50
in the Government understood the Software Industry and its potential for India. I tabled
out the problems in Indirect and Direct Taxes, Import Export and Reserve Bank of India
regulations. Finally, the financial issue — no bank was willing to extend a loan as they
wanted an asset to be provided as security. I said the industry brains cannot be a slave to
such rules and he was the only person who could do the running around in Delhi and set
right things. My visits with Dewang to Old Hanuman Mandir which was built in 1724
and the Kalibari Mandir near CP did not go to waste.
Slowly and steadily, he not only turned around every department in the Government but
also NASSCOM. And by the time I moved out in 1997, every rule and regulation that
was a thorn for the Industry had disappeared and NASSCOM had built a good corpus
and financial discipline. Yes, Dewang’s NASSCOM became an envy of every Industry
Association!
P. Sriganesh
Strategy Consultant and former NASSCOM EC Member
Harish Mehta and K.V. Ramani inaugurating the ‘Shri Dewang
Mehta Computer Block’
