Rajendra S Pawar Felicitated with ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Dataquest

Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founder, NIIT Group & Founder, NIIT University was felicitated with the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' at Dataquest ICT Awards 2019 on 18th August 2020. Dataquest conducted a special webinar on ‘40 Years of ICT Industry and the Next 10 Years’ to present him the award. Dataquest conducted a special webinar on ‘40 Years of ICT Industry and the Next 10 Years’ to present him the award. All the industry leaders applauded Mr. Pawar for his immense contribution to the IT sector over the past 40 years. 

Mr. Pawar was felicitated with the award of Lifetime Achievement at the ICT Conference and Awards 2019 for his huge contribution to the growth and development of the Indian IT sector. He was awarded the prestigious award of Padma Bhushan by the President of India in 2011 which is the third-highest civilian award in the Indian Republic. NIIT transformed into a leading Global Talent Development Corporation under the leadership of Mr. Pawar. Under the leadership of Mr. Pawar, NIIT contributed a lot to the growth of the Indian IT sector. It created proficient manpower and accelerated the pace of the IT industry. NIIT has a presence in more than 30 countries with 35 million+ learners across the globe. It ranks among the top training companies in the world due to its vast, extensive, and efficient talent development programs. Mr. Pawar is now trying to establish an innovative model in higher education, the not-for-profit NIIT University.

The panel discussion on ‘40 Years of ICT Industry and the Next 10 Years’ became a key highlight of the award ceremony. There were some esteemed leaders from the IT industry in the panel including Arjun Malhotra, Chairman of Jury, Co-Founder HCL; CP Gurnani, Member of Jury, CEO Tech Mahindra; Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founder, NIIT Group & Founder, NIIT University. The session was moderated by Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia Group. 

On receiving the award Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founder, NIIT Group & Founder, NIIT University said, “Among the dark clouds of COVID, this award is a silver lining. Thanks to Cybermedia’s special way of celebrating through a digital platform, it has become possible for me to reach many of my mentors, colleagues, relatives, and friends. I receive this award on behalf of NIIT leaders including Vijay Thadani, P Rajendran, and Arvind Thakur, as well as thousands of colleagues of the NIIT family, NIITians of the past and NIITians of the present who put Organization Building above all else”.

Congratulating Mr. Pawar on the achievement, N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, The Tata Group, “Raji is a true pioneer. He is a true educationist at heart. He helped shape the IT policy in India and around the world. His contribution to education, the IT industry, and the nation is enormous. He is a role model for many young entrepreneurs, teaching them to take a premise, build on it, and bring it into reality”.

C.P. Gurnani, CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra said, “The best of Raji is yet to come and we want to be there as cheerleaders”.

“Rajendra Pawar set up NIIT University a few years ago and wanted me to be its Chancellor, and I agreed. It was a greenfield university, there was nothing there at all. But in ten years, I saw the way the University came up, bit-by-bit, little-by-little. Every year when I went, I could see the new construction. Under the guidance of Rajendra Pawar and his excellent team of technologists and intellectuals, this has become one of the very visible technological universities in the world. Raji has made many contributions—through NIIT, and through the University—to the tech scene. I hope he goes from strength-to-strength” said Dr. Karan Singh, former Chairperson, NIIT University, and former Member of Parliament. 

Viswanathan Anand, a five-time World Chess Champion and former NIIT Brand Ambassador said, “The first thing that I noticed about Raji was his passion for education in overcoming the Digital Divide. For him, computers were not only about IT, but they were also about education. I remember in 2000 he had a conversation with the President of the World Chess Federation who mentioned that in his region they had introduced Chess in schools and it had produced much better academic outcomes for his students. And Raji’s eyes lit up. Within a year we launched the MindChampion’s Academy and quite a few champions have emerged from it”

“Raji you have been a friend, philosopher, and guide to NASSCOM. You have been part of our Executive Council, and the past Chairman of NASSCOM. Even today, you continue to find time for us as Chairman of the Data Security Council of India. Raji your contributions and insights are always invaluable. The ability to get into the depth of specific subjects, your attention to detail, and the willingness with which you make yourself available whenever we need you, means a lot to us”, said Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM.

Rishad Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited, “Thank you Raji for giving me the opportunity to share in your success on this celebratory milestone. Congratulations on your successful run for these many decades, for the things you have done for the education industry, the technology industry, and NASSCOM. It’s been a real pleasure to get to know you and engage with you over these last many years. I hope you go from strength to strength and I wish you all the best”.

“We are very happy and proud to confer the ‘Dataquest Lifetime Achievement Award 2019’ on Rajendra Pawar, Chairman & Co-Founder NIIT, and Founder, NIIT University. His pioneering vision has been an inspiration for the entire ICT Industry in India and has given back so much to our country and the society at large. His achievements and initiatives will always be a guiding force for the ICT industry”, said Pradeep Gupta, CMD, CyberMedia.

The ICT Awards organized by the Dataquest named “The Oscars of Indian ICT” have been commemorating great and noteworthy contributions to the Indian IT industry from 26 years. CyberMedia, through these awards, aims at celebrating and acknowledging leaders from the IT industry who have been contributing to the Indian IT sector and made the country’s IT development reach new heights.

About NIIT

Established in the year 1981, NIIT has become a global leader in Skills and Talent Development Corporation. Today. It is providing training and development solutions to individuals, institutions, and enterprises. The skilled manpower provided to the global industry by NIIT has contributed a lot to the IT industry. NIIT works on two basic lines businesses all across the world which are Corporate Learning Group and Skills and Careers Business.

A number of market-leading companies in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania are getting Managed training Services (MTS)  from NIIT's Corporate Learning Group (CLG). The Skills & Careers Business (SNC) provides many talent development and learning programs for individuals and corporate learners in the fields of Banking, Finance, Digital Media Marketing, Digital Transformation, and the new-age IT. NIIT has developed StackRoute which aims at building a large scale of full-stack developers for the corporate industry. NIIT has an efficient and effective system of online learning to connect the learners all across the globe.The contributions of NIIT in learning and talent development continue to be acknowledged and recognized worldwide. NIIT is one of the top 20 Training Outsourcing Companies for the past 12 years as per the Training Industry, Inc. in the USA. An interesting fact is that NIIT has received the Dataquest ‘Top IT Training Company Award’ for 20 years successively. When it received its 20th award in 2014, NIIT removed the award itself as there was no competition at all.