He is a wanderer, a globetrotter. He has left an indelible mark in the countries he has lived in. A well-known entrepreneur of Canada, it has been a journey uptil here, he says. People know him as an entrepreneur, a social activist, a philanthropist, a family person, a mentor, etc. He has helped establish and mentored startups. He has his business interests in India, Nepal, Canada and Thailand. He has plans to help develop regions of his native state and of Nepal. His social work is well talked of as he promotes education and entrepreneurship. Settled in Canada for the past 28 years, he actively promotes art and culture among the Canadian Aboriginals. He supports the Toronto International Film Festival and Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
As Aditya came from a small village, once he made his mark in Canada, he often noticed the stark difference in the quality of education between India and Nepal and Canada. As an effort to bring education at par, he established POA Education Foundation in 2001 in Canada and endowed at various universities which today grants scholarships and awards. The organisation, in its efforts to bring Indian and Canada closer, promotes holistic education and support projects at educational institutions. POA has also spread its wings to Nepal and has funded digital literacy projects to 11 schools in Nepal.
Aditya actively follows public affairs of Canada, India and Nepal, and has been a part of a seven-member delegation to India with the former Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper. One of the founders of Canada India Foundation (CIF), he has chaired many educational conferences and committees and made it join hands with the University of Waterloo to promote research studies and workshops that could promote bilateral ties with India and Nepal.
All that he does today has come to him as a realisation of society’s needs after a long travail. His kind heart is not just a parental inheritance but also an effect of the place he was born at. Sitamarhi is comfortably nestled at the India–Nepal border and is known in Indian mythology to be the birth of Devi Sita. Indians know her for her purity, sacrifices, courage and purity – features that reflect in Aditya in its evolved form. Many among his circle similarise him to the mythological character, Karna, from the major Sanskrit epic of ancient India, Mahabharat, for his quality of never talking of anything that he does for society.
Aditya’s father, Harish Chandra, was a lawyer in district court but preferred to farm too. His mother, Shyama, was rather uneducated but came from a well-educated family. In such a family, Aditya was born on 22 April 1956, among three brothers and two sisters. “I have very faint memories of my paternal grandma – she was extremely loving to me and would often hide midnight snacks for me! My mother was extremely loving. All my sisters were elder to me – they too had a motherly love towards us.” All the brothers together went to Kendriya Vidyalaya (KV) – the only high school in the neighbourhood, which was a 3-mile walk and a bus-ride away.
“I was good and attentive at studies and so stood among the toppers. I was quite active and naughty too. I remember never getting more than 35% of attendance at school. I was good at outdoor sports too, loved fishing and playing cards but just couldn’t resist reading novels – I would read it in school too and often would finish around three a day. My father had hired a private tutor for me – his only task was to look over me and discipline me!” Is this the energy that keeps him going till date?
He didn’t focus on studies even during his graduation from Hansraj College, University of Delhi. These were the times of Emergency rule in the country. It put Aditya in active university politics as well. For his postgraduation, he went to the famous Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Delhi, where he completed his M.Sc. in computer science and enrolled in Ph.D. programme in the same subject. Though he wanted to study law, his father wanted him to opt for the best. Researching computers was not much heard of back then and Aditya knew this would benefit him in future. Chosen as the president of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), he worked closely with the likes of Arun Jaitely (the former finance minister of India), Venkaiah Naidu (the present vice-president of India), among many others.
Conquering the world: On his own!
Studies, exposure and active politics weren’t the only good things to happen to him in JNU. There was more! Something that helped him define his way into a bright future – love! He met Deepa and the two fell in love. However, she was clear that she couldn’t marry someone who didn’t stand on his own. Finding work was a must, though his father wanted him to pursue Ph.D. Aditya, however, was always a challenge for his father! In 1984, he chose to join Indian Telephone Industries as an assistant executive engineer and was soon promoted as an executive engineer within two months.
Year 1989 took him to Singapore as a principal assistant consultant at the Candle Corp. This was his first step towards a happy life ahead. Though he performed more than expected at his job, he also wanted to be among the best in his social circle too. He managed to join the National University of Singapore as a visiting professor – for it came with entry permission to the country’s best clubs!
However, Singapore couldn’t offer much to Deepa. She went to Singapore in 1993, four years after Aditya and could manage finding a job as a school teacher though she is a Ph.D. in economics from JNU – it made her despise the country. For her happiness, the couple started applying in Australia and Canada. In 1994, they went to Australia but back then, the countries to be in were the USA and Canada. They landed in Canada in 1994. Deepa immediately took admission in a postgraduate programme in landscape architecture, while Aditya remained unemployed for the next two months. “I just wanted to have a good position in a big company, have a car and lead a good life,” he says. He almost lived his dream when he joined Bell Canada, the then largest telecommunications company in the country, as the director of strategic marketing in sales. Things changed thereon. His work made him meet technology giants and entrepreneurs. “Meeting them brought me the confidence that I too can do it!” He worked and worked hard and was soon made the general manager. Did he want more!
Within five years of serving Bell, he decided to start his own venture and established Isopia Inc., a software company, with four other partners. It was later acquired by another giant and thus was written an Indian success story in Canada. His next venture, Osellus Inc., had offices in Thailand too. There was nothing stopping him anymore. Bold and confident, he took Osellus to acquire several businesses including Cadbury, the chocolate giant – and save jobs of around 150 people.
In a series of acquisitions, Aditya, in 2017, took over dgMarket International Inc., the oldest and one of the largest portals for tenders and global consulting opportunities. He today has offices in India, Canada and Thailand.
The recipe of success
For all that he does for society, Aditya was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2012. He has been called the Champion of Public Education in Canada for his work to make “the Canadian public education system one of the best in the world”.
Aditya is a complete family person. Born in 1995, Ishan, their only child, studied health sciences from McMaster University and is looking forward to completing his residency at the University of Toronto.
While a lot keeps him extremely busy, he always ensures finding time for himself. He still loves reading, listens to soft music and wants to learn more about Indian culture and religion, and spend some time in the holy city Varanasi to learn Sanskrit and Indian shastras (science). He still maintains close ties with his family back in Bihar.