RT with Ashank Desai, founder of Mastek

When I came to know about ‘Ribander Talk’, the name suggested that I would be travelling about 70km to listen to a speech of a so called ‘Big shot’. I could not have been more wrong, had I missed out on this opportunity to meet a first generation entrepreneur, and not broken this self-visualized myth. By the time the event was over, I realized that ‘Ribander Talk’ in itself had a brand image among the corporates and so the parent club didn’t want to re-Christine it to something like ‘Sanquelim Talk’. And our guest speaker, Mr. Ashank Desai, the founder of Mastek, made the evening an enlightening one for us.

A gathering of around 200 pupils welcomed Mr. Desai. The grace with which he accepted the ovation, and the humility with which he passed on the credit of his presence among us to an RT SCC member, reaffirmed our belief that ‘Respect is never demanded, it is gained’.

Mr. Desai shared his childhood experiences with us. It was fascinating to hear how a small kid, who was not offered the best of opportunities, had the perseverance and determination to not only barge into the competition but also to go way ahead of the rest. He reiterated the significance of ‘vision’ but stressed on the importance of perseverance towards realizing this vision. Graduating from IIM, Ahmedabad, he along with a few of his friends founded Mastek in 1982.

Within seven years, Mastek, with total revenue of 45lakhs, was ranked among the top 10 fastest growing companies in India in 1989. The company was the first IPO from IT industry and long before the advent of SAP in India, Mastek launched the first ERP product. Mr. Desai spoke about the ‘London Congestion Charging’ Project undertook by Mastek which launched India into the league of countries that not only provided ‘services’ but also software products. His speech had the pride for bringing laurels to his motherland.

Mr. Desai was also one of the founders of NASSCOM. As per NASSCOM, the Indian IT industry has swelled from a mere $50Million to a huge $50Billion entity. He boasted of the huge IT employability generated across the country. He commented on the growth in the technical man power of the country. The industry employs 2.4million and gives indirect employment to about 10million.

Mr. Desai threw some light on the futuristic application of technology in diverse fields such as Healthcare, Financial Services, Education, Manufacturing and Public Services. He ended the talk with a question answer session and made us aware of a bright future for the Indian IT sector which according to him would grow into a $300Billion market by 2020.