Industry bids sorrowful farewell to Dewang Mehta

Members of the IT and software industry turned up in

full strength to bid goodbye to the departed leader of the software industry,

Dewang Mehta. The President of NASSCOM died of heart attack in Sydney while

leading a delegation to Australia. His body was flown into the country on

Saturday night by a Singapore Airlines flight.

On Sunday morning the body was kept at Talkatora Stadium

for people to pay homage. Although the sombre mood of the occasion was evident

but the determination to carry on was defiantly written large in the slogan

under Mehta's garlanded photograph: A journey ends, but the mission continues.

Among those who came to pay homage to the departed soul,

included Pramod Mahajan, Union Minister for IT, who came along with his

daughter; Omar Abdullah, Minister of State for Commerce; Ramakrishna Hedge,

former Union Commerce Minister; NR Narayana Murthy, Chairman, Infosys

Technologies; Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Member, Planning Commission, with his

wife; Shyamal Ghosh, Telecom Secretary, with his wife; Ashank Desai, CMD, Mastek;

Amitabh Kumar, Director (Operations), VSNL; Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman,

Infinity Investments; Arun Seth, MD, British Telecom, India; Arun Kumar, MD,

Hughes Software Services, with his wife; Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT;

Veer Sagar, CEO, Selectronic Equipment, with his family; Diwakar Nigam, MD,

Newgen Software, with his wife, KV Ramani, Chairman, Future Software; Satish

Kaura, Chairman, Samtel Group; Arun Bharat Ram, President and Tarun Das,

Director General, CII; Atul Nishar, Chairman, Aptech; Naresh Gupta, MD, Adobe

India.

After the homage at the Stadium, the funeral procession

left for Nizamuddin Crematorium accompanied by most of the people who had come

to pay homage. There were many visitors who came to pay the last respects at the

crematorium also like Arun Jaitley, Union Law Minister, and Yashwant Sinha,

Finance Minister. Dewang's nephew Kamlesh Joshi lighted the funeral pyre.

To most people in the industry Mehta meant much more

than a professional colleague, probably that is why a large number of visitors

had flown in from across the borders to pay their tributes. Perhaps the most

glowing tribute was paid by Mahajan who said "Dewang Mehta was the best

brand equity of the software industry. His contribution to the industry has been

more than that of 10 people put together."

And it is a fact that NASSCOM members are acutely aware

of. In the words of Nishar, the last Chairman of NASSCOM, "He was a one-man

army who took the industry from a mere $ 15 million to $ 6 billion. It will not

be possible to replace him." Phiroz Vandrevala, the current Chairman of

NASSCOM appeared tense as the onus of running the show currently falls on his

shoulder."

Hedge who currently heads an Indo-French initiative to

promote bilateral relations between the two countries reminisces, "He was

so wonderful when ever we requested him to make a presentation for the forum.

Thereafter we had numerous interactions with him being an integral part of the

IT industry. His death will be an irreparable loss to the country."

NASSCOM personnel, devastated by the death of Mehta, ran

around doing the chores of the funeral with composure and affection, clearly

indicating that the office he ran was more of an extended family to all.