25 People who shaped Indian IT

NR Narayana Murthy



The Humble Warrior









Infosys once most popular tagline, powered by intellect, driven by values is
an apt description of its co-founder, Narayana Murthy. NRN has practiced what he

has preached, no wonder Infosys has leaped to what it is todayone of the

worlds leading IT services companies. NRN has come a long way from starting

Infosys from a Pune garage with Rs 10,000 borrowed from his wife, and the rest

is history. Key milestones under NRNs leadership include events like the

companys 1991 legendary public debut; and in 1998 when it went on to become the

first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq. But, his biggest achievement

has been in bringing a certain degree of ethics and philanthropy. And, the

attitude to give and share is amply reflected in his company, and through the

Infosys Foundation.

Nagarajan Vittal



The Pathbreaker









N Vittal had the courage to dream big. He was the IT lobbyist within the

government to frame and drive the IT and telecom policies, which have played a

big role in India's flourishing IT industry and the ongoing telecom revolution.

He took over as Secretary of the DoE in 1990. The software industry will

remember him for the $400 mn challenge and for what he once claimed and

achieved"the Indian software export miracle". The DoE started breaking rules to

create a freer environment, dramatically changing the scenario. From there, he

moved to DoT. This tireless crusader might have retired from public service, but

as a social ombudsman, he is a long way from retiring.

Vijay Bhatkar



Power Play







Super computers are not the domain of super powers. This seemed to have

acted as the inspiration for Vijay Bhatkar, the man who sowed the seeds of

supercomputing in India. And, as C-DACs founder executive director, Bhatkar

played an instrumental role in building Indias first PARAM 10,000 super

computer in 1998. He also pioneered the GIST multilingual technology project at

C-DAC. Another achievement of Bhatkar was the creation of the Advanced Computing

Training School (ACTS) at C-DAC that acted as a catalyst in grooming skilled

software professionals. Bhatkar also played an instrumental role in the

Education to Home (ETH) mission; International Institute of Information

Technology (I2IT), PuneIndias largest postgraduate institute for advanced

education in IT; and the India International Multiversity.

Dewang Mehta



Leaving Footprints









Dewang Mehta has played a key role in putting the Indian IT sector on the world
map. As chief of Nasscom, his hard lobbying tactics paid off, making it one of

the most respected industry forums in the country. When he took over Nasscoms

stewardship in 1990, it had only seventy-two members, but when he passed away in

2001 it had more than 500. He deserves credit for building up to the events that

led to income tax exemption for software exporters and software reproduction

legislation, and excise and sales tax exemption from a number of state

governments. Mehtas contributions would always be remembered by the Indian

software services industry.

Azim Premji



Actions Speak volumes









Often dubbed as a reclusive by the media, Azim Premiji may be a man of few

words, but his actions speak volumes. Today, Premji is the fifth richest Indian

as per Forbes ranking, with a net worth of $14.8 bn. Premiji, who dropped out of

Stanford midway, has successfully built a multi-billion dollar IT services

company that has footprints across the globe. But its not merely for his

business acumen that he is renowned. What Premji will be remembered most for, is

his unceasing vision of Wipro as a technology-and IPR-driven company. For Premji,

it has indeed been a long and fruitful journey.

S Ramadorai



The Gentle Giant









In a career spanning three decades at TCS, S Ramadorai has been instrumental

in every success of TCS and the industry as well. He has played a major role in

many important thingsbe it the numerous quality initiatives, the offshoring

model, measurement models for people and processes, signing up of big-ticket

clients, or forging alliances with global technology majors and institutions. He

might not be the media's favorite poster boy, but in the echelons of Bombay

House, Ramadorai remains at the helm of the Tata Group. The Padma Bhushan in

2006 was the nation's fitting tribute to the IT industry's silent warrior.

N Seshagiri



The NIC MAN









As founder director general of NIC and secretary to the Indian government,

Seshagiris contribution to the India IT industry was immense. He founded NIC in

1975 and was its head till 2000. His key contributions were the

conceptualization and implementation of NICNET (the first VSAT Network outside

the US with over 1,200 VSATs) and ERNET. He is also instrumental in drafting the

first liberalized Computer Hardware Policy in 1984, and the first liberalized

Software Development, Export and Training Policy in 1986. Under his guidance,

computer centers were set up in every department of the government.

