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
Friday, January 30, 2009
Monday, January 19, 2009
First exhaustive study on how India became a software giant - Mail Today
THESE DAYS the information technology industry is making headlines for the wrong reasons. But the edifice on which it stands today has been carefully built over the past three decades and more, and this could give hope for its long-term survival.
The initial software writing skills in India developed parallel to hardware design innovation. In the era of mainframe computers, software came bundled with hardware. Application software had to be written specifically for each computer. Since all commercial computers came from multinationals, software writing skills also developed on these computers with the help of US firms. This made IBM and ICL storehouses of programmers. When TIFR acquired the large mainframe from CDC,it got its scientists trained in programming at CDC. Subsequently, these skills spread to others through training and hands-on experience. Initial training skills in programming developed at the IITs through interaction with IBM, which supplied computers, and faculty from collaborating American universities.
(Extracted from The Long Revolution, by Dinesh C. Sharma, with permission from HarperCollins)
Read more at http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=1812009
The initial software writing skills in India developed parallel to hardware design innovation. In the era of mainframe computers, software came bundled with hardware. Application software had to be written specifically for each computer. Since all commercial computers came from multinationals, software writing skills also developed on these computers with the help of US firms. This made IBM and ICL storehouses of programmers. When TIFR acquired the large mainframe from CDC,it got its scientists trained in programming at CDC. Subsequently, these skills spread to others through training and hands-on experience. Initial training skills in programming developed at the IITs through interaction with IBM, which supplied computers, and faculty from collaborating American universities.
(Extracted from The Long Revolution, by Dinesh C. Sharma, with permission from HarperCollins)
Read more at http://epaper.mailtoday.in/epaperhome.aspx?issue=1812009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Story of a 'Little India' in Satyam - The Hindu BusinessLine
D. Murali
These are days when any link with Satyam merits a second look, and a closer one. But this is a positive story, about how the first commercial dedicated satellite link of VSNL to be used by an Indian software company was of Satyam, as Dinesh C. Sharma recounts in ‘The Long Revolution: The birth and growth of India’s IT industry’ ( www.harpercollins.co.in).
In 1992, just a handful of 64 kbps (kilobits per second, a measure of bandwidth) circuits were in use, Sharma writes. A Hyderabad-based start-up, Satyam Computer Services, which had signed up its first major offshore customer in June 1991, applied to VSNL for a dedicated satellite link in August that year, he adds.
“Using this link, Satyam wanted to execute a re-engineering contract, worth $1 million, for John Deere Corporation by remotely working on Deere’s IBM mainframes located in Chicago.”
Read more at: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/17/stories/2009011750761800.htm
These are days when any link with Satyam merits a second look, and a closer one. But this is a positive story, about how the first commercial dedicated satellite link of VSNL to be used by an Indian software company was of Satyam, as Dinesh C. Sharma recounts in ‘The Long Revolution: The birth and growth of India’s IT industry’ ( www.harpercollins.co.in).
In 1992, just a handful of 64 kbps (kilobits per second, a measure of bandwidth) circuits were in use, Sharma writes. A Hyderabad-based start-up, Satyam Computer Services, which had signed up its first major offshore customer in June 1991, applied to VSNL for a dedicated satellite link in August that year, he adds.
“Using this link, Satyam wanted to execute a re-engineering contract, worth $1 million, for John Deere Corporation by remotely working on Deere’s IBM mainframes located in Chicago.”
Read more at: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/17/stories/2009011750761800.htm
"Engaging account" - The Hindu BusinessLine
Software Sops
By D Murali
The Hindu BusinessLine, January 17, 2009
The Department of Electronics (DoE) Secretary, Nagarajan Vittal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, K. Roy Paul, and Economic Advisor, Pronab Sen, were the three individuals who changed the outlook of the DoE, writes Dinesh C. Sharma in The Long Revolution: The birth and growth of India’s IT industry (http://www.harpercollins.co.in/). “With similar wavelength and energy,” says Sharma, “the trio ensured that the DoE shed its image of being a scientific department to become an industry- and business-oriented ministry.”
