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CMC
Thanks to its pioneering work for the likes of the Railways, Energy,
Infrastructure, Computer Maintenance Corp (CMC) is today considered the
undisputed numero uno as an SI amongst the government. The CMC journey began
three decades back in 1976 as a 100% government subsidiary. It became a public
limited company in 1977, got listed in the bourses in 1993, and finally over
2001-04 the government divested its majority stake in CMC to TCS (via Tata
Sons).
Once IBM backed out of India in 1978, CMC took over the
maintenance of IBM installations at over 800 locations around the country and,
subsequently, maintenance of computers supplied by other foreign manufacturers
as well.
A significant milestone in CMC's transition from a hardware maintenance
company to a complete end-to-end IT solutions provider was Project Interact
(International Education and Research for Applications of Computer Technology),
a UN project involving design, development and systems-engineering of real-time,
computer-based systems dedicated to applications in the areas of power
distribution, railway freight operations management, and meteorology. The year
1986 was a landmark year when CMC implemented project IMPRESS, an online
passenger reservations system for the Indian Railways and also set up Indonet-a
countrywide data network, subsequently rechristened as ITeS.
DCM Data Systems
India's first microprocessor-based computers, Indian language computers,
Railways signaling system, the world's first i486 system, Cosmos/10-despite
notching up so many firsts, DCM Data Products, the IT division of the DCM Group,
and one of India's oldest computer companies dating back to 1972, never lived
up to its full potential.
 The company's downfall could be attributed to some extent to its inability
to gear itself to the changing demands of a fiercely competitive market where
margins have progressively shrunk. While in the '80s it was one of the shining
beacons of the IT industry, ensuring its name in history for posterity. DCM Data
Systems gradually lost its sheen in the '90s. By the new millennium when it
had fully gone into the offshore model, the game has been virtually lost with
more state-of-the-art companies established in the space. Today it is an
anachronism remembering one of a bygone era, but that should in no way diminish
DCM's contribution to the growth of the Indian IT industry.
GE
The genesis of the GE story for Indian software services industry lies in a
breakfast meeting the legendary Jack Welch, then chairman of GE, had in
September 1989 with an Indian delegation that included Sam Pitroda and Jairam
Ramesh. Welch had actually come to sell airplane engines and medical instruments
in India, but it was in this meeting that Pitroda proposed that GE buy software
from India since the country needed business for its emerging high-tech sector.
Welch asked, "If I kiss your cheek, what do I get in return?" Sitting
in 2006 as the Indian IT industry turns 50, not only Welch, but the whole world,
has definitely got the answer.
If the 1989 meeting sowed the seeds, GE's tryst with India
started in 1991. It was the trio of Wipro, Infosys, and TCS who were the initial
beneficiaries. Down the years, several other Indian software service providers
jumped onto the GE bandwagon. In fact for many of them, GE was the raison d'être
of existence in their initial days. Patni, Satyam, Infinite Computer Solutions,
i-Gate Global Solutions, MindTree Consulting, Birlasoft... the list is a virtual
Who's Who of India's software services sector.
Though American Express was the pioneer in moving BPO to India, GE also
contributed significantly in building the BPO industry here. Starting with its
own captive BPO unit GECIS in 1999, GE not just created brand equity for the
country as a leading BPO provider, but also nurtured a generation of BPO leaders
like Raman Roy, Pramod Bhasin (still with GE) or Rakesh Chopra among others.
GECIS remained GE's largest captive BPO operation in the world till in 2004 it
metamorphosed into a third-party unit Genpact.
Hinditron
Hinditron, founded by Hemant Sonawala in 1966, was the first Indian company to
string together a series of JVs with MNCs like Digital Equipment, Tektronix,
Schiller and Novell. It was also the first to introduce several state-of-the-art
products here through alliances with Varian, Applied Research Labs, Informix, HP's
Semiconductor division, SDRC, Applicon, Hughes and ChemShare among others. While
Hinditron was at its zenith in the '70s and '80s, from '90s onwards it
passed into relative obscurity after the company regrouped its software and
computer services into one entity called Hinditron Informatics. This coincided
with the company's decision to focus more on engineering services.
 Hinditron Informatics subsequently rechristened itself as Mindteck in 1999
specializing in embedded software, real-time software and e-commerce solutions.
Mindteck was later acquired by a group of investors led by TAIB Bank EC and then
it got merged with Mindware to increase its resource base. However more than its
tryst with software, it would be Hinditron's early forays the industry that it
would be remembered for. Hinditron brought minicomputers (Digital) to India for
the first time and it started a commercial CAD data center in the mid 70s to use
in applications like design circuits of transmission towers, design of
mechanical parts such as turbine shift for the Indian Navy.
