Cybersecurity Leaders Taking the Stage
Uncover strategic insights, real-world experiences, and forward-looking perspectives from the experts shaping the future of security and resilience.
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Speakers
Sakshi Grover
Senior Research Manager, Cybersecurity Products and Services, Asia Pacific
IDC
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Sakshi Grover
Sakshi Grover is a Senior Research Manager, Cybersecurity Products and Services supporting its research and client engagement activities across Asia/Pacific markets. Additionally, she serves as the lead security analyst for IDC India. Sakshi is responsible for delivering syndicated custom research and consulting engagements on next-generation emerging and disruptive technologies. Her tasks include developing and socializing IDC’s point of view within security services, covering both legacy and modern cybersecurity technologies. Her role involves close collaboration with technology vendors and buyers, developing market insights, and providing research, consulting, and advisory services in the fields of security software and services. This includes partnering on research efforts with relevant country analysts in the local IDC offices. Sakshi’s views on security have been quoted in numerous publications, such as the Economic Times, Business Standard, Data Quest, CRN, and others.
Sakshi has a wealth of experience in the IT space, managing diverse areas such as research and analysis, business development, product management, and client-centric engagements. Before joining IDC, Sakshi was a principal analyst at Gartner Inc., where she managed research on datacenter infrastructure and cloud security products. Prior to Gartner, she was associated with Accenture and Wipro Ltd., where she was responsible for business development across EMEA and Asia/Pacific markets within the TMT space.
Event Sessions
Day 1 2:40 pm
IDC Keynote: The Strategic Security Spend: Justifying & Optimizing Budget
Indian enterprises are under pressure to show that security spend drives business outcomes. This topic will explore how CISOs/VPs in India build and defend budget, optimise vendor spend, align spend to business value, and show ROI on security and trust programmes.
Day 1 2:30 pm
Welcome Address: Setting the Stage for the IT Security Summit India
This opening session will welcome attendees and provide an overview of the event, its key themes, and the opportunities for learning, collaboration, and networking. It will set the context for the discussions ahead and highlight the importance of security in today’s digital landscape.
Day 2 9:05 am
IDC Welcome Address: Building Digital Trust Through Secure and AI-Driven Investments
An IDC perspective on how Indian enterprises are aligning cybersecurity budgets and AI adoption strategies to strengthen digital trust and operational resilience, with spending expected to accelerate across cloud, data, and AI-enabled security domains by 2026.
Vivek Gupta
Chief Information Security Officer, Data Privacy & Business Continuity Leader
Mankind Pharma Ltd.
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Vivek Gupta
Event Sessions
Day 1 3:20 pm
Panel Discussion: Identity Security: The New Battleground
As cyber threats evolve, identity has become the primary attack vector for modern enterprises. From credential theft and phishing to AI-powered deepfakes and insider threats, attackers are increasingly targeting identities rather than networks. This session brings together cybersecurity leaders to discuss why identity security is now central to cyber resilience, how businesses can combat evolving threats, and what the future of trust, authentication, and access control looks like in the AI era.
Kumar Ritesh
Kumar Ritesh is a globally recognized Cybersecurity and Threat‑intelligence leader who has helped redefine how large enterprises anticipate and defend against cyber threats. As Founder, Chairman, and CEO of CYFIRMA, he leads a Singapore‑based, AI‑powered external threat‑landscape‑management platform that enables Fortune 500 companies and national agencies to predict and prevent attacks by mapping nine pillars of external risk from attack‑surface discovery and vulnerability intelligence to brand‑protection, third‑party risk, and sector‑tailored deception intelligence.
His career spans frontline Cyber‑intelligence and counterterrorism roles at a national intelligence agency, followed by senior cybersecurity leadership positions at IBM, PwC, and BHP Billiton, where he built and led enterprise‑wide IT and operational‑technology (OT) security programs for one of the world’s largest mining conglomerates. This unique blend of national‑security‑grade intelligence and corporate‑risk‑management experience underpins CYFIRMA’s shift from reactive incident response to proactive, predictive cybersecurity.
