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1976: The youngest head in DCM DP's history, Shiv Nadar quits and with six other friends starts Microcomp with a capital base of Rs 1.75 lakh. The company is rechristened Hindustan Computer Ltd and history is made.

• TB Finn moves in as GM of IBM India and within four months lays off one-third of the existing workforce. Obviously, IBM had already made up its mind to exit India.

1977: National Informatics Center set up with UNDP assistance, Dr N Seshagiri is director general.

1978: IBM exits from India on June 1, as it could not agree with FERA regulations. According to many, the first era of Indian IT history comes to an end.

• ICL agrees to dilute its foreign equity to 40% under FERA and becomes ICIM.

• Following IBM's exit, CMC takes up maintenance of 800 IBM installations across the country. The rest of IBM's business passes on to IDM.

1979: Nelco ventures into programmable desk calculators, Nelco 80-2.

1980: Azim Premji makes Wipro enter into IT with India's first computers.

• Prem Shivdasani becomes MD of DCM DP. During his tenure the company becomes India's no 1 IT player.

• Raj Saraf launches Zenith Computers. Zenith later was the first to launch home PC for Indian consumers

1981: NR Narayana Murthy, a software professional working with Patni Computer Systems in Bombay, launches a data center called Infosys in a Pune garage with six friends for Rs 10,000

• Rajendra Pawar, Vijay Thadani and S Rajendran start NIIT from humble beginnings in Safdarjung; it later becomes synonymous with computer training in the country.

1982: India's first IT publication, Dataquest is launched by Pradeep Gupta in December. Publishing history is made in Indian media.

• Intelligence Bureau selects HCL and ICIM to install special systems at the Delhi and Bombay airports.

• National Supercomputing facility set up at IISc by Prof V Rajaraman.

1983: Dy Governor of RBI appointed as the Chairman of the Rangarajan Committee, formed to advise the government on the computerization roadmap for nationalized banks. Though an agreement is signed between the employees union and the bank management, the National Organization of Banks expresses shock over the decision.

• DCM DP gives India its first multi-lingual word processing system, Thiruvallur in Tamil.

• Indonet, the country's first communication network is announced.

• The country's first microprocessor control system from Philips installed in Calcutta to manage its downtown traffic in the BBD Bag-Esplanade East Government Pace-Writers Building area.

• India's first computerized coronary care unit for automatic monitoring of heart attack patients set up at the Lohia Hospital in Delhi.

• Government launches Project INTERACT (International Education & Research for Applications of Computer Technology) through CMC with UN assistance; three sub-projects include Computerized Power Systems Management (CPSM), Railway Freight Operations Management and Computerized Image Processing Systems.

• St Columba's School, New Delhi becomes the country's first school to acquire a computer in 1981-the HCL System 2.

1984: New Computer Policy announced on November 19, days after Rajiv Gandhi assumes power. For the first time, IT industry is accorded a special position. Among other things: import duties for peripherals reduced, foreign equity participation was allowed, import of computers was liberalized and software got recognition as a separate industry.

• NICNET, a national network connecting the Center with the states is announced. Undertaken by NIC, it planned to connect various centers by INSAT.

• Government launches the CLASS (Computer Literacy and Studies in Schools) project with much fanfare.

• Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh declares "Anti Computer Year" in protest against bank computerization proposal. March 1 observed as Anti-Computer Day.

• Courageous Journalism: Dataquest reports that the much-acclaimed tie-up between Bombay's Tej Computers, Apple and IBM is a farce, creating a sensation.

• Ashok Soota takes over as President of the Rs 7 crore Wipro Infotech. When he leaves in 1999, it is a Rs 1,000 crore giant.

• Atul Nishar starts Aptech Computer Education.

• Indira Gandhi invites Sam Pitroda from the US to set up the Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).

1985: Rangarajan Committee Report on bank computerization is released. Stage I is to cover 2,500 branches and Stage II, 6,000 branches.

• CMC helps RBI procure 100 minis from foreign vendors and 400 from indigenous sources.

• South Eastern Railway in Calcutta becomes the first in the country to have a computerized reservation facility for all long distance passengers with computer installed by DCM Data Products.

• Computer Point, India's first computer supermarket comes up in Bombay.

• Unix hits the country and most vendors come out with their own versions of the OS.

• CMC launches Lipi, its multilingual wordprocessor.

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