HCL Group
In the mid 70s, with IBM still strong on the Indian shores, Shiv Nadar, working
as an engineer at DCM, convinced five of his friends like Ajai Chowdhury, Arjun
Malhotra and Vineet Nair to launch a manufacturing company. And thus was born
Microcomp in 1975, later rechristened as Hindustan Computers or HCL. In a way
HCL brought together the best minds on business and strategy; Nadar with his
entrepreneurial skills, Chowdhury with his managerial proficiency and Malhotra
with his finesse in the international market. In the next few years HCL became
the largest microcomputer manufacturer in India and still remains the no. 1 PC
player. HCL successfully shipped in-house designed micro-computer at the same
time as Apple. This marked the arrival of the Indian PC.
Post internal restructuring, the company was segregated into two distinct
business focusing on hardware and software, HCL Infosystems and HCL Technologies
respectively. The two together have revenues of over Rs 6,000 crore. The dream
still continues; for instance HCL Technologies was able to grab the single
largest outsourcing contract ever from DSG International worth around $300 mn.
HCL is the only company that has managed to have a strong footprint in two
diverse sectors, and truly speaking it's the biggest success as a conglomerate
in the IT space. The "original garage setup" dream run continues and
scale newer heights.
HP
Being one of the first MNCs to enter India in a FERA economy during the early
'80s, HP's first-hand experience helped it take full advantage of the
tentative reformative steps of a country with fifty years of red tape. HP has
successfully created newer markets, attained a mind-boggling synergy between its
products, technologies and the needs of the Indian market. In the process, it
has worked wonders for the Indian IT market too, especially across product
segments ranging from servers to workstations, PCs to notebooks to palmtops,
from printers to scanners to even software.
 The hallmark of HP's strategy in India would inevitably
lead any historian to the HCL HP JV. Pushed by Suresh Rajpal, who headed HP from
its inception here, the alliance apparently looked between two unequals (HCL was
100 times smaller than HP globally). But in actuality it helped HP to
successfully leverage HCL's reach and influence in the Indian market. Result:
in a short span of time, the JV was able to win a series of customer
satisfaction awards. More importantly for the Indian market, it ingrained HP's
best global practices into the HCL DNA and provided quality exposure to HCL's
managers; this helped HCL to subsequently embark on its own journey of
globalization.
Balu Doraisamy, who currently heads HP India (after Rajpal
and Ganesh Ayyar) has virtually managed the impossible of managing the widest
range of tech activities for any single IT company in India. HP today runs seven
SBUs and this model is proving exemplary for the HCLs, Siemens and the Mahindras
who aspire to run similar IT conglomerates. Last but not the least, HP's
social commitment to India is unquestionable, its efforts at Kuppam in AP being
a point.
Infosys
In the Dataquest June 1983 edition, there was a small item in the news section,
announcing the setting up of a data center in Pune by a Patni programmer, NR
Naryana Murthy and his friends. The company was named Infosys Systems and Murthy
loaned Rs 10,000 by his wife from her PF, is now part of Indian IT folklore.
Though for many years, Infosys made slow and steady progress till its 1992
public debut, but today it is the premier ambassador for Indian IT world over.
Over the years, Infosys has recorded regular growth, yet its
single largest impact has been on the way corporates function in India. Infy
virtually designed the concept of ESOPs in India, in the process making
millionaires of several of its employees. It was the first software company to
get listed in Nasdaq in 1998: Infy has been a darling of the investor and
analyst community too, thanks to the practice of q-o-q guidance it started.
For a country grown up on red-tapism and proprietorship model, Infosys has
been a breath of fresh air. Revenues apart, the company and namely its founders
including Murthy's wife Sudha Murthy have evangelized the concept of social
responsibility by setting up charitable arms like Infosys Foundation. The other
great thing has been that company has emerged from the shadows of its larger
than life founder. When Murthy retired in August this year and assumed the role
of chief mentor, there was not much hullabaloo about it since Nandan Nilekani
has assumed Murthy's role long back.
IBM
It is simply not possible to talk about the history of Indian computing, if
International Business Machines is not talked about, particularly three events-its
entry, exit and re-entry in India. Supposedly, India's first premier
Jawaharlal Nehru had invited IBM to set up a shop in then Bombay in 1951.
