Magical People

The romance of the

Adventurer-entrepreuners, workaholics, mavericks-you name them, we have them. Like their

predecessors, the following is a motley collection of the inhabitants of this jungle,

there is no distinction between the scion and the startup. They are all operating on the

fringes of the unknown, to create the next stage of civilization.

Dr Prakash Mutalik, CEO, RelQ



Dr Prakash Mutalik is now 25 years old in the IT industry. And he is celebrating this
'Silver Jubilee' with RelQ, a company that he started merely a couple of weeks ago. His

journey with the IT industry began way back in 1973, when he earned his PhD in Computer

Science from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). He then spent two years with the

ministry of Defense before joining AT&T Bell Labs in the US. Five years later, he came

back to India to join Wipro as a Software R&D Manager. In 1988, he quit Wipro as GM to

join Hewlett Packard (HP). Here he was involved in growing HP India's software operations.

In 1992, Dr Mutalik became a consultant. He

is perhaps the only consultant who takes pride in working with as many as 18 companies to

help them attain ISO and SEI certification. Be it a TISL, Verifone, Honeywell, or Ramco,

you name it and he is there. According to Dr Mutalik, ReIQ is the only company in the

whole of Asia-Pacific that is solely devoted to software testing and related quality

assurance services.

With companies treating software testing

and validation with little or no concern, this attempt by RelQ to bring in global

standards could well take India onto the road to success with quality. In the next couple

of years, he will be looking at gaining a strong foothold in the domestic market and by

the third year of its operations, he expects almost 70 percent of business to come from

the overseas market.

Arvind Thakur, Sr VP, NIIT



In 1995, Arvind Thakur was labeled as one of the future CEOs of the Indian IT industry by
DATAQUEST. Soon after that he was elevated to the post of Sr VP and Director at NIIT.

Being the youngest on the NIIT Board of directors, Thakur is credited with establishing

NIIT's software business and making it one of the leading software exporters from India.

He was the man behind the company gaining the SEI-CMM Level 3 software process capability.

The latest initiative of NIIT and HCL Corp. into the Japanese system integration market

has also been Thakur's hard work. An NIIT old-timer, Thakur is spearheading the software

business at the company and in the process, trying to convert the IT training company into

a software and a training company-in that order.

Neelam Dhawan, VP (Distribution),

Tata-IBM



One of the two highest ranking woman executives of the Indian IT industry, Neelam Dhawan
is currently responsible for the PC division of Tata-IBM and the company channel strategy.

An economics graduate and an MBA from Delhi university, Dhawan missed the opportunity to

become a banker when she spurned an offer from ANZ Grindlays preferring to be a part of

Shiv Nadar's dream of creating India's largest selling machine in IT. Dhawan is a

fast-tracker by habit and has spent close to 13 years in HCL. It was the lure of Big Blue

which prompted Dhawan to leave her mentor Nadar and take on the present role. Labeled as a

future CEO by DATAQUEST in 1995, she is just one step short of the post, and might well

become the youngest lady CEO very soon.

Manish Modi, MD, NetAcross



Manish Modi is the quintessential scion-foreign educated, part of the Modi business family
and a recently-returned-to-India businessman. But the angst to do something new propelled

him to set up NetAcross, an Internet and intranet solutions company, as new to his Group

as it is to the Indian IT. He also went ahead and developed an Internet-based messaging

and collaboration product called Unison, which he currently plans to market worldwide.

Modi and NetAcross are credited with having kick-started the Internet solutions business

in India. Now the company has tie-ups with global giants like Microsoft and Silicon

Graphics to provide services on their platforms. What also drives Modi probably is the

fact that his part of the family, the MK Modi Group, has not yet entered IT and the

youngster might actually be adding a huge and a totally new dimension to the family

business.

Manish Sharma CEO, DBS Internet

Services



"The word 'unconventional' best describes Internet as the Net epitomizes
'anti-establishment'," says the 26-year-old CEO of about a two-year-old company, DBS

Internet Services. It was simply a matter of fate that the computer engineer, who wanted

to do research in Artificial Intelligence, got hooked on to the Internet when he saw

Netscape. Says Manish Sharma, "From the technical point of view, it was an unknown

area with a lot to be explored, whereas from personal point of view, it has broken all

barriers of traditional mode of expression." And that was enough for him to go

headlong in that direction. He was joined by Viraj Savant, who looks after the development

of new markets in and outside India. Savant has been primarily responsible for the rapid

growth in the reach of the markets presently addressed by DBS Internet.

Realizing the vast opportunities that

Internet has to offer Indian businesses, the duo launched Websolutions in April 1996, and

with a mission to promote Internet adoption in India, DBS Internet was set up in June

1996. Since its inception, the company has evolved to become India's premier Internet

technology company.

Manpreet Singh, MD, Multiple Zones



In 10 flat years, Manpreet Singh rose to the post of CEO (of a division in HCL Corp.) from
a Management Trainee. A marketing whizkid, Singh started his own outfit last year.

Multiple Zones is the first discount catalog for IT products in India. Conceptually, what

Singh has done is created a brand new channel for the distribution of PC and related

products in the country. While he has initiated PC Zone for PC products with the target

being currently the corporate market, he has plans to launch Learning Zone, a catalog for

the home user. Singh's boldness is evident by his launch in what was generally a tough

year, yet he performed well, especially in light of the not-so-good history of catalog

marketing in India for consumer goods. But being a former HCL fast-tracker obviously

helps.

