Shammi Kapoor, Undersea Cables and IT

This blog is based on two interesting titbits from Harish Mehta’s The Maverick Effect.

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A surprising cameo in the NASSCOM story is the actor, Shammi Kapoor. Even though he was in his 70’s, he was connecting to the Internet (long before the Internet took off in India) to access world news.

“He was an Internet enthusiast with an incredibly curious mind. He took to new technologies like a fish to water.”

NASSCOM tried to enlist him to pitch the benefits of the Internet in India to bureaucrats and policy makers in government. He agreed to do it. For free. His celebrity status was a big attraction. He spoke passionately of the world it could open up, how he connected to his kids abroad via the Internet.

“His personality and presentation skills helped us communicate the potential of the Internet to even bureaucrats.”

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In the 80’s and 90’s, there was the huge problem of terribly slow data links from the West to India. Even the laughably slow 64 kbps link could not be guaranteed back then. An industry request to the government to create a dedicated one was rejected because, well, such links had to be paid for in forex, something India barely had.

 

For the IT industry, the alternative - transferring files in floppies and hard-disks - was painfully slow. When VSNL built earth stations to exchange data via the satellite network, it improved speed but it came with poor reliability.

 

When an undersea cable route was being laid the next time around, NASSCOM lobbied the government to pay $110 million to the international conglomerate so Indian companies could use it. But even that amount was huge, esp. because it had to be paid for in precious forex. VSNL’s chairman, BK Syngal, played a key role in persuading the government to do it anyway. It also helped that the international cable consortium was willing to be paid in instalments, which meant Indian companies could use it first, make forex, and then use that forex to pay for their usage. The consortium probably felt India’s software potential and unmet demand was worth the risk. Fast forward to present day, and as the pic shows, there is no shortage of undersea cables to/from India for connectivity.


 “Roti, kapda, makaan aur bandwidth” became NASSCOM’s line to the government!

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