 Over the next two decades IBM would bring dated unit record
machines, and then re-condition them for Indian market. Not big business by IBM
standards, for instance in its quarter century of existence in India (from
1951-76), it had just generated $6 mn of profits. Yet, it was significant for
India, as there were no real companies that manufactured at that time.
In the mid '70s IBM was asked by the government to dilute
the stake in the Indian venture. But it chose to leave and in 1978, it sold its
business at very cheap rate. Its exit spawned a variety of players, mostly ex-IBMers,
setting up shop, companies like IDM, CMC, ICIL, HCL-later they all attained
center stage.
With the liberalization of the Indian economy, IBM returned to India through
a joint venture with the Tatas in 1992, subsequently it bought out the Tata's
stake. The company set up operations throughout India. Through all these years,
one single factor seems to have changed; India now is as strategic to IBM's
global strategy as much as IBM is to India. Now IBM is the fourth largest
employer in the Indian IT industry - only behind TCS, Infosys and Wipro.
International Business Machine, truly!
Intel
Thanks to the revolutionary Genuine Intel Dealer (GID), Intel would perhaps be
best remembered for developing the Indian IT channel market. This benchmark
program conceived in the mid 90s brought brand and structure into a cottage
industry of white-box assemblers. Some 5,000 dealers got GID benefits, from
training and brand use to specific support. As Intel comes close to its second
decade of existence here, it's now added layers to this GID structure;
thankfully, this would help Intel further boost the fortunes of mobile computing
in India as the Centrino Duo mobile platform and Centrino wireless laptops
record continuing boom.
However, it would be unfair to restrict Intel's India
contribution only to the GID program and how it helped the propagation of
Pentiums, Itaniums and the Centrinos here. The Bangalore R&D center has
encouraged a host of other MNCs to use India as a large research base.
Unfortunately, because of procrastination by the Indian government, the proposed
manufacturing facility never took off. However, Intel India scores high on the
CSR index-under the Intel Outreach program, projects like Intel Teach and
Intel Learn have promoted computer literacy by training around 6,00,000 teachers
in 14 states till date.
Intel's clamping down on bogus LTA, medical and other
claims during 2005 was a path-breaking ethical corporate governance move for the
entire Indian industry (not just IT). Unfortunately, the HR handling of the
issue seriously demoralized Intel staff here. Even that itself could be a future
lesson for other corporates, especially MNCs, on how to go about implementing
corporate governance in India.
NIIT
Have you witnessed the recent NIIT ad on TV that shows IT recruiters kidnapping
a GNIIT student-the underlying message is that in times of acute manpower
shortage in the IT industry, it's GNIIT students who are the most sought after
commodity? More importantly, an ad on prime time TV indicates the clout and
mindshare that NIIT today enjoys as an IT training player in this country.
 Having started in 1982, NIIT has become ingrained into the
polity of Indian IT primarily because of its ubiquity with computer training in
this country. Though over the 25 years of its existence, NIIT has defined the
paradigm of IT training in the country. At the same time, over various stages,
the domestic king of IT training has also metamorphosed into a global training
major. While China is a lucrative market, NIIT has recently also forayed into
the UK, Africa and the South East Asia. However, it is as a domestic training
player that NIIT would always be remembered-other than GNIIT, the company
after all brought words like LEDA, Computerdrome and the Bhavishya Jyoti
Scholarship into the Indian IT lexicon.
Though training has been the defining factor in NIIT's history, it has also
been a successful software services player. And with growing export revenues
from services, the company demerged itself in 2004 to form a separate entity for
its software business. Nevertheless, NIIT is firmly entrenched on its training
pillar and would always remain a benchmark on how computer literacy could be
spread successfully across the country.
Microsoft
It was in 1990 that Microsoft opened shop in India primarily to overlook the
sale of its suite of products. Rajiv Nair, who was Microsoft India's first
employee was in charge and remained at the helm for 13 years till 2003. It
created history again in 2005 when Neelam Dhawan from HP joined as Microsoft's
India head, making it the first IT MNC to have a woman at the top in India.
Meanwhile, Microsoft India has today crossed Rs 2,000 crore in revenue and
employs nearly 4,000 people.
Other than sales, Microsoft's tryst with India received a
fillip when Bill Gates visited India for the first time in 1997. He surely was
impressed, considering that the very next year, Microsoft set up its India
Development Center in Hyderabad, its second largest development center outside
Redmond. Subsequently, Microsoft Research launched operations at MSRI in
Bangalore initially focusing on GIS, technologies for emerging markets,
multilingual systems, and sensor networks vindicating India's software
prowess.
