The year 2002 that we are about to say “Good Bye” to is indeed a very special year. IT professionals & IT companies would like to forget it as one of the worst years they had ever seen. If you are mathematically oriented you would realize that “2002” is a Palindrome (a word that reads the same backward or forward). It is also the last “palindromic” year that most of us would live to see (the next one being 2112). We are also lucky to have witnessed two “palindromic” years, namely 1991 and 2002 in our life time; the last such generation was the one that lived through the years 999 to 1001; the next generation would live through the years 2992 to 3003! It is an interesting programming assignment for students to write programs to check for palindromes; more interesting is to write programs that generate palindromes like “A man, a plan a canal, Panama”; still more interesting is to beat the longest known palindromic sentence (the last one was made just in the third week of December 2002!) 

What was the year 2002 like for an IT in general? Let me give you a quick snapshot 

On the technology front, we saw Samsung releasing 1 Gigabit Flash memory chip; Intel launched its 3+ GHz Pentium processor; though semiconductor industry was in trouble, TI saw unabated growth of its DSP chip - its TMS320X alone garnering nearly a billion dollar! Wireless Ethernet was hot; the 802.11a / b getting wider acceptance & IEEE accepting the new 802.11g Standard; WiFi (IEEE 802.11b Wireless Ethernet) deployment was like a wild fire; even in India, the Government of India de-licensed the 2.4 GHz spectrum paving the way for widespread WiFi adoption. FCC approved Ultra-wide Band (3.1 GHz and above). Flat Panel costs dramatically came down, leading to Flat Monitors everywhere (in developed markets). CDMA seems to be winning over GSM in some markets. Web Services continues to be hot, with IBM, Microsoft & Sun clamoring for the top slot. 

On the products front, Microsoft launched Xbox gaming console (that is still struggling to upstage Sony PlayStation, though gaining ground steadily); other Microsoft launches include Tablet PC and Mira. Apple launched its new iMac & iPod (Digital Walkman) - true marvels in design. Handspring CEO Jeff Hawkins (Palm Pilot inventor) launched Treo (A digital 3-in-1 multi-function device with Mobile Phone, Organizer & Net Browser functions). HP & Microsoft launched their Media Center PC to address the home entertainment market. Our own Simputer went into production in November. TVSE launched “Proton”, an unusual dot matrix printer designed for the Indian rural markets. Mike Robertson of MP3 fame launched Lindows (Linux o/s that can run Windows programs); during Christmas season Wal-Mart stores in USA were selling Lindows PC for $ 199! Microsoft launched the programming language c# (and continued its .Net push). In the database segment IBM DB2 upstaged Oracle from the leadership held by Oracle for years. 

A number of milestones were crossed. The billionth PC shipped in April. China (with 121 Million mobile phones) became the No 1 country in terms of cellular phones in early 2002. India too is about to cross the 10 Million mark in cellular phone by December. Radio completes 100 years, microprocessors 30 years, PC 20 years and Linux, IBM ThinkPad & SMS complete 10 years in this year! Digitization is real - DVD sales globally overtook that of VCR sales (with cheap models for $ 38!)! Digital cameras start to outsell analogue cameras, in some segments. HP introduces cameras. Printers become direct (can print direct from scanner / camera without needing a PC). Microsoft seems to have won the anti-trust case in November (and yet losing on Java front in December!). Indian software industry crosses the $ 10 Billion mark. 

Interesting applications are surfacing too. ERP / SCM / CRM are getting hot with a focus on Small & Medium Enterprises (SME). Even SAP & Siebel are focusing on the “small guys”; with the acquisition of Navision & Great Plains Software, Microsoft too is eyeing this market. Google launches a fully automated News service (even acquires Inktomi in December). Closer home, Bhoomi (Land record computerization) from Karnataka sets a new record in generating revenue in addition to benefits for millions of farmers; several State Governments are planning to deploy Bhoomi in their own states. Provident Fund is getting re-invented; most banks, including Public Sector banks let you do Internet banking. E-Governance and SMART Governance continue to be the rage in India. 

The Telecom scene had lots of bad news globally; with WorldCom (largest Internet traffic carrier) and FLAG (under-sea cable) declaring bankruptcy. Most countries skipped 3G deployment and most telecom companies are still under deep problems. VoIP (Voice over IP) and Wireless Networks are hot. Indian telecom is different though! With private sector entry in national & International long distance, phone tariff reduced by 60% in August! With private players getting into Basic Telephony, BSNL services improve dramatically. The country switches over to 10-digit Numbering Plan.  VoiP becomes legal in India in April; Wireless spectrum (2.4 GHz) gets de-licensed in October. Government launches GSS (Grammen Sanchar Sewak) with a Postman “taking” the mobile into every rural home. In December end, Reliance Infocom launched its “World in Your Hand” CDMA-based “Limited Mobility” phones aggressively (with a 6-Million order Samsung decided to co-brand their handsets with Reliance); it is set to storm the Indian telecom scene.  

Indian IT scene continues to be interesting.  

Indian IT companies continue their excellence. Infosys manages to grow at 30%; upstages EDS in market capitalization in October! Several Indian companies are going to places and growing aggressively – Wipro acquires the IT arm of Erickson’s Indian R & D unit; Cognizant acquires the IT arm of American Express Travel Services unit from Sliverline; InfoTech acquires several GIS companies in USA; Lehman brothers’ prestigious $ 70 Million project lands in the lap of Wipro & TCS (over the next 10 years this project alone can translate to $ 1 Billion). TI, Motorola, Mentor Graphics, Cadence and the Indian companies Wipro, Sasken & Ittiam are strengthening India’s position in the Design Services space. Pramati in Hyderabad reaches the front page of JavaPro Magazine.  

