Evernorth appoints Prashanti Bodugum as Head of Hyderabad innovation hub
Health Services, the pharmacy, care, and benefits solutions division of The
Cigna Group
, proudly announces the appointment of
Prashanti Reddy Bodugum
as Head of
Evernorth India (Hyderabad Innovation Hub
), effective 30 June 2025.
With over
26 years of global leadership experience,
Prashanti brings deep expertise in leading large-scale digital transformations, building high-performing tech teams, and delivering results across healthcare, retail, and financial services. She most recently served as Vice President
, GCC, at Walmart Global Tech
and has held senior roles at
Optum, Capgemini, and GE.
'
It's an honor to join Evernorth during such a transformative phase
,' said Prashanti. '
The Hyderabad Innova- tion Hub is already a powerhouse of talent and innovation. I'm excited to build on that foundation, nurture future leaders, and accelerate our impact for customers and all those we serve
.'
'
Prashanti's entrepreneurial mindset and proven track record in scaling global capability centers make her the ideal leader for this next chapter. Her leadership will be instrumental in driving innovation and delivery so that we can better serve customers, clients and stakeholders,'
said
Neel Chopdekar
, SVP and COO of Information Technology at Evernorth.
A passionate advocate for women in technology, Prashanti has spearheaded inclusive programs like
ReSpark, CodeHers, and iLead,
driving equitable career advancement for women in senior tech roles. Among her many achievements, Prashanti led the transformation of Walmart's Chennai center into an exponential tech value engine, delivering digital, analytics, and automation solutions for Fortune 500 enterprises.
Ashok Venkatachalam,
who has led and successfully grown the Hyderabad Innovation Hub over the past 15 months, will assume a new role within Evernorth.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Maverick
a few seconds ago
- Daily Maverick
Bok Women have right aura and attitude to achieve World Cup play-off objective
After disappointments of past Rugby World Cups, Swys de Bruin's team are confident they can finally reach the knockout stage. 'It's big. It's something that we never knew we would get. Things are changing and people know that there is a Springbok Women's team.' This was the honest reflection of Springbok Women's captain and long-serving lock Nolusindiso Booi when she was asked how it felt seeing her face on a billboard before the team's 2025 Women's Rugby World Cup campaign. Booi was speaking during a farewell dinner organised for the team by the South African Rugby Union (Saru) and headline sponsor FNB. The skipper is heading to her fourth World Cup, after which she will retire. She is one of the pioneers of women's rugby in South Africa and has created a path for future generations. Having played rugby for so long, Booi has watched the landscape shift below her feet as interest in the team gradually increases. This steady growth of the game has injected belief into the Bok Women that at this World Cup they can finally snap their hoodoo of never reaching the knockout round. Steady growth The Bok Women only played their debut international Test match in 2004. Since then the team's growth has been slow — despite their male counterparts being one of the best rugby teams in the world. This is mostly due to a lack of resources in the women's game. As Booi suggests, two decades after the Boks' international debut, the tide is finally turning. This has emboldened the team coached by former Lions mentor Swys de Bruin – who was appointed in August 2024. One of the biggest turnarounds is the fact that more women rugby players are now regularly exposed to competitive fixtures and the intensity required to succeed internationally. They know what it's like to win and they know what it's like to lose. Both domestically and internationally, the calendar has swelled. This has been pivotal in producing the types of players De Bruin and his technical team have at their disposal for the England-hosted 2025 World Cup. The Springboks will face Brazil, Italy and France at the global spectacle. Judging from the camaraderie that was in the air during their farewell in Sandton on Wednesday, the players are ready to rewrite the script when it comes to their World Cup performances. 'I can feel it' At the 2021 World Cup in New Zealand, the Boks failed to win any of their matches after being grouped with England, France and Fiji. In 2025, their opening match against Brazil presents a great opportunity for De Bruin's team to demonstrate the growth they have managed since that disappointing campaign. 'Coaching the men was an honour and something special, especially at the top level. It was fantastic. But this is something different, and in a way it is more special,' De Bruin said at the team's farewell. 'The sky is still the limit and what we can still achieve together is unreal. I can dream it, I can feel it and I can sense it. There is something great happening with this bunch,' the 65-year-old continued. A bigger cause A number of the Bok Women players come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and every time they put on the green-and-gold jersey they are fighting to break barriers for people from similar communities. Someone like Bok prop Babalwa Latsha is from the township of Khayelitsha and constantly speaks about the issues that plague the community. In an ideal world, this would not be fuel for the team to succeed. But it is. 