Over Gates' subsequent visits to India, the relation has got stronger,
especially with him announcing a $1.7 bn investment focusing on innovating in
and for India. He also made the intention clear that India in the coming days
would be a major hub for Microsoft's research, product, and application
development. The company is also actively involved in charitable work here
through the Melinda Gates Foundation; CSR projects like Project Shiksha have
done wonders in states like Uttaranchal.
Nasscom
In the '80s, as software services companies started to emerge, they were
unhappy at the representation being provided by MAIT. Since MAIT had a more
hardware centric focus, it could not really address the problems faced by the
services companies and hence could not effectively lobby for their different
demands. Out of this conundrum, Nasscom was born, especially thanks to the
efforts of Harish Mehta. It was supposed to have a more software centric
approach and its mandate was to lobby and obtain concessions from the government
on tax matters.
 Mehta was also instrumental in handpicking Dewang Mehta as
Nasscom's executive director and over the next decade Dewang and Nasscom
became synonymous across the world. Throughout the '90s, Nasscom played the
pivotal role as the lobbying body to nurture the industry's growth. Dewang led
from the front till his tragic demise in 2001 and it was because of his untiring
efforts that Nasscom became a true representative of the Indian IT industry.
Notwithstanding initial apprehensions, Kiran Karnik has proved to be a worthy
successor to Dewang. While in the initial days Dewang had to lobby for issues
like tax sops relevant for a growing industry. Karnik had to face the challenges
normally posed to a leader. Be it the anti-outsourcing brigade in the US, the
BPO data theft scandals, several manpower issues, Karnik has come out with
flying colors. Today, Nasscom has around 1000 members and they contribute over
95% of India's software revenues. It had set up the Innovation Forum, BPO
Forum, the ESO Forum and the likes among others to promote the industry.
PCL
It came, it saw, it conquered. And, then it vanished... into oblivion. This
succinctly sums up the phenomenon of Halley's Comet and also the history of
Pertech Computers (PCL), the Indian IT's standout symbol of "what could
have been" the enfant terrible of Indian IT industry today stands as a
landmark case study of what to do to reach the top in a short time and also
unfortunately, what not to do to fall off the peak in even shorter time.
Launched in 1987 by the maverick Dadan Bhai with an initial
investment of Rs 6 lakhs, PCL represented the youth, energy vitality and also
restlessness of the Indian IT industry in its entirety, even including the
burnout syndrome often evident in a young champ. In terms of statistics in a
short span of seven years, PCL became the largest seller of PCs in the country,
outstripping even a more established HCL. In 1994 itself, it announced the
largest public issue ever to come out of the IT industry till that time, though
most of its troubles only started after that.
However, PCL's impact could never be judged only in terms of sheer numbers:
under the guidance of Dadan Bhai and Bikram Dasgupta, PCL introduced glamour to
an industry lacking in color till then, gave the PC an FMCG status in the Indian
market, produced a catalytic effect on PC shipments and even overtaken a
well-entrenched HCL in aggressive selling. Dadan Bhai today is no more, Dasgupta
has moved to other pastures. But PCL's name will forever be etched in the
memories of all aficionados as well as serious historians of Indian IT.
TCS
Corporate vision statements are always ambitious. It is framed on the reception
and displayed with pride at certain occasions. But TCS seems to be one Indian
company which is serious to its mission statement of being "among the
global top 10 by 2010." With revenues set to cross $4 bn this year and the
employee base crossing 80,000, TCS is about to enter into a zone where no other
Indian IT company has yet tread.
Very few would have predicted this when in 1968 the Tata
group had bought a mainframe for doing the data processing work for its group
companies. TCS was headed by PM Agarwala. But after his death, a young power
engineer, FC Kohli was made the GM.
How Kohli came to be regarded as the father of the Indian
software industry is also the success story of TCS in its near four decades of
existence. In the year 1974, TCS converted a Hospital Information System from
Burroughs Medium Systems COBOL to Burroughs Small Systems COBOL. This project
was carried out entirely in TCS Mumbai office on the ICL 1903 Computer and is
the first software export in Indian History.
Meanwhile in 1971, a young programmer S Ramadorai joined TCS. In the last 10
years Ramadorai has presided over TCS' landmark IPO, the first company to
reach the $1 bn mark and the first to create a global delivery model framework.
Rediff
In 1996 when it was born, Rediff was certainly not the first dotcom in India.
However, a decade hence, after the industry has witnessed the euphoria of the
heady days, subsequent bloodbath and even the second coming of online ventures
with a stronger focused business model, Rediff.com has certainly become the face
of Indian Internet business.
