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Saluting A Pioneer

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Meet

Major General (Retd) A Balasubrahmanian, the man with an epoch-making

vision in IT and its relentless pursuit across an entire life-time

who receives the Lifetime Achievement to IT award for 1999.

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A military discipline and precision

informs all that he does. Right from the erect posture belying the

age of 72 years, the meticulous maintenance of the order of books

in his library, an immaculate sense of dressing to the brisk hand-shake.

Behind this tough exterior, lies an unrelenting will to work for

enhancing the quality of life of people.  



It would be ambitious to trace the accomplishments spanning his

lifetime within the columns of these pages. Meet Major General (Retd)

A Balasubrahmanian, AVSM–A defense personnel-cum-computercrat, combined

into one distinct personality. The epoch-making contributions to

the IT industry pertain to his valuable efforts towards the growth

of IT in India, while not being an integral part of the industry.

A rare milestone set by a unique personality, indeed!

Even as a child the ‘fancy for the

uniform’ was a continuous one and it blossomed into a career in

the defense services. While in college he majored in chemistry,

with an optional in military science. His varied interests ranging

from cricket to music only equipped him better for a tenure in the

armed forces. With an engineering degree in Telecommunications from

the College of Engineering, Guindy, Chennai, he joined the Signals

Corp of the Indian Army as an officer in 1950. He pursued a post

graduate course in Radio Engineering from the Marconi College in

UK in 1952. Back home, in the Signals Corp, Balasubrahmanian specialized

in Advanced Electronics and Guided Missiles from the Institute of

Armament Technology.

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Major

General (Retd) 



A Balasubrahmanian, AVSM

Age: 72 years.






Educational Qualifications: BSc Chemistry from Loyola
College, Chennai; BE Telecommunications from College of Engineering,

Guindy Chennai; PG Diploma in Radio Engineering from the Marconi

College, UK; PG Diplomas in Advanced Electronics and in Guided

Missiles from the Institute of Armament Technology, Pune.






Work Experience: Served in the Indian Army for 34 years
and retired as a Major General. Following the tenure of his

service in the armed forces, he served as a Technical Secretary

in the Advisory Group on Computers set up by the Ministry of

Defense. Further, he rendered his services as an Officer on

Special Duty (Computers) in the Department of Electronics. He

has also been the Founder-Secretary of Computer Society of India.

He went on to become the Director, Computer Systems, DRDO, Delhi. 



Style of work: With all

the trappings of an ex-army general he is meticulous and wields

military precision. A visionary who foresaw the potential

of the Indian software intellectual potential in the late

60s. 

Status: Married with

three children. 



Conviction: Firmly endorses that machines cannot replace man
but can definitely play a meaningful role in enhancing human

skills and the quality of life.






Most valued achievement: Maintaining a balance between
a career in defense and outside of it and contributing towards

the growth of IT. Also cherishes the ability to propagate

the concept of man-machine heuristics.


Contribution to IT Industry:

Implementation of the idea that computers are there to reinforce

human capabilities and the drafting of policies and programs

consistent in spirit and content with this principle. 

Vision: More meaningful

application of computers enhancing the standard of living.

Further, he hopes that accompanying the realization of profits

a commendable depth of understanding of IT and its eventful

expansion in India are achieved.

Philosophy of life: Always

attempt to understand another’s point of view, even when there

are differences. To take up whatever comes in an individual’s

way and do complete justice to it.

Awards and accolades:

‘Ati Vishist Seva Medal’, ‘Silver Core’ from International

Federation of Information Processing, ‘Fellow of CSI’ and

‘Fellow of IIT’. 

Hobbies: Playing cricket,

hockey, badminton, debating, vocal and instrumental music

(playing on the mirudangam), reading, radio amateur.

It was by sheer chance that he got

into computers. As a specialist in guided missiles he was chosen

as a core member of the Special Weapons team to develop a training

simulator for anti-tank missiles. That was the turning point in

his career. “On the one hand, there was the longing for the general

army life and on the other hand, there was R&D. I chose to stay

on in R&D as I had got deeply involved in computers after my

course in advanced electronics,” he explains. “Besides, R&D

was an everyday challenge, with a new purpose awaiting each day,”

he adds.

"Those were the days when computers

were just coming into India and being in the defense we were the

most privileged to have an IBM mainframe computer for our R&D,”

he reminisces.  This was in the mid-50s. He still remembers

the first computer he worked on, the IBM 1602 and the Electronics

Associate 231 R. “While the simulator we developed was linked to

an actual missile, it never got used as the government decided to

import one at the last minute,” he says, with regret in his voice.

“Nevertheless, the lessons from the endeavors of the team has percolated

to other developments in projects such as ‘Agni’, ‘Prithvi’, ‘Akash’

and ‘Nag’ within the defense,” he asserts. The special weapons team

was moved to Hyderabad and was subsequently named the Defense Research

and Development Laboratory (DRDL).

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By 1959, when Balasubrahmanian had

risen to the rank of a Major, he was entrusted with the responsibility

of setting up a computer center in DRDL. The first computer in the

center was an IBM 1620. He doubled up as a programmer, systems integrator,

systems engineer and a maintenance engineer. He also set up regional

computer centers in Hyderabad, Dehradun and Delhi for R&D. His

team developed a computer simulator for the railway track recording

car to check the track level for safety of trains. In yet another

project he and his team developed a text analysis simulator for

the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages in Hyderabad

to aid the teaching process in English vocabulary.

However, even while computers were

getting popular, the phobia that the ‘all-knowing chip’ might replace

humans was claiming attention within the average psyche, in factories

and industrial set-ups. At this juncture the concept of man-machine

heuristics got edified. “The basic concept is that machines are

not there to replace man. There is respect for human capabilities

and we should strive towards enhancing it using machines,” he states.

During those days, the renowned computer

science professor Huskey was in India at IIT Kanpur. He initiated

the small group of users, including Balasubrahmanian, who met him

to organize themselves into a computer users’ group for interaction

and knowledge-sharing. The same group proceeded to meet at a conference

at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. A direct fallout

of this was the formation of an All India Computer User’s Group

that became the nucleus of the Computer Society of India. Balasubrahmanian

registered the CSI at Hyderabad as a Founder-Secretary on March

6, 1965. “The end eavor was to ensure that usage of computers has

a social relevance,” he says. Balasubrahmanian also became the President

of CSI between 1969 and 1972.

One of the major contributions during

his tenure at CSI was making a presentation to the GoI Committee

of Automation, to evolve a professional dimension reinforcing the

fact that industrial automation will not lead to replacement of

people in factories and industrial set-ups. “We rather suggested

ways of mitigating socio-economic problems,” he says. Recalling

his association with Balasubrahmanian, Dr N Seshagiri, Director

General of NIC, says, “During the formative years of the Indian

IT industry he has done a lot of work in CSI. In my interaction

with him from those days I have known him to be a perseverant and

hard-working person who has contributed a lot to the growth of IT

in this country.”

Find

out more about Balasubrahmanian

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