Rama Bijapurkar

Researcher, academic, independent director on several Indian boards, author of books on Consumer India and on business-market strategy, Rama Bijapurkar is a recognised thought leader on market strategy and consumer behaviour as well as a keen commentator on social and cultural change in India. Rama’s core area of work is around bringing market focus and customer insight to business strategy and public policy through her research, writing, teaching and work on boards.

She is co-founder and non-executive chairperson of think tank , fact tank and research centre People Research on India’s Consumer Economy and Citizen environment (PRICE)whose mission is to provide a people and household level view of India for use in public policy and business strategy. The flagship product of PR.ICE ae the ICE360 surveys on How India earns, spends, saves, lives, thinks and accesses public goods (www.ice360.in)

Ms. Bijapurkar has spent over two decades teaching MBA students and offering executive education programmes at Indian Institute of Management , Ahmedabad (IIMA) , formerly as visiting faculty and presently as Professor of Management Practice’

She is also one of India’s most experienced independent directors having served on the boards of several of India’s blue chip companies Present boards include Nestle India, , Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd., Cummins India, Apollo Hospitals Enterprises.

Past boards served on include Infosys, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Bharat Petroleum, National Payment Corporation of India, CRISIL etc Past governing councils include of entities like Banking Codes and Standards Board of India, Insurance Information Bureau, IIM Ahmedabad; Other past professional activities and experience include senior fellow of MasterCard Centre for Inclusive Growth and fellow, member, eminent person advisory group to the Competition Commission of India and fellow, Centre for Emerging Market Economies, Fletcher School. Previous work experience includes employment with McKinsey and company, Marg Marketing and Research Group (now Nielsen India) and MODE Services (now TNS India) followed by own consulting practice (1977 -2019)

Ms. Bijapurkar has been a dominant voice in the media on business and policy issues in her areas of interest. She is the author of “We are like that only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India (Penguin), “A Never-Before World: Tracking the Evolution of Consumer India” (Penguin) and “Customer in the Boardroom – crafting customer based business strategy” (Sage)

Ms. Bijapurkar holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Physics from Delhi University and a post graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Ms. Bijapurkar is based in Mumbai.