Mr. F. C. Kohli
Mr. Faqir Chand Kohli is regarded as the guiding spirit of the Indian Software Industry. He is a former Deputy Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s premier information technology (IT) organisation.
Born in 1924 in Peshawar, he had his early education in India where he was a university
gold medallist from Lahore. Kohli then graduated in Electrical Engineering from
Queen’s University, Canada, and completed his post–graduation in the same
discipline from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Returning to India in 1951, Kohli began working with the Tata Electric Companies as Chief Load Despatcher, and in six years rose to the position of Deputy General Manager. It was under his leadership there that India’s first automated electric power despatch system was installed and through it, the engineering and management of a stable power generation and distribution system in the Bombay region.
During this time, he regularly interacted with the academia in India at various levels. He contributed to R&D management through the department of Science and Technology of the Govt. of India, and influenced the content of the curricula at several institutes of learning. IEEE noticed this steady stream of exceptional engineering contributions and academic interactions through local chapters and Kohli served on their board of Directors with distinction. The University of Waterloo in Canada awarded him a honorary doctorate in recognition of his contribution to high voltage transmission of electric power. The hard won knowledge of a successful power engineer, technical excellence and holistic thinking that created systematic solutions to complex engineering problems, was the intellectual backdrop that he brought to TCS.
Today India is firmly on the IT map of the world; software is one of India's biggest
earners of foreign exchange; and the IT industry in India is still going strong, despite
an economic slump. What has brought about this change?
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH
Once at the helm of TCS, Kohli took TCS, an organisation that consisted of a few consultants in 1969 and transformed it into one that has over 19,000 consultants today. The secret of his effectiveness could, in part, be attributed to a knack of working on people of diverse temperaments and skills, of honing them to cater to the needs of the IT industry and, specifically, TCS.
For Kohli, the quality, excellence, reliability and timeliness of delivery in software are
professional givens. This has helped create value for the Indian brand name abroad. Kohli
himself avers: “I have always believed that the organisation should never reach in
its achievement.”
TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Kohli’s technological bent of mind, vision and far-sightedness provided various insights. Recognising the dynamic nature of software technology, he limited technology forecasting to span 24 months at a time and instituted human resources training accordingly. “Right from the beginning, we have spent a lot of time, efforts and resources in identifying new technologies and, accordingly, training our people,” says Kohli.
In his vision, software products and software factories to produce them are cornerstones for the future of the software services industry, both needing investment in R&D. Furthermore, he believed that the software business should be seen holistically by relating it to the context of business and its environment through the systems approach. That high technical competence has to be tempered with sufficient peripheral vision for the trained engineer to become a successful professional. In fact, the holistic approach has been an underpinning to Kohli's professional contributions. He institutionalised this thinking by setting up a Systems Engineering and Cybernetics Center (SECC) and the Tata Research Development and Design Center (TRDDC), in 1981. Through the seventies under his careful supervision, experienced and successful consultants undertook R&D projects whose contributions were ahead of their times.
GEARED TO DOMESTIC GROWTH
In the Kohli mind,
the move to fetch offshore work was in line with addressing computerisation in India, of
which Kohli has always been a vehement advocate. For domestic business to grow, it was
simple corollary that hardware manufacturing prospects in India should keep pace with
software.Indian Management magazine of March 1997 reported that, “for other industry
observers and players, he warns of the likelihood of Bill Gates’ proclamation that
India will be a future destination for software development and marketing ‘remaining
just a futuristic probability unless India develops its hardware capabilities.’”
Leaving the onus of exploiting talent for hardware development to players in those sectors, Kohli kept his sight clear, continuing to consolidate in the software arena, “We wanted to build technological capability. It was not possible to do that in the domestic market. We had to go aboard, build capability and transfer it back,” he maintains. “We never ever lost sight of the fact that we were an Indian company and an integral part of Indian business.” He clearly saw that domestic computerisation would not only accelerate the rate of growth of the national economy but also that the benefit of this would percolate right down to the common man.
INFLUENCING THINKING IN INFOTECH
For Kohli, this readiness is at all levels of professional involvement. He has taken an active role in founding the Computer Society of India (CSI), the Management Consultants Association of India (MCAI) and the South East Asia Regional Computer Confederation (SEARCC)
He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), New York: IEEE, London; the Institute of Engineers, India; the Institute of Management Consultants of India; CSI; the Singapore Computer Society; the Indian National Academy of Engineering; and the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunications Engineers, India. Kohli is a distinguished member of SEARCC.
