Rahul Bhasin (Managing Partner) 

Rahul is the Founder and Managing Partner of Baring Private Equity Partners India, and a Senior Partner and Global Board Member of Baring Private Equity Partners (BPEP) International. Rahul is also a member of the investment committee for Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP), and has been an advisory board member of the ING Group in India.

Rahul served as the chairman of Mphasis Limited (now a Hewlett-Packard subsidiary) and oversaw its transformation from a 120-employee, US$ 6 million revenue, loss-making company into a 33,300-employee company with ~US$ 1 billion in revenues and high free cash flow generating enterprise. In addition, he has served as chairman or board member for companies including RMZ Corp, JRG Securities (now Inditrade Capital), Secova, PharmARC, and Auro Mira Energy. He has also served as the chair of the audit and investment committee of HOEC, one of the largest independent oil & gas players in India. He has spoken at various conferences in India and overseas, and is a member of the ‘CEO Forum’ at The Economist corporate network, and a charter member of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).

Prior to joining Baring Private Equity Partners India, Rahul was a member of the Global and Emerging Market Asset Allocation Committees of Citibank in London. Rahul has actively invested in and managed funds across various asset classes including equity, currency, and derivatives in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Russia, Asia, and India. He oversaw and developed business start-ups across multiple geographies in different asset management businesses. Prior to moving to London, Rahul was then the youngest “Independent Treasurer” at Citibank, managing the treasury business for Northern India. He has been a public spokesperson on matters of economic policy and administrative efficiency, and has given guest lectures at several educational institutions including The Wharton School, Harvard University, and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Rahul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce with Honors from the Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

Varun Batra (Partner) 

Varun leads the Mumbai office of Baring Private Equity Partners India, and heads the real estate, retail, media and telecom sectors. He led investments in RMZ Corp, Sintex, Vardhman Textiles, Redington, and ENIL, and worked closely with the consumer goods team on the investment in Marico.

In his prior position, Varun was a managing director at Citigroup where he set up and headed its proprietary investment Special Situations Group in India. In 2010, his responsibilities were extended to Southeast Asia. He made investments across the capital structure of companies including senior and subordinated debt, preference shares, hybrids, and private and public equity, successfully investing a total of US$ 450 million over four years.

Prior to that, Varun led the Corporate Finance & Capital Markets Group at Citigroup in India, where he led a team dealing with loan syndications, debt capital markets, structured trade finance, and securitization. Earlier in his career he was responsible for origination, credit, and relationship management for both financial institution clients (Citigroup) and corporate clients (ANZ Grindlays).

Varun brings to his role multi-asset investing experience, risk management, product, credit, and relationship skills.

Varun holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Arul Mehra (Partner) 

Arul has been with Baring Private Equity Partners India since 2010 and covers real estate, media, telecom, internet and auto. He has been actively involved in recommending the investments in RMZ Corp, Marico, Embassy Office Parks, Toch AI, Bharat Matrimony and Homelane.

In his prior position, Arul was with Citigroup for seven years, working in corporate finance and investment management roles. He was part of the Global Special Situations Group (GSSG) at Citibank for three years, focused on High Yield Credit. Prior to Citibank GSSG, he worked in the origination and structuring desk at Citi.

Arul holds a Bachelor’s degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.

Mitali Chitre (Principal) 

Mitali joined Baring Private Equity Partners India in 2007 and is the Chief Economist and Head of Deal Origination with respect to the investment banking community. In addition to this, she is also responsible for top-down analysis and investment opportunities in the oil & gas, building materials, power and capital goods sectors. She assists or has assisted in the supervision of TD Power Systems, NBCC, and Redington.

Mitali's primary responsibilities as the Chief Economist include macro and micro economic research, forecasting economic trends, preparing a macro summary on a quarterly basis and assisting in sector allocations. As part of her deal origination role, she is in charge of sourcing deals across all industries from various intermediaries such as investment banks, audit firms, advisory firms, and consultants. In the last six years, the deal origination team has sourced investment opportunities worth US$ 56 billion. As a junior team member, she is actively involved in mapping global and local trends, technology evolution, tracking potential and current deals, as well as in evaluating investment opportunities in her sectors.

