Mahindra Group announced the appointment of Abanti Sankaranarayanan as Chief Group Public Affairs Officer effective July 1, 2022. In this role, Abanti will lead Group Public Affairs (India & international), Group Sustainability and the Group Risk & Economist functions. Abanti will be a part of the Group Executive Board.

She will be taking over the Group Public Affairs portfolio from Manoj Chugh, President, Group Public Affairs, who will be retiring on April 1, 2023. Before Mahindra, Abanti was Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Officer & Member - Executive Committee at Diageo India, where her responsibilities included Public Policy, Regulatory and Trade, Market Access, Corporate Communication, Corporate Social Impact, Strategy and Ventures. Abanti joined Diageo India as a Marketing and Innovation leader in 2010 and was subsequently promoted to Managing Director, Diageo India Pvt Ltd, leading Diageo's business mandate for international spirits in India.

She assumed the role of Chief Strategy and Corporate Affairs Director for the region in 2015, setting up these new functions as core and strategic to the business and a strong and integrated business partner to the rest of the company. Prior to Diageo, Abanti served as a member of the Tata Administrative Service (TAS) cadre since 1992 in various General Management and Marketing roles, across Tata Global Beverages (India & UK), the Taj Group of Hotels (India & the US), Tata Housing and Tata Finance.