Digital India-Origin and Development

The computer Age in India began in 1955 with the installation o HEC-2M{a computer designed by A.D,Booth in England}at the Indian Statistical Institute of (ISI) Calcutta(now Kolkatta).At the same year a team headed by R.Narasimhan started designing and fabricating a computer at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR)at Bombay(now Mumbai)2000 KM away on the West Coast of India.In 1955 only a few Dozens of Scientists and Engineers in India knew about Computers.The journey of Exploitation in the use of Computers continued unabated in India to the extent that an astonishing grouth between 1955 and 2010 were over 2.4 million people got employed in Conputer related Jobs and over 60 millions of Personal computers were in use in India. Information Technology which depended on Computers alone contributed 6.4 percent of the GDP of India and IT services became the fastest growing segment among Export Industries and grew by 22.7 percent in 2010with aggregate export Revenue of USD 50 Billion and Domestic Revenue of USD 17 Billion.Undoubtedly it has been an exciting jhourney from1955 to 2010 though not smooth and Steady. In 60s and 70s there was a lot of trapidation about use of Computers and their impact on employment. Even questions were asked whether computers are relevant for an overpopulated poverty sticken country like India. In the meantime the the development of Indian Institute Of Technology started the design and production of Computers. The Bhabha Committee approved by Government of India in 1963realised the importance of Electronics and Computers in natural Development and suggested establishment of the Department of Electronics(D of E)in the Government of India to promote rapid grouth of Electronics and Computers.The Department was established in 1970 and this was the first break point in the exploration of Electronics and Computers. In 1971 to 1978 the Dept of Electronics(D of E) laid stress for self reliant indegenous development of Computers. and a company called the Electronic Corporation of India(ECIL) was financed to design,develop and market computer using/required primary components were made in India..ECIL also made computers called TDC312 and 316 which were similar to the PDP service computers of made by XDigital Equipment Corporation of USA.The D of E also initiated many Research and Development (R & D) projects with assistance from United Nations Development Programmes(UNDP) The second Break point in 1978 after the Government led by Congress Party was defeated in 1977.The IBM company which were in India for for refurbishing Obsolete 1401 Computers were asked by Government of India to reduce equity to become an Indian Partner to manufacture IBM 360 computers in India.However,IBM refused this offer and closed their operation in India in 1978 The new Government came into power decided to open up computer manufacturing to the private sector and a number of companies started making mini computers using imported Micro processors.UNIX was the operating system of choice.In 1984 and 1986Government removed numerous controls on Industry and on imports when Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister. The new Policy allowed the import of fully assembled Mother boards with Processors and also reduced import duties.This led to a sharp reduction of price and speedier spread of Computer use.In 1986 Soft ware companies were allowed to import computers at at reduced import dutiy rates to enablr them to expoert export soft ware.Thus software development was recognized as an industry deserving many tax concessions.The year 1986 also saw the change in the mindset of the general population and the Politicians about the relevance of computers due to success of the computerised ticket reservation system of the Indian Railways.The new reservation system reduced the waiting time in Queues of customers wanting to reserve seats on trains.It also reduced some malpractises and led to an increase in the number of reservation clerks as a large number of counters were opened each one requiring a clerk.The third break point came in 1991 when India was about to default on the payment of Foreign debt.The country was bailed out by the Internationanal Monetary Fund(IMF)which forced India to open her economy and reduce controls on the local manufacturing companies.Soft ware and Software Companies (NASSCOM) which successfully lobbied with the bureaucrats and the Politicians and obtained many tax and other concessions.One of the major initiatives taken by D of E at this time was the establishment of Software Technology Parks.(STPs)with satellite communication links which enabled Indian software companies to develop software appications on their clients of international origin computers in India.Indian software Companies also took advantage of Y2K and Euro conversion opportunities to modify and improve a large number of legacy computer systems.This also became quality conscious and obtained the quality certificates from issued by the International standard Organisations(ISO)and the Capability Maturity Model(CMM) certificate issued by the softwae Engineering Institute.(SEI) of the Carnegie Mellon Universuity.USA.The emphasis of Government Policies shifted to promote software services companies as their export grew. the 4th break point came in 1998 when the new Government under Atal Bihari Vajpayi declared"IT as India's tomorrow" and took a number of proactive measures to promote Soft ware Companies.An IT Task Force was appointed to recommend changes in the Policies of the GovernmentMeasures were taken to give a Tax Holiday on the export earning of the Indian Softwarec service Companies for Ten years and import duties were excempted on Computers and soft ware packages imported for exporting software.Multinational Companies were welcomed to set up software development and research and Development centres.services exports grew rapidly from US Dollars 2 Billion in 1998 to USD 50 Billion in 2010.Information Technology was contributing 6.4 percent of GDP in 2010 and was providing employment to 2.4 million Software Professionals. It is concluded that the initiatives taken by the Government in late 70s to promote education in IT,setting up of R and D Centres and funding a large number of research projects with the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) provided the Human Resources which enabled the IT Industry to grow. The initiatives taken by the Software Companies