Hemen Parekh held several senior profit center head responsibilities and other leadership roles in HRD, Manufacturing, Exports, and Strategic Planning. His final responsibility at Larsen and Toubro Limited was as General Manager, Planning and Development, and Exports. He has completed many assignments at the CXO level across diverse industry sectors.

He has served as a member of the Managing Councils of several engineering colleges and has represented Larsen and Toubro Limited on several professional bodies.

INDIAai interviewed Hemen Parekh to get his perspective on AI.

Tell us about the 91-year-old young man's professional journey.

After obtaining a Master's degree (Mech Engg / University of Kansas / USA), I joined a small firm, MIDCO, in 1958. After one year, I joined L&T in its Switchgear factory in 1971, I was transferred to L&T's Drilling Equipment factory in Madh Island as CEO. In 1977, I took over the role of Dy. GM- Central Personnel. In 1979, I was promoted to GM – Powai Works, a position I continued till 1987 when I was transferred to GM – Export and GM- Planning. In 1990, I sought early retirement and set up a head-hunting firm, 3P Consultants, where I continued to play an active role till about 2010. 

In 1990, all recruitment firms were offline businesses. It changed in 1995 with the arrival of Internet service. By that time, online Job Portals had taken root abroad. I realized that, even for recruitment, this online "Buyer – Seller "(of manpower ) platform was an inevitable application of technology.

I launched my first online recruitment platform (3pJobs) in Nov 1997 when Google was still writing "BETA "on its website (Google officially launched in Sept 1998). 3pJobs was followed by the launch of my other job portals: Global-Recruiter / India-Recruiter / World-Wide-Jobs / Recruit-Guru and Customize Resume. I also launched B2BmessageBlaster and designed "OnlineJobsFair "and "ResumesExchange ". I also launched a tool called "Resume Rater."

All of these are now de-hosted, but you can see some screenshots and download (free) their source codes. 

How is a mechanical engineering graduate from the 1950s still up-to-date in technology? What or who is the driving force behind this successful journey?

If you love technology, there is plenty of current news to keep you up-to-date. In the old times, there were news reports (in newspapers / technical magazines) that I regularly read. After 1995, I got a PC at home (- remember TCP/IP protocol ?) to search the Web. Besides my desktop, I use an iPad / a Smartphone to receive notifications from several tech Websites.

Now, as far as my journey is concerned, instead of glorifying it as "successful ", let us call it "satisfying ".

Driving force? A thirst to know how technology can simplify our lives. Whenever I encounter an innovation/invention, the first question crosses my mind: "Where / how can we use this tech to solve some current societal problem? "Then I try to figure out an application of that innovation.

Many people today break down for petty reasons and lose their hope. I still see enthusiasm and fire in your voice. How do you compose yourself during challenging times? Please tell us about that secret mantra.

All of us go through tough times. But each time this happened to me, I recall a song from an old hindi movie (Seema ?) which goes :

"Raat jitni hi sangeen hogi, Subha utni hi rangeen hogi "(Darker the night, brighter will rise the following morning)

Nothing lasts forever. Sooner you try to find a solution, sooner that tough time fades away. 

Other References :

AI Personal Assistant Interview Hemen Parekh, Technologist

Me & My AI Hemen Parekh, Technologist

BLOGGER, CHANGE-MAKER, EVANGELIST FOR A BETTER INDIA- HEMEN PAREKH

Tell us about Hemenparekh.ai. What exclusive features does it have compared to other existing models? 

Speaking in itself, it is not an AI. At its basics, it is only an extension of AI (in my case, using an API from www.Personal.ai)

Almost all current AI platforms (ChatGPT – BARD – Perplexity – Ask QX, etc.) have a "Question Box "and an "Answer Box."

All these enable a visitor to type or speak a question – to which an answer gets delivered. But only in English

www.HemenParekh.ai offers visitors a choice of 26 languages (including 9 Indian languages). And the answer gets delivered as TEXT and as SPEECH (in the language a visitor selects). I felt this choice was crucial for most Indians who do not know/speak English. It is equally valid for citizens of many foreign countries.

The website appears in the language a visitor selects, making it significantly "User Friendly."

A second significant difference is : 

My Virtual Avatar, in the first instance, searches for a "relevant "answer from my own 30,000 + typed documents I wrote over the past 60 years (look up www.HemenParekh.in). If it fails to find an appropriate answer from my digital content, it fetches an answer from ChatGPT.

I felt that :

I must share my own "Real and Original Thinking "with the world, whereas LLMs share a "Synthetically Constructed "thinking of the entire internet (drawing from their training data )

Opinion Makers (Authors – Editors – Anchors – Politicians – Actors – Sports persons, etc.) should convert their current "brochure "websites into "interactive "websites where, in their voice, their Virtual Avatar can engage in a one-to-one "dialogue "with millions of their fans/followers.

Anyone who wants to "influence "the thinking of the public at large should be able to launch a similar site in a matter of days. To help them, click Create Your Own Digital Avatar on my site.  

At this stage, you may want to compare my Digital Avatar ( v 1.0 was launched on 10 Feb 2023 ) with the Microsoft chatbot Jugalbandi (which was launched three months later in May 2023)

Apart from the use of Indian languages / Speech Text, the striking resemblance of the User Interface of both will not escape your attention!  

Talking of AI, you may want to look up :

Grandfather of AI?

Parekh's Law of Chatbots

What advice would you give to the youngsters in India?

In life, the only failure is to give up trying. Get obsessed with your belief. Don't focus on success - it is a bye-product of hard work. Luck happens when hard work meets opportunity. 

Please recommend some books and articles about artificial intelligence that you have found to be of high quality.

I cannot, offhand, mention specific articles, but I follow > Wired – Blue Print ( Interesting Engineering ) – Futureloop – Gates Notes – ScienceBlog – Heuristic from INDIAai – Humanity Redefined – Euronews Watch – Future of Life Institute, etc.

Among hundreds of suggestions for technology-based solutions you have sent to policymakers over the past decade, which can benefit our 1.4 billion citizens?

Here these are :

( A ) Enabling saving of Domestic Electricity and earning of Carbon Credits through IoT-connected home appliances / Smart Meter

 ( B ) Reducing Air Pollution caused by petrol/diesel vehicles by introducing a Trans-Tax based on the Harm Quotient of each vehicle

( C ) Reducing LPG imports and earning Carbon Credits by combining Suryodaya RTS Yojana with the Clean Cooking Mission

( D ) Enabling 900 million users of Social Media to monetize their personal/private data ( used by Media for earning Advt revenue )

 ( E ) Anyone to produce Solar Power anywhere / use anywhere / sell to anyone through Cooperative Solar Farms