We should really invent a new name for “mobile phones” because this tiny handheld device is no longer just a phone but a powerful computer that can be a veritable window to life. But, it was not so long ago — look back to the 1980s — when even having a computer was a great luxury.
These huge machines would swallow punched cards and spew out reams as output. Since then, advances in the technology and its adoption have shot up in a very short period.
The IT industry has had a relatively short but eventful history. Unlike, say, mathematics, which has been around for centuries, the history of the IT industry in India begins in the 1950s with the advent of the first computers — HEC 2M from England and URAL. Starting with policies framed by the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru in consultation with scientists such as Homi Bhabha and P. C. Mahalanobis, the IT industry grew and flourished.
It can be fun to study this history, and now, a newly launched app, Itihaasa, makes it possible to browse videos and artefacts, painstakingly recorded and gathered from stalwarts of the industry.
Launched in mid-April, Itihaasa is the brainchild of Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys. “[After I stepped down from Infosys]… I was thinking of some way I can give back… there are books but no other documentation in the form of records of voices and videos of the leaders who created this industry. It occurred to me that it would be fun to create an app for this,” says Kris.
Itihaasa targets three sets of people — those interested in learning about the industry; entrepreneurs who could use the information in their startups and those interested in history per se. “There is a lot of learning in it for entrepreneurs,” says Kris, who has invested about a crore in this project. N. Dayasindhu and Krishnan Narayanan, from Infosys and now with Itihaasa, have developed this app over the last two years.
The indexed entries facilitate easy searching of videos and artefacts. One can search using six labels: year, person, institution, topic, technology, place.
For instance, the word “program” throws up ninety-four results. Browsing the set connects up organisations as diverse as TCS and ISRO, the first master’s programme
in computer science, ERNET, Aadhar and much more. The artefacts are intriguing too. Those who have seen Alan Turing’s biopic, The Imitation Game, would have already had a look at a computing machine as it looked in its early avatar — dials and all. The earliest Indian computer is no less impressive.
Navigating the app is made easy by the tags used. Krishnan Narayanan explains, “One important aspect was the tagging. There are some 12,000 tags which make it possible for users to access information easily and move from one artefact to another at any stage. This is possible in a digital museum.”
The duo had to spend a couple of sittings while recording each video. “It was a two-step process. First we did a structural interview where the speaker thought through the subject, went back and forth and so on. Then, prepared, we did a video interview. This is the standard method for research in the social sciences,” says Dayasindhu.
For those interested in the IT industry, “You can choose different themes, do some future gazing, take a peek at STPI policy, the regulatory framework, and think about the impact of these policies,” he adds.
A timeline of IT in India
1955 – the HEC 2M India’s first computer ordered from the U.K.
1956 – URAL1 the second computer from Russia
1955 – Group led by Prof. Narasimhan builds first Indian computer in TIFR
1964 – IIT Kanpur introduces compulsory course on computers for UG students – First Indian CS course
1967 – ECIL established, first computers manufactured in India.
1978 Minicomputer policy announced.
1980s – Entrepreneurship wave – Wipro, Infosys, Mastek, NIIT and other startups established - The iconic Railway Passengers Reservation Project established.
1991 – Supercomputer program launched, IISc and CDAC lead the way
1996 – Indian IT industry crosses $ 1 Billion mark
2000s – TCS and Infosys cross billion-dollar mark
2006-7 – Global financial crisis, slowing of IT services industry in India
2009 – Satyam scandal
2010 - New wave of entrepreneurship.
