Deepak Parekh Bought A Smart Phone During Lockdown: Chandra

Are people adapting to digital technologies? Well, if the question is posed to Tata Sons’ Chairman N Chandrasekaran, the answer is a resounding ‘yes’. “Deepak Parekh bought a smartphone, otherwise he was always using a SMS, text phone. When he said abhi (now), I need to be at least on WhatsApp, I need to do Zoom calls, so I bought a smartphone,” Chandra, as is fondly known in the industry, said. It is no brainer that the Tata group chairman was referring to HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh, who is 77 years old. Despite his oversized stature in the corporate world, Parekh, the Padma Bhushan awardee never upgraded his normal cell phone, until the pandemic struck. Hence, Parekh buying a smartphone becomes the benchmark or the proof of ‘digital adoption’ gaining ground. In comparison, Chandra, also a Padma Bhushan awardee, is known for his technological prowess. The head of IT behemoth Tata Consultancy Services is also the author of ‘Bridgital Nation: Solving Technology’s People Problem’. Chandra’s comments were made at the 74th Founding Day Lecture Meeting of Bombay Chartered Accountants Society (BCAS), where he was the guest speaker. In his speech, Tata Sons’ Chairman also hailed the “huge innovation” and the huge human spirit and how people could adapt – poor and rich – during the last two years of Covid.