‘Against All Odds’ is a retelling of the extraordinary IT story

Dinesh C Sharma

THE software services sector is often hailed as the success story of entrepreneurship and technological prowess and serves as the face of India’s liberalisation process. India exported software services worth 156 billion dollars during the last fiscal. The industry, generally referred to as information technology and IT-enabled services, contributes 8 per cent to the country’s GDP and is the largest employer in the private sector. Throughout its long history, the industry has had many ups and downs. It is surrounded by a lot of myths, especially when it comes to the people and events that contributed to its extraordinary success.

Over the years, Indian and foreign academic scholars, writers and industry insiders have recounted the story of the Indian IT industry from different perspectives, resulting in several books and research papers. The book under review is a part of this trend. It has been penned by Kris Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder of Infosys, along with two co-authors connected with Itihaasa Research and Digital project founded by Gopalakrishnan. It is largely based on interviews of about 50 people connected with the industry.

This industry’s overall trajectory has previously been thoroughly studied and documented — the role of PC Mahalanobis and Homi Bhabha in early computer development, setting up of pioneering computer centres at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and IIT-Kanpur, the self-reliance blueprint prepared by the Bhabha Committee, restrictive policies of the Department of Electronics, the advent of computer science education, the role of large government IT projects, etc. The authors have retold all this with oral history interviews and anecdotes. However, since they made no attempt to support the tales with documentation or references, certain mistakes have crept in.

The story of Infosys has been featured in parts at several places in the book. NR Narayana Murthy finished his MTech in 1969 and changed four jobs (IIM-Ahmedabad, SESA in Paris, Systems Research International in Pune and Patni Computer Systems or PCS) before founding Infosys in 1981. He, according to the book, decided to become an entrepreneur while working in Paris in the early 1970s because he believed that ‘the only way societies could solve the problem of poverty was by creating jobs, and the only people who could do this were entrepreneurs’. Since the book is based on anecdotal history, it would have helped readers to learn about or from Sudha Murthy (who was a computer programmer with TELCO in Pune) on the seed funding of Rs 10,000 she provided to start Infosys.

The Indian IT industry prides itself in deploying a ‘global delivery model’ that uses skills and resources optimally to deliver services. The book claims that Murthy conceived this model in the early years of Infosys although it became popular only in the post-liberalisation period. It is incredulous that a fledgling start-up with one client, half-a-dozen programmers and no computer of its own could envision a ‘global delivery model’. That too at a time when the model predominant among software companies was ‘body shopping’ wherein programmers worked at client sites.

IIT and MIT alumnus Narendra Patni, who founded PCS where Murthy worked and learnt the ropes of software services exports, finds only a cursory mention. It was Patni who demonstrated the potential of remote working or outsourcing by first doing data conversion work for American clients from India, and then developing software in India for American minicomputer maker Data General. This experience paved the way for programmers like Murthy to become entrepreneurs. The industry-wide shift to offshore development became possible only after data links became affordable in the 1990s, and Software Technology Parks established by the Department of Electronics took off.

While the role of the industry lobby group, Nasscom, has been lauded throughout the book, the authors have also credited government officials who proactively forged a partnership with the industry. This busts the myth propagated by some industry leaders in the past that the Indian IT industry grew because of ‘benign neglect’ from the government. Overall, the book makes for easy reading but does not provide readers with a complete (and objective) picture. Anecdotes are interesting but they don’t tell the whole story. Moreover, interviews with the main players have been conducted after many years of actual events, so all recollections may not be accurate and objective.

— The reviewer is the author of ‘The Outsourcer: The Story of India’s IT Revolution’