Event Sessions
Day 2 9:45 am
Preemptive External Threat Management in the AI Age: Why Old-School CTI Is Dead
Traditional Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) focused on historical IOCs (Indicators of Compromise), reactive feeds, and post-breach analysis is obsolete in the AI era. Attackers using frontier models compress timelines dramatically, demanding a shift to preemptive external threat management powered by predictive threat intelligence (PTI), AI-driven foresight, and continuous exposure management.
Melwyn Rebeiro
Head – GRC (India) | Chief Information Security Officer & Data Protection Officer
Julius Baer
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Melwyn Rebeiro
Melwyn Rebeiro is a cybersecurity leader and CISO with 22+ years of experience across wealth management, NBFCs, and global payments. He specializes in cybersecurity strategy, governance, regulatory compliance, Zero Trust architecture, and business resilience. Melwyn helps organizations strengthen security, earn stakeholder trust, and enable sustainable growth through resilient operating models.
Event Sessions
Day 2 11:05 am
Leadership, Culture & Talent: Making Security Everyone’s Business
Indian enterprises often struggle with talent gaps, cultural silos and aligning business and security. This topic will look at how leadership (CISO, CSO, board) in India build security culture, upskill workforce, manage human risk, and make security & trust part of the business DNA.
Urvish Acharya
Global CISO and Head of IT Governance & Risk
Birla Carbon, Aditya Birla Group
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Urvish Acharya
Urvish Acharya is an accomplished leader with more than 20 years of industry experience in Information Security, Network Infrastructure, and IT Audits. Holding CISSP and CISA certifications, he has worked across various sectors, including defense, pharma, IT services, and manufacturing. Currently, He is serving as the Global CISO and Head of IT Governance & Risk at Birla Carbon, Aditya Birla Group.
Event Sessions
Day 2 11:05 am
Leadership, Culture & Talent: Making Security Everyone’s Business
Indian enterprises often struggle with talent gaps, cultural silos and aligning business and security. This topic will look at how leadership (CISO, CSO, board) in India build security culture, upskill workforce, manage human risk, and make security & trust part of the business DNA.
Kishan Kendre
Kishan Kendre is a seasoned Information Security senior-level professional with over 20 years of experience and expertise in Cybersecurity management, IT management, and IT enterprise architecture. Senior-level executive responsible for developing and implementing an information security program, which includes procedures and policies designed to protect enterprise communications, systems and assets from both internal and external threats. A visionary who translates evolving industry risks into ambitious technology roadmaps and robust security programs. Excels at synergizing people, processes, and technology around proactive defense. Continually sharpen the company’s security maturity, aligning solutions with cyber security frameworks. Developed and implemented enterprise security strategy and framework that consists of strategically integrated elements of NIST risk management and Cybersecurity frameworks, ISO 27001 and COBIT 5 for Information Security. Demonstrated expertise in establishing and implementing large information security programs. Visionary leader implementing information security programs for enterprise protection. Hands-on experience in large-scale security technology implementations for over 100,000+ users. Excels in aligning proactive defense strategies with evolving industry risks through ambitious technology roadmaps and robust security programs. Worked across multiple sectors, including Retail, Telecom, IT/ITES, Manufacturing, Pharma, and Petrochemicals.
Event Sessions
Day 2 11:25 am
The Business of Breach: Reputational Risk and Shareholder Trust
Breaches in India not only impact operations but increasingly brand perception, customer trust, and market positioning. With the rise in digital services and market scrutiny, this topic addresses how Indian organizations prepare for breach‑scenarios, manage communications, board reporting, post‑incident trust re‑building, and integrate breach‑risk into enterprise strategy.
Tarun Verma
Tarun brings over 22 years of expertise in network optimization and security, currently serving as the Systems Engineering Manager at A10 Networks. Throughout his career, he has played a pivotal role in assisting key service providers, large enterprises, and financial institutions in strengthening their network security posture and meet critical compliance requirements while optimising their network performance.