Published March 05, 2024
By : Staff Writer
Asha Goyal's inspiring story was first published in the 2004 conference issue of Women of Color magazine.
Despite being afflicted with poliomyelitis at the age of two, Asha was determined not to be held back by her disability.
She excelled in her studies, rolling through elementary and secondary school, and eventually being admitted to the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology.
There, she achieved the highest score among female students on the engineering entrance examination.
Although campus mobility was difficult for her, she persevered and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in electronics, along with a "Best Student Gold Medal."
In graduate school at the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, she pursued a master's degree in electrical engineering and then a Ph.D. in computer science.
Despite facing new challenges, such as the need to learn how to swim, she continued to maintain her positive attitude and determined spirit.
Goyal took classes to learn how to swim and quickly mastered three strokes in just 15 days. She even became skilled at diving and went on to teach others her techniques as an instructor.
To overcome mobility challenges on campus, Goyal tried various modes of transportation, including bicycles, rickshaws, and gadgets made from hospital equipment.
Ultimately, she developed her own wheeled transport, a moped named Luna, complete with an additional wheel for improved mobility.
Goyal raced around campus on her Luna, switching to "cycle mode" and dragging it to her destination if the engine failed en route.
Her can-do attitude and determination serve as an inspiration to us all.
Two mechanics who were on constant call for emergencies created a "knife-like" spark plug cleaner and an adapter that allowed them to use campus compressors to inflate tires.
Later on, she fell in love with cars and discovered automatic transmissions in America.
However, since she couldn't take an American vehicle to England on assignment, she decided to get an older transmission from a Morris Mini and had it shipped to India for installation in one of the readily available Fiats.
Dr. Goyal went on various corporate assignments and vacations in 18 countries altogether. She even went up the Swiss Alps by cable car and rode the rides at Disneyland.
From 1971 to 1994, she served as a senior consultant at Tata Consultancy, where she established herself as a leader and innovator in software development for the Indian domestic and export markets.
She led an initiative to design and build a countrywide counterpart to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations' Criminal Information Center, which was the first of its kind in India.
In 1994, she joined Fujitsu ICIM India, where she set up a development facility at Software Technology Park in Noida, India and led software experts for the healthcare line of the business.
She engineered a legacy of healthcare information systems with a graphical user interface, and from April 1994 to October 1996, she led a team servicing large healthcare clients in the U.K., New Zealand, and Australia.
In October 1996, Dr. Goyal joined HCL Perot Systems as executive vice president for software development, where she continued her rigorous drive to create the best possible software for clients.
In 1999, she joined IBM and became active with the Institute of Informatics and Communication, Delhi University, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electronics and Telecom Engineers, a half-century-old organization awarding government-recognized engineering degrees and taking up educational activities in technical areas.
She retired as vice president of quality from IBM Global Services India in 2006.
Months after signing on to lead the Quality team at IBM's Global Services India in 1999, Goyal propelled her division to become the first unit to achieve recognition as a Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Level 5 organization.
The institute developed the metric to assess the performance of organizations developing complex commercial software. The fifth level of the Capability Maturity Model is the highest rating.
Goyal's team also won a Level 5 rating under the People Capability Maturity Model, and continuing that winning trend, they pushed onto a Level 5 rating under the more involved Capability Maturity Model integrated standard.
Dr. Goyal, a Six Sigma Blackbelt in quality control, also led the team to reach that standard.
"I would like to share a quotation," Goyal told Women of Color magazine in 2007. "It's part of a Sanskrit shloka (a Hindu prayer) from the Gita: 'Karmanyeva dhikaraste, ma faleshu kadachanam.' This means we have a right to our work and duty but do not have a total claim on the results and achievements."
Goyal has served as president of the Lioness Club in Roshni, which works alongside the International Association of Lions Clubs and is part of Lioness Club India in social work and charity.
She was vice president for quality at Nucleus Software Exports Ltd between 2007 and 2010 and served the software company in its banking products internationally.
