SKF India’s newly independent automotive division has appointed Bhavna Panigrahi as Chief Human Resources Officer, marking a strategic leadership appointment as the company embarks on its first full year of operations following a transformative corporate restructuring.
Panigrahi brings 18 years of human resources experience spanning multinational corporations across India and Southeast Asia. She will be responsible for the organisation’s people and organisational strategy, encompassing talent management, HR operations, industrial relations, leadership development and organisational effectiveness.
Her appointment follows an internal progression at SKF India, where she joined in 2022 as HR Head for Technology Development before advancing to Head HR for the Automotive business. In October 2025, she was named Interim HR Head for Automotive India as part of the company’s management restructuring during the demerger process.
Prior to SKF India, Panigrahi spent nearly six years at Schneider Electric India, where she held HR leadership positions from September 2016 to May 2022. Her earlier career included eight years at Tata Consultancy Services, where she developed foundational expertise in talent management and HR operations from 2008 to 2016.
She holds an MBA in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations. Throughout her career, she has led strategic initiatives in people experience, talent acquisition and diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.
“Calm leadership and inclusive innovation unlock creativity and resilience,” Panigrahi said upon her appointment. “As SKF India enters its next phase of growth, I am committed to building people strategies that are closely aligned with business goals, strengthen leadership capability, and foster an inclusive environment where individuals and teams can thrive.”
The appointment comes at a defining moment for SKF India’s automotive business. In October 2025, SKF India Ltd completed a landmark demerger separating its automotive and industrial operations into two independent entities. The restructuring, first approved by the board in Q4 2024, created SKF Automotive as a focused entity whilst establishing SKF India (Industrial) Limited as a separate business serving manufacturing, railways, renewables and heavy industries.
SKF Automotive is positioned to capitalise on India’s mobility transformation, concentrating on electric vehicles, two-wheelers and wheel-end bearing applications. The company has outlined investments of ₹410–510 crore by 2030 across its manufacturing facilities in Haridwar, Pune and Bangalore to expand capacity and meet rising demand from original equipment manufacturers.
Shailesh Kumar Sharma was appointed Managing Director of SKF India Ltd for a five-year term as part of the restructuring, leading the automotive-focused entity through its growth phase.
The Swedish parent company, AB SKF, was founded in Gothenburg in 1907 and has grown to become the world’s largest bearing manufacturer. The group operates in approximately 130 countries with more than 38,000 employees and 17,000 distributor locations worldwide. SKF reported annual sales of SEK 98,722 million in 2024 and employs approximately 38,743 people globally.
SKF commenced operations in India in 1923, establishing one of its earliest international trading outposts. The company’s Indian subsidiary has since become a significant presence in the automotive components sector, serving major vehicle manufacturers across passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles and two-wheelers.