'When there are trials and tribulations, they lift each other up. They are unreal and they have inspired me so much. My eyes are open,' said De Bruin on the atmosphere in the team since his takeover. 'We all know a lot of them come from tough times. So, they are appreciative [of this opportunity]. But they also feel that they belong. We've become a real family,' the Bok coach added. This team may be quietly confident that it can make further strides when it comes to flying the Springbok Women flag, but at domestic level there remain some issues that have a direct impact on how well the Boks are able to perform. The biggest one is the fact that many of the pool of players available to De Bruin are either amateurs or semi-professionals at the franchise level. In the Women's Premier Division, an annual domestic competition, only players from the dominant Bulls Daisies have professional contracts. Professional league coming SA Rugby says it is actively working on improving the standards of the local league. This will further strengthen the Boks in years to come. 'Let me take this moment to speak about our future. As we celebrate this team's departure, we acknowledge that we still have a lot of work ahead of us. This Springbok Women campaign is not a destination, it's a catalyst,' SA Rugby president Mark Alexander stated. 'We are currently hard at work preparing the launch of South Africa's first professional women's league in 2026. It's a necessity. We are actively mobilising the resources, partnerships and structural reforms required to address the long-standing shortcomings in our women's team,' Alexander added. 'We know that talent alone is not good enough. Our players deserve platforms, pathways and professional environments that reflect excellence.' Something inside so strong In a fitting turn of events, South African singer Lira serenaded the audience members at the farewell. The 46-year-old suffered a life-threatening stroke in 2022, but she has since recovered. Lira sang one her classics — Something inside so strong. 'The higher you build your barriers, the taller I become,' say the first two lines of the song. The Boks have had to shatter a number of barriers to find themselves in this position. A memorable campaign in England would add more momentum to their cause as they pave a way for future generations. De Bruin's side will begin their campaign against Brazil on 24 August. A week later, they will clash with Italy. The Boks finish their campaign with a mega-clash against France on 7 September. DM
Daily Maverick
a few seconds ago
- Daily Maverick
Outa in court bid to declare Joburg property power broker Helen Botes delinquent director over Usindiso fire
The anti-corruption organisation is demanding that Helen Botes – who has been implicated in various other crises in the city – face immediate and decisive accountability. Anti-corruption organisation Outa served delinquent director court papers on Johannesburg Metro strongwoman Helen Botes on Wednesday, 13 August. The papers relate to Botes's negligence in the Usindiso fire in August 2023, in which 76 people were killed. A second case involves Botes's implication by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in Covid-19 procurement criminality, where R18.6-million was spent on dodgy companies. These providers failed to do the work on City property, and the spending took place even when most City staffers were working from home. (See Mark Heywood's report here.) Botes, like a cat with nine lives, has been implicated in various other crises in the city, including the abandonment of the Metro Centre and the leasing of expensive buildings from an ANC cadre. This property cadre has on several occasions been in arrears in paying the City's bills, as reported here. But, as a powerful member of the ANC region, she has escaped censure. Botes has been the CEO of the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) and a director of the City entity since 2008, and in that role has consolidated her position as an official and political power broker. She was appointed acting COO of Johannesburg in January in unprocedural circumstances, but with Tshepo Makola now back in his position, it's unclear what Botes is doing. JPC spokesperson Lucky Sindane confirmed that Botes has not returned to the entity as CEO. 'The JPC board is studying the court action and will consider its options,' he said. The board is chaired by Simon Motha, who is the deputy chairperson of the ANC Johannesburg region. Mayor Dada Morero is the chairperson. Legal action Outa demands that Botes face immediate and decisive accountability. 'Public officials trusted with life-and-death responsibilities cannot be allowed to walk away from catastrophes without consequences. We owe it to the victims, their families and all residents of South Africa to ensure those responsible are held accountable, and that such a disaster (the fire) never happens again,' said Outa executive director, advocate Stefanie Fick. Fick is using the Companies Act, which allows for an application to the court to declare a director delinquent. 