On October 23, 2026, Vembu Meet returned for its second edition at Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport by IHG, continuing our pan-India dialogue on DPDP readiness.
The Chennai edition opened the conversation on what DPDP readiness means beyond legal interpretation and compliance checklists. In Mumbai, we took that conversation further. With experienced IT, security and business leaders in the room, the focus shifted to a more practical question: how can organisations translate regulatory requirements into demonstrable data protection and recovery capabilities?
From the keynote and expert panel to live product demonstrations and the unveiling of DPDP Explained, the evening explored what it takes to move beyond compliance on paper and build resilience in practice.
Why Mumbai
The Mumbai edition brought together CXOs, CISOs, IT leaders and practitioners from BFSI, manufacturing, logistics and healthcare, with BFSI the largest group.
Organisations such as Aditya Birla Capital, Upstox and Borosil Scientific were among those represented. Many of the BFSI leaders in the room answer to RBI, SEBI or IRDAI as well as DPDP, so a generic compliance talk was never going to work.
Nagarajan Chandrasekaran, Vice President – Product Management at Vembu Technologies, opened with a short welcome note.
From there, I (Bhavani Shanmugam, Product Manager at Vembu Technologies) took over as host for the rest of the evening.
Setting the tone
I delivered the featured session, “Beyond Compliance: Building Recovery Readiness in the DPDP Era”. It focused on four areas:
- The dates that matter for planning. The DPDP Rules are rolling out in phases, so today’s compliance posture is a moving target, not a finished project
- DPDP by industry. For each sector in the room, where personal data actually sits, what a breach or a failed recovery looks like there, and which sector rules stack on top of DPDP
- What to have ready. The evidence a Board or regulator would ask for after an incident, and whether you could produce it on the day
- Where our products fit. How BDRShield by Vembu and XDRShield by Vembu
each align to DPDP obligations, covered separately because they solve different problems
The shift I wanted the room to make was from “are we compliant?” to “what can we prove?”. A recovery time objective written in a policy document is a target. A recovery time you have actually tested is evidence.
The panel: DPDP compliance and data protection in practice
The panel was the centrepiece again, and I moderated it. The session brought together experts with experience across cybersecurity, financial services and enterprise technology.
- Dr. Deepak Kalambkar, Director – Cybersecurity & CISO, BCAN Cybersecurity Consulting & Professional Services
- Dr. Mukesh Mehta, BFSI Technology Leader
- Sandiip Kothaari, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer & Chief Technology Officer, Laser Securities
- Yogesh Rajawat, CISO and Head IT, Axium Global
The discussion covered:
- How to fold DPDP requirements into the security and compliance frameworks organisations already run, instead of building a parallel programme
- Managing risk across third-party vendors and the wider data ecosystem
- Coordinating the response when a data breach actually happens
- Ransomware recovery readiness
- What AI adoption means for data protection
- Winning management support for investment in data protection and recovery
Recovery readiness doesn’t move without leadership backing, and that only happens when management treats it as a business investment rather than an IT cost.
Then we showed the work
Pranav P. K., Product Manager at Vembu Technologies, took the room through a live look at our two products. BDRShield covers backup, disaster recovery and cyber resilience. XDRShield covers endpoint detection and response. He showed each one in action rather than listing features.
Unveiling ‘DPDP Explained’ Book
We also unveiled DPDP Explained, our book on the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 and the DPDP Rules, 2025. It’s written to help Indian businesses understand the law and prepare for it, with checklists teams can put to use. Every attendee took a copy home in their kit.
What the room told us
Here’s some of what attendees told us:
- “Great event & important discussions on DPDP.”
- “Understood DPDP in depth.”
- “Very informative, insightful panel discussion.”
- “Very good event & presentation.”
- “Insightful event.”
People asked for comparisons with other products, more time, and more interactive formats such as roundtables. Those are fair asks, and we’re taking them into the next editions.
Beyond the room
Vembu Meet Mumbai also picked up coverage from:
What’s next
Vembu Meet moves to Coimbatore on October 30, 2026, at Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Race Course, with Bengaluru and Delhi to follow. Each edition builds on the last, and together they’re giving us a clearer picture of how Indian businesses are approaching DPDP, data protection and cyber resilience.
If you want DPDP updates, breach trends and recovery-readiness insights between editions, join Cyber Signals by Vembu on WhatsApp.
Chennai showed us the room was ready to move past “are we compliant?”. Mumbai showed us senior leaders are already asking the next question: can we prove we’ll recover?
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