Anand Deshpande, Founder and chairman, Persistent Systems
Image: Neha Mithbawkar for Forbes India
Starting early at 50” is how Anand Deshpande describes the decision to dip his toes into philanthropy 10 years ago. “I figured I’ll have 20 to 25 years ahead of me to put a team together, and over a period, create a reasonable impact.”
Deshpande speaks a lot about creating “long-term impact” during our hour-long conversation. Like many first-generation entrepreneurs, he spent a good part of his life—over two decades, in this case—to build his business. He is the founder of Pune-based Persistent Systems, a software company he started in 1990 with his savings, and borrowings from friends and family. It provides digital engineering, and data and artificial intelligence products to the IT, banking, health care and financial services sectors. As of February 20, Forbes estimates his real-time net worth to be $1.4 billion.
(This story appears in the 10 March, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)