Meta’s India and Southeast Asia vice president, Sandhya Devanathan, is joining OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, as the social media giant faces increasing regulatory pressure in India. She will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, and regulatory engagement in Southeast Asia and Australia.
Devanathan’s move comes days after Prabhjeet Singh joined OpenAI as its India head, a veteran of Uber with over a decade of experience. Meanwhile, Meta is under scrutiny from Indian authorities over issues like online safety and content moderation. The company recently faced criticism after mistakenly restricting a post by Prime Minister Modi on Instagram and dealing with child sexual abuse concerns on its platforms.
Devanathan’s appointment reflects OpenAI’s expanding presence across the Asia Pacific region, with offices in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi. Following her departure, Meta’s India managing director, Arun Srinivas, will report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia Pacific.
Meta has been forced to address these concerns with measures like removing 160,000 accounts in India over six months and apologizing for the Instagram incident. As the tech landscape becomes more complex, the moves of key executives signal the changing dynamics in the global tech industry.