Montek Ahluwalia, Finance

Secretary, GoI



India's Finance Secretary and one of the key pillars of reform, Montek Ahluwalia burst on
the scene in 1991 when the then FM Dr Manmohan Singh initiated the reforms process in

India. As things have progressed, Ahluwalia has seen three governments change but has held

course on the process. If anything, the software export industry swears by Ahluwalia and

believes that his presence will ensure that software and IT get their due place in the

Indian economic decision-making. Ahluwalia clearly eschews the old protectionist regime,

and in the last few years has been talking about the need to step up the pace of reforms.

One of the highlights of Ahluwalia's career has been that unlike many of the latter-day

reformists, he has chosen to steer clear of controversies and maintain a low profile with

a high-pressure job. May be this is most needed now.

Dr Sugata Mitra, Sr VP, R&D,

NIIT Ltd



NIITians and those who have spent more than 30 seconds with Sugata Mitra are struck by the
extraordinary curiosity that drives him in all that he does. "I want to find out the

meaning of meaning and everything else is secondary." Symbolized by the motto set by

him GROPE, Mitra is busy searching for answers to his own questions. He is also the

inevitable mind behind the fascinating research that NIIT does on figuring out the way the

human learning takes place. Some of Mitra's real solutions, in the course of his

'gropings' are LEDA, Computerdrome, and the fundamental changes that NIIT made to the

programs being conducted for long-duration career courses.

Mitra is the man behind setting up of

R&D Center at NIIT. Forty-six-year-old Mitra holds over 20 years experience with

Organic Semiconductors, Computational Physics, Living Systems, Publishing Systems,

Multimedia, Cognitive Systems, Artificial Life, and what not. Also, he has played the lead

instructional role in a 30-part TV serial on computers. Currently, his role is to

continuously upgrade NIIT curriculum to contribute to the worldwide body of knowledge and

to support business groups in technology and scientific matters.

Dr Nirmal Jain, MD, Tata Infotech

Ltd



It is a little over a year since Dr Nirmal Jain took over the reins of Tata Infotech Ltd
and already the difference is apparent. While the former Tata Unisys concentrated on a

singular partnership, TIL is concentrating on forging alliances with various companies to

provide total solutions to its customers. Jain took over the reins of TIL when it was

clearly in troubled waters. With marketshare rapidly slipping and the company's focus

diffused, his leadership skills has been amply demonstrated when within three months he

could constitute a top-level team to streamline the company's focus on the systems

integration business. The first six months results, when TIL's growth rate was more than

the industry's average, bear testimony to this fact. Jain's sharp sense of business logic

has been honed by the 19 years he spent at TCS.

Dr Chandrababu Naidu, CM, Andhra

Pradesh



The man who buttonholed Bill Gates and sold him the investment potential of Andhra
Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu is a politician of a very different ilk. In a country where

politics is a four-letter word, he has successfully combined the qualities necessary for

politics with the actual information needs of his state. He is able to straddle both

worlds effortlessly. As a man responsible for giving a much-needed fillip to the state's

IT usage, his attitude has also been responsible for making Andhra Pradesh a preferred

investment target for both FIIs and NRIs. Recently, Businessweek magazine classified

Hyderabad as one of the hotspots of India, and going by the activities in the IT arena,

this state is sizzling.

MS Srinivasan, Secretary

(Industries), Govt Of Tamil Nadu



He is not from the IT industry. But he is contributing more to the industry than most IT
professionals. And at his finger tips he has facts and figures of the Indian IT industry,

particularly Tamil Nadu. This is MS Srinivasan, Secretary (Industries), Government of

Tamil Nadu.

Srinivasan's 26 years of administrative

career is dotted with a portfolio that has gone into promoting industries in the State.

Aptly realizing the growth potential of the IT industry, last year Srinivasan announced an

IT Policy for Tamil Nadu in less than one month of his taking over the office. Some of the

bold steps of the policy include announcement of venture-capital funding for

entrepreneurs, fixing a target of Rs 13,000 crore IT revenues for the State by the year

2000, promoting the Golden Cyber Triangle concept near Chennai alongwith developing

infrastructure, inviting private sector to jointly set up four more IT parks in Tamil

Nadu, and addressing connectiviy issues.

In order to involve people in the IT

industry and all associated Government bodies to work together, he has been instrumental

in forming a Steering Committee. And his endeavor is to see Chennai emerge as the Software

Capital of India. So reflects his optimism and determination "Just give me two years

to spin the magic."

Justice SS Sodhi, Chairman, TRAI



An ex-chief justice of the Allahabad High Court, and also the Lok Pal of Punjab, Justice
SS Sodhi hit the headlines soon after taking charge of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of

India (TRAI) as its Chairman. He rejected Government's offer for a space in the premises

of the Department of Telecom, Sanchar Bhavan.

His argument was that TRAI could not

maintain its independence, if it was housed within the premises of the Department of

Telecom, which falls under the jurisdiction of TRAI. The strength of this Barrister is a

law degree from Lincolns Inn and sheer conviction to take cudgels to regulate such a

highly monopolistic industry and promised to protect consumers' interests besides

facilitating efficiency in the telecom services. Besides the above, what is also equally

important is that Sodhi is perhaps one face of the telecom reforms which India can

showcase to the rest of the world with pride. Surely a lot is depending on this lawmaker's

ability.