The Accidental Revolution

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MIT’s ROLE

Sharma’s book has brought out another key role played by MIT, again unintentionally, in the growth of India’s IT sector. Lalit Surajmal Kanodia, a B.Tech graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, had enrolled for a management course in MIT in 1960s. In 1965, Kanodia did some consulting work for the Tata group in Bombay. One of the project reports he prepared for the Tata group was to start a data processing center for all group companies.

The Tata management acted on this suggestion in a small way. A small group was set up to offer data processing solutions to group companies. This core group formed the nucleus of the conglomerate’s computing activities which later led to the formation of a small division, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to handle the data processing work for the group’s 80 plus companies and also provide these services outside the group. TCS became a separate company in the 21st century and with more than $6 billion in annual revenues, it continues its position as India’s largest IT company for more than a decade now.

Sharma’s book has captured in fine details the efforts of several other industry icons such as DCM Data Systems, Future Software, NIIT, Softek, Wipro, and the committed band of technocrats who placed their bets on the growth opportunities provided by software programming. While the book is a chronicle of the growth the Indian IT industry as it exists today, the author has meticulously recorded for posterity the efforts of many scientists in established institutions such as the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, various IITs, Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta, the Atomic Energy Commission in Bombay, the Indian Space Research Organization, Bangalore, the India Meteorological Department, New Delhi, the Planning Commission, New Delhi who strived hard to build or with great difficulty bring rudimentary computers from the US. They all had a single objective: to train Indians on these computers, write applications, understand the technology and build indigenous alternatives.

HELPLESS SCIENTISTS

Sharma’s efforts to chronicle the growth of India’s IT industry is laudable for other reasons. As the nation today basks in the success of this sector and aims for global leadership, the book provide valuable lesson to the nation’s establishment on how not to miss the next bus in the industrial evolution. The author did not have access to any material from the government records which would have facilitated a more informed assessment of the reasons that stymied the growth of the computing sector. The current Ministry of Information Technology itself is just a decade old and has not bothered to source and archive relevant materials from its numerous predecessor government agencies.

The nation has invested billions of dollars in the last 50 to 60 years to build capabilities in many areas such as space research, nuclear research, weather forecasting, mapping, ocean sciences, renewable energy, mining, industrial engineering, textiles, and telecommunications. Of all these, only telecom and IT have emerged as globally competitive industries. There is still no sign of industrial activities of reasonable scale picking up in all the other sectors. So IT is indeed a remarkable success story which has succeeded despite the best efforts of a lethargic bureaucracy to stymie its growth at every stage. Sharma’s book is another testimony to the never-say-die spirit of every one associated with the IT sector to accomplish what they set out to do overcoming every hurdle in the way.

Narayanan Suresh is Group Editor of Technology Review.