Vikaas
An insight into India’s progressive technology
Today we commemorate the 75th anniversary of India’s independence: ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’. As children of this great nation, we have gone a long way since we won our freedom, yet many of us are still unable to fully appreciate the struggles our freedom fighters endured to allow us to enjoy the freedom we are now so accustomed to.
Their heroic sacrifices and the amount of pain and hardships they have endured cannot be put into words, and this is what made them the lauded heroes they are today. As we remember and pay tribute to the past, we can’t help but wonder what we can do right now to contribute to our nation, honour their past sacrifice as well as a gift our future generations a comfortable life. As our Prime Minister has emphasized in previous addresses, the solution is clear: development. Our generation has a natural responsibility to defend the freedom granted to us and advance our nation. Enhancement in technology and computational programming are two important fronts we can invest in to achieve this objective in the current scenario.
It is fair to claim that one of the initial milestones where it all started was when we created our first generation mainframe computer. India was the first country in Asia to do so. The TIFR created the first three computer models in India between 1950 and 1970. The first model, the TIFRAC (TIFR Atomic Calculator), had 1 KB of RAM! It was followed by the Online Data Processor (OLDAP), and the third model was a rugged micro-programmed computer.
This was followed by TIFR’s specific programming courses for various organizations and the start of India’s journey into coding.
The PARAM 8000, considered the first Indigenous supercomputer, was developed from scratch in 1991 by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computers (C-DAC), under the direction of Dr Vijay Bhatkar. This was done in collaboration with ICAD, Moscow. India originally wanted to import a supercomputer from the US, but once restriction on its use was imposed, it decided to build its own. The supercomputer is used for high-speed computations for missile simulations, weather forecasting, space science and much more. It was also very helpful during the pandemic. Launched in 2015, the National Supercomputing Mission aims to produce 73 additional supercomputers by 2022. Today, India’s fastest supercomputer, the PARAM Siddhi AI, is ranked 63rd globally.
Over the years, we have seen great progress in IT service firms too. Tata Consultancy Services, founded by J.R.D. Tata in 1968, and Infosys, founded by N. R. Narayana Murthy in 1981, were both significant in our country’s development. Currently, these are not only highly appreciated on a global scale but also among the best worldwide. These businesses’ growth has aided our nation’s advancement in coding in both direct and indirect ways.
To pique the interest of young people, TCS organizes several coding-related events throughout the year in addition to an annual IT quiz: TCS ITWIZ. The TCS Code Vita, which was created to promote coding awareness, currently holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest coding competition ever. It also serves as a digital talent pool where businesses can identify potential hires.
Not only from a job standpoint but also in terms of improving the quality and effectiveness of government services to citizens, technology has been crucial to the growth of our nation. Because of this development, we may now obtain a passport in just two weeks as opposed to the initial need of at least six months. Not only passports but also Aadhar and Pan cards are now significantly easier to obtain and renew. The government also provides a service known as DigiLocker for citizens to safe keep their important documents. There are a lot of schemes introduced by the government with this agenda. India has been currently rated top in the world for digital payments thanks to the BHIM app, which was launched by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).
As a member of the Quad, India is taking the initiative to give its STEM scholars the greatest tools possible to inspire innovations and discoveries. With a focus on social impact, the Quad fellowship programme encourages graduate students in the STEM fields to pursue their interests in technology. It brings together bright graduate students from all four nations (25 from each) and connects them, providing them with a plethora of resources.
Another area of interest for India as part of the Quad is cybersecurity. As cyber threats and vulnerabilities continue to spread quickly, the Quad Cyber Security Partnership focuses on the need to enhance cybersecurity. As a part of this campaign, they will coordinate cybersecurity capacity-building activities and launch a new project called Quad Cybersecurity Day where they will assist individual users in defending themselves against a variety of online threats and weaknesses.
The government is also making significant efforts in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), big data, and robotics. Our finance minister stated in the 2019 Union Budget that the government would train around 10 million youths in our nation in industry-relevant skills related to AI, robots, and Big Data. The Indian government employs AI in a variety of applications, including biometrics and facial recognition. Another programme geared at government schools is Responsible AI for Youth, which aims to introduce young people to such new technologies at an earlier age to close the skill gap.
Owing to the Startup India movement, India is the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world and is currently home to 105 unicorns. Many of these were founded by tech aficionados and are built on or use a variety of cutting-edge tech stacks. Flipkart, BYJU’S, Zomato, and Oyo are among the most successful ones till now. Numerous start-ups are currently developing in our country, including many in the fields of data analysis and machine learning, web 3, and information security.
Flipkart is currently the most valuable start-up in India. This well-known Indian e-commerce startup was founded by two graduates of IIT Delhi. It made use of Hadoop, MySQL, and PHP technology stacks. Their software runs on UNIX platforms. Their entire technical setup and application itself explain why they are currently the most valuable start-up in India.
The government is also employing technology to empower the citizens. Technology plays a significant role in the government’s functioning today. through proper utilization of technology, the government aims to efficiently develop and provide vital resources for the development of it’s citizens. In recent years, the government has undertaken the following technology-related initiatives:
- One of the goals of the central government’s newly unveiled New Education Policy is to teach coding and robotics to students in the classroom to expose children to new technology at a younger age.
- The government has launched a widespread effort called the Smart India Hackathon to educate young people about the pressing issues that impact us all on a daily basis and to challenge them to develop creative solutions.
- As part of the Digital India initiative, the government is working on several programmes to utilise open source technology and expand access to high-quality education. Two examples of this are the Open Source Course Animation Repository (OSCAR) and the Free and Open Source Software in Education (FOSSEE), which assist in reducing reliance on proprietary systems and facilitate universal access to educational resources.
- With the help of technology, the NPTEL platform makes courses at multiple institutions accessible to everyone who wants to learn. In addition, it contains tools like video transcription, among many others, that help bridge the linguistic gap when it comes to resource availability in India.
Being a developing country, we have an insatiable appetite for learning and exploring. There are various fields where the application of new technology is being experimented with and discovered by us. The application of technology in fields like agriculture, defence and manufacturing is increasing manyfold. India is steadily climbing in its global innovation index and is ranked 46th globally (as of 2021).
As we move forward into the future, there is so much we can learn from the past and the people associated with it.
The country we live in today would not exist without the freedom fighters who not only fought for our independence but also worked to unite it. The fight was not won by a single person, but by a chain of events that began with social reformers, continued with early and late nationalists, and culminated with leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose redeeming the country to gain independence.
The country our freedom fighters freed was then passed on to individuals like researchers, democrats and entrepreneurs who helped India compete with the other nations and evolve into an indispensable asset to the world. Passing forward their fierce passion to protect, serve and advance our country, they formed a chain, which we as Indians are a part of.
Hence, with a goal to maintain the freedom we have attained and advance our nation toward becoming a developed one, we continue that chain today.
As we celebrate 75 years of India’s independence and consider how the country has advanced from having its first computer developed in the 1950s to being a nation where technology plays an indispensable role in its day-to-day functioning and whose citizens thrive in the field of technology, we can’t help but feel proud. On this momentous day, let us vow to fulfil our responsibilities as citizens, by carrying forward the fierce passion in our hearts and doing everything within our abilities to bring glory to our nation and ensure that our flag always flies high.
