SME Times News Bureau | 15 Dec, 2021
India
has added nearly 40 unicorns in the last 50 weeks in the Startup world
, said, Ajay Prakash Sawhney in an event on Tuesday.
Speaking at
the unveiling of book titled ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology’, he said that today if we see
Indians as CEOs of the world’s top most IT and Software corporates, the
foundations were laid in these last 30 years by people like Mr Oberoi.
He said that India has added nearly 40 unicorns in the last 50 weeks in
the Startup world and this too is an outcome of those foundational
years.
Sawhney
further added, “Today, we take India’s huge presence in software for
granted. In 1987, India’s CAGR in software exports was Rs 51 crores and
today, it is 5 lakh crores. It represents CAGR of over 35% year on year
for more than 30 years. We have seen the 25 years of MeitY and I think
it is important we set our eyes on the next 10-25 years and see where it
takes us.”
The
book- ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry of Electronics and
Information Technology’, narrating the first 25 years of MeitY, is
authored by Shri S.S. Oberoi, the former adviser at the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Other
dignitaries like KV Ramani, Chancellor Sai University; Harish
Mehta, Founder Onward Technologies; Ashank Desai, Founder Mastek; Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman Indian Angel Network; Dr.Omkar Rai,
Director General, STPI, and Dr. B.M. Baveja, Ex-Group Coordinator &
Director, MeitY also joined the unveiling through video conferencing.
Pradeep Gupta, Chairman, CyberMedia Group, who helped publish the
book was also present at the launch.
In
the words of S.S. Oberoi, ‘Rewinding of First 25 years of Ministry
of Electronics and Information Technology’ is “not just a book, but a
narration” of how things used to happen at the DoE.
“I have tried to be
honest in my book and have not criticised anyone," he said.
S. S. Oberoi is a retired adviser, Government of India, Department of
Electronics (DoE). He has a B.Sc. from Agra University and did his
Postgraduate Diploma from the Madras Institute of Technology, Madras, in
Electronics Engineering.
He
promoted software export through satellite link and oversaw the trial
run of the first Software Technology Park of Texas Instrument, Software
Technological Park, Bangalore. He helped resolve issues related to DOT,
Custom and Security. He established and was the chairman of the first
three Software Technological Parks in India, in Bangalore, Pune and
Bhubaneswar.
He
coordinated the Super Computer Program of the Government and was on the
Governing Council of C-DAC. He represented India in the World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in the early 1980s, when, for
the first time, the protection of software was deliberated at the
international platform.
He
was also a member of their Working Group on technical questions
relating to the legal protection of computer software and attended
meetings at Geneva and Canberra.
He was on the board of various public
sector units that were related to Electronics and Information Technology
and was a member of governing councils of STPI, C-DAC and DOEACC. He
was also the national project director of UNDP project ERNET, CAD, CAM,
and the fifth-generation computers.
