BY NELSON VINOD MOSES
Writing a book on India’s IT industry is a brave attempt considering the frequency with which it has been discussed and dissected by journalists, academics, analysts and consultants, and the obvious fatigue that has set in. Dinesh C. Sharma, writing as a New India Foundation fellow (fellowships are awarded to scholars and writers working on different aspects of the history of Independent India), treads on a road well-worn, but pulls away from most other writers because he attempts to chronicle the IT story from the origins to the present.
The Long Revolution is a comprehensive catalogue of the country’s struggles, many false starts, state-created inertia, gradual discovery and eventual emergence as a global IT giant. Sharma’s narrative begins in the 1920s and ’30s, when the use of IT in India started at about the same time as the rest of the world. This was thanks to P.C. Mahalanobis and Homi Jehangir Bhabha, who took the first few baby steps that has since exploded into a revolution. This was the pre-computer age of tabulating machines and unit recording machines. Mahalanobis and Bhabha used predecessors of computing machines to solve their own pain points — the former using it to analyse data from the National Sample Survey, and Bhabha for designing and running nuclear reactors. What began then is traced all the way through to the present.
Sharma’s task is tough because the story of the Indian IT industry is synonymous with outsourcing to most casual observers. But the book goes beyond that, and focuses on the history of the use of IT in India, and also the software, hardware, semiconductor and design industries. The IT story is believed to have started after the liberalisation in 1991, when a progressive software policy created the perfect storm for the industry to carve out India as the premier IT outsourcing destination. The book dives below the tip of the 1991 iceberg to emerge with a lot of relatively unknown data and interesting anecdotes. Some of these stories from the pre-1991 era are either not well-known or are otherwise untold.
Read the full review at: http://www.businessworld.in/index.php/Books-and-Guides/Exploring-Indias-ITinerary.html
From the era of Nehru and Bhabha
... to the age of outsourcing
Friday, March 13, 2009
How HCL wrote the growth programme for the industry
Financial Express, February 19,2009
The changing character of computer usage in India—from mainframes and minis to microcomputers—at the start of the 1980s threw up new demands for computer education. In the mainframe era, the role of a computer user was limited. The software was written by IBM and the machine was also serviced by IBM. The same happened in electronic data processing centres and the RCCs. With the introduction of microcomputers, the situation changed.
HCL, which pioneered this shift, had to educate customers on how to use its computers. One of its early advertisements said, ‘Even a typist can use our computers,’ emphasizing that companies don’t have to depend on outsiders to operate their computers.
The origins of computer training in the private sector can be traced to HCL. Rajendra Singh Pawar, a 1972 electrical engineering graduate of IIT Delhi, joined HCL in September 1976, after a stint with Larsen & Toubro and DCM Limited.
Read full excerpts at: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/how-hcl-wrote-the-growth-programme-for-the-industry/425208/
The changing character of computer usage in India—from mainframes and minis to microcomputers—at the start of the 1980s threw up new demands for computer education. In the mainframe era, the role of a computer user was limited. The software was written by IBM and the machine was also serviced by IBM. The same happened in electronic data processing centres and the RCCs. With the introduction of microcomputers, the situation changed.
HCL, which pioneered this shift, had to educate customers on how to use its computers. One of its early advertisements said, ‘Even a typist can use our computers,’ emphasizing that companies don’t have to depend on outsiders to operate their computers.
The origins of computer training in the private sector can be traced to HCL. Rajendra Singh Pawar, a 1972 electrical engineering graduate of IIT Delhi, joined HCL in September 1976, after a stint with Larsen & Toubro and DCM Limited.
Read full excerpts at: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/how-hcl-wrote-the-growth-programme-for-the-industry/425208/
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Comprehensive, detailed... accessibly written - Business Standard Feb 26, 2009
History of India's IT odyssey
By Subor Roy
The popular media in India has been extensively covering the Indian software story ever since it became visibly successful around the turn of the century. As the success has proved durable, the need to know how it all began and grew to its present state has become acute. This book succeeds in filling that gap admirably. It is a comprehensive and detailed history of the Indian IT industry, made possible by the use of invaluable archives and conversations with many of the key players. It is also very accessibly written.
