Can we develop world class technology in India, for India and the world?
September 25, 2025, at
Vidyalankar Institute, Mumbai
(Edited excerpts of the
talk)
First, I want to thank two institutions
for inviting me. One is the National Centre for Science Communicators, and my
friends Suhas, Dr. Barve and Anant Deshpande for the honor of delivering this
first memorial lecture for P.S. Deodhar. I also thank Dr. Ashish Ukidve and the
Vidyalankar Institution—its faculty and trustees—for hosting this interaction
with you all who are the future of Indian technology.
You are that future. You have already
heard much about Deodhar ji. I never had the chance to meet him in person.
I first heard of him around 1977-78. Two
of my friends, from Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, also returned from the US with
me and took their first jobs at Aplab. That was my introduction to Aplab, a
creation of P S Deodhar in Electronic Manufacturing.
Much later, about 10-15 years ago, Mr.
Deodhar read my book “Sand to Silicon: Amazing story of Digital Technology”, and
sent me an email. We exchanged a few messages, and around 2013, he called up
and spoke to me about his book on China. That was the extent of our personal
contact.
I advise you all to look him up on
LinkedIn, where his professional contributions, books, and a comprehensive list
of his innovations are detailed.
Since you have already heard about him
from those who knew him well, I will not repeat it all. Briefly, his
professional contributions spanned 50 years, from 1962 to 2012. From 1985 to
1989, he was the head of the Electronics Commission, the apex body for
electronics and IT policy at the time—a role very different from today's
scattered policymaking.
He was also a member of the Broadcast
Council (1992-93), whose recommendations helped liberalize India's broadcast
services, moving beyond just state-run Doordarshan and Akashvani and paving the
way for private channels.
His association with the Marathi Vidyan
Parishad lasted from 1999 to 2014. He was also a keen observer of China,
serving as Chairman of the India-China Economic and Cultural Council from 2004,
which informed his book, Sina
Sthana.
He wrote three books: Capital Punishment (1993),
a pun on his experiences in Delhi; The
Third Parent (1995), on broadcast reforms; and Sina Sthana (2013),
on China. He also wrote a four-part autobiographical series, "Problems of
Being an Indian Entrepreneur," published in Money Life magazine.
His innovations were primarily in power
electronics and telecommunications, including pioneering work on an Indian ATM
and the concept of smart cards—the technology behind your credit cards,
driver's licenses, and FastTags.
He designed a smart card-enabled
telephone. To your generation, this might not seem impressive, as you've lived
your entire lives after the
digital revolution. To understand a revolution, you must know what came before.
When I went to the US, to call home, I had
to go to the central telegraph office, book a "lightning call," wait
for hours, and pay 160 rupees for three minutes of poor connection. You live in
the era of free WhatsApp video calls.
For us, email was a revolution. In 1993, when
I was working in Business
India, they provided me with the first email services. It was
text-only, as the web didn't exist in India until VSNL introduced it in 1995. We
used modems with speeds of 2.4 kilobytes. We still relied on fax machines, and
our telephone bills were enormous.
When I traveled from my hometown, Dharwad,
to IIT Kanpur, in 1972-74, it involved four train changes. Securing a
reservation was a lottery. Today, you book everything instantly on your phone
via IRCTC app. This is the revolution you were born into.
The days when pioneers like Mr. Deodhar
dared to design and build electronic systems in India were very different.
Electronics was nascent globally, but India also lacked foreign exchange to
import anything. The challenge was: if we can't import modern technology, we
must build it ourselves. That was their determination.
The challenges of the 60s and 70s were
about self-reliance. The challenges of the 90s, during a global wave of
liberalization, were different. Today's challenges are again different.
Look at the world's most valuable
companies today. NVIDIA, an electronics chip company, has a market
capitalization of $4.3 trillion—more than India's GDP. Apple is another $ 4
trillion company. Apple designs its products, TSMC makes the chips for Apple,
and Foxconn assembles Apple’s iPhones and iPads. Foxconn's market value is
around $50 billion.
In India, we celebrate assembling iPhones
and creating thousands of jobs. But the value addition is only 5-6%. We are
happy with that 5%. Foxconn, the assembly giant, sets up plants here, and we
celebrate it. Tata Group is now trying to build the entire chain from chips to
assembly, but this will take 5-10 years.