 Going back to 1996, adman Ajit Balakrishnan and a few of his
friends were sitting around a table in a small Dadar cafe, talking about what
the future held for them. Balakrishnan was excited as he had just returned from
the UK, where he had the opportunity to surf the Web at Oxford. A few of his
friends agreed to his proposal to start Rediff and thus a legend was born.
Somehow, not everyone seemed to be gung-ho about a company that had only a
virtual presence.
However, the best thing has been that Rediff has remained true to its value
all through these years. When entrepreneurs were cashing in during the dotcom
heydays, Balakrishnan continued to go about his way meticulously, without
getting tempted by money. The big moment was in 1998, when Rediff was listed on
the Nasdaq. It was the first Indian Internet company to get listed. It thus
survived the fizzy boom and tumultuous burst with aplomb. Yet, it is certainly
not sitting pretty on its laurels. Especially when MNCs like Google, Yahoo!, MSN
or locals like Indiatimes are looking to provide stiff competition. The company
has launched scores of services right from online classifieds to travel and tour
services. The revenue model has not changed much over the years, though the
company still relies heavily on online advertising for its bread, butter and
beer!
Texas Instruments
In 1985, when Texas Instruments (TI) first stepped on Bangalore soil, though we
have no record of exactly what was said, it could very well have been-"We
hereby declare open India's Silicon Valley." After all, TI was the first
MNC related to IT to start operations here.
 Since then, Texas Instruments had crossed many milestones in
India. In 1989, it established a design center for mixed signal ICs, and its
success inspired the company to set up a design center for application specific
products in 1990. The year 1995 saw the launch of a design center for indigenous
development of digital signal processor (DSP) cores for applications in hard
disk drives by TI customers worldwide. TI opened a center for designing 3G
wireless chipsets and WLAN chipsets in 2000, followed by the launch of Pyramid,
the SoC design system for worldwide ASIC and all TI businesses in 2001 and OMAP
competency centers in 2002.
In terms of quality of growth the India center has today become the largest
R&D center of Texas Instruments in the whole of Asia. And its scope of
R&D is easily comparable to TI's other centers located in Europe, Japan
and at its headquarters in Dallas. This way TI has helped tremendously in
fostering the R&D culture here and showing the way to other MNCs to leverage
India's research skills successfully. Also, its role in the overall welfare
and development of Bangalore cannot be overlooked.
Wipro
From a company that sold edible oil and soap to transform into an IT powerhouse
is the stuff fairytales are made of. Led by the soft-spoken Azim Premji, Wipro
is an important part and parcel of the great Indian IT industry. In the past few
years Wipro has been very aggressive on the M&A front, snapping up foreign
niche players. This has resulted in more than healthy growth for the company.
 It was in the 80s, when Premji's conviction led Wipro to
sally forth in the emerging computing market-and made it big success story!
There also have been lows, for instance a few years back when quite a few senior
officials left the company (like Vivek Paul and others) not many thought that
Wipro could survive such a setback but it did, and with aplomb.
In fact other than its own growth, Wipro's biggest contribution to Indian
IT has been the number of future entrepreneurs it has sustained and nurtured.
Ashok Soota, Subroto Bagchi, Revathi Kasturi, Som Mittal, the list goes on. Even
the acquisitions made by the company have been very strategic in nature. Premji,
who owns majority shares, was the third richest person in the world at one point
of time. Nevertheless, Wipro would always be remembered as the company that had
the guts to go places, where not many could and the stomach to do things that
not many would.
Xerox
Xerox was among the first few MNCs to arrive on the Indian shore piggy backing
on a domestic player. It was in 1983 when Rajiv Gandhi's liberal computer
policy was still some time away, that Xerox decided to come in a JV with the
Modi Group, and started off with selling its famous copier machines. The market
was fairly monopolized by Modi Xerox, and like everywhere else photocopying in
India too became synonymous with Xerox.
 Once the markets liberalized Xerox wanted to take a more
proactive part in the Indian market and felt the domestic partnership a bit
stifling. Then started the protracted war of words between the two. First, Xerox
wrested managing control and then bought off Modi's stake in the company.
After setting its house in order, the company set about the task of increasing
its role in the market.
In India too Xerox is trying to shrug off its image of a
copier company-is transitioning to become an office automation solutions
provider, which will happen with the company launching a slew of digital
printers and other peripherals. Xerox also refurbished its distribution network
and is now testing the viability for a retail foray.Page(s) 1
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