Pranjal Bathia
Pranjal Bathia is a senior technology leader at Red Hat, currently serving as Senior Engineering Manager and Execution Owner for the transformation of Red Hat’s Master Data Management platform. With over a decade of experience, she has led major modernisation efforts across product, pricing, and downstream integrations, including the shift from enterprise SaaS tools to Red Hat’s in-house AI-native platform.
Her work brings together architecture, product thinking, and hands-on delivery. She has played a key role in building systems from scratch, enabling AI-driven workflows, and driving automation that supports Red Hat’s global product and pricing ecosystem. Pranjal also contributes to Red Hat’s broader AI adoption efforts by designing intelligent agents and helping teams integrate AI responsibly into their daily workflows.
Beyond her technical role, she is active in site leadership initiatives in Pune and is passionate about building collaborative, confident teams. Outside of work, Pranjal loves spending time with her daughters — whether creating crafts together, exploring new ideas, or simply enjoying fun mom–kid moments.
Red Hat
Senior Engineering Manager
Session
Artificial Intelligence is rapidly becoming a strategic asset for nations, influencing everything from defence and finance to education and public services. For a country as large, diverse, and digitally connected as India, relying solely on external AI technologies comes with risks. This is where the idea of Sovereign AI becomes important—not as a move toward isolation, but as a way to build and control India’s own AI capabilities, data ecosystems, and technological future.
India has already demonstrated its ability to build systems at a global scale. Platforms like Aadhaar, UPI, and ONDC have reshaped digital infrastructure; the Bhashini initiative is enabling AI to understand Indian languages; and the IndiaAI Mission is driving national ambition. With one of the world’s largest young technical workforces, India is uniquely positioned to shape the next wave of AI innovation.
This session will highlight why Sovereign AI is essential for India’s long-term growth and security, and what steps can help us move in that direction.
Key takeaways include:
The four pillars of Sovereign AI—local models, open-source collaboration, data sovereignty, and hardware capability.
Why national security, economic growth, and cultural representation depend on building AI locally.
A viewpoint on how India can build AI systems that reflect its languages, values, and ambitions using open source