In her prior position, Mitali worked with Portelet Management (now Moravia Capital AG) in Switzerland and India where she was involved in the distribution of private equity / venture / hedge funds and syndication of equity transactions for European funds and corporate clients.

Mitali holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (Electronics) from Mumbai University (First Class Honors), and an MBA from Cardiff Business School, UK. She has also completed a Diploma in Finance from the London School of Economics (LSE).

Debanshi Basu (Senior Vice President) 

Debanshi joined Baring Private Equity Partners India in 2009 and is responsible for top-down sector analysis, investments, and overseeing portfolio companies in the BFSI, payments and specialty chemicals sectors. She also evaluates investment opportunities in various sectors on a bottom-up basis. Her role includes industry studies, business due diligence, financial modeling, and providing recommendations on investment structures and interfacing as required. She has prior experience investing in private companies, structured debt, PIPE, and listed companies. She was actively involved in investments such as Manappuram Finance, Muthoot Finance, and Sintex Industries.

Debanshi is involved with strategy, operational reviews, supervising expansion plans, capital allocation, business expansion, diversification, and branding, among other portfolio monitoring areas. She is the junior portfolio supervisor for JRG Securities (now Inditrade Capital), Manappuram Finance, and Muthoot Finance.

In her prior position, Debanshi was one of the original team members of Goldman Sachs’ Investment Banking practice in Mumbai, where she spent five years working across general manufacturing, large industrial, information technology, commercial banks, and other sectors. She has worked on mid-market M&A deals in the media and outsourcing space such as Walt Disney-UTV’s acquisition of E-serve and other companies, and has helped with raising over US$ 1 billion capital for five large business conglomerates in India, including Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, and Infosys. Prior to Goldman Sachs, Debanshi spent four years with Ernst & Young audit practices, including a three year internship, and conducted statutory audits and internal control assessments for mid-cap listed and private companies, including Aurobindo Pharma, Kirby Billing Systems, Rasi Seeds, Pramati Technologies, Vanenburg Software, Juno Online and others.

Debanshi is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Osmania University. In addition, she completed the Level II CFA exam conducted by the CFA Institute, USA.

Jugal Bhatia (Finance Team) 

Jugal joined Baring Private Equity Partners India in 2016 and is responsible for accounting, compliance, finance, and risk management systems and processes. In his prior position, he worked at Kotak Life Insurance analysing the financial institutions group credit life insurance policies, he also worked for 3 years at Deloitte Haskins & Sells in the Audit & Assurance department, participating in several statutory and tax audits with a special focus on financial institutions.

Jugal is pursuing Chartered Accountancy and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from Mumbai University.

Ramachandran Srinivasan (Finance Team) 

Rama joined Baring Private Equity Partners India in 2008 and is responsible for accounting, compliance, finance, and risk management systems and processes. In his prior position, he worked for more than 8 years at Glaxo Smithkline Consume Healthcare Limited in the Taxation department, participating in Indirect tax and Direct Tax with a special focus on Litigation Management.

Rama is a Company Secretary, MBA (Part time), B Com & PG Diploma in Public Relation from Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, New Delhi.

Ruchi Shah (Finance Team) 

Ruchi joined Baring Private Equity Partners India in 2018 and is responsible for finance, accounting and compliance. In her prior position, she has worked with ICICI Bank as a part of the Financial Accounting & Reporting Group involved in RBI reporting, Product accounting and Office accounts monitoring. Prior to ICICI, She has also worked for 3 years at Haresh Kothari & Associates, a Chartered Accountant Firm, participating in Project Finance & Retail Loans with actively involvement in the Direct Taxation Team.

Ruchi is a qualified Chartered Accountant with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Mumbai University.

Siddhant Bhandari (Analyst) 

Siddhant joined Baring in May, 2019 as an Analyst Responsible for research of various industries and assisting in evaluation of investments in Automobile and BFSI sector.

In his prior position, he worked at KPMG for 2 years in M&A Tax Department, assisted in transaction structuring, jurisdictional tax analysis and tax due diligence.

Worked for a year in Statutory Audit department of Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP, participating in audit of various construction and shipping companies. Chartered Accountant (All India Rank-1, Nov 2018), CFA (Level I) and Bachelors degree in Commerce from Mumbai University.