Harish Mehta, Mumbai (2026)

22/05/2026

The publishing world has lost one of its finest.

had a gift that is rarer than it sounds. He could hold a manuscript and see what others missed. Not the obvious, not the safe bet. The story that needed to be told.

When he read at HarperCollins India, he grasped its significance immediately and backed it with firm conviction. That kind of editorial courage is what separates a good publisher from a great one.

He shaped quietly, championed privately, and trusted where others hesitated. Indian publishing is enriched forever by what he gave it.

My deepest condolences to his family, his colleagues, and the many authors whose voices he helped carry into the world.

20/05/2026

turned 75 last Friday, and what a celebration it was! Elegant, warm, and deeply personal.

As his family sang his favourite songs, 'Saathi Haath Badhana,' 'Kisi Ki Muskurahaton Pe Ho Nisar,' 'Baar Baar Din Yeh Aaye,' their warmth filled the entire room. Every group, every corner, every conversation seemed to carry its own private chapter with Ashank.

Ashank, you were there when we were laying the foundations of nasscom, brick by brick, with no guarantee it would hold. You showed up at every meeting, every retreat. You were the conscience keeper we all needed, and the room showed it. That is a rare and beautiful thing.

As India enters the AI era, we once again need builders who think beyond themselves and leaders who put the ecosystem ahead of personal gain. India must ensure AI becomes a force for entrepreneurship and job creation at scale, not just productivity gains.

Wishing you many more years of health, friendship, music, and joy.

Baar baar din yeh aaye, my friend.

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18/05/2026

"In the long run, what differentiates institutions isn't the elegance of their technology stack.
It's the strength of their cultural stack."

That line, from 's fireside chat at the NASSCOM GCC Summit 2026, is one worth sitting with.

What made his conversation with Rajesh Nambiar compelling was that Deepak Parekh has spent decades building institutions through some of India's most defining moments. That experience was present in every word.

The core argument was about what makes institutions last through volatility, disruption, and reinvention. Not technology or scale, but culture, trust, governance, and the quality of human judgment under pressure.

On India's GCC journey, one observation rang particularly true. That our centres did not simply execute global processes. Over time, they began exceeding their briefs, improving what they were handed rather than just delivering it. That shift, from doing things cheaper to doing things that matter, is the real story of how India moved up the value chain.

And on why bodies like nasscom matter, the point was equally sharp. Platforms where the industry addresses headwinds and tailwinds together, rather than working in silos, are themselves a source of longevity. That institutional thinking does not age.

A session that left a lot to think about. Kudos to you 🙂

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15/05/2026

For years, the GCC story was about capability and delivery. What is changing now is authorship. India is not just participating in global enterprise. It’s writing the next chapter.

At the 16th NASSCOM GCC Summit 2026, that was the unmistakable energy in the room.

from JP Morgan framed it precisely: let the Indian GCC become a microcosm of the parent company. Not a support arm. A microcosm. That is the leap being architected.

Today's GCCs bring talent, domain expertise, and frugal innovation capacity that no other geography can match at this scale. Add lower costs and the Indian market itself as a live testbed for solutions that travel globally, and you have the foundation of a genuine global innovation hub.

The Digital Public Infrastructure story reinforces this. Inclusion achieved at scale is not just a social outcome. It is proof of what India-built systems can deliver for the world.

The ambition now is also to grow global CXOs from Indian soil. That is the natural next step for an ecosystem that has already proved its depth.

None of this happens without the architects. NASSCOM, Government, industry, and every stakeholder who held conviction through the difficult years. A special congratulations to , , and the entire NASSCOM team for a summit that matched the ambition of the moment.

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12/05/2026

India is not at the beginning of its technology story.
We are at the beginning of its next chapter.

At the GrowthCap Ventures Annual Soirée last week, I shared a thought that has stayed with me for decades: having capital and talent is not the same as having a mission.

India's IT industry was not built by isolated brilliance. It was built when an entire ecosystem chose to compete at the company level and collaborate at the industry level. We built trust as infrastructure, a collective voice for the industry where founders thought beyond their own balance sheets. That is the Maverick Effect in action.

India’s GCC story shows what the Maverick Effect can do. From a handful of captive centres to 2,100 GCCs contributing nearly 96 billion dollars and employing 2.7 million professionals. These are no longer back offices but Headquarters 2.0, with product ownership and R&D anchoring technology leadership in India.

I put this question to a room full of founders, investors, operators, and ecosystem leaders: Can we recreate the Maverick Effect for AI, deep tech, and the next wave of India's rise?

My answer is yes. But among the many gaps that need attention, four stood out to me most that evening. A vision gap, where we need to define our own ambition before global markets define our limits. An R&D gap, where converting talent into leadership requires institutional patience. A job gap, where in an AI-driven world, creating 100 million jobs must become a goal that is designed for, not just an afterthought. And a patient capital gap, where long-horizon innovation needs long-horizon backing. These are not just business challenges. They are the defining questions for India@100.

These challenges are not without precedent. When we were building NASSCOM in the 1990s, the gaps we faced were different in form but equally daunting in scale. What resolved them was not money. It was people who showed up fully, while they still had the energy and influence to matter.

Today, a number of initiatives have been taken up by organizations to bridge these gaps. My hope is that over time, they will converge, collaborate, and create a new Maverick Effect. However, as an individual, don’t wait for perfect alignment. Invest 10% of your time today, while your creative energies are still flowing and industry stakeholders are still listening.

To the investors in that room: back bold startups and entrepreneurs who are taking worthwhile risks. To the entrepreneurs: align yourself with India's needs, not just market size and valuations. Job creation, deep tech, and sovereignty don't have to be constraints. They are opportunities.

Grateful to and the team for an evening with investors and founders that gives me real optimism about what India can build next.

