Search the Internet          Tips  Sites: Finance, Investment

Nasscom mourns the passing away of its beloved leader

The ebullient president of National Association of Software and Service Companies, a driving force within the software industry passed away in Sydney, Australia on April 12, 2001.

Mehta was part of the high powered delegation, headed by the Minister of IT and Parliamentary Affairs, Pramod Mahajan, visiting Sydney to sign an MoU between Nasscom and the Australian Information Industry Association. While in Sydney, Mehta also kick started an Australian chapter of Nasscom.

Mehta's passing away is a tremendous loss to the nation and the software industry in particular. One of India's foremost champions of the software cause, he has been associated with Nasscom for the past 10 years.

In fact, Nasscom celebrated his 10 year's of Mehta's association on April 2, 2001. During this period the country's apex organisation for software and IT enabled services companies has grown from strength to strength, expanding its base of members and becoming the spearhead of the country's IT export machine.

As the person at the helm of affairs at Nasscom, Mehta's job within the organisation included lobbying with Indian government and several other governments around the world; building a Global Brand Equity of the software and telecom industry of India and campaigning against software piracy.

To increase Indian software exports, Mehta traveled extensively and organized more than 100 international seminars around the world. His endeavours resulted in more than 150 formal joint ventures/strategic alliances.

Mehta was a qualified Chartered Accountant, Cost & Management Accountant who had also done extensive research work in computer graphics.

In May 1998, Mehta was appointed as a member and spokesman of the high powered National IT Taskforce set up by the prime minister to draft a National Informatics Policy. In 1997, he was awarded the 'IT Man of the Year' Award by Dataquest Magazine. Computerworld Magazine awarded him 'Software Evangelist of the Year' award for three years in succession in 1997, 1998 and 1999 and IT Man of the Year Award in 2000.

Recently, Mehta was awarded the 'Entrepreneur of the Year' award for the Year 2000 by Ernst & Young.

He was selected as one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow by Geneva based World Economic Forum in October 2000.

Mehta had earlier graduated in Computer Graphics from London in 1985 and had also done extensive work in the field of computer graphics. His work in Ray Tracing and Fractals got him the `Computer Graphics Man of the Year 1991' award in London. In the last few years, Mehta wrote prolifically in almost all key newspapers and journals across the country and overseas on issues as diverse as politics, economics, IT, software, the Internet and fashion.

Mehta also anchored two TV shows in India-the "Computer Show" and "I.T. Digest". These television shows have a viewership of more than 5 million.

Dewang Mehta had been instrumental in influencing the government of India on issues such as the Indian copyright laws, the introduction of cyber laws and the opening up of the telecom sector in India.

As vice-chairman of the Internet Users Community Mehta pushed for the greater penetration and proliferation of the Net across the country. He played a key role in lobbying with the government for allowing Indian companies to be listed on Nasdaq.

Mehta was on the GoI's security committee for clearing private ISPs to have their own International gateways. He was also on several public sector and private sector boards. He was a member of the Andhra Pradesh State Planning Board, the Himachal Pradesh State Planning Board, and was also on the Board of Governors of the National Institute of Fashion Technology and the Governing Council of Indian Institute of Information Technology.

YOU MAY ALSO WANT TO SEE:
Nasscom chief Dewang Mehta is dead
'I am saddened. He was such a close friend,' says Mahajan
'Dewang Mehta is irreplaceable'
'Dewang personified what India's IT industry really needed'
'His passion increases every year'
'A hat-trick IT Budget'
'IT Bill will boost e-commerce'
Dewang Mehta is 'Global Leader of Tomorrow'
Nasscom 2001: The complete coverage

Money

Business News

Tell us what you think of this report