Topic:  "How neighbors might be thinking about China."

Jaithirth Rao, popularly known as Jerry Rao, is an Indian businessman and entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of the software company MphasiS. He is the founder of Value and Budget Housing Corporation (VBHC) (now known as VBHC Value Homes Pvt. Ltd.), an affordable housing venture which he founded in 2008(Official website).^[1][2] He was also a founder and director of Home First Finance Company,^[3] a Housing Finance company focused on providing housing finance to first time home buyers.^[4] He was also a member of the editorial advisory board of the "Swarajya" Magazine, founded by the late Rajaji.^[5]

In 1998, Rao started MphasiS Corporation, a software company based in California, which subsequently merged with BFL Software in 2000. MphasiS rapidly rose to be one of the top 10 IT/BPO companies in India.^[6] In 2008, EDS acquired a majority stake in MphasiS.^[7] Mr. Rao stayed on as non-executive Chairman of MphasiS and for some time as Advisor to EDS.

Rao held several positions in Citibank prior to his founding MphasiS in 1998. In a banking career of over 20 years, he served with Citi and its parent Citicorp in various capacities in Asia, Europe, South America, and North America. He was Head of the Development Division of Citicorp and Chairman and CEO of Transaction Technologies Inc., based in California.