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Nasscom pledges aid in Dewang Mehta's memory

India's leading information technology industry lobby group on Friday marked the birth anniversary of its former chief Dewang Mehta, who died earlier this year, by announcing the setting up of a philanthropic foundation and technical institution.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies will contribute Rs 30 million as corpus to the foundation that will work with information technology companies in India, non-resident Indians, government bodies and leading international bodies, the lobby group said in a statement.

"The foundation has been set up with the primary objective of reaping the benefits of information technology for the masses and will focus on initiation of special projects, research activities and allocation of funds to promote IT adoption in India," it added.

Nasscom has also decided to spend Rs 10 million for setting up a technical institution in the name of Mehta in Gujarat.

Mehta, who was Nasscom's president for the last 10 years, died of a massive heart attack in a hotel room in Sydney in April. The dynamic 38-year-old Mehta's name was synonymous with India's booming software industry.

He led the industry's global push as the country's software exports zoomed to $6.2 billion in 2000-01 from $734 million in 1995-96. The Geneva-based World Economic Forum identified Mehta as one of the 100 Global Leaders of Tomorrow.

"There is a need today for the benefits of the IT revolution to reach to the grassroots and the formation of the foundation is part of our effort to use IT to bridge the digital divide," said Phiroz Vandrevala, chairman of Nasscom.

"Some of the key activities of this foundation will be dedicated in the memory of our late president Dewang Mehta as a tribute to his contribution towards the information technology industry," he said in a statement.

The foundation's activities will focus on promoting IT education, encouraging adoption of Internet in villages, IT empowerment for the underprivileged, giving scholarships to underprivileged students, and assisting IT training institutions to encourage innovate software solutions.

Last week, Nasscom, which has nearly 900 members, named
Kiran Karnik, former India chief of Discovery channel, as its new president.

Indo-Asian News Service

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