Winner 2018

Rajan Anandan
Google

Rajan Anandan, then Vice President, Southeast Asia and India, Google won the IMPACT Person of the Year, 2018 award, for driving Internet adoption across India, especially in Tier II and Tier III towns, through several initiatives including ‘Navlekha’, Google’s platform for users in India who are not conversant with English, Google ‘Internet Saathi’, an initiative to bring more rural women online, and the Indian Railways high-speed Wi-Fi project, providing free Wi-Fi to consumers at railway stations across the country. He was also credited with accelerating innovation in India and Southeast Asia for Google. Under Anandan’s leadership, the company saw its profits increase from Rs 306.6 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 407.2 crore in 2017-18, with total turnover of Rs 9337.7 crore.

ON WINNING THE IMPACT PERSON OF THE YEAR AWARD

“I am truly honoured that I have been given this award. In fact, I am thrilled and speechless. So, thank you to the jury, to IMPACT and also to everybody in the ecosystem; most importantly my team, as well as all our clients and our partners."