The Ajeet Knowledge Forum (AKF), one of the verticals under the Ajeet
Alumni Association (AAA)– a formal association of the Alumni of Sainik School
Bijapur, will be hosting its sixth talk, which will be delivered by one of the
founding fathers of IT industry in India Dr Lalit Kanodia, the founder of
Datamatics and so also the founder CEO of Tata Communication Services (TCS) on
11th June, Saturday, 2022, at 6 PM. He will be speaking on a subject entitled
“Role of Education and Information Technology in India’s Economic Development”.
This is for the first time that this talk will now be open to everyone, unlike
on earlier occasions when the talks under the AKF were mostly confined to the
members and family of the AAA. I am happy to share the link to the You Tube
where it will be live webcast and also a link for registration to the talk for
those who may be interested.
The Ajeet Alumni
Association (AAA) is a formal association of the alumni of Sainik School Bijapur
(SSBJ). AAA is being majorly transformed and getting institutionalized by our senior Ajeets led by the untiring and indefatigable Dr Ashok
Dalwai, IAS, with support from Mr Gopal Hosur, IPS, the President of AAA,
senior mentors that include among others the first School Captain of SSBJ,
Colonel BGV Kumar, Captain Gopinath - the founder of Deccan Airways - and many
other serving and retired Generals, admirals and air vice Marshals and so also
other Military officers and many more fellow civilian Ajeets from across the
country and abroad. True to the motto of SSBJ : Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain – and so also its objective of preparing the boys academically,
physically and mentally for entry into the National Defence Academy,
Khadakvasla (Pune) and also to be the leaders in other walks of life, SSBJ has produced the best of military officers and has prepared us to be the leaders in many different areas –
Civil Service, engineering, medicine, entrepreneurship, legal, social service,
political service, sports etc. The office bearers of AAA, senior Ajeet mentors
and all the Ajeets, have now come together and are brain storming to contribute to the society in
the nation building and one of the forums through which AAA is aiming to
connect Ajeets and their families (and others) with the knowledge society - in
which we live today - is to bring them face to face with the best of nation
builders in different walks of life through the AKF platform.
Under the umbrella of AAA, different chapters and forums have been
constituted and one such forum is the Ajeet Knowledge Forum (AKF). The AKF was
launched in August 2021 with the opening online talk by one of our legendary
Ajeets – Captain Gopinath, who spoke with passion and emotion about his life
journey from his school days in Sainik School Bijapur to his joining the
National Defence Academy and then getting commissioned into the Indian Army and
taking part in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation war and then establishing his own
Air Ways – Deccan Airways, which revolutionised aviation industry in India. AKF
has organised 5 such lectures under its umbrella and the speakers, besides
Captain Gopinath, included, Mr Subroto Bagchi, the founder of Mind Tree,
eminent scientist, Padma Vibhushan, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, Eminent Film
Director, Padma Vibhushan, Shyam Benegal, Eminent Oncologist Dr Devi Shetty and
Ms Rubi Ahluwalia the cancer survivor and Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma.
The AKF organizes their session on every second Saturday of the
alternate month and the sixth session under the AKF will be organised tomorrow
between 6 – 7.45 PM and the speaker for this session is Dr Lalit Kanodia, a
well-known industrialist and the founder CEO of Tata Consultancy Services and
Datamatics. In this sixth session of the AKF, besides the main speaker – Dr
Lalit Kanodia, we will also be having two of our distinguished alumni of SSBJ –
Vice Chief of Indian Army Lt Gen. B S Raju, UYSM, AYSM, YSM and Vice Admiral M
A Hampiholi AVSM, NM – the two senior serving military officers, who will be
addressing the audience and inspiring young Ajeets.
A brief information on Dr Kanodia is warranted, which I am happy to
share in this blog. Modern world of knowledge society is shaped by some of the
most brilliant minds whose discoveries and invention of products and services
in digital technology has ushered us into this era which is shaped by information
technology led by the technological marvel – Internet. Internet is inextricably
woven into the very fabric of our day today lives. Therefore, AKF is privileged
to host Mr Lalit Kanodia, one of the key architects of IT in India who founded the
Tata Computer Centre, which later grew to become the giant TCS company and Dr
Lalit Kanodia becoming its founder CEO. Incidentally, Dr Kanodia has also
played a role in Project MAC, a research project of MIT. As a member of the Project MAC, he helped build a Compatible
Time-Sharing System and MULTICS (the first two multi-user computer operating
systems & pre-cursors to UNIX).
He was one among many brilliant engineers in Project MAC, who laid the
foundation for development of remarkable technologies, under the auspices of
ARPA and DARPA (Defence Advanced Products Research Agency) founded by JCR
Licklider, USA. This project later grew to become the Internet that is driving
our connected world today. Dr Kanodia has a brilliant academic record with a
graduation from IIT-Bombay in 1963, and masters and doctorate from MIT, USA.
