F. C. Kohli

Faqir Chand Kohli (19 March 192426 November 2020) was a co-founder and the first CEO of TCS Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software services company. He was also associated with other companies within Tata Group, including Tata Power Company and Tata Elxsi, and had been President of Indian Information Technology (IT) services advocacy body NASSCOM. He was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian honor, in 2002 for his contributions to the Indian software industry. He is referred to as the "Father of the Indian IT Industry", for his contributions to the establishment and growth of the Indian IT industry. Early life Kohli was born in Peshawar, British India (present day Pakistan), on 19 March 1924, in a Pashtun Hindu Khatri Family. He grew up in Peshawar, which was then a military center, and studied at Khalsa Middle School, and later at National High School in the same city. He went on to complete BA and BSc (Honours) from Government College for Men, Lahore, at the University of the Punjab, Lahore, where he was a university gold medalist. After his father's death during his final year in college, he applied for, and was selected by, the Indian Navy. However, while waiting to be commissioned, he applied for, and won a scholarship to Queen's University, Canada, where he went on to complete his BSc (Honours) in Electrical Engineering in 1948. He then worked for a year at Canadian General Electric Company and subsequently did his MS in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1950. Career After completing his MS at MIT, Kohli trained in power system operations at Ebasco International Corporation, New York, Connecticut Valley Power Exchange, Hartford, and New England Power Systems, Boston, before returning to India in 1951. He joined the Tata Electric Company where he helped set up a load dispatching system to manage systems operations, before going on to become a general superintendent in 1963, and a deputy general manager in 1967. He went on to work for Tata Consulting Engineers in 1966, before returning to become the director of Tata Electric Company. During this time, he is noted to have introduced the use of digital computers for power system design and control including the use of the CDC 3600 mainframe computer at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is also known for the introduction of advanced engineering and management techniques for power system operations.