Ajit Balakrishnan



The Webmaster









While surfing the Internet at Oxford University, adman Ajit Balakrishnan was

truly amazed by the power of the World Wide Web. Though he was working with the

advertising agency Rediffusion DY&R he got hooked, and along with a group of

like-minded peers in a smoke-filled caf in Dadar, Mumbai in 1995 decided to

start a cyber venture called Rediff.com. He had dabbled with IT earlier, as a

director with PSI Data Systems. But Rediff.com, launched before dotcoms became

fashionable and one that survived the later bloodbath, would be the name that

history will remember him for. Rediff.com is the first Indian Web company to be

listed on the Nasdaq.

FC Kohli



The Grand Old Man









Widely considered as the father of the Indian software industry, Fakir Chand

Kohli has secured a place in the annals of Indian ITs history. Kohli started

off as an engineer with Tata Power Company and rose through the ranks to become

deputy general manager. It was then that he was offered the reigns of Tata's

fledgling IT company, TCS, in 1969. Over the next two decades and more, Kohli

shaped the destiny of TCS. He was the first to talk about Tandem, first to

import an IBM 3090, to maintain that mainframes are not dead, and to question

the openness of open systemseven before most of the world addressed these

concerns.

C Sivasankaran



The Maverick









Probably one of the biggest achievements of Sivasankaran was his

contribution in creating a desi PC brand, under the Siva brand name, in the

1980s and selling at Rs 33,000. But, a closer peek reveals that Siva had tried

his hands on everything-from IT, Internet to coffee shops. In all the businesses

he has done, he is known for his build it sell it approach. The telecom bug

bit him in the 90s when he launched Aircel and Dishnet DSL that became a

formidable force, with Dishnet DSL being the countrys first DSL ISP at that

time. His telecom journey has ended with the selling of Aircel to Telekom

Malaysia, and Dishnet to VSNL. Siva is keen on buying an ethanol plant in the

US.

Hemant Sonawala



Thinking Ahead









If he had not decided to come back to India in 1962, after his engineering

in the US and a stint with Boeing, the fifty years of Indian IT history today

might have assumed a different contour. In 1966, even when he set up Hinditron

focusing on instrumentation and electronic engineering, he realized the role

computers would play in the future. Not surprising, therefore, that Hinditron

tied up with Digital to bring minicomputers to India in the 70s, when it also

started the country's first commercial CAD data center. Following IBM's exit,

Digital was the first MNC to come to India via a Hinditron JV; subsequently in

the 80s, Hinditron started local manufacturing, thanks to three technology

transfer JVs with Digital, Tektronix, and Schiller AG. Also, as CSI president,

Sonawala designed the DOEACC accredited program curricula.

Chandrababu Naidu



Making IT Work



Chandrababu Naidu is a politician who redefined the IT landscape in Andhra
Pradesh. He brought in new investments and turned Hyderabad into a global hub

for IT. Sadly, Naidus focus on technology did not find favor with the rural

electorates. But he virtually defined the paradigm of e-Governance from a

practicing politician's perspective. Naidu was a visionary who set about

bringing to his state all the best that technology had to offer, even at the

risk of incurring backlash from petty politicians. Now most people yearn to see

Naidu in the driving seat again, and Andhra Pradesh back on the global IT map.

Shiv Nadar



Making his Mark









For a man educated in the Tamil medium, and one who saw a city for the first

time only when he was twenty-two, Shiv Nadar has indeed come a long way, today

heading the country's biggest IT conglomerate. He started Microcomp in 1976

(rechristened as HCL) with six friends, and with a capital base of Rs 1.75 lakh

borrowed from his PF. And this after relinquishing his job as head of DCM DPthe

youngest head in the company's history. When IBM quit India, Nadar moved quickly

to replace the vacated space and since then HCL has never looked back. The

admirable thing about Nadar has been that he never rested on his laurels. So,

even after HCL became India's number one hardware company, he ventured into

software services, training, networking, BPO, and even distribution.

KV Kamath



Bankable Bet



ICICI is one of the banks that redefined the banking space by using IT. Whether
it is online or mobile banking, ICICI has been the frontrunner. But, that level

of technology adoption comes from top management commitment, and thats what

becomes evident as one looks at Kamaths track record as the chief of the

countrys fastest-growing financial institution. Theres no parallel. A veteran

at ICICI, he transformed it into an agile organization, entered new segments in

the financial sector, and brought it up to global reckoning in terms of

competitiveness and vision. And, it was through technology that KVK brought

about a large part of this transformation. A strong proponent of the new

economy, Kamath pioneered the initiative to promote a tech company, a venture

fund, and a string of Internet companies.