'A court must make an order of delinquency if a director grossly abused this position, inflicted harm on the company or acted with gross negligence, wilful misconduct or breach of trust,' she said. The organisation successfully used a delinquency application against the late Dudu Myeni, who was a wrecking ball at SAA, in 2020. That case took three or four years to finalise, said Outa's Wayne Duvenage, but he added that this case should not take that long since the organisation's standing to bring the application has been decided and is now case law. Outa has used the findings of the Khampepe Commission of Inquiry (chaired by Judge Sisi Khampepe) as the cornerstone of its application to court. Daily Maverick sent questions to the City about the Outa case, and its answers will be added once received. The JPC manages a portfolio of 29,001 properties with a book value of R10.2-billion, many of which are in poor condition due to inadequate management, as evidenced by the Usindiso shelter, the Metro Centre, the Randburg Civic Centre and numerous other properties. (See this report from Carte Blanche, for example.) The City's attempts to squeeze more money out of leaseholders on public properties and green spaces in Johannesburg have caused an uproar, as reported here by Ed Stoddard and Julia Evans. The Khampepe commission found that: The board of directors of the JPC must consider taking appropriate action against Botes, the chief executive of the JPC, for the total disregard of managing the Usindiso building despite knowledge of the disastrous state since at least 2019; Botes gave evidence and answered questions by the evidence leader (of the commission) and, in cross-examination, made concessions indicating awareness of the following relevant facts spanning from at least 2015 until the fire occurred. Since at least 2015, Usindiso Ministries had vacated the building; the building was not zoned for residential purposes; the building had been hijacked, remained occupied illegally and was overcrowded; crime was rife in the building, and the building was not habitable; the building had illegal electricity connections and water consumption; the building lacked firefighting equipment and installations; and the JPC had failed to maintain the property since 2003; and The evidence of the former residents detailed herein indicates without any shadow of a doubt that the Usindiso building was dangerous or showed signs of becoming hazardous to life or property. In contrast, the evidence presented by Botes elsewhere demonstrates that the JPC and, by extension, the COJ were aware that the Usindiso building posed a danger to life or property, yet no steps appear to have been taken to uphold applicable laws to ensure public safety. DM
Daily Maverick
a few seconds ago
- Daily Maverick
The National Dialogue is our last chance to set the nation's broken bones
The psychiatrist's office feels like a waiting room for parole. Shiny wooden desk. Charts piled like court evidence. Burglar bars on the windows. The man across from me is bald, calm, deliberate. His red forehead dot stares at me like a warning light. I'm hunched forward, hands clasped, as if one good argument might win me my release. 'Doctor,' I ask, voice tight. 'When will I be back to my old self? When will I be healed and off this medication?' He exhales, as if the question is an old acquaintance. 'There's more empathy for a broken bone,' he says, 'than a broken brain.' The sentence lands like a hammer. Suddenly I'm six years old in the village, clutching a hand no one believes is broken. 'Stop dodging chores,' they say. No bruising, no swelling, no proof — just pain. It takes an X-ray, days later, to convince them. A fracture you can't see still hurts. And South Africa, I realise, is limping on a leg that we refuse to X-ray. The limp we pretend isn't there We drag it into Parliament — the legislature meant to make our laws. Into court rooms — the judiciary meant to uphold them. Into the executive's chambers, from Cabinet meetings to community imbizos. And into dinner tables where jokes about 'them' pass without pushback. Occasionally, a headline or scandal jars the bone, and we wince before pretending we're fine. The latest jolt came from Minister Gayton McKenzie. In a viral podcast clip, hosts labelled coloured families 'incestuous' and 'crazy '. McKenzie's outrage was swift – press statements, legal threats, demands for respect. But like a second X-ray revealing a missed fracture, his own words resurfaced — old posts heavy with the K-word and anti-black slurs. The very injury he diagnosed in others was lodged untreated in his own record. His 'apology' included this: 'I can never be guilty of racism… I did tweet some insensitive, stupid and hurtful things a decade or two ago… I was a troll & stupid.' It's the equivalent of setting a bone without touching it. To say 'I can never be guilty of racism' while admitting to 'hurtful' language sidesteps the wound. Dismissing it as 'trolling' isn't mitigation. Trolling is the deliberate weaponising of words to wound and inflame – corrosive behaviour that should never be excused, least of all by a minister charged with reconciliation. Accountability is not humiliation — it's the first act of repair. Without it, the fracture may be acknowledged, but it will never be set. The irony of the reconciliation portfolio This matters more because of the ministry McKenzie now leads, Sports, Arts and Culture — historically one of South Africa's most reconciliation-charged portfolios. Under Nelson Mandela, sport became a scalpel for healing. Rugby in 1995 and soccer in 