About Tirthankar Sundaram
Full Name: Tirthankar Sundaram
Designation: Head – Deposits and Analytics, Treasury ALM
Company: Axis Bank
Country: India
Tirthankar’s Learning Journey That Inspires
Which courses or certifications by 101 Blockchains have you completed?
I have completed the Certified Blockchain Product Manager (CBPM)™ certification program by 101 Blockchains.
Why did you choose this certification program, and how was your learning experience with the platform?
I have more than two decades of professional experience in different areas of banking, including treasury, retail, and wholesale functions. Currently, I work in Treasury and ALM, which requires spending most of the time analyzing the balance sheet from the perspective of liquidity, risk, and funding efficiency.
As digital transformation and emerging technologies become integral components in the financial services industry, I developed the curiosity to understand how new technologies can solve balance sheet problems in the real world.
Blockchain has been a recurring topic in conversations around banking, industry narratives, and strategy meetings. However, I believed that I not only need to understand blockchain technology but also how to apply it in relevant business contexts.
Thinking about blockchain beyond the hype helped me choose the Certified Blockchain Product Manager certification. I also like to state that I had a productive learning experience with the certification course and 101 Blockchains.
At 101 Blockchains, you don’t just earn certifications — you gain real-world skills that shape you into a confident blockchain professional.
Which skills or knowledge gained from the program helped you the most?
The structured design of content in the certification program is the most appealing highlight for me. I would like to point out that the program does not explain blockchain as a standalone technology. On the contrary, it clearly showcases how blockchain can become an integral aspect of the larger product and ecosystem design problem in banking. The certification course also explained how different concepts like smart contracts, governance, and tokenization can be combined to craft viable solutions for business problems.
I work with treasury functions and balance sheets in my professional role, and the hands-on project in the certification program helped me the most. My project involved creating a design to solve real problems with SME supply chain financing in India with a practical roadmap for implementation.
The relevance of the hands-on exercise in the certification program with my professional goals turned out to be a huge advantage. Most important of all, the program helped me view the problems from a different perspective. The new perspective enabled me to design a blockchain-based model that treats invoices as digital assets. As a result, it can offer better access to credit, enhance overall capital efficiency, and reduce the risk of double financing.
You should always view hands-on exercises as something more than just academic requirements. The solution that I designed in the program directly targets real challenges in the SME financing ecosystem. It also offers clear implementation pathways across majority of the existing market structures, thereby delivering desired practical value.
How did 101 Blockchains help your professional growth?
The certification program by 101 Blockchains offered lessons on blockchain architecture, integration layers and consensus mechanisms, which I used in creating my solution. Most important of all, I could develop a system that can work seamlessly with existing infrastructure rather than replacing it.
In my opinion, the next promising aspect of the program was that it did not dwell too much on technical complexity. I learned how to explain technical concepts to business stakeholders and gained the skills required to promote blockchain adoption in financial institutions.
With the help of the certification program, I learned blockchain concepts and developed fluency in identifying the right use cases and approaches to implement blockchain technology.
From learners to leaders — explore the success stories of 100,000+ professionals with 101 Blockchains.
Whom will you recommend the CBPM certification to and why?
I believe that the CBPM certification program is the right choice for anyone who is working at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. The program played a pivotal role in transforming my curiosity about blockchain into clear understanding of all concepts. Most important of all, the certification refined my capabilities to identify how emerging technologies can support real business outcomes.
