Ajai Chowdhry

The PC Man

In many ways, Ajai Chaudhury is responsible for the spread of computing and
computers in India. And, not just as the first one to actually bring out the sub
10k PC, fending off challenges from several pretenders. When he and his five
partners founded HCL in 1976, there were not more than 15 computers in India.
Yet, Chowdhry believed that IT was the future-he did not let his domestic
success fetter him either, as in the 80s he was setting up operations in
Singapore and spreading HCL's footprint across South Asia.

He took over the reigns of HCL Infosystems in 1994 and has taken
it from being a hardware centric player to a more technology integration
company. Even his decision to become a Nokia handset distributor has paid rich
dividends.