He recounts how, within a week in office, Vittal met representatives of MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology) and Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies). “The industry wanted high-speed data communication links to facilitate software exports… Extending export concessions and tax holidays to the software sector was the other demand.”....
Read more at: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/17/stories/2009011750080900.htm
By D Murali
The Hindu BusinessLine, January 17, 2009
The Department of Electronics (DoE) Secretary, Nagarajan Vittal, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce, K. Roy Paul, and Economic Advisor, Pronab Sen, were the three individuals who changed the outlook of the DoE, writes Dinesh C. Sharma in The Long Revolution: The birth and growth of India’s IT industry (http://www.harpercollins.co.in/). “With similar wavelength and energy,” says Sharma, “the trio ensured that the DoE shed its image of being a scientific department to become an industry- and business-oriented ministry.”
He recounts how, within a week in office, Vittal met representatives of MAIT (Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology) and Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies). “The industry wanted high-speed data communication links to facilitate software exports… Extending export concessions and tax holidays to the software sector was the other demand.”....
Read more at: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/01/17/stories/2009011750080900.htm
Authorspeak: Why I wrote this book?
"Today we find computers being used everywhere. This was not so some thirty years back. I became aware of the use of computers in our lives when I got a computerised marks sheet for my tenth grade examination in June 1976.A few years later, I was formally introduced to computer science during the undergraduate course in science at Nizam College, Hyderabad. An introductory course in FORTRAN IV – a computer language released by IBM in 1962 – made students learn basic programming without seeing or touching a computer. .....Over the next two decades I was exposed to computers and had a chance to report on the so-called 'computer era' in the 1980s..... In 2000s, while reporting for American technology news network, Cnet.com, I realised that interest about the Indian industry was growing in America and yet there were a lot of misconceptions. The same was the case with new generation of Indians who were introduced to the sector in the past one decade or so. This prompted me to do a full book on this sector.
When I decided to write a book, the first thought that came to my mind was the story of IBM and Coca-Cola being ‘thrown out of India’ during the Janata Party regime in 1977. Somehow this story had remained ingrained in my mind since my adolescent days. Then as a reporter, I kept hearing different versions of this story. So, I thought here is my story line – from IBM leaving India in 1977 to IBM’s comeback in early 1990s. To the journalist inside me, this appeared to me a killer plot. Barring the IBM’s exit and the period of early growth of the industry till 1984, I was a witness as well a recorder of all major events in this period. But when I started researching into IBM episode, I realized the story actually begins when early computing machines came to India in the pre-independence days. That’s how the plot got extended. Much of research and writing for this book took place between 2005 and 2007. I made multiple trips to Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad, besides work done in my place of residence – New Delhi. This is the journey of this book, in brief."
-From author's preface to "The Long Revolution: The Birth and Growth of India's IT Industry"
When I decided to write a book, the first thought that came to my mind was the story of IBM and Coca-Cola being ‘thrown out of India’ during the Janata Party regime in 1977. Somehow this story had remained ingrained in my mind since my adolescent days. Then as a reporter, I kept hearing different versions of this story. So, I thought here is my story line – from IBM leaving India in 1977 to IBM’s comeback in early 1990s. To the journalist inside me, this appeared to me a killer plot. Barring the IBM’s exit and the period of early growth of the industry till 1984, I was a witness as well a recorder of all major events in this period. But when I started researching into IBM episode, I realized the story actually begins when early computing machines came to India in the pre-independence days. That’s how the plot got extended. Much of research and writing for this book took place between 2005 and 2007. I made multiple trips to Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata and Hyderabad, besides work done in my place of residence – New Delhi. This is the journey of this book, in brief."
-From author's preface to "The Long Revolution: The Birth and Growth of India's IT Industry"
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