INDIAN IT AND ITES JOURNEY: LIBERALIZATION AND BEYOND.

The 1991 reforms gave a fillip to India’s IT sector; 25 years on, India is poised to ride the next technology revolution as the third biggest start-up hub globally

Early public policy in an independent India focused on economic planning, adopting new technologies, and nurturing indigenous science and technology talent. About 50 years down the line, the early 1990s saw a move towards market-oriented economic policies to expand private investment in driving growth. This gave a fillip to the IT and ITeS industry.

The size of the Indian IT and ITeS industry grew from $100 million in 1990 to $1 billion by 1996, changing the course of development of this country forever. However, the journey began much earlier in the 1950s when the first modern computer was installed at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata by Prof. P.C. Mahalanobis.

The 1960s saw the start of computer education programmes at Indian Institutes of Technology. The government of India established the department of electronics (DoE) in 1970 to oversee all aspects of electronics, including computers.

The first indigenously built TDC-312 computer was launched by the Electronics Corporation of India Ltd in 1974. The Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone—the first dedicated IT park—was established in Mumbai to promote the export of electronics products and software in 1973.

From a policy perspective, the 1970s was an interesting decade. While a DoE panel on minicomputers submitted a report on the indigenous manufacture of minicomputers in 1973, it was kept in the cold storage for five years.

The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, which posed restrictions on the use of foreign exchange by Indian citizens and organizations, also came into play in 1973. The Act made it very difficult for Indian organizations to import computers. The minicomputer policy was finally announced in 1978, and companies such as DCM, ORG and HCL (founded by Shiv Nadar and team) started to make minicomputers in 1979.

The mid-1970s also saw multinational corporations dilute their stake or leave India due to the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, leading to the establishment of the Computer Maintenance Corp. by the government to maintain existing IBM installations in India.

However, the most important policy in this era saw the DoE allowing the import of computers exclusively meant for software export, a step that in many ways set the tone for the future.

The 1980s witnessed India’s first wave of IT entrepreneurship. Wipro Information Technology Ltd (by Azim Premji and team), Infosys (by Narayana Murthy and team), NIIT (by Rajendra Pawar and team), Mastek (by Ashank Desai and team) and many more “start-ups” were established during this time.

It was during this time that the software services export market opened up lucrative opportunities. The government made some watershed decisions, including bringing in the new computer policy, which initiated liberalization of the computer industry. The Rangarajan Committee recommendations led to banking computerization. This, in turn, saw companies such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys develop banking products—a segment where Indian products would go on to be world leaders. The Rajaraman Committee report brought in concessions for the import of computers against software exports. The iconic Railways Passenger Reservation project was initiated in this same period.

The 1980s also saw the newly established Centre for Development of Advanced Computing set up a National Supercomputer Centre at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and we sent our first email. Multinationals such as Citibank and Texas Instruments, for the first time, set up software development centres in India during the 1980s. This period saw several joint ventures in place to manufacture computers in India—Hinditron-DEC, HCL-HP, PSI-Bull and others, making PCs more affordable.

While the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology formed in 1982 represented the growing IT hardware industry, the establishment of Nasscom in 1988 gave the nascent software players a voice. The world increasingly became a connected one even though it was powered by 64kbps leased lines!

The 1990s was seminal not only for the IT and ITeS industries, but for the country as a whole. From policies that looked at regulated growth, we moved ahead, buoyed by the winds of liberalization. India’s super-computing programme was launched in 1991. The industry pioneered the global delivery model that redefined the way work was delivered. This could not have happened without the Software Technology Park scheme designed by IAS officer N. Vittal. Thousands of talented people joined the industry drawn by its promise. The industry embraced the quality movement—first with ISO 9001 and then with SEI-CMM. By 1999, 50% of the SEI-CMM Level 5 organizations in the world were from India. Indian IT majors listed on Indian and global bourses at the same time.

Encouraged by the government’s liberal policies, MNCs like IBM came back to India and expanded opportunities for the industry further. GE and Nortel set up the first large-scale offshore development centres. The Y2K opportunity opened up unprecedented opportunities for India—led by its vast technical talent pool and industry friendly policies. And thereafter, there was no looking back. By 2000, the Indian IT industry had grown to over $5 billion of revenue—that was 50x from 1990.

Today, the industry revenue stands at an estimated $160 billion, employing 3.5 million people. India is also poised to ride the next technology revolution as the third biggest start-up hub globally.

(Kris S. Goplakrishnan is co-founder, Infosys, and chairman, Axilor Ventures. He recently launched itihaasa, the first digital app tracking 60 years of Indian IT.)

Using smartphones to improve quality of city life.

Mobile devices such as smartphones are now so widely and intensely used that they have almost become extensions of the human body. Can we take advantage of this connectivity to save time, improve quality of life, and make cities run more efficiently? 

Moving towards this vision is Associate Professor Rajesh Balan at the Singapore Management University (SMU) School of Information Systems, who develops novel mobile computing technologies for diverse applications, including traffic management, digital wallets and social networking. He is also co-director of the SMU LiveLabs Urban Lifestyle Innovation Platform, a unique test bed for mobile technologies.

