Shankar Maruwada
CEO and Co-founder, EkStep Foundation
Topics
News
- AI Token Costs Must Drop 90% to Scale Enterprise Adoption: Palo Alto CEO
- Saudi Enterprises Rebuild Technology Stacks as AI Adoption Accelerates: Nutanix
- SpaceXAI Challenges OpenAI and Anthropic With Enterprise-Focused Grok 4.5
- Saudi Arabia Can Become Global AI Hub Connecting East and West: Minister
- Saudi Payment Disruptions Test UAE–Saudi Trade Ties
- AIRF Dubai 2026 Will Put Agentic AI Execution in the Spotlight
Shankar Maruwada is the CEO and Co-founder of the EkStep Foundation, a Bengaluru-based nonprofit that leverages technology to address large-scale social challenges, particularly in education. Under his leadership, EkStep spearheaded the development of DIKSHA, the world’s largest digital education platform, and built Sunbird, an open-source digital infrastructure recognized globally as a public good that supports millions of learners and educators.
Before EkStep, Maruwada led Demand Generation and Marketing at the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), where he contributed to the Aadhaar national ID program. He also co-founded Marketics, one of India’s pioneering data analytics firms.
An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur (B.Tech) and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (MBA), Maruwada is also an active angel investor, mentoring and supporting innovation in education and social impact sectors.
To view the full Policy 50 list, click here.
