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Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, one of the six
founder members of HCL began an exciting journey
three decades ago with a dream to give India its
very own microcomputer. The sheer clarity of
vision and hard work led to a revolution and
laid the foundation for the Indian IT industry,
taking India to the league of major economies of
the world.
Mr. Chowdhry led the foundation
of HCL's overseas operations, starting with
Singapore in 1980s to extensively covering the
other South Asian Markets including Malaysia,
Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia, and the People's
Republic of China, expanding business
operations. HCL, India’s original IT garage
start-up founded in 1976, today is a Rs 26,318
crores (US $ 5.7 bn) global enterprise and Mr.
Ajai Chowdhry has been a key force in driving
the growth of HCL.
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, son of an IAS
officer, has been a key force in driving the
growth of HCL Infosystems. He took over the
reins of HCL Infosystems, the flagship company
of the group in early 90s. His leadership
infused tremendous energy which took the company
from a turnover of Rs. 400.6 crores (US $ 89 mn)
in 1994 to Rs. 12,221 crores (US $ 2.6 bn)
today. Employing over 7200 people, the company
has today emerged not only as the country’s
information-enabling powerhouse but a great
place to work with industry accolades and awards
received year after year. In 2010 alone the
company has been awarded ‘Business
Superbrands’ by The Brand Council and rated
the Most Trusted Indian IT Brand by Economic
Times for 2010-11, among many more.
Driving the thrust on IT, Telecom
and Imaging, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry perceives the
role of his company as that of enabling
information. Credited with providing momentum to
key IT phenomena - within the company as well as
in the industry - he has constantly added newer
and cutting-edge technology skills to the
company's portfolio. Under his leadership,
several new projects have been undertaken by the
company that have had a lasting impact including
– pioneering HCL Infosystems into digital
lifestyle by getting into IT retail, building
technology capability for convergence at the
time when convergence of IT was merely a slogan,
creating an extensive Systems Integration
business, spearheading the company wide Quality
movement and driving a vision of “IT for the
masses” are some examples. A great believer of
the manufacturing potential of India, Mr. Ajai
Chowdhry has relentlessly advocated the cause of
manufacturing in India to many non-Indian MNCs,
Industry bodies and Government. An absolute
stickler for customer focus, he himself spends
significant time personally listening to
customers. Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has been
consistently contributing in building the brand
‘India’ on the ICT world landscape and also
pioneering the cause of developing the domestic
IT market. His vision to further expand Indian
IT to developing economies has now made him one
of the key voices for IT development in Africa.
Mr. Chowdhry firmly believes that in Africa lays
a phenomenal potential for transformation
through IT for sectors like E-governance,
Banking, Education, Infrastructure etc. and
India has to play a defining role. In 2010,
Co-chairing the ‘World Economic Forum
on Africa’ in Tanzania, he shared his
vision to empower people across the developing
continent of Africa through Information
Technology. Recently
Mr. Chowdhry has also been
nominated as member National Manufacturing
Competitive Council (NMCC), apex advisory
body to provide inputs for framing government
policies.
Having an exceptional knack of
picking up emerging technology trends, Mr. Ajai
Chowdhry sensed opportunity early in the telecom
& imaging domain and today HCL Infosystems is
poised to exploit this opportunity to offer a
rich bouquet of technology solutions to its
customers. Gifted with a pedant sense of
entrepreneurship, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has been
enlisted among ‘India's
Most Powerful Brand Builders’ and has been
adjudged among ‘India Inc’s Most Powerful
CEOs’ by The Economic Times.
He has worked closely with the
Government to take the cause of ‘IT for the
masses’ forward and has been on several
Government committees on IT, Electronics and
Hardware. Under his leadership in 2009 ‘The IT
Task Force’ set up by the Ministry of IT &
Communications, Government of India, submitted a
comprehensive report to the Government. The Task
Force Chaired by Mr. Chowdhry had participation
from heads of various associations including Mr.
Som Mittal of NASSCOM and Mr. Kiran Karnik. The
report constituting the vision and
recommendations for a need of an ecosystem of
'Made in India' hardware, semi-conductor
manufacturing, and greater collaboration for
development of software and strategic
electronics, has been taken up by a Committee of
Secretaries and is under serious consideration
for implementation by the government in the
budget year 2011.
Mr. Chowdhry also chaired the committee to draft
the Eleventh Five Year plan for electronics
hardware in India. He has also served as
Chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII)
National Committee on Technology and innovation
till 2010. Mr. Chowdhry has also chaired the
CII’s National Committee for IT, ITES &
E-Commerce, where he actively encouraged the
deployment of IT in Indian SME sector (Small &
Medium Industry), to increase their productivity
and to make them globally competitive. Actively
involved with various industry forums, he has
recently been nominated as a Member for the
esteemed ‘India Design Council’, a task
force set up by the Government of India to
constitute the National Design Policy. Mr. Ajai
Chowdhry has also been recently nominated as the
Chairman of Board of Governors, IIT-
Hyderabad.
