Chapter 8 “Transition to offshore” documents the growth story of Indian software industry into a world leader with $ 50+ billion worth of annual export revenue alone by 2008. The chapter starts with Madhav Marathe and his private “Technology Park”. The growing software industry found the lack of communication network a major impediment. It was impossible to “tame” the ‘telecom monopoly’. Texas instruments (TI) had an application pending for yeas for a dedicated communication link and a technology park. Interestingly, TI CEO Patrick Haggerty met MGK Menon during Indira Gandhi’s days but got a police “no” for a 100% owned R & D and manufacturing facility, though his successor got a warm reception and TI India started functioning in 1987. The VSNL provided link to TI was a success; later the Software Technology Park (STPI) was born during Nagarjan Vittal’s time, an unusual IAS officer; the choice of the first STPI Bangalore Director Varadan – an efficient and industry friendly officer – made it into a phenomenal success.
After a short period of uncertain fate during post Rajiv Gandhi period, DoE went into the hands of IAS officers; luckily for the industry the industry, friendly IAS officers were more useful; being “insiders” to the government (unlike the scientists & technocrats) these exemplary officers could make things happen real fast; for example, within a week of assuming office, Vittal got the government to announce tax concessions , single window clearance and dedicated concessional connectivity to several countries – all through STPI.
STP acted like oxygen for the gasping Indian software industry. The first link started in 1993 at Bangalore. The government and industry started working together; NASSCOM was born. The early nineties (July 24, 1991) saw the abolition of industrial licensing for all projects except those impacting human and environment). This lead to Indian hardware manufacturer partnering with global majors – Wipro with Sun, HCL with HP, Tatas with IBM – and finished off the hardware story; but, with the entry of IBM, Sun, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, Novell, STP and others saw the software story entering mainstream. Watts Humphrey and his software Capability Maturity Model (CMM) of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) – that is part of Carnegie Mellon University – found ready acceptance; many Indian software companies had graduated to CMM Level 5 – the highest level under CMM model – by end of 90’s. The Y2K was a shot in the arm and enabled the growing India’s software industry to ride the wave. VSNL monopoly in international telecom was
broken; BSNL was formed breaking DoT monopoly in local telecom. The STP scheme took off and by the end of the decade India was clearly an accepted leader in the global software scene. The shortage of qualified manpower in the western globe, the Internet boom, the maturity of Indian Diaspora (providing firm level linkages with US corporates) – all led the spectacular success.
(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)
Tags: BSNL, Level 5, N Vittal, SEI CMM, STPI, Texas Instruments, Varadan, VSNL, Y2K
