Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari resigns

Microsoft India president Anant Maheshwari has resigned from his post and will move out of the company to pursue other interests, sources told ET. The company confirmed Maheshwari’s exit in a statement.

“We can confirm that Anant has decided to leave Microsoft to pursue a role outside the company. We would like to thank Anant for his many contributions to our business and culture in India and wish him every success in his future endeavors,” a spokesperson for the company said.

Maheshwari, who has served at the top level in companies such as Honeywell and at McKinsey & Company, joined Microsoft in 2016.


A Birla Institute of Technology and Science electrical and electronic engineering graduate, Maheshwari has also completed his Master of Science degree from BITS, Pilani. He has also studied at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad.

Maheshwari’s exit comes amidst the rejig among top-level executives at the software company.

The company’s chief operating officer Irina Ghose has been promoted to managing director of India, while the MD Sashi Sreedharan has been elevated to a bigger role.

It has been reported that former AWS India head Puneet Chandok may be headed to Microsoft India.

Navtej Bal, earlier the director of the public sector at Microsoft India, has been elevated as the chief operating officer, while Venkat Krishnan, who was heading partnerships has been elevated as executive director of public sector business.

Krishnan’s last role was as executive director of global partner solutions at Microsoft. He joined Microsoft from Oracle in 2017.

Microsoft is currently the leader in the enterprise cloud front but is also facing fierce competition in India from the likes of Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.

With a large number of small and medium businesses increasing their cloud and digital spending since the pandemic, India holds a very strong opportunity.