The
significance of being Ashok Trivedi can be understood by analysing just one
truth: Outsourcing is the source of India’s software riches.
There
was a time when Dearth of software talent and consequent wage bill inflation drove Americans to dip into India’s
large pool of code-writing and English-speaking workforce. Then
two entrepreneurial Indians, Mr. Ashok Trivedi and Mr. Sunil Wadhwani,
gained a perspective by their virtue of being in the US. They saw that the
production of software talent would soon cease to meet the demand for it. The
raw material for the software industry is expensive brain muscle and the
two knew where to find it cheap. To
leverage the imminent famine of software talent, Mr. Trivedi and Mr. Wadhwani
launched Mastech1986.
Last year, Mastech posted revenues of $ 400 million and employed 5,000 professionals
all over the world.
When
history writes of India's software serendipity, no one will forget Mr. Trivedi
and his Mastech was among the first to exploit the 'outsourcing' wisdom
that is now followed by hundreds of success stories all over Bangalore and
India.
Mr.
Trivedi has now focused his attention to India. He is a champion of education
and feels that, to quote him, "Virtual
education can enable Third World nations to leapfrog a significant portion of the learning curve, and become better
integrated into the global village. Human resources can be converted to human
capital"
On the topic of all this hype
surrounding e commerce , he is of the view that India has a big market for all
types of back-end solutions. He acknowledges that India needs the help of
NRIs but for that, he says, effort should be made to ease the flow of
correct information. There has to be no red tape, he says. The system has to be
efficient and productive. Even though India has made much advance, Mr.
Trivedi knows it is a long grind.
The bottom line: India needs people like Mr.
Ashok Trivedi.
Successful yet whose ears
are at ground level and the heart in his homeland.
For a
close up on Mr. Ashok Trivedi, click here to read
Mr. Vivek Sharma's article 'The Digital Messiah'
To
know about the proposed Ashok Trivedi Foundation, click
here.
