At INTEROP, I had the privilege to meet with Prof F. C Kohli. "Those were the days when we were provided with Russian computers. These computers used to heat up after every 4-5 hours and then we had to shut them down and let them cool off before we can use them again", said Mr F. C Kohli recalling his initail days toying with these machines called Personal computers then.
Those who have never heard his name- Well! Prof. F. C . Kohli is frequently referred to as the Father of the Indian Software Industry due to his significant contribution in Indian IT industry. Padma Bhushan, Faqir Chand Kohli completed 90, on March 19, 2014. It was a day to celebrate for many Indians whose life he has touched directly or indirectly. A workaholic, who scoffs at the concept of retirement and fading into the sunset and is deeply engaged in using technology and systems approach to solving societal problems at 90!
Mr Kohli continues to be proactive, focusing his
energies on education. His current efforts are around using computer aided
sounds and images to impart basic literacy, particularly to illiterate adults,
in a matter of months.
I clicked a Selfie and Yes, I was lucky! It was
"Teacher's Day" and I got this opportunity to be blessed by him as a
"Woman Achiever in IT". Information Technology isn't that old in the
country. I still remember my First Personal computer- Bulky with Cassette and
Floppy drives!
The 1980s liberalization of the Indian informatics industry
took place in the context of continued high levels of state involvement, but
there was evidence that the character of that involvement was changing.In 1991
the Department of Electronics broke this impasse, creating a corporation called
Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) that, being owned by the
government, could provide VSAT communications without breaching its monopoly.
STPI set up software technology parks in different cities, each of which
provided satellite links to be used by firms; the local link was a wireless
radio link. In 1993 the government began to allow individual companies their
own dedicated links, which allowed work done in India to be transmitted abroad
directly. Indian firms soon convinced their American customers that a satellite
link was as reliable as a team of programmers working in the clients’ office. Today,
advancements in IT has been of benefit in creating more jobs in India but the
real revolution is yet to begin.
Those were the days. Quotes from Mr F.C Kohli:
"When we started, the Indian software industry was
primarily focused on exports and 40 years later, it still continues to be so.
The domestic market accounts for only 15% of the software industry's $100
billion annual turnover. The country has too few computers. This is because
there are no computers in Indian languages. China has computers in mandarin,
but India, for historical reasons, has stuck with English. The computer is but
a tool and Indians should be able to use this tool in their own language. You
express your ideas best that way. Innovative thinking comes in your own
language. After all these years of speaking in English, I still dream in my own
language.
Most people in India seem to have been carried away by the
spectacular success in IT services ($ 70 billion exports in 2012-13 according
to RBI). A decade ago, some politicians even started calling India, quite
prematurely, an 'IT Superpower', in their own inimitable style. However the man
who started it all is far removed from such pompous statements. He has been
painstakingly advocating that India cannot be a significant player on the
global technology map without a developed hardware industry.
He said, "Right now, India does not have a hardware
industry. But we will have to develop one, once the computer reaches the
masses. Using technology, I can go and make the small shopkeeper more efficient
that a supermarket mall. A computer can handle a shop's supply chain
management, from purchases to inventory control. It can bring down costs and
collect customer data. In the USA, local shops don't necessarily close if
WalMart comes to town. We need both."
Highlights!!
Ignoring your own produce- There is a huge
talent that we produce in India. Number of graduates- three million a year,
about 450,000 are engineers; 600,000 and more are commerce graduates and 1.1
million from humanities. We have 95 agricultural colleges and 15 agricultural
engineering colleges, where do they go? They are not in villages; they are not
in agriculture, it means we are not interested in what we have produced.
Practically Illogical Industry- ‘What computer
has done for the country? Almost all the software is exported, we have about
$50-60 billion out of exports and $10 billion revenues from the indigenous
market, out of that again half the software is from Microsoft, Oracle and
others, which we import and sell. So if we really see, hardly any software
(made and sold) within the country.
If we are depending on IT, Do we have computer literacy? Everybody
is making profit by exporting software and who wants to dirty their hands and
focus on India? It is not easy to develop software for India, we have 22
languages, China has 2, Saudi Arabia has only one i.e. Arabic, and so software
finally has to be made in local languages like European do. Our states are
bigger than the many European countries, so you can’t even say that everybody
should learn one language, we also wants to keep the diversity because it is an
asset.
Skewed Numbers- The limit is your imagination.- If
900 million people of India becomes computer literate, than you need many more
PCs than now, every year now, 6 million PCs are sold in India, which are
imported or locally assembled. Then we need 25 million PCs a year, for that
kind of number, we need indigenous hardware industries. We also need
micro-electronics engineers for hardware industries, India is producing less
200 engineers and small country like Israel produces more than 1000 a year,
when we will we be to produce 3000 to 5000 micro-electronic engineers?? Intel
is having its design centre in Bangalore they are designing their 6 core chips
here and not in the US.
The Indian IT industry is still young and the growth process
is not going to stop anytime soon. It will certainly become more sophisticated.
There will be new players, niche players, specializing in different
applications. We are still doing a lot of lowend work for the global market,
though we are also into some high-level development. The domestic market will
also throw up low-end work. If you can't find growth avenues despite all this, it
is a managerial problem.
Source:
Interop Mumbai, debate and Keynote
IBNLIve-http://ibnlive.in.com/news/tribute-fc-kohli-father-of-indian-software-industry-turns-90/458870-11.html
ET- Interview with Dr Kohli
http://goodbadnews.wordpress.com/2009/12/12/an-excerpt-from-an-interview-of-mr-f-c-kohli-the-founder-of-tata-consultancy-services-tcs/