Domestic, export demands have risen in software sector: Author

While India's software industry took a different trajectory post the year 2000 owing to a rise in domestic demand and software exports, the story of the country's IT revolution actually has a long and storied past according to author Dinesh C Sharma.
"So far we have focused on exports of software service but now things have changed. We have 900 million users of mobile phones in the country for which a lot of applications need to be developed. The use of IT in everyday life is also rising and for that a lot of products need to be developed. So now the industry is actually focusing on developing products for the local needs, Sharma said.

Sharma's book "The Outsourcer - The story of India's IT Revolution" discussing this economic success story of the IT sector and its rise, was launched here late last evening.
Software and services exports from India amounted to less than USD 100 million in 1990, and came close to USD 100 billion.
"This book is a personal journey in some way. In the 1980s I was covering science and technology as a journalist I had seen it all growing in India. And in 2000 people were talking about how India is the next IT super power. All these things were at the back of my mind and I covered the area for 15 to 20 years I saw a bigger story in it," Sharma said.

In his book, Sharma traces the history of the Indian Information Technology industry from the pre-independent era from the foundations of the IT revolution, when Indian scientists had established research institutes during the British era, which became centers for the development of computer science and technology.
"India's early development of computer technology, part of the country's efforts to achieve national self-sufficiency, and shows that excessive state control stifled IT industry growth before economic policy changed in 1991. The rise and fall (and return) of IBM in India and the emergence of pioneering indigenous hardware and software firms the book traces the history of the sector," Sharma said.

The "miracle" of Indian IT is actually a story about the long work of converting skills and knowledge into capital and wealth, Sharma writes in his book.