Ice People: Preeti Desai

Hung on the Net

Preeti Desai, 43, president of the Internet Online Association (IOA), breathes the Internet "" literally. She can talk non stop for hours on it and, given a chance, would transform India's one billion people into Internet buffs.

Since joining IOA in August 2004, she has been on a mission to present a unified voice to industry and the government, specifically to address the issues, concerns and growth related to online media, advertising, e-commerce and wireless mobile advertising.

What makes her so passionate about the Internet? "I have been a troubleshooter basically. I have worked on the technology backend, overseen turnkey projects and tried to understand different markets because the Internet is all of these rolled into one," explains Desai who's been an entrepreneur, an employer, a marketer and a film special effects specialist.

In 1994, she founded multimedia products company Pixel Point along with the Jain Irrigation group .