“India has added nearly 40 unicorns in the last 50 weeks in the Startup world,” said Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney in an event yesterday. Speaking at the unveiling of a book titled ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’, he said that today if we see Indians as CEOs of the world’s top most IT and Software corporates, the foundations were laid in these last 30 years by people like Mr Oberoi. He said that India has added nearly 40 unicorns in the last 50 weeks in the Startup world and this too is an outcome of those foundational years.
Shri Sawhney further added, “Today, we take India’s huge presence in software for granted. In 1987, India’s CAGR in software exports was Rs 51 crores and today, it is 5 lakh crores. It represents CAGR of over 35% year on year for over 30 years. We have seen the 25 years of MeitY and I think it is important we set our eyes on the next 10-25 years and see where it takes us.”
The book- ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’, narrating the first 25 years of MeitY, is authored by Shri S.S. Oberoi, the former adviser at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Other dignitaries like Shri KV Ramani, Chancellor Sai University; Shri Harish Mehta, Founder Onward Technologies; Shri Ashank Desai, Founder Mastek; Shri Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman Indian Angel Network; Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI, and Dr. B.M. Baveja, Ex-Group Coordinator & Director, MeitY also joined the unveiling through video conferencing. Shri Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia Group, who helped publish the book was also present at the launch.
In the words of Shri S.S. Oberoi, ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology’ is “not just a book, but a narration” of how things used to happen at the DoE. “I have tried to be honest in my book and have not criticised anyone.
Shri S. S. Oberoi is a retired adviser, Government of India, Department of Electronics (DoE). He has a B.Sc. from Agra University and did his Postgraduate Diploma from the Madras Institute of Technology, Madras, in Electronics Engineering.
His journey started with computers in 1968, when from the defence public sector, Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL), Bangalore, he was deputed to International Computers Ltd. (ICL), UK, in connection with their ICL 1901 computer manufacturing programme. This continued after he joined the Department of Electronics, Government of India, in 1975. He headed the computer activities of the Government continuously from 1978 to 1997, till his retirement with a short break.
He was the first head of the Software Development Agency and the first adviser of Information Technology. He conducted the first major Software Export Promotion Campaigns, ‘Software India’, jointly with the Indian Embassy, USA, in 1987, at six major cities. Also, he later conducted similar conferences, ‘Software India’, in the USA, the UK, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Holland and Russia.
He promoted software export through satellite link and oversaw the trial run of the first Software Technology Park of Texas Instrument, Software Technological Park, Bangalore. He helped resolve issues related to DOT, Custom and Security. He established and was the chairman of the first three Software Technological Parks in India, in Bangalore, Pune and Bhubaneswar.
He coordinated the Super Computer Program of the Government and was on the Governing Council of C-DAC. He represented India in the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in the early 1980s, when, for the first time, the protection of software was deliberated at the international platform.
He was also a member of their Working Group on technical questions relating to the legal protection of computer software and attended meetings at Geneva and Canberra. He was on the board of various public sector units that were related to Electronics and Information Technology and was a member of governing councils of STPI, C-DAC and DOEACC. He was also the national project director of UNDP project ERNET, CAD, CAM, and the fifth-generation computers.