Role of Education and Information Technology in India’s Economic Development: A talk by Dr Lalit Kanodia under the auspices of Ajeet Knowledge Forum

 

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

https://us02web.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_ajKs0au8SIqu3JfplD412Q
 
https://youtu.be/Z-0wgkNPrp0