the-south-asian.com DECEMBER 2001 | ||
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DECEMBER 2001 Contents Architecture Joseph
Allen Stein
Prem
Joshua Maharaja
Telecoms
& Software Value/Wealth Creators
Literature/Books 'It
was five past midnight Simplifying
Ramayana
Wharton
India Economic
Books
|
Page 1 of 10
Telecom & Software - Trends
& Future in South Asia by
Software Seeds are sown In 1975 , India and Pakistan started the introduction of Computers ,
with IBM Mainframes [ 360 DOS and card based data entry ] making their
appearance in Banks [ in Pakistan Habib Bank, United Bank, and Pakistan
Airlines - PIA ] and Universities [ Islamabad ]. Indian Institutes of
Technology [ I IT] at Kanpur Kharagpur , Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta installed
Digital Equipment Corporation The I IT computers and networks
were to become the germinating grounds . The seeds were Indian Software engineers who later on were to go primarily
to the U.S. [ Silicon Valley - California ] overseas and within India and
create what is today the major
Software power houses of the the U.S. and Indian Information Technology
Industry. Names of entrepreneurs such as Narayana Murthy [Infosys Technologies] ,
Aziz Premji [ WIPRO] , Vinod Khosla [Sun ; Kleiner Perkins & Caufield
Byers] , Kanwal Rekhi [Novell] , Gururaj Deshpande [Ascend, Sycamore
Networks], Atiq Raza [Nexgen,
AMD, Raza Foundries] , Safi Qureshy[AST Computers] are an inspiration to
an entire generation of young South Asians engineers in the Information
Technology Industry. The Chinese and the Pakistanis entrepreneurs are
visiting Bangalore these days to understand the business model that has
resulted in India’s growth as a major Software power with annual exports
at US $ 5 Billion .
In 1975, in Pakistan, a
bureaucratic decision was taken to stop the import of Computers as they
used up valuable Foreign Exchange. At the same time, in India, IBM pulled
out of operations when the Indian Government demanded a transfer of
technology. This early withdrawal led WIPRO to start the manufacture of
PC’s with Tata taking up the servicing of the existing IBM customer base
in India .The Pakistani system and software engineers went to the Oil
booming markets in the Middle -East and the Indian engineers continued to
grow in numbers, spreading into U.S. and India. It can be said that the lack of
understanding of Software by the Indian government bureaucrats helped in
the development of the software industry in India. In Pakistan, a lack of
vision in education investment in general and specifically software and
computer sciences was responsible for the slow growth of the software
industry. There are many stories which
will be chronicled in this rise of India [and the belated waking up of
Pakistan , Sri Lanka and other south Asian countries] as a small but
increasingly important player in the world Information technology
industry. India & Ireland with $ 5 billion in software exports each
comprise 2 % of the world software market. Ireland
with a much smaller population and India with about a billion people. Yet the stories of Indian
entrepreneurs have one thing in common - super-human pioneering work by
individuals struggling against the cultural bias of western countries and
surmounting immense financial and bureaucratic and industry competitive challenges.
Below are a few stories of
the heavy weights from India
and Pakistan. More stories will be be added in
later issues of The South -Asian. But before we begin a few words
on the Sad Saga of Telecoms in South Asia.
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