About CIOs Of India
India's First CIO Forum
Founded in 1996 as IS India, registered as Information System Managers' Forum in 2006, and now branded as CIOs Of India, the forum is a non-profit peer community for CIOs and senior technology leaders.
Who We Are
A peer community built around trust
CIOs Of India is a non-profit, peer-led forum of Chief Information Officers and senior technology leaders. It was created with a simple but powerful belief: technology leaders need an independent platform where they can learn from one another, speak with a collective voice, and build relationships based on trust rather than transactions.
The forum brings together CIOs, senior IT executives, academicians, consultants, and technology leaders who are shaping digital transformation across Indian organisations. Over the years, it has become a space where members discuss real challenges, exchange practical experience, share lessons from success and failure, and support one another through the changing role of technology in business and society.
The journey began as an effort to strengthen the voice of the user industry. At a time when technology leadership was still emerging as a strategic function, the forum gave IT leaders a place to connect beyond individual organisations and vendor conversations. It helped create a community where CIOs could speak openly, learn collectively, mentor future leaders, and contribute to the larger technology ecosystem.
CIOs Of India is powered by Information System Managers' Forum and has remained independent in spirit: formed by IT professionals, run by IT professionals, and focused on the needs of IT professionals. That independence has shaped its culture. The forum is not built around commercial promotion; it is built around peer learning, professional respect, shared responsibility, and the belief that technology leaders can create greater impact when they come together.
What makes the forum special is not only its programs or events, but the relationships it has nurtured over nearly three decades. Members have found knowledge, guidance, friendship, collaboration, and a sense of belonging. In that sense, CIOs Of India is more than an association. It is a community created by CIOs, sustained by CIOs, and carried forward for the next generation of technology leaders.
Journey
From IS India to CIOs Of India
The story of CIOs Of India began in 1996, when the forum was formally launched as IS India. At that time, the role of information systems leaders in India was changing rapidly. Technology was moving from the back office to the boardroom, and CIOs needed a platform where they could come together, share their experiences, and represent the voice of the user industry with confidence.
IS India was created with a national vision. Its ambition was not limited to one city, one sector, or one group of organisations. The idea was to bring CIOs and information systems leaders across the country onto one independent platform, where they could learn from one another, discuss common challenges, and help shape the direction of enterprise technology in India.
As the community grew, the need for a formal structure became clear. In 2006, the association was registered as a society under the name Information System Managers' Forum. This gave the forum an institutional foundation while preserving the same founding spirit: a community created by technology professionals, run by technology professionals, and committed to the professional growth of technology leaders.
Over time, the community came to be recognised and branded as CIOs Of India. The name reflects both its identity and its purpose. It represents a forum where CIOs and senior technology leaders can connect as peers, contribute their time and experience, mentor others, and work together for the larger technology ecosystem.
The journey from IS India to Information System Managers' Forum and then to CIOs Of India is more than a change of name. It is the story of a community that has evolved with India's technology landscape while staying true to its roots: independent, non-profit, peer-led, and focused on creating value for technology leaders and the organisations they serve.
Milestones
1996: IS India was launched as a CIO-led association with a national vision for connecting information systems leaders.
2006: Information System Managers' Forum was registered as a society, giving the community a formal institutional structure.
Present: CIOs Of India continues as a non-profit, peer-led forum for CIOs and senior technology leaders across India.
Identity
What makes the forum different
CIOs Of India has always been different because it is not built around a commercial agenda. It is an independent, CIO-led platform created by technology leaders, sustained by technology leaders, and focused on the real needs of the user community.
The forum gives CIOs a space where conversations can go beyond product pitches and formal presentations. Members share practical experience, discuss implementation realities, learn from one another's successes and failures, and track emerging technology and business trends from the perspective of those who actually lead transformation inside organisations.
A strong focus of the forum has been the overall development of CIOs and senior technology leaders. This includes knowledge sharing, leadership conversations, certification and reskilling programs, peer mentoring, wellness, family connect, and opportunities to engage with society beyond the workplace.
The community has also stood together during difficult times. During COVID and other medical emergencies, members helped one another with information, contacts, support, and personal concern. The forum has functioned not only as a professional network, but as a close-knit community where CIO friends look out for each other.
CIOs Of India has also acted as a collective voice for the CIO community when required. During COVID, for example, the forum wrote to OEMs and technology partners to support CIOs and help bring down prices at a time when organisations were under pressure. Such interventions reflect the forum's role in representing user-industry concerns with responsibility and maturity.
Social responsibility, family engagement, wellness, and civic conversations have remained part of the forum's larger identity. Programs such as the Bala Memorial Lecture Series show that CIOs Of India sees leadership not only through the lens of technology, but also through society, ethics, public life, and human values.
What makes the forum special is this combination: professional learning, trusted relationships, community support, collective voice, and a commitment to the larger ecosystem. It is a forum where CIOs come together not only to grow as professionals, but to support one another as people and contribute meaningfully to the world around them.