The most promising event of modern India .. Digital and knowledge Revolution

We have heard many people /organisations talk of the different incidents that have helped make up the modern and developing country that is India. Instead of trying to dissect events in history, it will do an ocean of good if we were able to fix our sights on one event which is to hold terrific promise for the country and it's billion plus people in the coming days. Which is that event and who started it ?

It was in mid eighties after Ms Indira Gandhi's assasination that her son Rajiv Gandhi got elected and became the PM of India. Rajiv Gandhi had a terrific aura about him, even though he did not have anything to claim as his achievements except that he was born into the Nehru family and had sat on the lap of Jawaharlal Nehru many a time.

Rajiv Gandhi was a visionary. He got with him intellectuals and accomplished Indians from all walks of life from around the world to advise him on critical issues which were to affect India. The most important contribution of Rajiv Gandhi was picking up Sam Pitroda, the present Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission, to head the telecom revolution and establish the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT).

In no time, India could develop it's own telephone exchange which is helping run most of the rural telephone exchanges of BSNL now. It helped spread the reach of telecommunications to the common man in the remotest part of the country. Along with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), under his guidance, the work to launch India's telecommunications satellite also got started and we had telecommunications satellites in the sky. In combination with an indigenous telecomm knowhow and satellites in space, Public Call Offices were opened in different villages and towns in the country. Now it is easily possible for a villager in the remotest of Indian villages to make NSD and ISD calls.

India's leap into the digital world was thus spearheaded by Rajiv Gandhi. The initial steps to start the knowledge revolution, which now has metamorphosised to the National Knowledge Commision is a great step to harness the knoledge in different streams to help make the right decision and harness it for the country's growth.

Were it not for the right thinking at the right time, the penetration of computers would not have been much and Indians would have remained ignorant. Now we find a digital revolution across sections of scoiety, including politicians and it is leading to the total metamorphisation of the digital landscape of the country.

Companies like Infy, Wipro, TCS etc owe it to Rajiv Gandhi and the digital revolution as much to globalization and the technical, english speaking workforce.

Continuing to work at the same pace we can establish high quality R&D labs in the country and innovate for the rest of the world.

George Easaw..