Kohli has been either at the helm of numerous professional bodies, national and international, such as: President, CSI; President, MCAI; Chairman, IEEE, India Council; Director, Board of IEEE, New York; Chairman, Institution of Electrical Engineers (London), Mumbai; President, NASSCOM; and Chairman, Asean Oceanic Computing Industry Organisation; and Advisor, SEARCC.
Well-known Indian universities and the Government of India have recognised Kohli’s contribution to the IT industry and have called upon him to head or advise various national level committees. He is a Member, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Benares Hindu University; Member, Senate, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai; Member, Board of Governors, National Institute for training in Industrial Engineering; Member, Committee for Development, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai; Member, Special Committee, School of Computer and System Science, Jawarharlal Nerhu University; Member, Task Force on Power, Planning Commission of the Government of India; Member, High-Power Committee on Post-Graduate Education and Research in Engineering and Technology, Ministry of Education; Chairman, Software Export Promotion Committee, Department of Electronics and Power, Department of Science and Technology, Government of India; Advisor, Department of Education, Government of India; Chairman, Computer Software Study Group, Department of Electronics, Government of India; and member, Indo-US Commercial Alliances Board.
IT WITH A VISION
Kohli is committed to the application of technology for societal development. At the beginning of his career as a power engineer, he sought self-sustaining means of energy generation and utilisation in rural areas through effective use of non-conventional renewable sources of energy. Even now, at an age when most others would retire to more relaxing roles, Kohli, is looking for new challenges. In the words of Prof K.V. Nori, the Chief Information Officer of TCS and a former colleague, “There is one question to which Mr Kohli constantly seeks an answer - where is the next frontier, what lies beyond the ordinary and the obvious?'
So after three decades of leading India’s largest IT company, Kohli turned his attention to an even worthier challenge: that of solving India’s literacy problem. In his opinion, it is a matter of irony that we are stepping into a knowledge economy in this Information age, and yet India has one of the worst literacy levels in the world. He is working at sharing the fruitful utilisation of computers and communications so as to considerably accelerate the spread of adult literacy in the country.
Kohli initiated work on an unique experiment which would considerably cut the time taken for an illiterate person to read. The process would use computer telephony integration and human cognitive science to teach words, instead of alphabets, thus accelerating the learning process. Kohli says of the process “The entire operation works without the use of teachers or instructors. The computers are installed at a locations easily accessible by all, like a gram panchayat office. Learning is induced by flashing symbols and icons in the local language, which are repeatedly flashed on the screen. Within six weeks, those undertaking the computer-based tutorial are able to read a newspaper front to back, in their local language."
This experiment was carried out with 25 volunteers in Beeramguda, a village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, and yielded encouraging results. After about 40 hours spent communing with the flickering screen and synthetic voice, most volunteers were able to read parts of the newspaper. Subsequently, it was launched on a pilot basis in Medak district of AP and was able to successfully teach 25 villagers to read a newspaper within a ten-week period, as against the normal time of one or two years taken to impart basic literacy to an adult, illiterate citizen. Kohli now plans to extend the projects across 100 centres in the state of Andhra Pradesh, by perfecting the technology and the methodology used in the pilot.
KOHLI’S CODE
In an address to CSI in 1975, he summed up his belief and concern:
“Many years ago, there was an Industrial revolution. We missed it due to factors over which we had no control. Today, there is a new revolution - a revolution in Information Technology - which requires neither mechanical bias nor mechanical temperament. Primarily, it requires the capability to think clearly. This we have in abundance. We have an opportunity even to assume leadership. If we miss this opportunity, those who follow us will not forgive us for our tardiness and negligence.” “We are very aggressive, as far as technology inputs are concerned,” says Kohli. “We want to develop technology on our own and be the masters of our destiny”.
The man whose intellectual prowess had been spotted years ago, when he was chosen by the Government of India for a scholarship at a North American university, continues to pay his debt of gratitude back to the nation even today. From leading India into the IT revolution, and bringing the benefits of IT to the poorest of the poor, there is no stopping this man, Faqir Chand Kohli.
On 28th January 2002. the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s made an announcement on the eve of Republic Day. The Government of India had conferred its third-highest civilian honour, the Padma Bhushan, on him. Indeed Sir, you have made us proud, and not only we, but the entire India salutes you!