Reaching the Masses

The rain gods played spoilsport. The AC stopped functioning. So were

people deterred from attending the 33rd annual convention of the Computer Society of India

(CSI)? Not really. The convention drew about 800 delegates to participate in the

pre-conference tutorials, keynote addresses, lectures, and technology presentations which

were held at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi during 16-20 September. And about

20,000 people from different walks of life converged at the three day-long CSI exhibition

at Indira Gandhi International Stadium in New Delhi to check out the offerings of over 60

companies.

CSI is a non-profit body with over 15,000 members which meets every

year to share views, concerns, and information in the IT field. The idea this time was to

focus on business needs and technology requirements of the emerging generation. "IT

for the New Generation" being the theme this time.

The CSI forum holds significance this time as it was held during a

crucial phase of developments on IT front in India. The IT Task Force has recently

outlined a connected India in which IT has been acknowledged as the enabler which will

make India a global economic power. It is understood that to realize the vision outlined

by the Task Force needs a well-coordinated effort by the vendors and the different IT

organizations, apart from the government’s role as a policy framer. The effort on the

part of CSI was to bridge the gap between the IT vendors and the users.

Looking from the convention point of view, CSI was an interesting mix

of topics like IT applications, networking, E-commerce, software tools, artificial

intelligence, and human computer interaction. The plenary sessions had some interesting

speakers. Pramode K Verma, managing director, business development, customer care

solutions, Lucent Technologies, speaking on the convergence of computers, communication,

and business; and Prof. V Rajaraman, IBM research professor of IT, supercomputer education

and research centre, IISc, Bangalore sharing his view on the emerging trends in

supercomputing. These and several other discussions were aptly rounded off by a

thought-provoking panel discussion which had three prominent bureaucrats in Ravindra

Gupta, Sudhindra Kulkarni, and AV Gokak, two industrial captains in Som Mittal and RS

Pawar, and a social worker in Bunker Roy on the panels. And the discussion was led by

mediaman Karan Thapar. The panelist set the tone outlining some objectives for India to

become a global IT superpower in the next few years. In the ensuing discussion, the top IT

bosses agreed that government regulations were the greatest threat to the growth of IT in

the country. While the government must create a conducive environment for IT growth, India

can become an IT power only through a concerted effort among the government, industry, and

society.

The CSI exhibition on the other hand was inaugurated by Krishan Kant,

the vice-president of India. The number of visitors clearly indicated the level of

interest that IT is generating among both professionals and young minds. Though the three

day exhibition saw quite some hitches—the AC conking out in parts of the exhibition

area, knee-deep rainwater keeping out visitors from entering the premises of the

stadium—the 20,000-odd visitors who braved both heat and rain to be there showed an

encouraging level of interest among the public. The exhibition as such was a cornucopia of

IT products, cutting-edge technologies, and up-to-date services. Though the venue for the

exhibition left much to be desired, judging the CSI ’98 convention by the response,

the tutorials and conferences were well organized. It safely was a success. But, as put

beautifully by one of the panelists Bunker Roy, "We cannot continue keeping

technology in the hands of a few in the cities. To be an economic superpower, technology

has to be demystified and percolated down to the mass in the towns and villages of India.

We are nowhere that today." While it is encouraging to see wide representation in the

convention from speakers from as far as Kerala, Karnataka, Meerut, Pondichery, Hardwar,

Darjeeling, Gwalior, Srinagar, and Rourkela, CSI has to go a long way to take IT to the

grassroots.