February 16, 1998

Young Indian computer programmers are carving a niche for themselves in the software segment with a flurry of innovative applications and programmes.

By Binoo K John with Stephen David and Nandita Chowdhury

An Ansel Adams landscape with its stark black and white contours hangs in the corridor. Beyond, there are 10 cubicles where programme writers are hunched over their keyboards. Only the click of the mouse disturbs the silence of the Connaught Place office of 29-year-old Hemant Sharma's Trisoft Design. Here in Delhi, some of the most competitive applications for Internet services, with as mighty a sweep as an Adams landscape, are being created.

Creating new computer applications is nothing new for Sharma. In the two years he spent at Microsoft in Redmond, US, from 1991, he was part of the team that helped design the Visual Basic applications that are used in the help functions of Windows 95. "I always liked creating. Starting my own company I thought was the best way to go about it," says Sharma, who was Microsoft's youngest technical director in India before he launched Trisoft Design a year ago. He is on the verge of launching a programme called Sight -- a unique marketing system for website designers.

Sharma is one of the many hundreds of highly proficient, number-crunching, fingers-on-the-mouse Indian cyber-engineers interacting with the rest of their far-flung universe and stretching the dimensions of cyberworld with attractive user-friendly applications. NASSCOM, the industry's apex body, estimates that there are more than 200 companies in India -- some running out of garages -- which are working on a spectrum of innovation activities that can be used in low technology maintenance work to high technology interfaces for various applications ranging from telecom to multimedia. "My company is planning to put Indian talent in global company," says Ashok Tyagi, president of Delhi-based Network Programs, which was set up two years ago.

The high demand for Indian software engineers abroad and the mushrooming of software companies in India -- projected turnover of Rs 10,600 crore in 1997-98 (up from Rs 6,300 crore) -- are clear indications that they are already supping with global giants. The latest indication of Indian software prowess came when Bill Gates bought Hotmail, an e-mail service started by US-based Indian engineer Sabeer Bhatia. "Be it high-end consulting and services like project management or specialised programming like communications, Indian companies and individual engineers are slowly making a mark," says Tilak Sarkar, CEO of Aworld, a firm which runs online services. Tyagi's Network Programs, for instance, employs about 200 programmers. His company, which is the affiliate of a US firm, not only writes programmes for global companies but is developing operating support systems and business support systems for telecommunications giants. Also being conceptualised by Network is a directory enquiry system by which a phone number anywhere in the world can be accessed through a personal computer.

Indian software majors such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and to a certain extent C-Dot have obviously helped in building a pool of expertise in the country. While TCS' competency is well-known, the successful programme operations by a number of smaller technopark-based companies are becoming pivotal to the industry in India.

Interactive programmes are proving to be a major strength of Indian companies. At least two companies are launching home-video applications. Bangalore-based Gray Cell is developing a programme for the integration of different types of media-voice and e-mail with paging devices. Though a similar programme exists, Gray Cell hopes to add other crucial components to the applications. "Our goal is to achieve a seamless integration of information and communications systems and e-page is a step in that direction," says T.S. Rajesh, the 27-year-old CEO of Gray Cell. Recently, Gray Cell joined hands with Motorola and Arya Communications to launch Hotline Paging. The application allows e-page users to send and receive messages from the Internet and e-mail directly to pagers from any part of the world within minutes.

With salaries in the sector burgeoning, many Indian software engineers who have jobs in the US are returning to India to set up their own companies or to work for the biggies. Rajiv Gupta, who graduated from bits, Pilani, and did his masters from Syracuse University in the US, finds more satisfaction working for a company like Network, where he is head of a team that conceptualises telecom support systems. He can't be blamed if he does not find time to play enough cricket with the office team for he has to manage multi-site projects in which engineers in many sites around the world develop programmes by interacting with each other. Trisoft's Sharma too has no regrets at having left Microsoft to return to India.

The potential in computers and the arrival of the Internet have resulted in a change of mindset which is quite crucial: compete with global companies, and perhaps beat them at their own game. Whether it is programmes for video-on-demand applications which digitalise the video or development of other high-technology interfaces, Indian software majors like Infosys, Wipro Global, LG group and other lesser companies have their hands full.

With the world at their fingertips, it isn't surprising that life is a huge never-ending whirl for these young entrepreneurs. Work is never-ending and mathematical equations pop up in their dreams.

"There is no nine-to-five or five-to- nine here. After I get home from work and have dinner I'll still be thinking about work. I work even in my sleep," says 30-year-old Neville Bulsara, CEO of the Mumbai-based N&N Systems and Software. Bulsara, who started developing anti-virus software in 1988, now has 50 engineers working for him. His company has developed security kits like the popular Bulsara's Red Alert and Word Alert specifically for macro viruses and programmes such as Dr Solomon's Mail Guard, which guards e-mail systems. N&N Systems also offers comprehensive anti-virus protection on dos, Windows 95 and Windows NT.

Identifying and killing viruses are as creative as architecturing a new programme. It is tough too but has universal applications and marketing possibilities. "Viruses do not have passports, nor do they require visas to travel as fast as they do," says Bulsara. In other words, they have obliterated boundaries. Like the young Indian technobrats.

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