From health and education, livelihood, animal welfare, and environment and climate, and even disaster relief, K Dinesh's philanthropic endeavours span several causes and organisations to make a vast, lasting impact. A look at how his family—wife and two daughters—are the cornerstones of his philanthropic principles
(From left) Deeksha Dinesh, Asha Dinesh, K Dinesh and Divya Dinesh, channelise their philanthropy through the Ashraya Hastha Trust
Image:Selvaprakash Lakshmanan for Forbes India
K Dinesh loves telling stories. His face broadens with a smile as he narrates them. “That’s not the end of the story,” he says often, making room for an incoming twist in the tale.
One such anecdote is about how he got his first job in the software industry. He was applying for a programmer/analyst’s role in the public sector company, New Government Electrical Factory (NGEF). “Have you seen a computer?” the interviewer asked. Of course he had not seen one.
This was the early 70s, when there were just a few hundred computers in use in India. “I had never seen a computer, never used one, or even studied anything about it, but somehow computers fascinated me,” Dinesh says over a Zoom call in early January.
The interviewers wanted to know how Dinesh could program a computer if he had never seen one. “I know how to spell computer,” he had replied, making them laugh. “I told them that I don’t know anything, but I am keen to learn. With some training, they can help me do my job. And if I did not learn, only I will be the loser.”
Dinesh refers to this willingness to learn at multiple points during our conversation, which stretches for over an hour. This penchant for learning new things and taking up challenges would go on to impress another interviewer, NR Narayana Murthy, about three years down the line in 1976.
(This story appears in the 09 February, 2024 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)