Leadership
Dr. Ajay Data
Managing Director of Data Group. He founded Data Infosys — now Data Ingenious Global Limited — in 1999 as Rajasthan's first private internet service provider, and chaired the Universal Acceptance Steering Group from 2019 to 2023, the first Asian to hold the role.
As Managing Director, Ajay Data leads the Group across both of its businesses — day-to-day strategy, growth and brand for the edible oils division, alongside the technology arm he founded.
Born in Khairthal in 1973 — the same town where the family began pressing mustard oil — he founded Data Infosys (now Data Ingenious Global Limited) in 1999, Rajasthan’s first private internet service provider.
Beyond the Group he is a founder several times over — of TiE Rajasthan, of the Entrepreneurs’ Organisation in Jaipur, and of the Data Security Council of India chapter there — and is widely sought out for mentoring and technology guidance.
He holds an MBA in Computer Sciences and a PhD in Electronic Data Processing, and has spent two decades on a problem most of the industry ignored: making email addresses work in scripts other than Latin. He chaired the Universal Acceptance Steering Group from 2019 to 2023 — the first Asian to hold the role — and was the first Indian appointed to ICANN’s ccNSO Council in 2018.
He is the author of Zenith: Mastering AI for Everyday Life and Work, published by Rupa Publications in 2025.
The Khairthal thread
He was born in Khairthal in 1973 — the town where his father had opened the family's first mustard oil plant five years later, in 1978. The Group's two businesses, edible oil and internet infrastructure, both trace back to the same few square kilometres of Alwar district.
Leadership beyond the Group
Positions held.
Internet governance
- Chairman, Universal Acceptance Steering Group — 2019–2023, the first Asian in the role
- ccNSO Council, ICANN — first Indian appointed, 2018
- Co-chair, Neo-Brahmi Generation Panel, ICANN
- Expert Panel, Root Zone Label Generation Rules
- Chair, Pre-IIGF — India’s input to the UN Internet Governance Forum, 2021
Industry bodies
- Chairman, Assocham Rajasthan
- Founder & President, TiE Rajasthan
- Founder President, YEO Jaipur — now EO
- Chair, ICT & Startup, FICCI Rajasthan — 2026
- Member — NASSCOM
- Member — Data Security Council of India
- Member — PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Rajasthan
Investment & mentorship
- Member, Rajasthan Angel Investors Network
- Mentor, Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund
- Advisory Board, AIESEC
- Board Member, Faculty of Management Studies, Poddar College
Sport
- Chairman, Premier Handball League, India
Evidence
An email address in the script its readers use.
Dr. Data has spent two decades on a problem most of the industry ignored: an email address written in Hindi, Tamil or Bengali is rejected by a great deal of the world's software. He chaired the body set up to fix it, and built the platform that made it commercially possible.
The proof is not in a standards document. It is in the Group's own newspaper advertising for mustard oil, where a Devanagari address is printed beside the Latin one for readers who would otherwise never be offered one.
Scooter has been made since 1978, Ashoka since 1975. Both now advertise with an address in Devanagari — the oldest businesses in the Group using the newest thing in it.
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The advertising these come from · The platform that makes them work
About Dr. Ajay Data
- Who is Dr. Ajay Data?
- Dr. Ajay Data is Managing Director of Data Group, the Rajasthan industrial house founded in 1978. He founded Data Infosys (now Data Ingenious Global Limited) in 1999, Rajasthan’s first private internet service provider, and chaired the Universal Acceptance Steering Group from 2019 to 2023 — the first Asian to hold the role.
- What is Dr. Ajay Data known for?
- Work on making email addresses function in scripts other than Latin. He authored the "downgrading with Alias" approach adopted as UASG best practice, and built DataMail, the world’s first IDN-compliant free email service, offering addresses in 16 languages.
- What book did Ajay Data write?
- Zenith: Mastering AI for Everyday Life and Work, published by Rupa Publications India in 2025 — a practical guide to prompt engineering and applying AI in daily work.
- When was Ajay Data chair of the UASG?
- He was elected Chairman of the Universal Acceptance Steering Group in 2019, the first Asian to hold the role, and was reappointed for a second term, serving until 2023.