Amit Dutta-Gupta (1946-2010)
Amit Dutta-Gupta started off in 1968 with the DCM Group--passing up a chance to join IIM Calcutta--just after graduating in mechanical engineering REC Durgapur. Joining DCM as management trainee, he was in the first year inducted into its prestigious three-year senior management training program, which has produced industry veterans such as Shiv Nadar, Rajendra Pawar and Arjun Malhotra.
A year down, he joined the Coca Cola Corporation, first managing the Calcutta and Jamshedpur plants, and later, the bottling plants of North and South India. His seven-year stint there gave him a “ringside view of the evolution of the soft drink industry in India”, and a chance to travel all over India, covering hundreds towns—the stint ending in 1977 when Coke was thrown out of the country by the Janta Government.
Dutta-Gupta then approached his batch mate from the DCM SMT program, Shiv Nadar, and in May 1977, became HCL's regional manager (East), in Calcutta. He tried selling computers (in a market which had just over a hundred of them) and unit record machines. It was a change in lifestyle from a structured MNC life to an IT market in its infancy.
In 1979, he moved back to Delhi, heading HCL's north region at a time when the company was exploring the brand-new territory of the small and medium business, trying to popularize computers there. The strategy was a success, with revenues growing threefold to Rs. 12 crore, backed by a popular campaign and—another first in the industry—roadshows. In 1986, Gupta became executive director, and set up HCL's CAD/CAM unit, turning it into a Rs. 25 crore business in 1988.
That was also when Dutta-Gupta decided to go his own way, setting up Hope Technologies along with two HCL colleagues. Hope started with home PCs and handhelds based on the Psion palmtops—well ahead of their time in India. Unable to make headway in that space, Hope moved into CAD/CAM and GIS in 1993, becoming AutoDesk's main distributor in India.
At its peak, Hope had operations in the USA, Europe, in Japan and Middle East, and won several export and other awards. Hope Technologies subsequently evolved into Adroitec, a company that today provides technology solutions to global customers.
Additional research source: IT People (Indian Express)
Get most out of your technology infrastructure investments with Dell
About CIOL | Media Kit | Site Map | Contact Us | Help | Write to us | Jobs@CyberMedia | Privacy Policy
Copyright © CyberMedia India Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Usage of content from web site is subject to Terms and Conditions.