FC Kohli, founder of TCS and father of India's IT industry passes away at 96

Padma Bhushan awardee, Faqir Chand Kohli, who was the founder and first CEO of Tata Consultancy Services, has passed away after reportedly suffering from a heart attack. He was 96.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) trade association, where Kohli served as president between 1995-96, took to Twitter to express its condolences on Kohli's demise.

"A true visionary and the father of the Indian software industry - Shri FC Kohli will always be remembered for his pioneering contributions to the sector and remarkable leadership at NASSCOM. Our condolences to his family," the tweet read.

A true visionary and the father of the Indian software industry - Shri FC Kohli will always be remembered for his pioneering contributions to the sector and remarkable leadership at NASSCOM. Our condolences to his family pic.twitter.com/DeWFMliImn

— NASSCOM (@nasscom) November 26, 2020

Popularly known as FC Kohli, the industrialist was born in Peshawar on March 19, 1924 and completed his primary and college-level education in Pakistan.

Later he went to Queen's University in Canada and completed B.Sc (Hons) in Electrical Engineering in 1948. He also did his MS in Mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1950.

Kohli returned to India in 1951 and joined Tata Electric Companies and rose to become its Director in 1970. During this tenure he was responsible for the use of digital computers for power system design and control.

In September 1969, Kohli became the general manager of TCS. In 1994, he became deputy chairman of the company. In 1991 he actively worked to bring IBM to India as part of Tata-IBM.

Kohli was considered to be the father of the country's software industry and had pioneered India’s 'Technology Revolution' to help the country build a USD 100 billion IT industry during his tenure at TCS. He retired in 1999 at the age of 75.

Notably, among the many honours bestowed upon him, he was also felicitated with the Dadabhai Naoroji Memorial award in 2000 for his contribution to India's software industry.