1996 weren't just trophies — they were moments when black and white could cheer as one. Arts and culture were harnessed to tell a shared story, not deepen a fracture. Today, that same portfolio is in McKenzie's hands. But instead of stitching the wound, his record risks tearing the scar apart. An old fracture, badly set Apartheid didn't just pit black against white. It built a ladder of worth into the nation's bones. Africans were forced to the bottom rung. Above them, Indians and coloureds — each rung pretending it was closer to safety. Whites stood at the top, every law tilted in their favour. It infected how we saw ourselves and measured others. You could be oppressed and still believe you were 'better' than the rung below. By 1985, the fracture had become so deep that thousands queued for reclassification to a 'higher' race group. Some bleached their accents; others married strategically. The government called it 'administrative'. History remembers it as desperation made policy. That's why McKenzie's slurs matter — they're not just personal failings, they echo a fracture the nation has never reset. And until that fracture is faced honestly — without denial, without selective outrage — every attempt at unity will be built on a crooked limb. The infection that set in If racism was apartheid's fracture, toxic masculinity is the infection that set in while we ignored it. Step into most political rooms and you'll see men. In spaces meant for reconciliation, too many are absent. I'm not speaking against the kind of male leadership that protects, provides and serves with integrity. I'm speaking against the strain that refuses accountability, weaponises silence and shields wrongdoing. And in South Africa, these fractures and infections feed each other — racial hierarchies defended by toxic patriarchal power, and patriarchy sustained by racial grievance. The National Dialogue can't heal if half the surgeons refuse to scrub in. Men need to show up differently — not to defend or lecture, but to listen until it burns. To say 'I'm sorry' without the 'but' lurking behind. To help set the bone they helped break. The X-ray we cannot unsee The proposed National Dialogue could be that X-ray — not the paper sort you file away, but the kind you can't unsee: jagged lines on a black screen showing exactly where the nation's bones have splintered. We're not the first to attempt this. Tunisia's civil society 'Quartet' pulled their country back from collapse in 2013, delivering a new constitution and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. In Burundi, Mandela's mediation helped broker the Arusha Peace Accords. Kenya's post-2008 truth commission stopped the bleeding after deadly election violence. Not all succeed — Yemen's collapse is a warning — but the lesson holds: when they're inclusive, action-driven, and rooted in ordinary people's voices, national dialogues can reset a nation's broken bones. From 15 to 17 August 2025, the National Dialogue Kickoff Convention will open this process, aiming to engage millions of South Africans through more than 13,000 ward-based and citizen-initiated dialogues. I will be there, not as an observer, but as a participant — ready to listen, to speak and to be challenged — because the goal is simple but urgent: turn our conversations into binding Community Action Plans that drive real change in our economy, land reform, safety and beyond. This will demand more than good intentions — it will demand that we let strangers probe the sorest parts of our national body, and that we hold still long enough for the splint to be set. If done right, it will be uncomfortable. People like McKenzie — and people like me — will have to face our fractures in public. Communities will have to speak about wounds others tell them to 'move on' from. If done wrong, it will be like doctors walking away from a patient because hospital management planned poorly — abandoning healing before diagnosis even begins. What healing really takes When my childhood fracture was finally treated, the process was simple: X-ray — bring hidden injuries into view. Diagnosis — name them for what they are. Cast — make concrete, enforceable commitments to protect healing. Time — commit beyond the photo op and press release, knowing this process is set to culminate in a 30-year national plan. Healing isn't a weekend exercise — it's a generational commitment, and nations heal the same way, only slower. The more often the bone is broken and poorly set, the harder it becomes to fix. The question that remains Back in the psychiatrist's office, I had pushed for an answer: 'How long until I'm normal again?' 'For some,' he said, 'a year. For others, three. For others, much longer. It depends on whether the injury is treated, or ignored.' South Africa's injury has been ignored for decades. The National Dialogue could be our first genuine treatment in years. But no X-ray heals a bone. The real question is the one my doctor left hanging — not whether we are broken, but whether we will set the bone… or let it rot. Because nations, like bodies, don't get endless chances. A fracture left untreated long enough doesn't just fail to heal — it becomes the shape you live with. Because if we don't set it now, we will hand our children not a healed limb, but a crippled nation, staggering into the same old potholes, bleeding from wounds we were too proud or too afraid to treat. DM
