Dadan Bhai

He is the archetypal non-IT man. He is not press savvy, or even eloquent. He just happened to be the chairman of the company which, during its not-so-long span, mirrored the restless nature of the Indian IT industry. A company which represented the youth and energy of

the Indian IT industry in its entirety. Pertech Computers Ltd (PCL) was the

first company to overtake HCL in its aggressive selling. It was also the first company to introduce glamor in the IT industry. So much so that the company was called the ‘enfant terrible’ of the Indian IT industry. 

An engineering graduate in agriculture from IIT Kharagpur, Dadan Bhai began his career with Bank of India working in different departments of advances, projects and development for six years. After that, he was with HCL for seven years before leaving to form PCL. PCL was launched

in 1987 with an initial investment of Rs6 lakh. In a seven-year span the company went on to become the largest seller of PCs in India, outstripping older and larger companies. In the same year it announced the largest public issue ever from the Indian IT industry. 

PCL may have faded from the scene today. Yet its name will remain permanently etched in the annals of Indian IT history for it was the company that gave the PC an FMCG status in the Indian market

and created a catalytic effect on the PC shipments.