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India's renaissance: An oral history

In the last few years, India has emerged as a major player in the technology market. Here's how the industry developed.

Michael Kanellos Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Michael Kanellos is editor at large at CNET News.com, where he covers hardware, research and development, start-ups and the tech industry overseas.
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Michael Kanellos
3 min read

By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 27, 2005 4:00 AM PT


Tata's headquarters in Mumbai
Credit: Tata Group

1946-1950: The Indian Institute of Technology founded. With seven campuses, which admit 3,500 out of 150,000 applicants each year, it has become the intellectual core of the country's industry. Its professors sit on advisory boards, while alumni are behind successes such as Infosys. The five-year program is "grueling," said Ravi Pradhan, Via Technologies' manager for India.

1968: The Tata industrial conglomerate forms software services unit Tata Consultancy Services. "We had six employees," said Nagaraj Ijari, the delivery center head at TCS' Bangalore offices. "Now we have 40,000."

Mid-1970s: IBM exits India. Import duties of 150 percent or more mean that VCRs cost $3,000 and TVs cost $6,000. Wipro starts to create India's first homegrown PC.

1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi makes speech imploring the country to move into tech. A transcript of the speech is passed out on paper to the audience, thanks to speech-to-text computing.


Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest Prime Minister of India.
Credit: Prime Minister's office

"It was 60 percent correct, but you could see the power of it," said A.K. Bhuwania, chairman of the Priya Group, a distributor. That day, Bhuwania decides to expand from chemicals into tech components.

1986: General Electric expands engineering presence and its Six Sigma methodologies here. Ex-GE employees become key leaders in several companies. "They became like Fairchild" asserts Vinod Dham, co-founder of NewPath Ventures.

1991: National financial crisis causes government to introduce major reforms. Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (now prime minister) emerges as hero.

1993: A group of IT leaders determines plan for IT industry. Professor Deepak Phatak predicts India's IT output will hit $100 billion by 2010. "Everyone thought that sounded crazy, so we changed it to $50 billion by 2008," he said. The latter figure is on track.


Computer Lab at IIT Bombay.
Credit: Michael Kanellos

1994: Telecom liberalized. "That helped a lot. Before that, it was all FedEx," said Supratim Sakar, manager of strategic marketing at Wipro.

1995: TCS determines that its CasePac tool developed for IBM can be used to scan software for Y2K problems. An industry is born.

1999: Y2K contracts pile into India. "The biggest boost of all was Y2K. In some ways, the U.S. created this monster," said Ash Lilani, head of sales and marketing at Silicon Valley Bank.

2002: Indian companies expand hiring to handle incoming work resulting from massive layoffs after the dot-com bubble burst and the U.S. tech industry fell into a recession. "We had a little bit of breathing space," said Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks.

2003: Led by service conglomerates such as Wipro and Infosys, India becomes a primary destination for offshore outsourcing as foreign companies seek to lower


Former U.S. President Bill Clinton with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Credit: Prime Minister's Office
labor costs. The trend leads to political controversies around the world.

2004: Singh becomes Prime Minister. High tech is fairly ingrained in daily life for many in cities. ATMs become more widely used, for example.

"Ten years ago, you had to stand in line for money at the bank," said Srinath Batni, a board member at Infosys. "It was what people did on the weekend."

2005: Entrepreneur Rajesh Jain begins to promote thin clients costing $100 to $150 as computers for the mass population. "It's not that we need just cheaper solutions. We need the newest technology, but at fundamentally lower price points," Jain has said.


By Michael Kanellos
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
June 27, 2005 4:00 AM PT


Tata's headquarters in Mumbai
Credit: Tata Group

1946-1950: The Indian Institute of Technology founded. With seven campuses, which admit 3,500 out of 150,000 applicants each year, it has become the intellectual core of the country's industry. Its professors sit on advisory boards, while alumni are behind successes such as Infosys. The five-year program is "grueling," said Ravi Pradhan, Via Technologies' manager for India.

1968: The Tata industrial conglomerate forms software services unit Tata Consultancy Services. "We had six employees," said Nagaraj Ijari, the delivery center head at TCS' Bangalore offices. "Now we have 40,000."

Mid-1970s: IBM exits India. Import duties of 150 percent or more mean that VCRs cost $3,000 and TVs cost $6,000. Wipro starts to create India's first homegrown PC.

1985: Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi makes speech imploring the country to move into tech. A transcript of the speech is passed out on paper to the audience, thanks to speech-to-text computing.


Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest Prime Minister of India.
Credit: Prime Minister's office

"It was 60 percent correct, but you could see the power of it," said A.K. Bhuwania, chairman of the Priya Group, a distributor. That day, Bhuwania decides to expand from chemicals into tech components.

1986: General Electric expands engineering presence and its Six Sigma methodologies here. Ex-GE employees become key leaders in several companies. "They became like Fairchild" asserts Vinod Dham, co-founder of NewPath Ventures.

1991: National financial crisis causes government to introduce major reforms. Finance Minister Manmohan Singh (now prime minister) emerges as hero.

1993: A group of IT leaders determines plan for IT industry. Professor Deepak Phatak predicts India's IT output will hit $100 billion by 2010. "Everyone thought that sounded crazy, so we changed it to $50 billion by 2008," he said. The latter figure is on track.


Computer Lab at IIT Bombay.
Credit: Michael Kanellos

1994: Telecom liberalized. "That helped a lot. Before that, it was all FedEx," said Supratim Sakar, manager of strategic marketing at Wipro.

1995: TCS determines that its CasePac tool developed for IBM can be used to scan software for Y2K problems. An industry is born.

1999: Y2K contracts pile into India. "The biggest boost of all was Y2K. In some ways, the U.S. created this monster," said Ash Lilani, head of sales and marketing at Silicon Valley Bank.

2002: Indian companies expand hiring to handle incoming work resulting from massive layoffs after the dot-com bubble burst and the U.S. tech industry fell into a recession. "We had a little bit of breathing space," said Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks.

2003: Led by service conglomerates such as Wipro and Infosys, India becomes a primary destination for offshore outsourcing as foreign companies seek to lower


Former U.S. President Bill Clinton with Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Credit: Prime Minister's Office
labor costs. The trend leads to political controversies around the world.

2004: Singh becomes Prime Minister. High tech is fairly ingrained in daily life for many in cities. ATMs become more widely used, for example.

"Ten years ago, you had to stand in line for money at the bank," said Srinath Batni, a board member at Infosys. "It was what people did on the weekend."

2005: Entrepreneur Rajesh Jain begins to promote thin clients costing $100 to $150 as computers for the mass population. "It's not that we need just cheaper solutions. We need the newest technology, but at fundamentally lower price points," Jain has said.