Awardee Profiles

Mr. Faqir Chand Kohli, known as F. C. Kohli is an Indian industrialist. He is frequently referred to as the Father of the Indian Software Industry due to his significant contribution in Indian IT industry. He was the founder and first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, India's largest software consultancy company. He has also worked as the deputy general manager of the Tata Power Company. He is Chairman of the Board of Governors of College of Engineering, Pune. ​

Early in 1951, Kohli joined Ebasco International Corporation, New York Connecticut Valley Power Exchange, Hartford and New England Power System, Boston for training in power system operation. He returned to India in early August 1951, and joined Tata Electric Companies where he helped to set up the load dispatching system to manage the system operations. He was responsible for significant use of digital computers for power system design and control, using the CDC 3600 mainframe computer at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. ​

In September 1969, he became the general manager of Tata Consultancy Services. In 1974, he was made the director-in-charge and in 1994 deputy chairman of TCS. He is also a director on the board of Tata Sons Limited, Tata Industries Limited, Tata Unisys Limited, Tata Electric Company, Tata Honeywell Limited, Bradma of India Limited, Airline Financial Support Services India Private Limited, Tata Technologies Limited Singapore, Investor Services of India Limited, Triveni Engineering Works, Abacus Distribution Systems and Airline Software Development Consultancy India Private Limited. He is also chairman of Tata Elxsi India Limited and WTI Advanced Technology Limited.