D.Balasubramanian
dbala@lvpei.org
Supercomputer ‘SAGA-220,’ built by the Satish Dhawan Supercomputing
Facility, located at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.— photo: PTI
I was struck by a recent headline
that appeared in the business pages of newspapers, stating that the
IT-related exports from India are expected to touch US $ 87 billion in
2014. In these days when colossal figures related to scams hit the
headlines, this figure, coming out of hard, honest work, largely by
“Generation X” is heartwarming. And to put this figure in historical
perspective, software and services exports fetched us US $ 2 billion in
1998 and 50 billion in 2010. IT contributes about 7 per cent of India’s
gross domestic product and employs about 2.4 million software
professionals.
All this in a matter of less than 60
years!
The year 2014 marks the start of the Diamond Jubilee of the entry
of computers into India. Professor V. Rajaraman, whom all of us
consider as the Bhishma Pitamaha of computer education in India,
summarizes the story of IT in his recent monograph “History of computing
in India – 1955- 2010”. It traces the milestones of the growth of IT in
India from day one, 1955, when the first UK-made digital computer named
HEC-2M was set up at the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta
by Drs Mohi Mukherjee and Amesh Roy. Rajaraman points out that this
machine had but a memory of 1024 (24 bit words) and arrived at the ISI
without any manuals. Mukherjee and Roy had to write them and a dozen
people used them.
But a truly Indian-made computer
was made by Professor R. Narasimhan at the Tata Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR) Bombay, when he put together a pilot computer to design
logic circuits in 1956. This was later expanded to produce the TIFR
automatic calculator or TIFRAC, inaugurated (and christened) by
Jawaharlal Nehru. Professor P.V.S. Rao, who was part of the TIFRAC team
describes the story in exciting detail in the scholarly book “Homi
Bhabha and the Computer Revolution” edited by Professors R. Shyamasundar
and M.A. Pai (Oxford, 201; hereafter called the S + P book) dedicated
to R. Narasimhan, whom they call the doyen of Indian computer science.
Soon after, ISI combined with Jadavpur University and produced another
home made, second generation transistor-based computer named ISIJU.
Even
as these computers were getting built and used, two important
developments occurred in the 1960s. One was the establishment of the
IITs, particularly IIT Kanpur, where the American partners brought in
what was at that time a state-of-the-art computer IBM 1620, along with a
Fortran II compiler. Prof. Rajaraman points out in the S + P book how
important this high-level language was at the time — novel, contemporary
and easier learnt than others. The second related development was the
teaching and training program that IITK embarked on. Rajaraman wrote has
first bestseller “Principle of Computer Programming”, which he forced
the publishers to price at Rs 15/- so that many students can buy and
learn from it; it has run its 50{+t}{+h}edition now. The machine, the
mentor, the manuscript, and the bright-eyed mentees basking in the
new-found mode of American informality in learning (access to all,
24/7); this invigorating cocktail made hundreds of students take to
computers and IT.
The decade of the 1970s is equally
important. This was the period when the self-reliant growth of the
computer industry blossomed, through the Department of Electronics and
the Electronics Commission of India. ECIL designed the Trombay Digital
Computer TDC-12 and sold this and other versions in the market. In the
private sector, Tata Consultancy Limited (TCS) was established and by
1975 TCS, under Dr. F.C. Kohli, installed Burroughs machines and began
to export software. National Informatics Centre (NIC) was established,
where Dr. Seshagiri set up networks such as NICNET and the Very Small
Aperture Terminal (VSAT), providing opportunities for data sharing,
monitoring and e-mail (my first emails were courtesy NIC). Computer
Maintenance Corporation (CMC) was also set up.
By the
1980s, software development by various companies began in right
earnest. By 1985 software export by TCS, CMC and others touched US$ 30
million. (Dr. Kohli has a fascinating chapter in the S+P book). Private
sector entered the IT field in full measure, intercity connectivity via
ERNET became operational and the National Supercomputer Centre was
established at IISC Bangalore, where Rajaraman moved. Kanpur’s loss was
Bangalore’s gain.
Two interesting examples of the
adage “necessity is the mother of invention” came about during the
1980s. One was the need to make voting and vote-counting tamper-proof
during elections in the country. The Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) was
developed by ECIL and Bharat Electronics, and used. The second is the
imposition of computer export ban by the US on India, which led our
home-grown experts to design parallel processing machines, called PARAM.
A
major milestone in boosting computers and IT in India was in the mid
1980s when the government liberalized computer import and use, with
Seshagiri, and Pitroda as advisors (read them recount their experience
in the S+P book), through the NIC and Centre for Development of
Telematics (CDOT). Further liberalization and globalization of the
economy in 1991 made private players such as Infosys, Wipro, Satyam and
others become globally recognized. Rajaraman points out how factors such
as “night in India, day in America” and correcting the Y2K problem came
in handy for Indian IT companies. By the year 2010, IT had given
employment to over 2.5 million Indians and brought in US$50 billion.
This
fascinating story of the birth and growth of IT in India has some
special features so relevant to current times. Interesting how
individuals make all the difference – Nehru, Bhabha, Mahalanobis,
Sarabhai, Narasimhan, Kohli, Menon, Srikantan, Rajaraman (not to forget
Prof. Mahabala and the IITK Director Kelkar), Narayanamurthy, Premji –
with their dedication, character, ethical standards, selfless service
and commitment. See how even the Satyam aberration was quickly and
admirably corrected.
O Tempora O Mores!
Or should I say:
Cometh the moment cometh the man
?
(The Hindu, Science & Tech, 21:02:2013)
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