Three women techies join hand to float Aaroha

(from left) Kalpana Sinha, Ketaki Kadekar and Haritha Kandalla. Co-founders of Aaroha

Three women corporate leaders, who worked for top tech firms such as Microsoft and UpGrad, joined hands to float a startup called Aaroha, which helps businesses strengthen leadership and organisational capability “through frameworks inspired by Indian philosophy”.

The Hyderabad-based startup was founded by Kalpana Sinha, former Director of People and Organisation Capability at Microsoft; Haritha Kandalla, a former executive of Microsoft Global Delivery; and Ketaki Kadekar, former Customer Success Director at UpGrad, and co-founder of The Leadership Project.

“The three leaders comes with an aggregate 70 years of experience in coaching, capability-building, and organisational transformation,” an Aaroha executive said.

“Aaroha addresses a critical gap in leadership development—offering Indian-origin frameworks that move beyond conventional Western models, helping leaders build cultures of adaptability, resilience, and purpose.

“Traditional leadership models tend to emphasise the individualistic leader, while Indian philosophy talks about a leader as someone who takes the collective along,” Kalpana Sinha, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Aaroha, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Published on April 15, 2025