Leadership

Mr. Jaxay Shah is the Chairperson of the Quality Council of India (QCI), an autonomous body of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. He is also the Founder and Chairman Managing Director of the Savvy Group of Companies, a professional construction conglomerate. Furthermore, he is the former Chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Association of India (CREDAI), the apex body of private Real Estate developers in India.

As the Chairperson of QCI, he is working towards improving the quality of goods and services to help improve the quality of life of India’s 140 crore citizens. Under his leadership, QCI is working in multiple sectors such as healthcare, education, trade & commerce, energy, water, sanitation etc and engaging with 50+ central governments, state governments, and public bodies. Mr. Shah has been taking significant steps to take the quality message to the grassroots through initiatives such as the Gunvatta Sankalp in states, Quality City with the emerging cities along with Sarpanch Samvad – working with grassroots leaders to permeate the idea of quality. Additionally, he represents QCI, as a Promoter Director (Founding Member) on the board of Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), an open network for all the players who can sell or enable selling in an e-commerce setup.

Mr. Chakravarthy T. Kannan, Secretary General, Quality Council of India (QCI), brings with him a distinguished career spanning leadership positions in the automotive and logistics sectors. He has led several key national organizations and global business expansion initiatives. With extensive experience as CEO of Mobility at Mahindra Logistics, where he successfully turned around complex B2B and B2C operations to achieve a positive PAT, Mr. Chakravarthy brings a wealth of expertise in strategic management and business transformation. He has also led several business transformations such as ‘Digital Product Development e-NPI’, ‘Quality Crusade’, ‘Geelantheid – a billion-dollar Global business setup’. As the founder of CATAPULT, an industry-first tech-based incubator, he has demonstrated a keen ability to drive innovation and accelerate user case maturation, earning recognition from industry giants like Shell and Intel.

His prior roles as Business Head and Senior VP at Mahindra & Mahindra have equipped him with strategic acumen and a proven track record of spearheading global business expansion initiatives and driving organizational growth.

With his rich sea of experience, coupled with an MBA in Corporate Strategy from Ross Business School and a background in Industrial Engineering, Mr. Chakravarthy is poised to lead QCI towards new heights of excellence and innovation in quality standards.

Ms. Hema Bhandari, Chief Advisor, Quality Council of India (QCI), is a Lean and Operational Excellence leader with over 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, driving quality, productivity, and systemic transformation across large organizations and MSMEs. An Engineering graduate with a Master’s in Business Administration from Pune University, she has held diverse leadership roles at Bosch, contributing across multiple functions and strengthening operational capabilities.
As a Lean practitioner, Ms. Bhandari has partnered with MSMEs across India, leading Quality and Productivity Improvement initiatives and enabling sustainable performance outcomes. During her tenure as Chief Operating Officer of PreBo Chennai, a Bosch Joint Venture, she successfully spearheaded the establishment of its second unit, achieving operational readiness within a record timeframe. Her strengths in entrepreneurship and project management enabled her to lead end-to-end operations across both technical and commercial domains.
In her current role at QCI, Ms. Bhandari brings strong exposure to governance and public policy, guiding the leadership team in driving a structured and sustained approach to process excellence across the service sector. Her core expertise lies in developing robust processes, systems, and standards that deliver systemic, long-term impact and enable continuous improvement.