Indian IT veteran, Hemant Sonawala passes away

Hemant Sonawala (1937-2015), the founder/chairman of Hinditron Group (www.hinditron.com) passed away on May, 30, 2015. He was one of the founders of India’s IT & Hi-Tech industry, having started Hinditron in 1966 and its Computer division in 1971. Sonawala, a visionary, helped lay the foundations on which the industry grew and subsequently had a meteoric rise.

Honored by “Life Time Achievement Award 2005” by Dataquest and “Life Time Achievement Award 2011” by Computer Society of India, Sonawala was one of the luminaries of India’s IT revolution. He was associated with Computer Society of India, IEEE, Nasscom, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce and FICCI.

A passionate serial entrepreneur, he was a classical mentor whose protégés have gone on to build many other successful Companies.  Many IT industry pioneers, such as, Pravin Gandhi, Harish Mehta, Som Mittal, Bhaskar Pramanik and many others were closely associated with him since their early days.

He was the founder of Digital Equipment (India) Ltd. (later part of HP India) in 1988, which was the first technology IPO in India. He was also the founder of Hinditron Tektronix (India) Ltd, Mindteck (India) Ltd. and Hinditron Schiller Medical Instruments Ltd. and Hinditron Cray Supercomputers (India) Pvt Ltd.  The Hinditron Group of Companies are engaged in high technology business in the fields of Information Technology, Scientific Instrumentation and Telecommunication.