Vinay L Deshpande
Vinay is an MSEE from Stanford University, USA
with over 37 years of experience in hardware /
firmware development, and in R&D Management.
He has also been responsible for the development
of a vast range of electronics/IT products
during his long IT career. Amongst the most
respected personalities in the Indian IT
industry, he has numerous associations, with the
Government (including the Prime Minister's
Information Technology Task Force), and within
private industry, in India and overseas, and
has been named a Technology
Pioneer by the World Economic
Forum in 2001 and 2002.
Along with his colleagues Shashank and Mark,
Vinay is one of the co-developers of the
Simputer, a low-cost, mobile computing
device designed to help bridge the Digital
Divide. He is also a Founder-Trustee and
Managing Trustee of the Simputer Trust, a
not-for-profit entity. To recognize this
achievement of developing the Simputer, the
seven founder-members of the Simputer Trust were
jointly awarded the First Dewang Mehta Award for
Innovation in Information Technology, instituted
by the Government of India, in August 2002.
Vinay is a
Fellow of the Computer Society
of India and the Indian National
Academy of Engineering, and
received the Sir M. Visvesvaraya
Senior Scientist State Award
from the Government of
Karnataka, 2003, for lifetime
contribution in Science and
Technology.
