Naavi-Man with the Mission

On the occasion of Cyber Society of India (CySi) deciding to confer an honour for life time achievement of Naavi in the filed of Cyber Law, I have been requested to share information about my journey in Cyber Law domain in the last 20 plus years.

Naavi’s journey in the professional life has passed through the following distinct phases.

Phase 1:

Indian Overseas Bank where Naavi joined as a Probationary officer on 27th December 1973 and worked till 1987.

Phase II:

A Brief period upto 1989 where Naavi worked in Nagarjua Group and Cholamandalam Finance.

Phase III:

An extended stint with RK Swamy BBDO from 1989 to 2000

Phase IV:

Starting as a Cyber Law educationist and proceeding to be Data Protection Consultant from 2000 till date taking up the responsibility as Chairman of Foundation of Data Protection Professionals in India since 2018

Phase V:

In the future Naavi could work in the extended space of Neuro Rights and also trying to create a Federation of Data Protection Professionals.

The focus of this narrative is the development of the Cyber Law Career and only to the extent necessary, a brief mention about other aspects of my career would be referred to.

Prior to joining the professional career, Naavi completed M.Sc., degree in Physics from Manasa Gangotri, the University of Mysore in 1973. The specialization in Physics was Nuclear Physics and several aspects of Physics including Transistors, Electronics and Quantum Physics etc have come back into Naavi’s life as a Cyber Law specialist several years later.

Soon after the completion of the M.Sc., degree, fate drew Naavi to join Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) as a probationary officer in the same year. At this stage, Naavi had no exposure to law and it was during the Probationary Officer’s training followed by a two year study of CAIIB, that Naavi developed the knowledge of Law and took special fancy to Negotiable Instruments Act 1881.

Soon after a stint as a Branch Manager, Naavi developed a keen interest in Behavioural Science and opted to be a Faculty member to pursue this interest. While being a Faculty Member in Charge of a Training Center in Coimbatore, Naavi developed a high level of expertise in every aspect of Banking including Banking Law, Accounting. Often trainees believed that I was a lawyer and a Chartered Accountant.

During these days while pursuing the Post Graduate Diploma in Management from AIMA DM, Naavi picked up an interest in use of Computers in Business and completed a project work on Management Information Systems in NTC, taking the thread from the Physics education he had earlier. He also developed interest in Marketing which also had an impact on his later career.

After an eventful stint in the Faculty, Naavi moved on to Merchant Banking before deciding to pursue his career in the private sector. He left IOB and joined Nagarjua Group and later landed up in RK Swamy BBDO as head of Marketing of Financial Products and Financial Services.

At that time, Naavi was a columnist in Indian Express on Investment and his weekly column on “Where to Invest” was a popular column for more than 5 years.

It was during these days that Internet made its debut and Naavi took to learning about Internet as a tool of Advertising and Promotion. Naavi also attended some Computer Courses and gained some working knowledge of Computers and Web Site creation.

Using his simple computer knowledge that he had picked up in IOB, he helped creation of many applications on the website. The first online RD calculator and first online Hire Purchase Calculator in India was created under Naavi’s supervision for some of the clients of RK Swamy BBDO.

This introduction to the Internet world also saw Naavi filing three innovative patent applications namely business method patent for “Verify for Lookalikes”, “AdView Certification” and “Digital Value Imprinted Instrument System (DVIIS)”. The first two patents were processed successfully as PCT applications but could not be commercially exploited. The third patent namely DVIIS ( and its operational version ZeMO Cards) is a precursor to the modern day virtual pre-paid cards. The Verify for lookalikes was related to resolution of Domain Name disputes and Ad View Certification was an innovative solution to Web Ads.

By around 1998 when the Indian Cyber Laws took birth, Naavi was already exhibiting his love for the Internet technology.

After 1998, the journey shifted to the Cyber Law Domain… and the story continues in the next article.

Naavi