Modern manufacturing is not manual labor;
it's highly automated "smart manufacturing." You, the future
engineers, will be part of this ecosystem—managing the IT systems, data
centers, cybersecurity, and communication links that power it.
So, can India produce technology for
itself and the world? History shows that until about 1600, India and China led
the world in ideas and technology. We had advanced zinc and steel metallurgy,
and superior forged cannons in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Technological development often happens
despite government policy, not because of it. The Indian IT services industry
is a classic example; it grew under the radar, solving problems and finding its
own way.
What Indian IT achieved, starting with TCS
and followed by others, like Wipro ad Infosys, HCL etc was the industrialization of
software development. We moved it from an artisan's craft to an engineered
process, breaking down complex projects into standardized tasks managed by
different teams and then integrate all the components and subsystems seamlessly
into a solution. It is this that the whole world now comes to India for.
Have Indians achieved excellence in modern
technology in the 20th century? Let us look at a few cases.
Consider Jagdish Chandra Bose. In the
1890s, in Calcutta, he developed components for radio and pioneered solid-state
electronics, filing a patent in 1901. But who commercialized radio and won the
Nobel Prize? Guglielmo Marconi.
This pattern repeats. We can develop
technology, but often fail to productize it. Look at all the foundational
technologies of modern life—the telephone, telegraph, computer, internet, car,
plane, mobile phone—none were invented here. We missed the Industrial
Revolution.
But in the digital age, Indians have made
seminal contributions, though often abroad:
·
Narendra Singh Kapany: Invented "fibre optics" in
the 1950s.
·
Bishnu Atal: Developed Linear Predictive Coding, used in every mobile
phone.
·
Arun Netravali: A key figure in the development of HDTV.
·
Yogen Dalal: Co-developed the TCP/IP internet protocol.
·
Sanjay Mehrotra: Co-Invented the thumb drive.
·
Rajiv Motwani: Was a key mentor and collaborator to Google's founders;
his work is foundational to their search algorithm.
·
Bala Manian: Received a Technical Oscar for his contributions to the technology
used in Hollywood's computer-generated graphics.
·
Sam Pitroda: His work on digital switches led to the creation of C-DOT,
which digitized India's telecom network.
The point is, there is nothing wrong with
the Indian brain. We are fertile and inventive. We must build the ecosystem and
encourage innovation and risk taking in technology.
We should not overestimate our achievements
and start declaring we are a tech power etc. That is nonsense, but don't suffer
from an inferiority complex either.
The above examples were mostly work done
by Indians abroad. Has India is also developed world-class technology at home?
Let us see some examples:
·
UPI: The digital payment system developed by the National
Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is now studied globally.
·
ISRO: Its satellite launch services (PSLV, GSLV) and remote
sensing capabilities are world-class and hundreds of foreign satellites have
been launched by ISRO besides satellites made in India.
·
Pharmaceuticals: Companies like Dr. Reddy's, CIPLA, Lupin and others fought
patent cases globally, proving their chemical processes were cheaper and
better, thereby establishing Indian pharma.
·
The National Stock Exchange (NSE): Its trading
platform, designed by Indian engineers, was more efficient than NASDAQ's and
attracted delegations from around the world who came to study it
·
Guided Missiles: The Integrated Guided Missile Programme (IGMP), started in
the early 80s under Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, developed guided missiles like Agni
and others.
·
Fast Breeder Reactor: The 500 MW reactor in Kalpakkam,
once commissioned, will be a major breakthrough in nuclear power, producing
more fissile material than it consumes.
My final point is this: many critical
technologies cannot be bought at any price. No one will give us the technology
for jet engines for our fighters ; we must develop them ourselves. The Gas
Turbine Research Establishment in Bangalore has worked hard, progressing from
50 kN to 70 kN, but we need 100 kN to power next-generation fighters like the
Tejas. The Chinese, too, depended on Russian engines but are now developing
their own.
So, can Indians create technology for
India and the world? The answer, based on our history and present, is a
resounding yes. IT services, satellite launches, UPI, generic drugs, and the
fast breeder reactor are just a few examples. These are major technological
developments that nobody would simply give us. We had to, and will have to,
develop them ourselves.
Thank you.