Mr. Chowdhry has also been invited to
Co-Chair the Advisory Group for Research and
Development, in the Electronics Hardware Sector
(CAREL) by the Principal Scientific Advisor to
the Government of India. The core group will
work coherently to synergise the efforts of the
academia and the industry for promoting Research
and Development in the Electronics Hardware
Sector.
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has a vision to take PC and
broadband into every village and to every person
in India. It was this vision that made HCL
Infosystems the first company in India to create
special products for the rural market place. The
whole objective was to eradicate the digital
divide between urban and rural. Under his
direction, various products have been created by
HCL Infosystems to address the rural market
including a rural PC that works on a car
battery, special products for milk co-operatives
in rural India, packages for education and
literacy in rural India, the development of
special software and hardware products for
addressing financial inclusion for the unbanked
in rural India. Also programmes for panchayat
computerisation, support for community service
centres through government schemes and the
famous ITC e-chaupal program have been done with
HCL Infosystems’ products & services.
Understanding the potential of the integrated
use of technology, he is aggressively advocating
an Integrated Systems approach to Homeland
security. He has worked extensively towards
creating awareness on this front through Media,
Industry platforms & Government interactions.
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry is a key member of the task
force set up by the CII to advice the Government
of India on Internal Security & Chair’s the
Sub-Group on “Technology for Internal Security”.
A firm believer in constant innovation, HCL
Infosystems under his guidance has focused on
creating the largest network of service and
online support in the industry. HCL became the
only company in India to provide service through
over 500 touch points covering more than 4000
towns. Apart from service, innovations for
design included special products for various
segments of the market. The key element that has
kept HCL as a front-runner in the PC industry
has been its ability to innovate & design
products for Indian conditions to take care of
factors like heat, humidity and dust.
Literally all large IT companies in India have
been focused on the export market. HCL
Infosystems, led by Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has
continued its prime focus on the domestic Indian
ICT market and is today the largest domestic
player in India.
In 2011, the honourable President of India
conferred Mr Ajai Chowdhry with the prestigious
Padma Bhushan, one of the highest
civilian honours, as recognition of his
consistent contribution in building the IT
industry of the nation. In cognizance of his key
role in championing the cause of the domestic
Indian IT market and relentless efforts towards
the cause of electronics in India, Mr. Ajai
Chowdhry has been awarded the ‘Electronics
Man of the year by ELCINA-EFY for the year 2010’.
He has also been conferred the Honoris Causa
Doctorate of Science (D. Sc.) in the year 2010
by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)
Roorkee for his thought leadership for the
development of an unmatched ecosystem for IT
products, computer hardware and software domain
in the country. Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has also been
honoured with the CNBC Asia Business Award
2010 for the Viewers Choice category
reinforcing once again the acknowledgement of
his vision and leadership by the common man.
More recently, he is bestowed with the "India
Innovator of the Year Award" by Honorable
Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee at the 6th
edition of the CNBC TV18 India Business Leader
Awards 2010. This award is given in recognition
of his vision for HCL as an “entrepreneurial
incubator,” where in-house entrepreneurship is
always encouraged and his passion for new
innovations in both services and products that
has infused energy and life into the enterprise.
Earlier Mr Ajai Chowdhry was conferred the
DATAQUEST ‘IT Person of the Year 2007’
Award. Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has earlier been
awarded the 'IT Man of the Year' title by The
Skoch Consultancy and 'Best IT Man of the
Year' by The Foundation of Indian Industry and
Economists. He has also received ‘Corporate
Ratna - IT Industry of the Millennium’ Award by
Wisitek Foundation and ‘Electronics Man of
the Year - 2006’ Award by EFY for his
pivotal role in HCL’s breakthrough innovations.
Blessed with an astute marketing mind, Mr.
Chowdhry has been consistently contributing in
building the brand ‘India’ on the ICT world
landscape. Realising early the role Indian minds
could play in branding India world over - he has
spent over a decade to present the power of an
Indian Mind with HCL MindiaTM, a forum that
brings together great Indian minds from all
walks of life. This period has also witnessed a
huge number of Indian artists get an opportunity
to perform at the HCL Concert Series, an
initiative he took to preserve the Indian art
forms (dance & music). HCL concert series a
brainchild of Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, which even
after 13 years enjoys an ever-growing following
and has today become a dream stage for every
budding artist.
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry has a bachelor's degree in
electronics and communication engineering, and
attended the Executive Programme at the School
of Business Administration at the University of
Michigan, US.
Mr. Ajai Chowdhry is an avid
reader and fond of Jazz and fine arts. He and
his wife Kunkun live in New Delhi and have also
created a Charitable Trust called ‘Swayam’ which
is committed to provide education support to
deserving children of various HCL employees who
cannot afford good education.
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