DATAQUEST LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 2019 - RAJENDRA S. PAWAR CHAIRMAN, NIIT & FOUNDER, NIIT UNIVERSITY

At the Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2019, the spokespersons went down the long-past years to revisit their memories

- Pradeep Chakraborty

The Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 was conferred to Padma Bhushan Awardee 2011, Rajendra S. Pawar, Chairman, NIIT Ltd and Founder, NIIT University. This was preceded by a panel discussion among the stalwarts of the India IT industry. The participants were: Arjun Malhotra, Co-founder, HCL and Chairman, Magic Software, CP Gurnani, CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra, Rajendra S. Pawar and Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Cybermedia. Opening the discussion, Pradeep Gupta, CMD, Cybermedia, said that 1980s was the time that the foundation of the Indian IT industry took place. Business was not looked up to. What was the essence of those times?

Arjun Malhotra said: “We had to live in the licence raj. The government had to decide. We started HCL. We had a licence to manufacture. We signed a joint manufacturing initiative with UPTRON. Noida was the place where we set up a factory. When we made the first 8-bit machine, we were packing it, someone asked whether the excise duty had been paid. We were told the time was about 4-5 months, but we had to deliver in 1-2 days. We were told the MPU policy has not yet been decided. Please come back 4 years later. We showed a photograph to the excise fellow. This was the environment that we were in.”

On another note, Gupta asked CP Gurnani regarding what made him shift to the IT industry. Gurnani said: “What made me shift to the IT industry was my wife Anita!