In chapter 2 “In the States Shadow”, Sharma narrates the power play enjoyed by three scientists Bhabha (of TIFR), Mahalanobis (of ISI) and Bhatnagar (of CSIR), thanks to their ‘direct access” to the real power center, namely, Prime Minister Nehru. The author aptly terms them as “science czars” – unelected, unaccountable, yet powerful. Interestingly, such “access” led to significantly large research grants to Department of Atomic Energy, at the cost of Universities and Institutes of higher learning. This chapter documents
- the creation of ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India),
- extensive use of computers in different wings of the government, namely, atomic energy, defence, planning commission and CSIR Labs,
- the formation of IPAG (Information Planning and Analysis Group), and,
- the huge bureaucracy created by Department of Electronics (DoE) that led to average delay of 3-4 years to get any computer imported
The decisive roles played by Professor M G K Menon with his strong personal views are very well documented. Though Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Morarji Desai had very different views, the hold of DoE ensured that electronics and IT grew only at the government controlled way.
(My Book Review will be posted over the next 10 days starting March 28, 2009 - a chapter a day for each of the ten chapters!)
Book Review
Sharma Dinesh, “The Long Revolution”, The birth and growth of India’s IT industry”, Harper Collins (Dec 2008)