"This idea of creating live test beds is very exciting as it is unique and extremely useful not just for academic researchers, but also for companies that want to understand their customers better," Professor Balan says. "It also meshes very well with the government's plan to develop Singapore into a smart city."

Mobile computing in public transport:

Professor Balan was drawn to mobile computing because of its unique challenges. Like most other computing disciplines, the field makes use of technology to solve technical problems, such as extending the battery life of a smartphone. At the same time, however, human-centric technologies are also needed so that people will be willing to use the phone. "Whatever I develop has to be both technologically innovative and impressive, as well as easy to use and engaging," he explains. 

One of Professor Balan's earlier projects involved working with a large taxi company in Singapore to build a real-time trip information system. By rapidly searching a huge database of historical data, the system could predict the duration of any taxi trip to within one minute, and the fare to within 50 cents. It also took into account variables such as traffic conditions and Singapore's taxi fare structure, which charges different rates depending on the day of the week and the time of day.

The project, "Providing Real-Time Feedback for a Large Taxi Fleet", was published in 2011 in Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services. Besides taxis, the system also has potential to be useful to bus and train operators, as well as to logistics companies looking to improve their operations.

Society as a living laboratory: 

For Professor Balan, solutions to research questions should always be useful to people. In 2012, this focus on the end-user led him and colleague Associate Professor Archan Misra to start LiveLabs, a platform that enables researchers to test lifestyle-related mobile computing technologies on real people in real environments. LiveLabs is currently available across the SMU campus, with 3,000 students voluntarily signed up thus far. It is also being expanded to other public spaces such as the Suntec Convention & Exhibition Centre and Sentosa. 

"This kind of in situ, real-time, mobile-based behavioural test bed is unavailable anywhere else in the world," notes Professor Balan. In LiveLabs, a marketing researcher could, for example, send students working in the library two different promotions on their smartphones: a standard discount for ten percent off a cup of coffee, or a more social "buy one coffee get one free" promotion. The researcher can then observe which version proves more popular. Using sensors already existing in participants' smartphones, malls can send out personalised, location-specific shopping recommendations and discounts. To safeguard individual privacy, participation would be opt-in, and sensitive information would be removed from all the collected data.

Trials of many different mobile technologies are now underway at LiveLabs, including detecting the location of free tables and chairs in the library, automatic tracking of food consumption using a smart watch, and peer-to-peer mobile gaming that allows train commuters to play games with each other without using data networks.

The future: a nation of smart citizens:

Professor Balan believes that in the near future, mobile connectivity can be leveraged to create the concept of a "smart citizen", where "each individual will play a much stronger role in the welfare and upkeep of their environment".

For example, trash cans are now emptied only when cleaning staff physically make their rounds. With the smart citizen concept, anyone who sees a full trash can can immediately report it—through a mobile app or a web form, for instance—and activate the cleaning staff. Customers in the supermarket can report how many people are ahead of them at the checkout counter, and commuters can provide feedback on the status of subway lines.\

By providing the right incentives, an advanced version of this concept could even get people to perform micro-tasks on behalf of others. For example, an elderly person who needs a carton of milk would simply state this request into an app. The app would then find someone whose route would take him past the grocery store as well as the elderly person's home; he could then be asked to buy and deliver the milk at only a small inconvenience to himself. In return, he would be rewarded—with vouchers sponsored by a company, for instance.

"This would open up completely new and innovative ways for people to help each other, while receiving something in return for their help," he says. "I see a future where everyone is connected with everyone else, and where those connections can be used to improve society as a whole."

Uber's new API is a 'smart city' game-changer

        

      (Image Credit: iStockPhoto/RoBeDeRo)

Uber has debuted a new feature which could be a game-changer for the smart city, known as the "Uber Trip Experience" API. The wealth of data provided by Uber will allow developers to enhance their applications in new and innovative ways. 

We reported on the launch of Uber's public API last August, which provided developers with the ability to book Uber rides from within their applications. Last month, Facebook took advantage of the public API by allowing its Facebook Messenger users to order a cab and provide visual evidence of pick-up times to other participants in a chat. 

The launch of 'Trip Experience’ builds upon the aforementioned launch and focuses on helping developers to build even more immersive experiences using Uber data about the current trip. A key example here is for the developers of smart home applications to include features such as switching-on the heating as the user is close to arriving, or ensure the kettle is boiled for your caffeine fix after a particularly long journey. 

Information provided by the API includes; the current location of the cab, how much free time users will have during their journey, where the user is coming from, where they're heading to, and how long it's expected to be until they arrive. Armed with this date, in-app notifications can be provided to users at the most relevant times. 

Due to such information being particularly sensitive, Uber ensures that users will need to provide specific permission before apps can access their trip details. Users can also turn-off the feature on an app-by-app basis if required. 

Uber has launched several interesting new initiatives over the past year, including;  

UberCommute – A carpooling solution for private car owners. 
UberAssist – A service which provides better assistance for disabled individuals and senior citizens. 
UberClub – A performance-based loyalty programme for Uber drivers. 
UberPool – A ride-sharing product for Uber customers to share a cab for a reduced fare. 
It's good to see Uber continuing to be innovative during their significant growth over the past few years. We look forward to seeing what you do with the new data provided by Uber's latest API. 

Have you tried Uber's new 'Trip Experience' API?