If you don't believe in miracle, probably you need to meet one person-Shekhar Dasgupta, Managing Director, Oracle India and you would start believing that magic does work if you have the guts, gumption and a firm conviction in yourself. Dasgupta has revolutionsed the world of information to India through his daring concept, unbelievable ideas and down-to-earth approach. In India's stride towards e-governance, he has helped the use of papers to be deleted, life altered and IT controlling almost all segments of human life. A graduate in economics from Presidency College, Calcutta, Shekhar has transformed Oracle's role from a mere distributor with a local partner to a now wholly owned subsidiary.

Today, Oracle is playing a vital role in different e-governance initiatives of Central and state government organizations. Dasgupta, through his sheer diligence and exemplary workmanship, has helped the world's largest enterprise software achieve newer heights in India. A post-graduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, Shekhar has learnt, over the years, the art of managing giant firms single-handedly and the results are for everyone to see. During his tenure with PSI Data Systems and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Dasgupta made some far-reaching changes, especially in their operations.

It was Dasgupta who successfully marketed Oracle's product lines in Database, Application Server, Collaboration Suite, Developer Suite, and E-Business Suite, which are now deeply entrenched in its ethos. Dasgupta's understanding of the changing realities gave him strength to promote and help e-commerce sites, thereby bringing Oracle to the limelight of business. It was one of those areas, in which few dared to venture, except those with conviction. It was not long back, when under his stewardship, Oracle launched its Standard Edition One in India for SMEs and large enterprises.

The efficiency and competence of Standard Edition One has been well received, as it's a single processor version of Oracle Standard Edition database. Dasgupta's energetic initiatives have helped Oracle go for major tie-ups in India in view of changing business equations among the software giants. Recently it entered into a MoU with Hewlett Packard India to jointly set up an e-governance Centre of Excellence near New Delhi. Dasgupta's acumen further helped Oracle when CMC, NIC, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ram Infoteck were cobbled in as partners for deployment of solutions. With e-governance getting hugely popular and Dasgupta's efforts fast catching up, he is the man to watch out for in future.