INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN INDIA (HISTORY)

The Indian Government acquired the EVS EM computers from the Soviet Union, which were used in large companies and research laboratories. In 1968 Tata Consultancy Services—established in SEEPZ, Mumbai by the Tata Group—were the country's largest software producers during the 1960s. As an outcome of the various policies of Jawaharlal Nehru (office: 15 August 1947 – 27 May 1964) the economically beleaguered country was able to build a large scientific workforce, third in numbers only to that of the United States of America and the Soviet Union. On 18 August 1951 the minister of education Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur in West Bengal. Possibly modeled after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology these institutions were conceived by a 22 member committee of scholars and entrepreneurs under the chairmanship of N. R. Sarkar.

Relaxed immigration laws in the United States of America (1965) attracted a number of skilled Indian professionals aiming for research. By 1960 as many as 10,000 Indians were estimated to have settled in the US. By the 1980s a number of engineers from India were seeking employment in other countries. In response, the Indian companies realigned wages to retain their experienced staff. In the Encyclopedia of India, Kamdar (2006) reports on the role of Indian immigrants (1980 - early 1990s) in promoting technology-driven growth.

The United States’ technological lead was driven in no small part by the brain power of brilliant immigrants, many of whom came from India. The inestimable contributions of thousands of highly trained Indian migrants in every area of American scientific and technological achievement culminated with the information technology revolution most associated with California’s Silicon Valley in the 1980s and 1990s.

The ground work and focal point for the development of the information technology industry in India was led by the Electronics Commission in the early 1970s. The driving force was India's most esteemed scientific and technology policy leader M. G. K. Menon. With the support of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) under project IND/73/001, the Electronics Commission formulated a strategy and master plan for regional computing centers, each to have a specific purpose as well as to serve as a hub for manpower development and to spur the propagation of informatics in local economies. The first center, the National Centre for Software Development and Computing Techniques (from 1973 onward) was at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai and was focused on software development.A key decision of the strategy was to not focus on large-scale hardware production but rather intellectual capital and knowledge development. The success of this decision can be seen in the global leadership of Indian entrepreneurs and computer scientists in software development. Jack Fensterstock of the United States was the program manager on behalf of the UNDP and the key advisor to the Indian Government for the implementation of the master plan.

The National Informatics Centre was established in March 1975. The inception of The Computer Maintenance Company (CMC) followed in October 1976. During 1977-1980 the country's Information Technology companies Tata Infotech, ProcSys, Patni Computer Systems and Wipro had become visible. The 'microchip revolution' of the 1980s had convinced both Indira Gandhi and her successor Rajiv Gandhi that electronics and telecommunications were vital to India's growth and development. MTNL underwent technological improvements. During 1986-1987, the Indian government embarked upon the creation of three wide-area computer networking schemes: INDONET (intended to serve the IBM mainframes in India), NICNET (the network for India's National Informatics Centre), and the academic research oriented Education and Research Network (ERNET).