Read full review at:http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=350151&tp=
By Subor Roy
The popular media in India has been extensively covering the Indian software story ever since it became visibly successful around the turn of the century. As the success has proved durable, the need to know how it all began and grew to its present state has become acute. This book succeeds in filling that gap admirably. It is a comprehensive and detailed history of the Indian IT industry, made possible by the use of invaluable archives and conversations with many of the key players. It is also very accessibly written.
Read full review at:http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=350151&tp=
Review in Hindi Business Standarad:
यूं लिखी गई आईटी की कामयाबी गाथा
यह किताब बहुत अच्छे ढंग से हम तक ये सभी जानकारियां उपलब्ध कराती हैं। यह भारतीय आईटी उद्योग का व्यापक और विस्तृत इतिहास है। किताब की भाषा सरल है और इसमें एक प्रवाह दिखता है।
सुबीर रॉय / March 04, 2009
भारतीय सॉफ्टवेयर उद्योग की सफलता जगजाहिर होने के बाद मुख्यधारा के मीडिया ने सफलता की इस गाथा के बारे में छापने या प्रसारित करने में गहरी दिलचस्पी दिखाई है।
अब चूंकि साबित हो चुका है कि यह सफलता टिकाऊ है, इसलिए हमें यह जानने की जरूरत है कि इस सफर की शुरुआत कैसे हुई और कैसे यह उद्योग लगातार तरक्की करते हुए अपने मौजूदा स्तर तक पहुंचा है।
यह किताब बहुत अच्छे ढंग से हम तक ये सभी जानकारियां उपलब्ध कराती हैं। यह भारतीय आईटी उद्योग का व्यापक और विस्तृत इतिहास है। पुराने दस्तावेजों और आईटी उद्योग की दिग्गज शख्सियतों के साथ बातचीत ने इस को बेशकीमती बना दिया है। किताब की भाषा सरल है और इसमें एक प्रवाह दिखता है।
http://hindi.business-standard.com/hin/storypage.php?autono=15309
The Silicon Route - Down to Earth March 15 2009
By Ananth Nayak
....Sharma is an effective chronicler, attentive to the minutest of details. He points out the efforts to develop computers in India benefited from a fortuitous turn of events. In 1959 Homi Bhabha ran into ibm’s director of research E R Piore on board a flight to Zurich. When Bhabha mentioned plans to acquire a powerful computer for atomic energy work in India, Piore suggested that his company could help. This was the beginning of an almost 20-year association of state-backed Indian computing endeavour with the US computer biggie.
Sharma is not the archetypal business history writer dismissing all state-sponsored efforts. He notes a large industrial infrastructure for electronics manufacturing was created in the public sector. But he does not overplay the role of the pre-liberalized state in India. He is attentive to the fact that Indira Gandhi’s restrictive policies were responsible for India missing the hardware bus.
The Long Revolution is not just about highbrow state research. There are interviews with small software developers in Noida and Hyderabad. There is a delightful description of the computerization of railway reservation.
The book ends on a hopeful note. “There are many more Silicon Valleys waiting to be discovered,” Sharma writes. But will the Silicon Valleys come with more Satyams. There are fault lines in India’s revolution that require examination. The book shows us that.
Read full review at: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090315&filename=news&sec_id=15&sid=35
....Sharma is an effective chronicler, attentive to the minutest of details. He points out the efforts to develop computers in India benefited from a fortuitous turn of events. In 1959 Homi Bhabha ran into ibm’s director of research E R Piore on board a flight to Zurich. When Bhabha mentioned plans to acquire a powerful computer for atomic energy work in India, Piore suggested that his company could help. This was the beginning of an almost 20-year association of state-backed Indian computing endeavour with the US computer biggie.
Sharma is not the archetypal business history writer dismissing all state-sponsored efforts. He notes a large industrial infrastructure for electronics manufacturing was created in the public sector. But he does not overplay the role of the pre-liberalized state in India. He is attentive to the fact that Indira Gandhi’s restrictive policies were responsible for India missing the hardware bus.
The Long Revolution is not just about highbrow state research. There are interviews with small software developers in Noida and Hyderabad. There is a delightful description of the computerization of railway reservation.
The book ends on a hopeful note. “There are many more Silicon Valleys waiting to be discovered,” Sharma writes. But will the Silicon Valleys come with more Satyams. There are fault lines in India’s revolution that require examination. The book shows us that.
Read full review at: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20090315&filename=news&sec_id=15&sid=35
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