Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu's strategy for avoiding Bengaluru traffic

Sridhar Vembu at the CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave.

Most of India’s 187 odd billionaires live in the larger metropolitan cities like Bengaluru, Delhi or Mumbai. Sridhar Vembu is an exception. The CEO of Zoho hates the traffic in Bengaluru and the pollution in Delhi. A vocal advocate of supporting rural development, the business magnate moved to Tenkasi, Tamil Nadu in 2019.

Sridhar Vembu recently travelled to Bengaluru to attend the CNBC-TV18 and Moneycontrol Global AI Conclave. In a lighthearted moment after discussing Zoho’s work on smaller artificial intelligence (AI) models, he revealed his strategy for avoiding Bengaluru’s infamous traffic.

Vembu said he plans his visit to the tech hub of India such that he always arrives and leaves the city late at night.

“I come only in the night. I leave late at night. So I never see Bangalore traffic,” he said, laughing. “By the time I arrive here, the traffic hasn’t started yet. I leave only after traffic ends,” he elaborated: “That’s my strategy.”

Vembu, 55, moved to the village of Mathalamparai in Tenkasi district in 2019. His daily schedule involves not just running his sprawling business empire but also going for walks in the village, snake-watching and a few hours of no screen time.

“After tasting this life in a village, it would be very hard for me to move to any major city anywhere now,” he told Deccan Herald in an interview in 2021. “Going for a walk in a village is a divine experience… I can almost say that I am addicted to this rural life. I have always loved it, and now I love it even more,” the billionaire founder and -CEO of Zoho added.