Who Is Tarun Khanna, Harvard Professor Set To Attend NDTV World Summit

Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, is among the leaders attending the NDTV World Summit 2025 in New Delhi. The two-day event at Bharat Mandapam will bring together political, business, scientific, and cultural leaders to discuss global innovation, collaboration and emerging challenges.

Meet Tarun Khanna

Khanna has been with Harvard Business School since 1993, after obtaining degrees from Princeton University and Harvard University. Over nearly three decades, he has focused on entrepreneurship as a driver of social and economic development in emerging markets. At Harvard Business School, he has taught courses on strategy, international business and economic development to undergraduates, graduates and senior executives.

Publications And Research

Tarun Khanna's research on emerging markets was summarised in his 2010 co-authored book, Winning in Emerging Markets. He also explored entrepreneurship in China and India in two books based on his own experiences. They are Billions (2008) and its sequel Trust (2018). More recently, he co-edited two essay collections. Leadership to Last features transcripts of video interviews with prominent entrepreneurial leaders from emerging markets, while Making Meritocracy is an interdisciplinary study of meritocracy in China and India, offering insights into entrepreneurship, social dynamism, and inequality.

Leadership Roles At Harvard

In 2010, Khanna became the first director of Harvard's Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute. Under his leadership, the institute engaged over 150 faculty members from multiple disciplines and established a strong local presence with offices in New Delhi and Lahore. He also oversaw Harvard Business School's activities across South Asia.

Teaching And Online Initiatives

Khanna teaches a widely popular elective course, Contemporary Developing Countries, where students work in multi-disciplinary teams to develop practical solutions to complex social issues. A free online version, Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, is available on edX and has been taken by around 7.50 lakh students in more than 200 countries.

Awards And Recognitions

Khanna was nominated as a Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum in 2007. He became a Fellow of the Academy of International Business in 2009 and, in 2016, received the Academy of Management's Eminent Scholar award for Lifetime Achievement in International Management. Between 2015 and 2019, he served on multiple national commissions for the Government of India, including leading the initiative to develop policies for entrepreneurship.

Board Memberships And Entrepreneurial Ventures

Outside academia, Khanna serves on several for-profit and non-profit boards in the US and India, including AES, Bharat Financial Inclusion Limited and inMobi. He has co-founded multiple ventures across India, China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, including the Bangalore-based incubator Axilor.

Khanna resides in Newton, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.

NDTV World Summit 2025

The NDTV World Summit 2025 will bring together global thought leaders, innovators and cultural icons to discuss the evolving landscape of the world. This year, the summit centres on the theme of Risk, Resolve and Renewal, examining the challenges, opportunities and solutions likely to shape the next decade.