A little more about me

I come from a military family so I had the great fortune of growing up in many cities and attending many schools. I have spent most of my life in Pune although work has taken me around the block a few times. I have written a few books. I love cake, the ocean, Tintin comics, coffee, boxing and spicy mutton curry. These are my favourite movies and these are my favourite videos. I hate traffic and people who start sentences with "trust me..."

Over the last 25 years, I have started, operated, grown, sold & burnt multiple start-ups in FMCG, education & deep tech.

Cyber law, investigation & security...

In 1999, I co-founded Asian School of Cyber Laws and moved into the super exciting field of cyber law and cyber crime investigation. I have had the privilege of assisting the Government of India in framing draft rules and regulations under the Information Technology Act.

My work has taken me to 18 countries and I have investigated cyber crimes & data breaches for hundreds of organisations across many sectors - aerospace, banking, defence, law & tax enforcement, IT, manufacturing, media, medical, pharmaceuticals, shipping, trading, transportation.

Tech products...

I led the team that developed Collaborative Online Investigation Network (COIN).

I led the team that developed the ASCL Volatile Evidence Retrieval Tool (Vertool) for quick evidence retrieval from Windows computers.

I led the team that developed Primechain, a blockchain ecosystem that builds itself in 6 minutes (or less) with a functional web application, mobile Progressive Web App, and a Blockchain REST API service.

Patent related...

I have filed for a provisional US patent titled "Transparent self-managing Know Your Customer (KYC) program using blockchain and smart contracts".

My document on Man-in-the-middle attacks has been cited in patent US 8677466 B1 titled Verification of digital certificates used for encrypted computer communications (filed 2010).

Crypto & blockchain...

I developed an interest in virtual currencies in 2011 while investigating a case of organized criminals using bitcoin. From 2015 to 2020, I worked extensively in the blockchain / distributed ledger technology domain.

In 2016, I co-founded Primechain Technologies Pvt. Ltd., a blockchain startup with the mission of "building blockchains for a better world".

Smarketing...

In 2020, I co-founded meraQR, a startup that enables brands to monetize their packaging.

Some stuff I have written

The Smarketing Playbook

150+ pages of actionable insights for smarketing - smart & aligned sales & marketing.

2020Download
B2B Digital Marketing Playbook for the COVID Era

Published by meraQR.

2020Download
Blockchain 101

Covers the basics of Blockchain technology and its use cases.

2020Download
Blockchain Security Controls

Primechain-BSC prescribes security controls for blockchain implementations.

2018Download
Godfather 2.0

How criminals are using the Internet to sell drugs, guns, forgeries & financial information.

2017Download
Commentary on the Information Technology Act

Published by Asian School of Cyber Laws.

2014Download
Cyber Crime Investigation Manual

This has been referred to as a "bible for cyber crime investigators" by Times of India – the world’s largest selling English newspaper.

2013Download
Data Privacy Law (India)

Published by Asian School of Cyber Laws.

2010Download
Cyber Crime and Corporate liability

Published by Wolter Kluwers.

2008
Biometric based Digital Signature scheme

Internet Draft titled which proposes a method of using biometrics to generate keys for use in digital signature creation and verification.

2002Download
Cyber Terrorism in the context of Globalisation

Paper presented at the Second World Congress on Informatics and Law held at Madrid, Spain.

2002Download