I’ve always believed that to truly unlock our potential, and to maximize on our ability & skill set, we must align our professional path with our personal passions. I count myself among the fortunate few who have turned that belief into a reality.
Driven by a desire to be an architect of change rather than a mere spectator, I’ve have always had a drive to make a change, make a mark and not just be a passive observer of change around us. I always wanted to make a difference. This combined with the strong urge to know & understand the world around me helped me get a deep insight into the business processes. This curiosity has granted me deep, firsthand insights into the mechanics of modern business. Navigating the shifting tides of industry is rarely easy, and it’s certainly not without risk—you can't surf without getting wet. In an era where the digital flood threatens to drown focus and sanity alike, what separates the winners from the losers; the leaders from the rest is a commitment to the fundamentals and an undaunted will to press forward.
Looking back on the road traveled, I feel satisfied to have been a pioneer in the Asian online community having started as far back as 1988-89, the first and by far the largest BBS (Bulletin Board Service) in the India sub-continent (Live Wire! BBS (Archived) which later became a large network of BBSes and then ride the Internet wave to migrated the system to a successful ISP service (Live Wire! Net (Archived). All this around a young & successful company Nanda Netcom Pvt. Ltd. (Archived) which started out as Online Services. Before this, I did my share to bring awareness to the menace of computer viruses including co-authoring a highly successful book (War on Virus) and doing a hectic national lecture circuit while still in college.
— Red Herring September 2000 magazine
Having set the systems & processes in place, in 2001 I gave the running of our company Nanda Netcom in the firm & able hands of my brother Anish Nanda. While I remained active in the management - both strategic as well as techincal, I went onto becoming a Director of Idea Ventures which invested into Nanda Netcom as well as incubated a couple of start ups. Both as CEO of Nanda Netcom and Director of Idea Ventures, I was closely involved with setting up Jadoonet.com. At Jadoonet I played the role of CTO working extensively on low cost IAD IAD (Internet Access Devices) / Internet Appliance / STB (Set Top Box).
This was a pioneering initiative the first of its kind in this region. We met with great success and even partnerd with Samsung and Intel.Starting as a passionately inquisitive child, ever asking questions and experimenting, I loved to explore, tinker and try new things out and generally "have a good time" while doing this. In the spirit of open sharing, I was happy involve all around in the "discoveries" and helping others find their path. It was in this spirit that I had started to dabble and mess-around with computers with a ZX Spectum home computer in my pre-teens. This brought me in close quaters with like minded people and we started & promoted MUC (Micro Computer Users' Club).
Around this time, the IBM PC & compatibles price came below Rs. 1 Lakh and I had my first exposure to PCs.
Getting hands-on with that launched a new age of discovery & "playing around".
I've enjoyed travelling, working & interacting with people from different countries & continents and of all ages. I've had the pleasure and honour of working closesly with IDRC, UNDP, UNESCO, APNIC, APNIC Foundation, EFI's SOLAR Foundation, and HRAWI. Currently, I am Advisor and Consult to a few organizations including Jio & RIL (Reliance Industries Ltd.) working with the apex team and reporting to Shri Mukesh Ambani & Smt. Nita Ambani.
Three words that always get me super excited are:
— Mukesh Ambani, a visionary entrepreneur, titan of global industry and the architect of India's digital revolution.
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and:
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference."
— Robert Frost
