presented by Adobe
True employee wellbeing is multi-dimensional. This session looks at how organizations are building cohesive, inclusive, and data-driven wellbeing strategies that integrate diverse aspects of health to improve employee life outcomes and business performance.
Speaker Details
Full Name
B S Chandrashekarr
Job Title
Total Rewards Leader
Company
Adobe
Biography
Chandrashekarr B S is the Director & Head – Total Rewards, India at Adobe. He brings over two decades of extensive experience in the field of Total Rewards, having held leadership roles in renowned organizations such as Dell, Société Générale, Mphasis, IBM, iGATE (Capgemini), and Motorola.
Chandrashekarr holds a Postgraduate Certification in Human Resource Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur, and a master’s degree in human resource management from Pondicherry University. His professional journey is marked by deep expertise not only in Compensation and Benefits, but also in Change Management and Mergers & Acquisitions, where he has successfully led and supported several large-scale transformations.
10:25 AM - 10:45 AM
Networking Break
10:50AM - 11:20 AM
The New Benefits Standard
Presented by Plum
What does the new gold standard in employee health benefits look like in India?
This session explores how leading companies are designing benefits that go beyond compliance to deliver real value and push the boundaries of innovation—balancing employee needs, cost management, and measurable ROI. Gain insights into benchmarks from unicorns and GCCs, the nuances of India’s healthcare landscape, and how data can guide smarter decisions. Whether you’re scaling locally or globally, learn how to build benefits that truly work for your teams—and your business.
- Key Takeaways:
Understand how India’s top companies are redefining employee benefits to improve wellbeing and retention. - Learn to benchmark your programs against unicorns and GCCs in the Indian market.
- Discover how to use data and metrics to align benefits with talent and business goals.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Abishek Poddar
Job Title
Co-founder and CEO
Company
Plum
Biography
Abhishek Poddar is the co-founder and CEO of Plum, one of India’s leading insurtech and employee benefits startups.
An alumnus of IIT Kanpur and Stanford, Abhishek spent his early years at McKinsey and Google. In 2019, during the pandemic, Abhishek founded Plum along with Saurabh Arora with one simple mission in mind – to positively impact the health and well-being of every Indian. Today, Plum’s offerings help over 500,000 lives across 5,000 companies like Atlassian, Notion, Zerodha, Twilio, Zomato and Tinder. Abhishek believes businesses are built on two moats, people and brand, and investing in these two areas has been instrumental to Plum’s success.
11:25 AM - 11:55 PM
Panel Discussion
From Cost to Culture: Evolving the Benefits Strategy for Business Impact
Presented by Micron, SAP & HPE
As India’s workforce evolves, so too must the approach to employee benefits. In this panel discussion, senior total rewards leaders from Micron, SAP, and HPE share how their organizations are shifting the perception of benefits—from a line item on the budget to a strategic lever that shapes culture, drives engagement, and delivers business value.
Learn how these global companies are aligning benefits with the expectations of today’s multi-generational workforce, embedding them into their employer value proposition, and using data to demonstrate tangible ROI. This session offers actionable insights for reimagining benefits as tools for competitive advantage in a changing Indian market.
Key Takeaways:
- How to align benefits with company culture, values, and employee expectations.
- Strategies for balancing cost control with meaningful employee impact.
- Ways to measure and communicate the ROI of a modern benefits strategy.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Srinivas Veluda
Job Title
Director Total Rewards
Company
Micorn
Biography
Srini joined Micron in March 2020, after serving in different industries and engaged with companies like LinkedIn, CA Technologies (Now Broadcom), ADP, Toshiba & Biological Evans. He had an opportunity to work in all facets of People function including TA, Operations, ER, Performance Management and Total Rewards for more than 2 decades. Srini established some of the innovative, cost-effective C&B programs resulting in great people experience at regional & Global scale.
Srini is an alumni of XLRI, Jamshedpur and a certified Global Remuneration Professionals (GRP). He was a guest faculty at some of the reputed business schools in India and is a speaker at various industry forums sharing his experiences around Total Rewards thought leadership.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Amar Grandhi
Job Title
Head of Total Rewards
Company
SAP
Biography
Speaker Details
Full Name
Srinath Krishnan
Job Title
Country Manager Total Rewards India
Company
HPE
Biography
Srinath Krishnan is the Country Total Rewards Leader for Hewlett Packard Enterprise with rich experience in various facets of Human Resources including Total Rewards, Talent Services, Employee Relations and HR Business Partnering.
In Hewlett Packard Enterprise Srinath is responsible to design and drive the Total Rewards strategy for India, partner with COE teams to deliver global programs, design and execute compensation & benefits benchmarking, local programs and work with stakeholders to help and deliver superior employee experience through these programs. He is also responsible for M&A function in India.
Prior to this Srinath was Head of Total Rewards at AXA Business Services and LinkedIn India where he helped design the Total Rewards strategy, campus compensation program, and automation of rewards process. He was also Director of Compensation and Benefits at Yahoo India where he helped design the benefits and wellness strategy for India R&D centre.
