The Unsung Hero Who Put India’s IT on the World Map.
》It's the early 1990s. India is still struggling with license raj hangovers, foreign exchange shortages, and a world that barely knew we could code. Computers? A luxury. Software exports? A distant dream.
》Then stepped in a young, charismatic Gujarati with an Elvis-style pompadour, a beatific smile, and fire in his belly: Dewang Mehta. Born on August 10, 1962, in the village Umreth, Gujarat, Dewang spent his early years close to the soil before his family moved to Delhi. He trained as a Chartered Accountant, dabbled in cost management, researched computer graphics at London’s Imperial College, and even ran a graphics firm in the UK. But destiny had bigger plans.
》In 1991, his friend Harish Mehta offered him the reins of a tiny, struggling industry body called NASSCOM. Dewang thought it would be a part-time gig, three days a week. What followed was nothing short of a revolution!
》Over the next decade, as President of NASSCOM (1991–2001), Dewang became India’s ultimate Software Evangelist. He lobbied governments, charmed global CEOs, fought software piracy, pushed for tax breaks, and tirelessly marketed “Brand India” across continents. He turned a fledgling sector into a global powerhouse from a few hundred million in exports to billions. He was the cheerleader, the strategist, the bridge between Delhi’s corridors of power and Silicon Valley’s boardrooms.
》Then the awards poured in: “Software Evangelist of the Year” for three straight years by Computerworld, “IT Man of the Year” in 2000. He was India’s first IT celebrity, equally at home quoting the Bhagavad Gita or negotiating with heads of state.
》But his story ended too soon. On April 12, 2001, at just 38 years old, while on an official IT delegation trip in Sydney, Australia, Dewang Mehta passed away peacefully in his sleep from a heart attack. The nation mourned. The industry lost its loudest, most passionate voice.
》Today, every Indian software engineer working globally, every startup riding the IT wave, every India as back-office to the world success story stands on the shoulders of this visionary who burned bright and fast.
》The Dewang Mehta Foundation continues his legacy of education and empowerment. But his real monument? The Indian IT industry itself, now worth hundreds of billions and employing millions. His vision became India’s digital destiny. May we now carry it forward and build an even greater tomorrow, one where India doesn’t just follow technology, but defines it for the world.