Early days of Computer Research and Development in India

Now that more than sixty-five years have elapsed after the seed was sown by Dr. Homi Bhabha in a small shared room in the Old Yacht Club premises of TIFR, this is a good time to reminisce and review the initial phases of development of Computer Science and Technology in India. Much as TIFR fulfilled Dr Bhabha's goal of being the cradle for development of Nuclear Technology in India, the Computer Division of the Electronics Instrumentation Group (later called the computer Group, the Computer Systems and Communications Group and the Computer Center) functioned as the nursery where a vast majority of IT activities in India (Pure Science, Technology, Applications, Commercialization and National Defence) were germinated, grown, incubated and successfully transplanted to other well known national centres. The research, technology and practical aspects of this evolution will be briefly covered in this talk.