A novel way of remembering Dewang

Pune: Dewang Mehta was energetic, ambitious and ebullient and the driving force behind the formation of national association of software and services companies (NASSCOM). Also, he was only 40, when the hotel authorities in Sydney, Australia broke into his room and found his lifeless body. It was the 12th of April in 2001, Mehta was a part of a delegation Down Under, selling brand India to the scores of IT companies. The news of his untimely death spread a pall of gloom over the IT industry, he was known as the IT evangelist in India.

Every year, on April 12, another budding IT champion from Pune, Maharashtra, hosts a memorial lecture to commemorate Dewang and releases a book on IT. The person is Deepak Shikarpur, CEO, Dimensions Engineering Software Services, and chairman, IT Applications, Computer Society of India. For the past five years, he has been releasing a book Cyber Zanzawat (Cyber storm in Marathi) targeted towards the rural masses of India authored by him in Marathi. This year too, Shikarpur released the book at the PYC Deccan Gymkhana in Pune.

At the event, Shikarpur dwelt upon the importance of convergence and innovation. He spoke at length on the need for IT benefits to percolate to the masses. Shikarpur spoke in a series of quotable one-liners, like, "What oil is to Middle East, IT is to India", or "Education is a means to create wealth", or "Government becomes an excuse for failure to many", and finally, "Jai Hind, Jai Maharashtra. Jai technology and Jai Indian mind!"

Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman & managing director, Zensar, was the keynote speaker at the event and he spoke on the three challenges being faced by India, namely, outsourcing backlash, absence of innovation ecosystem, and workforce/resources challenges. "Every year 2,50,000 engineers are added to the work pool in India, but sadly less than 7 % are truly employable in the IT sector," he said. But, Natarajan showed optimism for the future, "Indian companies should look domestic and market their services to domestic companies and the government," he said.

P. Venugopal, director, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), was also present on the occasion and addressed the audience. He made a presentation on how STPI was aiding the IT revolution in India. "The total exports of all STPI units in 2004-05 stood at Rs 74, 019 crore and STPI was present in 45 locations in India," he said. He also talked about how Maharashtra was seeing a lot of action in terms of construction of private IT parks. "Pune is leading with proposed 83 private IT parks," said Venugopal.

The event was well attended by the industry people and other industry watchers. The book by Shikarpur is priced at Rs. 150, not many people from rural India will be able to afford it, but he mentions that there is an 'institutional price', "The book can be bought by institutions for as little as Rs. 40-50 ", he adds. All the royalty accruing from the sale of the book will be given to a NGO promoting IT education for underprivileged populace. Shikarpur also launched his personal website to showcase his achievements and his beliefs.

It has been five years since Mehta was found dead in Australia, the IT industry has become a giant in India in those years. Yet everyone remembers the first IT evangelist of India, who believed that information technology could change the fortunes of this nation. As one of the attendees at the event quipped, had Dewang Mehta lived another decade or so, who knows what all could have been achieved by him and the IT sector. And it just might be the case.

© Cybermedia News