to put in place Systematic Process for Software development ,achieving quality certification and gaining expertise in project management enabled them to face international Competition and obtain application soft ware developments and services contract from the west.Even though the initiative taken by the Government of India in the 70s to establish a self reliant hardware industry in the Public Sector was not successful,it provided the confidence and Human resources which catalyzed the grouth of the private Hardware and Software in 80s and the 90s. Later on India had adopted a mixed economy .A number of Public sector companies control Oil &Natural Gas ,defence production,and heavy Industries.Currently there is a Private Sector.Information Technology ,Automobile Production,Pharmaceuticals,communications,and retail trade are dominated by the private sector.Privatisation of major industries began in the early 90s.Economic grouth rate was slow(around 3.8 percentof GDP for the first 30 years after Independence in 1947 and has been above 7 percent since 2002 Its current GDP (based on purchase power parity was USD 4 Trillion. The fifth highest in the world. but the GDP percapita is only USD3500.The country faces the longtime challenges Inadequate Physical and Social infrastructure widespread poverty ,wide disparity in quality of Education offered,limited rural employment opportunities and wastage in Government spending. Communication facilities in India have improved rapidly since the mid80s. Currentl(2010) India has only over 40 million land lines and 850 millionmobile phonesDuring 2010-11 mobile phone subscriptions increased at the rate of 15 million per month.India builds its own satellites and launches them.In the year 2011 there were 11INSAT communications satellites in service and over 110,000VSATS( very small ApertureTranscivers) have been installed.Unlike the deep penetration of Mobile phones,that of internet is limited.Althoughh the number of internet users was estimasted to be around 1-00 million (the third largest in the world) the reach is only about8.4 percent of the population in India in the end of 2011.The number of PCs were estimated to be around 60 million with the grouth rate of 15 percent per year.The number of fixed lines broad band connection is estimated at 6 millions. Another interesting fact about India is distribution of population.it was estimated in that over 60 percent of the population is in the age of 15 to 59 in the becginning 2012. By 2020 India will have the largnest working age population in the world.A big challenge will be to find gainful employmentfor this vast population.Even though Hindi spoken by over 40 percent of the population ,the official language which was introduced by British continues to be the language used by Government and Judiaciary.The medium of Instruction in Science and Engineering courses in colleges is also English.The exact number of people in India who use English is difficult to arrive at but is estimated that the persons with working knowledge of English is 125 million(the second largest in the world after the USA) The total circulation of English daily news papers in the world is 13 million copies as at 2012. The large number of English speaking persons in the age group 20 to 50(estimated to be over 50 millions)had led to a number of services from western countries to be outsourced to ndia.The number of students attending colleges has grown rapidly since independence.Currently as at 2012 India graduates around 1.3 millions Engineers perb year with 32 percent in computer Engineering and IT from about 3000 colleges in 2012.The quality of graduating students is however not uniformly good.Whereas the graduating from ITs and NITs (around 10,000) are excellent .However the graduates of such engineering also needed training in Industries according to the Industry Employers.This situation however is capble of improvement during the course of years to come from 2012. As said before India is one of the best Democracies in the world.A democrazy needs building consensus.This is slow process particularly when coupled with a vocal free press and electronic media.The countery is transforming from an agricultural economy to a manufacturing and service economy. Manufacturing particularly Electronics has been stunted due to many reasons such as lack of investment and ararchaic labour laws.The software service industry requires less capital and is not encumbered by archaic labour laws.This probably one of the reasons for its rapid grouth. Since then many changes took place in the information Technology area and in the US the grouthbof mobile phones increased and a new system of Smart phones came into effect. This made it possible for every activities can be controlled with finger tips .As a result of this the websites of traditional computers were converted into apps on Smart phones.The lap tops ,The touch phones ,ipads,tablets all together made the it possible to dispense with the traditional computers with mouse. The rotating screens of the above devices were capable of doing any function easily and rapidly. In certain branches of computer the hard disc,mouse etc are being used still as the storage facilities for large quantities of data is more safe with traditional computers and Lap top. The digital development to this extent made it possible to carry out transactions in Banks easier by using Apps which are in fact the miniature forms of websites.Goverment and companies and individuals can make their own apps and control the system of communications,payment and transfer facilities in Banks and financial institutions by means of Apps. apps is nothing but applications. Now in India like all other developed Nations anything is possible by using apps.This has reduced difficulties and gains in terms of time and energy. The Apps has it's own drawbacks also .But careful and wise selection of apps can make everything easy and speedy now. His is an attempt to highlight the digital development from lay man's point of view. There had been a lot of discussions on the Universal connectivity and Net Net Neutrality for their coexistence . The Facebook chief was totally in favour of this and for reduction of charges for using internet facilities. TRAI and the Government made a big debate among people of India to implekent the free or reduced usage of Internet But the full implementingvf the benefits to Indian users is yet to be made uniform. SreedharanMundanat 24 the of January 2019