Electronics and Computing: Experiments in Government Entrepreneurship

In late 1960s and 1970s, electronics was an emerging sector of technology development and industrial production. It was seen as a sunrise industry, with potential applications of electronics in varied sectors such as defence, atomic energy, entertainment, communication and education. All these factors attracted the governments, policy makers and Indian industry to this field. The government’s entry into electronics and computing sectors was driven by the desire to achieve self reliance, ending multinational monopoly and dependence on imports. In the run up to the formation of the Department of Electronics and soon afterwards, scientists and technocrats took upon themselves the task of setting up an electronics industry. They started looking for opportunities in R & D, design, production, export and import. Electronics was considered strategic—on par with space and atomic energy, so they strived for national control over it. This gave rise to the phenomenon of ‘government entrepreneurship’, whereby scientific departments planned commercial ventures for production of components, computers and software. Several ventures were conceived at ISI, TIFR, DAE and DoE under Mahalanobis, Bhabha, Sarabahi and M G K Menon. Most of them failed for lack of business and market orientation. The ones that took shape helped India develop certain capabilities and manpower in advanced areas of R & D and production. This helped created nuclei to human capital and expertise that eventually helped the private sector in seeding the software revolution in the decades that followed.