Nishith Desai is the founder of the research & strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates. Nishith himself is a renowned International Tax, Corporate, IP lawyer, researcher, published author and lecturer in leading academic institutions around the world. Nishith's interest span a wide spectrum of law, society and ethics. Soon after India opened up its economy to the outside world in 1991, Nishith established the first five India Focused Funds and pioneered the roots of now burgeoning asset management industry. He played a seminal role in structuring several private equity funds in addition to structuring several domestic venture capital funds. The firm has now worked for over 1400 funds across all classes of assets. He even assisted the Governments of Mauritius and India in launching their individual offshore financial centers. With a keen interest in technology, Nishith ensured that NDA remain ahead of the curve by actively driving legal and ethical research into emerging areas such as block chain, autonomous vehicles, flying cars, IOT, AI & Robotics, medical devices, genetic engineering amongst others. He was awarded the Prof. Mohd. Yunus 'Social Business Pioneer of India' in 2010.