Meta's India VP exits to OpenAI as platform faces intensifying regulatory pressure

Meta's vice president for India and Southeast Asia, Sandhya Devanathan, is stepping down to assume a regional role at OpenAI. Working from Singapore under Asia-Pacific managing director Kiran Mani, she will lead consumer expansion, enterprise sales, partnerships, regulatory strategy and operations spanning Southeast Asia and Australia, OpenAI confirmed.

A Decade-Long Meta Career Concludes#

Devanathan departs after more than 10 years with Meta, having held progressively senior posts including oversight of the Asia Pacific gaming division before securing her most recent appointment in June of the previous year. Her tenure coincides with Meta's rising challenges in India around content governance and user protection. Sources indicate she played a role in Meta's internal deliberations regarding the Indian market.

OpenAI Strengthens Asia-Pacific Footprint#

Devanathan's hire follows OpenAI's recruitment of Prabhjeet Singh as India lead just weeks earlier. Singh brings more than a decade of experience from Uber, where he directed the company's India and South Asia operations. OpenAI has pursued an aggressive regional expansion strategy, establishing offices across Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Sydney, and Delhi over two years.

Meta Confronts Mounting Government Scrutiny#

Meta is grappling with intensifying regulatory friction in India. In August, the platform restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Instagram—later apologizing for the error—prompting the government to summon senior executives, including chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan. New Delhi has also escalated concerns surrounding child sexual abuse material surfacing on Meta's apps. Following a BBC investigation uncovering advertisements allegedly linking to such content, Indian authorities demanded answers. Meta responded by highlighting its removal of problematic ads and accounts, and disclosed that it had disabled over 160,000 Indian accounts across a six-month span based on indicators of child exploitation.

Leadership Reshuffle at Meta India#

With Devanathan's exit, Meta's India managing director Arun Srinivas will now report directly to Benjamin Joe, the company's Asia-Pacific vice president, according to sources briefed on the transition.