In 1965, Mr. JRD Tata, the then Chairman of Tata Group was contemplating
to start a software company. He chanced upon the CV of Lalit Kanodia, who had
returned back to India from US. Impressed by the CV of Kanodia, JRD Tata invited
him and tasked him to study the feasibility of computerization within the Tata
Group. Lalit Kanodia, after studying the feasibility wrote three Papers for the
Tata Group, which led to the automation of the Load Dispatch System of the Tata
Electric Companies by Westinghouse, Computerization of the electricity billing
system of the company and formation of a software development Centre. He then returned
to MIT for his Doctorate, which he completed at the MIT. While in the USA, Dr
Kapadia consulted to Arthur D. Little and the Ford Motor Company.
Dr Kanodia was coaxed to return to India to form and head the software
development centre for the Tata Group. The result was the formation of a
Company called the Tata Computer Centre in 1967, which later grew in Himalayan proportions to become
the Tata Consultancy Services and Dr Kanodia became its founding CEO. He handed
over the charge of TCS to the legendary F C Kohli.
Dr. Lalit Kanodia was born March 30, 1941 in
Calcutta ( now Kolkata) to Shri Surajmal Kanodia,
a bullion merchant and Smt. Chandravati Kanodia, a home maker. His family moved
to Bombay ( now Mumbai) in 1942. Although his family was very well
to do, unfortunately tragedy struck them and his father was killed in an air
crash in 1951. His mother Chandravati Kanodia brought up her children by giving
them the best of education and as luck would have it and so also her dedication
to educate her children, all her four children including Dr Lalit Kanodia
graduated from the prestigious IIT Bombay. Dr Kanodia
had a brilliant academic career. He was ranked the Best Student in the entire
high school for 3 years. He then studied Science in Elphinstone College, Bombay
University for 2 years where too he was ranked at the top of the class. He then
joined IIT, Bombay, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. After graduating
in 1963, Lalit secured admission to MIT, Cambridge, MA, where completed his MS
in Management in 1965 with the highest grade in the graduating class. He was
awarded the Ford Foundation Fellowship while at MIT. He returned to MIT in 1966
for his PhD in management, which he completed in 1967.
Dr Kanodia continues to be a very active Indian Business Entrepreneur.
He is befittingly credited to be responsible for creating a Software Industry
of India, Dr Kanodia established the Datamatics company in 1975. Datamatics crafted an
extraordinary way forward for many Indian IT companies including the BPO
industry. Datamatics company started with a modest team of 10 employees, which has now grown to become a very
large company with more than 10000 strong employees with its footprints across
the globe. In 1979 he set-up the first dedicated offshore development centre
for Wang Laboratories. He also established the first satellite link for
Software development from India, between its software development centre in
Mumbai and AT&T Bell labs USA in 1991. This led to the foundation of BPO
services in India and Dr. Kanodia formally started another company "Datamatics
Technologies Limited" with 100% focus on BPO and KPO services. The start
of BPO services helped Datamatics spread its wing globally and it acquired
SAZTEC and CorPay, two US based companies in 1997 and 2003 respectively. Since
then, Datamatics has acquired several other companies globally to enhance its
offerings and footprints across the globe.
It was the foundation and
vision that Dr Kanodia had in the late sixties and early seventies of
harvesting the bountiful benefits of IT for Indian companies that led to the
revolutionary changes in IT in India whose benefits are evidenced today across the
country, particularly in Bangalore, which is now called the Silicon Valley of
India. Dr Kanodia is currently the Chairman of
Datamatics Group of Companies. As Chief Mentor at Datamatics, Dr. Kanodia drives all innovation, new
product development and quality initiatives. His inspirational leadership has
led Datamatics to be conferred with various awards over the years, including
the Most Innovative Software Product Award, the International Asia Pacific
Quality Award and being ranked among the top 50 best-managed outsourcing
vendors by ‘The Black Book of Outsourcing’.
Dr Kanodia has also been a teacher. While at
MIT, he taught a course on Statistical Decision Theory to MBA students. Later,
in India he taught MBA students for 2 years at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of
Management Studies, Bombay University. Dr Kanodia has held several
important positions including the position of National President of the Indo -
American Chamber of Commerce and Vice President of the Indian Merchants Chamber.
He has also served as President of the Management Consultants Association of
India. Today the IT industry has come a long way in India and it accounts for
8% of the Indian GDP and it is poised to increase further. IT sector is the
number one employer in India and it accounts for nearly 5 million people who
are working in the IT sector in India and for this we owe our reverence to Dr
Kanodia and other founding fathers of IT in India.
Those interested in listening to Dr Kanodia the
Doyen of IT Industry in India may please like
to join the webinar by registering on the link given below or you can see it on
the You Tube, whose link is given below.
Ajeet Hain Abheet Hain