Som Mittal



Man for All Seasons









Though a metallurgical engineer from IIT-Kanpur, IT turned out to be Som

Mittal's true calling. In Wipro Infotech, he established the peripherals

business which in five years grew to over Rs 100 crore. The peripherals

manufacturing factory he set up in technical collaboration with Seiko-Epson was

the first in the group to achieve ISO 9000 certification, and also the first

unit to be nominated for the Rajiv Gandhi Quality Award. He was instrumental in

turning around the fortunes of Digital in India till it was acquired by Compaq

and subsequently HP. Mittal has been recently appointed as president of Nasscom.

Nandan Nilekani



The Global Indian









One of the founders of Infosys, Nilekani has taken up several lead roles in

the company. Currently, he is co-chairman of the Board of Directors of Infosys,

the company he has built passionately along with Murthy and others. Nandan

Nilekani was listed among Time magazines 100 most influential people globally

in 2005. In January 2006, he became one of the youngest entrepreneurs to join

twenty global leaders on the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) Foundation

Board. For Infosys, Narayana Murthy is the conscience and Nilekani the one who

epitomizes professional excellence and execution zeal. Not only has Nilekani

proved to be the ideal ambassador to carry forward Murthys legacy, he has also

played a key role in shaping the Indian IT industry.

Srinivasan Ramani



Networking India









A networking pioneer, Ramani helped create the countrys first emailthe

service was developed to demonstrate Indias capabilities in data networking.

Srinivasan Ramani and his fellow scientists pioneered the Internet age in India

through the Erneta network connecting education and research institutionsand

conducted early experiments in satellite communications. Currently, Ramani is a

professor at IIIT-Bangalore. In the past, he was first director of the National

Center for Software Technology, Mumbai, and was instrumental in setting up the

HP labs in India. He has also served as president of the International Council

for Computer Communication, and of the CSI.

Rajiv Gandhi



The Visionary









Rajiv Gandhis political life was short, but it had great impact on Indias
scientific outlook. From 1984-89, Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of India,

a young and zealous man who assumed premiership not in the best of times. He

will be best remembered for his vision of a modern India, a computerized India.

His singular biggest achievement is the New Computer Policy, 1984, announced

within 19 days of his assuming power. This new regime liberated the shackled

potential of Indian IT, and we are still reaping its fruits. Gandhi also

believed in the power of R&D as he set up various technology missions and played

a role in setting up C-DAC, that gave India its first indigenous supercomputer.

Harish Mehta



Software Pioneer









It would not be an exaggeration to claim that Harish Mehta helped shape the

destiny of the Indian software industry in more ways than one. Along with

Saurabh Srivastava, Prakash Ahuja, and Shashi Bhatnagar, he was one of the

founder members of Nasscom in 1987. But even more significantly, he handpicked

Dewang Mehta after a chance meeting in the corridors of Delhi's Taj Palace

Hotel, and placed him at the helm of Nasscom. The rest as they say is a $18 bn

history (India's software export figures in 2006). One of the early IT

entrepreneurs in the country, Mehta headed the JV when Hinditron brought in

Digital during the 80s, the first MNC IT firm to arrive in India, post-IBM's

exit. Subsequently, he started Onward Technologies that formed a JV with Novell

to market its products in India.

Raman Roy



Seeding the BPO









When in 1993 Raman Roy convinced John McDonald, the comptroller at American

Express, to open an operational center for Asia Pacific in India, little could

he have imagined the juggernaut he was setting in motion. The seeds of the

Indian BPO industry were sown, and henceforth Roy would be known to posterity as

the father of Indian BPO. The sobriquet, however, stuck to him mainly because of

what he did after setting up the Amex center. First it was setting up GEs

captive unit and then going on to found one of the most profitable BPOs of all

time, Spectramind (subsequently acquired by Wipro). Roy quit Wipro last year and

now manages a private equity fund and a KPO venture, Quattro. Roy might not be

driving the BPO juggernaut anymore, but he is sure not to leave the navigators

seat soon.