Srinath has completed his post graduation in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from the Tata Institute of Social Science Mumbai with Diploma in Labour Laws from Poona University.
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Networking Lunch
1:05 PM - 1:35PM
Employer Breakout Session
1:40 PM - 2:10 PM
How Effective Benefits Communications Resonate at Airbnb
Presented by Airbnb
In today’s noisy, fast-paced work environment, even the best benefits programs can go unnoticed without the right communication strategy. In this session, Vandana Mukherji shares how Airbnb has crafted clear, compelling, and culturally aware benefits messaging that connects with employees across geographies, languages, and backgrounds.
Drawing from real campaigns and lessons learned, Vandana will explore how Airbnb has driven meaningful engagement and understanding of its offerings—transforming benefits from a back-end HR function into a valued part of the employee experience. Attendees will walk away with a roadmap to build communication strategies that cut through the clutter and truly resonate.
Key Takeaways:
- How to craft benefits messages that connect across cultures, regions, and languages.
- Practical tactics for increasing employee awareness, understanding, and trust.
- Real-world examples of communication campaigns that boost engagement and program uptake.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Vandana Mukherji
Job Title
Total Rewards Leader
Company
Airbnb
Biography
With over two decades of progressive experience in Human Resources in Technology & Capability Centers organizations, I specialize in Total Rewards strategy—designing inclusive, data-driven compensation and benefits programs that align with business objectives and foster a culture of fairness and transparency.
As the Total Rewards Leader at Airbnb in India, I lead developing and managing comprehensive reward programs across diverse markets in collaboration with global teams. My focus includes compensation design, benchmarking, benefits management, and policy governance—ensuring our systems are competitive, equitable, and aligned with Airbnb’s mission to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere. I partner closely with business leaders to provide guidance on all total rewards matters, enabling data-informed talent decisions.
Before joining Airbnb, I served as Associate Director, Compensation & Benefits at Concentrix India, overseeing total rewards across the EMEA, APAC, and ANZ regions. I led regional compensation planning, benefits strategy, budgeting, and the execution of large-scale projects, including digitization efforts and M&A integrations.
2:15 PM - 2:30 PM
Networking Break
2:35 PM - 3:05 PM
Coming soon
Presented by Volo Health
3:10 PM - 3:40 PM
Oracle India’s Health and Wellness Evolution
Presented by Oracle
Join Vish Melinamane (Director – Compensation & Benefits, India) and Kumar Vinit (Senior Manager – Compensation & Benefits, India) as they share how Oracle India is shifting from a treatment-based healthcare model to a proactive, prevention-focused approach.
With a strong focus on outpatient benefits and preventive care, Oracle has redesigned its wellness programs to better support the everyday health needs of its diverse workforce. Using data insights, employee feedback, and a people-first mindset, the team has launched innovative initiatives that go beyond traditional insurance—enhancing employee well-being and productivity.
In this session attendees will explore:
- How to Lead the Shift to Preventive Care: How Oracle India is prioritizing early detection and wellness over reactive treatment.
- Advantages of Offering Enhanced OPD Benefits: Expanding the benefits to improve access to primary healthcare through technology-enabled solutions.
- How to Design with a Strategic Well-being Focus: Aligning employee health initiatives with overall engagement goals.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Vish Melinamane
Job Title
Director – Compensation & Benefits
Company
Oracle
Biography
With over 25 years of industry experience, Vish Melinamane is a seasoned leader in the realm of Human Resources, specializing in Compensation & Benefits, M&A Integration, Wellbeing, and Job & Pay Architecture. As the Director of Compensation & Benefits at Oracle India, Vish has been at the forefront of transforming Oracle India’s healthcare and wellness offerings, aligning them with the company’s commitment to employee well-being and organizational success.
Vish has spearheaded innovative initiatives that blend data-driven insights with a people-first approach. His deep expertise spans across multiple areas, including Retirement Plan management, Labor laws, Compensation Consulting, and Oracle's evolving approach to holistic employee wellness. Vish’s strategic vision has positioned Oracle India as a prominent organization in developing benefits packages that support both the health and wellbeing of its diverse workforce.
Speaker Details
Full Name
Kumar Vinit
Job Title
Senior Manager – Compensation & Benefits
Company
Oracle
Biography
Kumar Vinit is a Senior Manager – Compensation & Benefits at Oracle India, with over 10 years of experience across Oracle, Wipro, and Accenture. He leads key initiatives in compensation strategy, employee benefits, and wellbeing for Oracle’s India operations. A SHRM–SCP certified professional and XLRI alumnus, Vinit combines deep technical expertise with a people-first approach to Total Rewards. He is passionate about creating data-driven, inclusive, and impactful HR solutions.
3:45 PM - 3:50 PM
Closing remarks
Speaker Details
Full Name
Alison Main
Job Title
Director
Company
Silicon Valley Employers Forum
Biography
Alison Main, Director, based in France, leads the international practice, consulting, and learning academy. She has held various roles in International Benefits and Rewards and has a particular passion for well-being. In her spare time she enjoys the Great Outdoors and entertaining friends with French and Asian cuisine.