06/05/2026

“Growth is rarely a zero-sum game. When industries collaborate to build trust and shared infrastructure, the pie expands and everyone's slice grows.”

But here's what I keep asking: are we building enough of those shared platforms today, especially for the AI era?

Grateful to ET Edge Insights for the conversation.
Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

02/05/2026

In a city where palaces meet their reflection in still lakes, it felt right to pause and ask: what does India look like from the outside looking in?

At the MUFG Pension & Market Services session in Udaipur, sixty global leaders had exactly that conversation.

For decades, we told the world: come for the cost, stay for the quality, scale with the talent. The story has moved. The invitation now is: innovate from India.

India's financial ecosystem is not just growing. It has been architected. The Digital Public Infrastructure, UPI, Aadhaar, Account Aggregator, has created a nationwide operating system for financial services.

On top of that foundation, GCCs are no longer back offices. They are Headquarters 2.0, carrying global responsibility including product ownership and R&D leadership.

The old question was: why India?
The new question is: how much more can India lead?

In most parts of the world, private innovation comes first and regulation follows. In India, the foundational layers were built at a national scale first. Government, industry, and stakeholders worked as partners, not adversaries. That is the NASSCOM model. And it is now the GCC model too.

Enterprise value is no longer built in headquarters alone. It is being built wherever capability, innovation, and intent come together. India has all three.

Grateful to and of Link Intime India and MUFG Pension & Market Services for the invitation and for convening such a thoughtful gathering of global leaders. Our industry keeps reinventing itself. And that gives all of us a fresh story to tell each time.

02/04/2026

Some lectures stay with you long after the applause fades.

The Rooshikumar Pandya 12th Memorial Lecture recently featured Jaspreet Bindra on a topic as layered as it is urgent: AI, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Jaspreet held the room completely spellbound for over an hour with a wide-ranging, lucid, and deeply thought-provoking speech.

Notably, Jaspreet made the case that as AI becomes more powerful, the answer is not to become more like AI. It is to become more human. Curiosity, articulation and judgment will outlast any tool we will build with or without the help of AI.

He reframed AI as ‘augmented intelligence’, not artificial intelligence. AI amplifies. But the human must first ask the right question. It is a conviction I share deeply.
The standing ovation at the end said everything. A room of achievers, visionaries, and practitioners, all reminded that the most powerful technology ever built still needs us to be our most human selves, to realize its true potential.

Thank you, , for a masterclass. Kudos to the Rooshikumar Pandya Memorial Trust, for creating a platform where such conversations can take place. And to Shri , former DGP of Maharashtra, who organised the entire event, thank you for bringing this together.

20/01/2026

Years ago, when I spoke about building a billion-dollar software industry, smiled and asked me, “Do you even know how many zeroes there are in a billion?”

It wasn’t disbelief. It was a reminder: big numbers need seriousness, not ambition alone.

That question stayed with me.

Earlier this month in Jaipur, at the TiE Global, we launched the , marking the start of a national effort to place job creation at the heart of India’s growth story.

At the heart of this mission lies a simple belief: For India’s social stability, economic resilience, and long-term progress, jobs cannot be treated as a by-product of growth. They must be a central measure.

This is not a scheme. It is a national effort to build the systems needed to create 100 million dignified jobs over the next decade, district by district.

Perhaps most importantly, this mission is co-owned. By entrepreneurs, industry leaders, policymakers, and civil society, all aligned around shared goals:

- Make entrepreneurship aspirational, starting with education and skilling
- Build high-trust ecosystems through stable policy and transparent institutions
- Extend social protections so risk-taking becomes possible
- Use public procurement to scale MSMEs and local enterprises

Soon after being announced, the mission moved from intent to action with a five-year partnership with the Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation amongst other partner organizations. This marks the first step of moving from vision to on-ground ex*****on.

Big numbers are not achieved by wishing them into existence.
They are built patiently, collectively, and with intent.
And that is the work ahead.

More on this soon…

14/01/2026

At the launch of ’s The Ground Breaker, , a member of TiE Mumbai, brought his copy of The Maverick Effect for me to sign. Kanwal and I ended up holding each other’s books, an unplanned moment, but a meaningful one.

Kanwal and I have shared many such conversations over the years. In the 1990s, he would often tease me that India was getting paid for its sweat, not its grey matter. His provocation was that India needed to build innovation-driven, IP-led entrepreneurship, not just execute work designed elsewhere. I would reply, “Aap yahan aakar dhanda karogey toh maloom padega, kitna mushkil hai to build an IP driven monetization model!”

And that was the truth. Building such businesses in India meant navigating fragile capital markets, weak IP enforcement, limited risk appetite, and the absence of trusted local ecosystems.

But during the dot-com boom, it became clear that something was missing. That realization was a catalyst that prompted me to bring TiE to India in 1999, an organisation dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking, education, incubation, and funding. Today, TiE’s India community spans about 25+ chapters, connecting founders, mentors, and ecosystems across regions.

That kind of long-term ecosystem building matters even more now. India needs millions of entrepreneurs over the next decade to create livelihoods at scale, from founders building new-age industries to micro-entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs within companies. Real job creation will come from many forms of entrepreneurship working together.

But unleashing this potential isn’t a walk in the park. It requires us to overcome India’s deep structural challenges such as access to capital, regulatory friction, trust deficits, and weak local support systems, and to build robust, trusted ecosystems on the ground.

While nasscom continues to strengthen the technology ecosystem across services, startups, and institutions, the larger challenge before institutions like nasscom and TiE Global is making entrepreneurship aspirational, accessible, and sustainable across India by fixing the structures around it, not just celebrating the outcomes.

Harish Mehta

22/05/2026

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15/05/2026

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