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Our IT industry’s success is replete with several examples of people with modest
backgrounds achieving great success through their vision, determination and leadership.
NASSCOM played a tremendous role in shaping our industry to what it is today and for
its first decade of existence, NASSCOM was synonymous with Dewang. His contribution
and leadership to the growth and development of our IT industry is well chronicled. I
would want to record his contribution in creating a healthy ecosystem for the protection
of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the country. India’s transformation and progress in
this area over the last 15 years has been significant and a prime factor for multinational
corporations to invest more in the country, which in turn has helped develop the industry
further.
In an era, where pirating software was almost considered a birthright, Dewang personally
drove anti-piracy efforts and got NASSCOM to collaborate with BSA (Business
Software Alliance), a global non-profit organization, which works to fight software
piracy. NASSCOM-BSA led several high profile anti-piracy campaigns and raids across
India, which were immensely successful, thanks in large part to Dewang’s network and
relationships with the bureaucracy and law enforcement agencies. Nehru Place in New
Delhi was one of the biggest hubs of piracy in the country.
Despite several attempts to control the menace, the
pirates were operating freely and without any hindrances.
In 1997, NASSCOM-BSA decided to strike at the heart
of the piracy movement by planning an audacious raid at
Nehru Place. The raid was immensely successful and to
publicise it Dewang and NASSCOM-BSA came up with
an idea of arranging an elephant to crush a huge mountain
of seized counterfeit software, right in the middle of the
shopping plaza. This simple marketing ploy made the
raid highly visible not just in India but across the world,
sending out a strong message. Following this incident, just
rumours of a raid would drive shivers amongst the pirate
community and in the following years, one saw piracy
levels dip significantly in India.
We all miss Dewang for his enthusiasm, drive and single-
minded passion to make India an IT superpower.
Rajiv Kaul
Executive Vice Chairman and CEO,
CMS Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. and former NASSCOM EC Member
Dewang Mehta with family members in Australia, Aptil, 2001
