1986-1995: Framing Policies

1986

• Government announces the first software policy on December
  
  19; few key guidelines include making the export commitment of software
  
  exporters more stringent, defines software exports as 'body shopping',
  
  de-licenses the domestic industry, lays emphasis on training and opens up
  
  import of software

• Moser Baer moves away from time-keeping solutions and starts
  
  manufacture of floppy disks

• TVS Electronics set up by Gopal Srinivasan with the aim of
  
  locally manufacturing computer peripherals.

• Control Data Corp bags deal to manufacture supercomputers in
  
  India in collaboration with ECIL. DoE and NEC of Japan sign MoU to supply
  
  supercomputers.

• CMC implemets project IMPRESS, an online passenger
  
  reservations system for the Indian Railways; it also set up Indonet-a
  
  countrywide data network, subsequently re-christened ITES.

• The father-son duo of Shyam Sundar Goenka and Bharat Goenka
  
  launches Peutronics, later famous as Tally, India's premier accounting
  
  software.

1987

• The entry of the MNCs through a host of tie-ups with Indian
  
  partners: Apollo through HCL, Bull through PSI Systems and DEC through
  
  Hinditron Computers.

• Wipro becomes the first company to receive a DoE certificate
  
  for its products.

• Siva PC launched by C Sivasankaran at an unbelievable price
  
  of Rs 29,000, taking the bottom out of the market.

1988

• Nasscom is formed, thanks to the efforts of Harish Mehta,
  
  Saurabh Srivastava, Prakash Ahuja and Shashi Bhatnagar, with the aim to
  
  become a catalyst for the growth of a software-driven IT industry in the
  
  country. The move was spurred by software companies who were unhappy at the
  
  representation being provided by MAIT.

• Vijaya Bank becomes the first nationalized bank in the
  
  country to introduce ATMs.

• Software gets complete exemption from excise duty.

• Ramalinga Raju starts an IT venture, Satyam Computers, with
  
  20 people. 18 years hence, it is on the way to become India's youngest
  
  billion dollar entity.

1989

• Jack Welch meets Sam Pitroda and Jairam Ramesh over a
  
  breakfast meeting and the seeds of offshore outsourcing of software services
  
  to India were sown. GE's tryst with India started in right earnest in
  
  1991.

• Electronics Commission finally abolished as the government
  
  realizes that its role is being duplicated by the DoE.

• M&A starts amongst Indian companies with HCL taking over
  
  IDM and Modis taking over Computer Point, India's first retail computer
  
  chain.

1990

• India gets its first supercomputer as the CRAY XMP-14 is
  
  installed at the Department of Meteorology. The saber rattling by the US
  
  administration however spurred India to set up C-DAC.

• The UK-returned accountant-turned award winning documentary
  
  film-maker cum graphic designer Dewang Mehta is hand picked by Harish Mehta
  
  and appointed Executive Director of Nasscom.

• N Vittal takes over from R Rajamani as DoE Secretary. He was
  
  instrumental in liberalization of the Indian computer industry. Reduction in
  
  telecom charges for satellite links, exemption from profit tax on software
  
  and services exports, zero excise rates from software sold were some of his
  
  recommendations.

• DCM DP bags $11mn US order-till then the largest export
  
  order ever bagged by an Indian firm.

  In 1993, Infosys lists on BSE at Rs 145 per share compared to the IPO price of Rs 95 per share.

1991

• Bombay-based Saha Computers & Communications becomes the
  
  first Indian company to manufacture laptops in the country. Zenith too
  
  follows soon.

• HCL HP, another JV company between HCL and HP set up by
  
  Arjun Malhotra; this JV developed multi-processor Unix for HP and heralded
  
  HCL's entry into contract R&D.

• VSNL Gateway Digital System installed at Delhi, Bombay and
  
  Calcutta. VSNL's e-mail service is launched.

1992

• Return of the prodigal. IBM comes back to India via Tata
  
  Information Systems Ltd, a 50:50 JV with the Tata Group.

• India refuses to sign NPT with the US restricting the sale
  
  of advanced computers to India.

• A Citibank employee, Rajesh Hukku, spins off a new venture
  
  around the bank's in-house Microbanker core banking product developed in
  
  India with Citibank seed fund only. COSL is born, re-christened later as i-flex
  
  to become India's #1 software product company.

• DCM DP, the IT division, spun off from the DCM group and
  
  floated off as a separate company called DCM Data Systems.

1993

• Visa restrictions imposed by the US Government. Instead of
  
  B1, you now needed to take an H1-B which was much more difficult to get.

• Indian software professionals brought under the ambit of the
  
  Immigration Act of 1990. Under the Act, they would have to pay social
  
  security taxes amounting to 21% to the US government.

1994

• A seven-year old company, PCL, becomes the largest seller of
  
  PCs in the country, outstripping even the behemoth HCL; it also announces
  
  the largest public issue ever to come out of the IT industry till then. But
  
  first signs of trouble visible as Bikram Dasgupta quits PCL.

• The National Telecom Policy, NTP-94, is announced. India's
  
  first national information highway is inaugurated.

• John McDonald, the comptroller at American Express, is
  
  convinced by Raman Roy to open an operational center for Asia Pacific in
  
  India. The Indian BPO industry is born.

• Wipro sets up R&D center in the US; Infosys too opens a
  
  US subsidiary.

• HCL HP delivers India's first Pentium machine.

1995

• India's first cyber café opens at the Leela Kempinski in
  
  Mumbai.

• Railway reservation system in India goes entirely online.

• VSNL launches India's first full Internet service for
  
  public access, the Gateway Internet Access Service (GIAS). It was available
  
  immediately from Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta and Madras and subsequently Pune
  
  and Bangalore. Users from other locations connected through the I-NET, an
  
  X.25 network accessed through leased lines or at a concessional dial-up rate
  
  from almost anywhere.

• S Ramadorai takes over as TCS MD from FC Kohli.

• Apple Computer sets up a fully-owned Indian subsidiary.

• Union Cabinet approves the formation of TRAI.