The Economic Times has announced the jury for the ET Startup Awards 2026, bringing together senior business leaders, technology entrepreneurs and investors to select winners across the awards categories.
Rishad Premji, executive chairman of Wipro, will chair the jury. The panel includes leaders with experience across technology, fintech, consumer internet, artificial intelligence, media and venture investing.
The jury includes Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder and chief executive of Paytm; Sachin Bansal, founder of Navi Technologies and co-founder of Flipkart; and Irina Ghose, managing director of Anthropic India.
Mukesh Bansal, founder and CEO of Nurix AI and previously a co-founder of Myntra and Cult.fit, is also part of the panel. The jury further includes Mithun Sacheti, founder of CaratLane; Abhiraj Singh Bhal, co-founder and CEO of Urban Company; and Adwaita Nayar, co-founder of Nykaa and CEO of Nykaa Fashion.
Ajit Mohan, chief business officer at Snap and former Meta India executive, has also joined the jury. Paras Chopra, founder of AI research lab Lossfunk and former founder of Wingify, is another member of the selection panel.
The panel also includes Aryaman Vikram Birla, founder of Aditya Birla Ventures, and Satyan Gajwani, chairman of Times Internet and Times Bridge.
The jury brings together founders who have built large technology and consumer businesses with executives and investors who have experience evaluating startups. Their combined backgrounds cover payments, financial services, artificial intelligence, consumer technology, enterprise technology and digital platforms.
Premji's role as jury chair adds an established corporate and technology perspective to the awards. He joined Wipro in 2007 and later conceptualised Wipro Ventures, an investment platform focused on next-generation technology businesses.
The panel also includes founders with direct experience of India's startup journey. Bansal helped build Flipkart before moving into financial services with Navi, while Sacheti built CaratLane and later joined Singularity Growth as a general partner.
The inclusion of AI executives and founders also reflects the growing importance of artificial intelligence in India's startup ecosystem. Ghose leads Anthropic's India operations, while Bansal's Nurix AI focuses on enterprise AI agents and Chopra's Lossfunk works on foundational AI research.
The jury's task will be to evaluate the startups competing for recognition at the 2026 edition of the ET Startup Awards. The selection process brings together perspectives from established businesses, startup founders, investors and technology leaders.
The awards have become a platform for recognising companies and entrepreneurs that have contributed to India's technology and startup ecosystem. The 2026 jury's composition places particular emphasis on people with experience of building, funding and scaling businesses.
The next stage will be the jury's evaluation of the shortlisted startups and entrepreneurs. The final winners will emerge from a panel that spans several of India's most prominent technology and business sectors.
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Startup Unplugged