ITES (IT-Enabled Services) is hot with Call Centers coming up all over. Threatened by Indian companies, New Jersey State even passed legislation in December stopping the flow of jobs to India (from Government projects)! Call Center companies set new benchmarks in quality AND quantity; many are COPS certified (like SEI CMM Level 5 in software); at least one company 24X7 Customer logs million calls/month in May.  

Hardware is getting some attention too; Karnataka is planning a Hardware Technology Park; Pondichery manages to produce hardware worth Rs 3,000 Crores! Buoyed by the sudden growth of ATM’s, NCR starts ATM production in India (about 5,000 per year).  

Chinese threat is taken seriously by the Indian IT companies; Chinese Premier approving Infosys request across the board is followed up by Zensar, TCS & Cognizant setting up operations in China. Wipro decides to sell switches made by Chinese firm Huawei. Globalization leads to Indian companies Infosys & Wipro launching German, French, and Japanese sites; they induct US / Japanese professors on Board; TCS buys out VSNL & CMS; becomes a Billion Dollar company; TCS, Infosys & Wipro cross the 10,000 mark in size; TCS expects to become 25,000 strong soon! 

India attracted $ 1.4 Billion VC funds in the year 2002 (exceeding VC funds in China). Indian companies get acquired by world IT majors.  Nokia acquires Amber Networks; Philips acquires Ishoni; Cisco acquires Andiamo. 

The Indian arms of MNC’ IT companies continue to scale new heights. Microsoft is investing $ 400 Million, Honeywell $ 50 Million, Mentor Graphics $ 50 Million etc.,. Motorola & SAP are busy building their own Campuses in Bangalore; Oracle & Intel (in Bangalore) and Adobe (in NOIDA, Delhi) launched their state-of-the-art buildings in India. Samsung decides to make India, their 5^th R & D base.

IDC (India Development Centers) are at the center-stage of their headquarters. Outlook XP connector for Lotus Domino, J#, and, Windows Services for Unix come out of Microsoft India Development Center. Some key technologies for Intel come from its Bangalore center. HP Labs got inaugurated in March. SONY Architecture group in Bangalore contributes to AIBO Robotic Dog product. 

The Governments are not behind; Government of India merged IT & Communications ministries; manages to privatize VSNL; de-licenses WiFi; makes VoIP legal; enables Interconnect across ISPs; hands over the 4^th License for Cellular phones; grants long-distance & International licenses; most importantly, supports Bhoomi type projects. E-Governance is taking some concrete shape. Security Certification Authority is in place. Satyam, TCS & IDRBT get their licenses. Several State Governments (including Kerala & West Bengal) announce a Policy for ITES & BT. Media Lab Asia project takes off with ambitious plans to bridge the Digital Divide. Karnataka Government too does its part by building the IT Park and iiit-b campus in the small town Hubli. 

On the people front legendary HP goes out of family hands (Hewlett & Packard families) to Carly Fiorina; IBM CEO Louis Gertsner gives way to Sam Palmisano; our own Infosys sees Nandan Nilekani taking over as CEO with Narayana Murthy becoming Chief Mentor. Several CEOs visit India in the year. This includes Bill Gates (Microsoft), Craig Barrett (Intel), Kurt Helstrom (Ericsson), Mike Dell (Dell Computers), Heinrich Pierer (Siemens), David Cote (Honeywell), and Engibous (Texas Instruments); the Chinese Premier Zhu Rhongi visited India too! MIT Chancellor Philip Clay visits India in November. Indians making the news include Sanjiv Kumar taking over as Chairman, Computer Associates; Ramadorai of TCS becoming the Asia’s Businessman of the Year; Ashok Soota of Mindtree becoming CII President. IIT Kanpur team did India proud by a neat scheme for “primality checking” that got universal acclaim for its elegance. The most dramatic of course is the news of IT-savvy scientist Abdul Kalam becoming the President of India, setting in place an unusual precedent!

On the infrastructure front, we had i2i (underwater fiber optic cable) between India & Singapore getting inaugurated by the Prime Minister in June 2002 (sadly enough yet to be commissioned in December 2002). The overall bandwidth increased from hundreds of megabits to several dozens of gigabits. SAFE finally cable landed in Cochin; ITPL Building in Bangalore (that houses iiit-b too) joins the World Teleport Property, signaling “best connectivity”! 

On the corporate sector there has been a number of setbacks (and kickbacks too); WorldCom, the No 1 Internet traffic carrier, getting involved in corporate fraud declares bankruptcy; the other two (of the Top 3) are in bad shape; Napster shuts down operations; Exodus (founded by our own Chandrasekar & Jagadeesh) is taken over by Cable & Wireless after going bankrupt; our own Indya (Microland founder Pradip Kar’s pet project) folds up; CalTiger becomes a pussy cat! (customer base dropping from 5 million free Internet dial-up customers to 17,000 paid customers); Wipro NetKracker is sold off to Satyam; EFI acquires UniMobile with operations in 100+ countries for a pittance ($ 2.5 Million).  

The merger mania saw HP & Compaq merging to become $ 80 Billion company – a close second to the Big Blue (IBM). HP stops selling printers through Dell; Dell in turn starts selling Apple iPod, Lexmark printers and starts its own PDA. IBM acquires PriceWaterhouseCoopers Consulting for $ 3.5 Billion & Rational Software for $ 2.1 Billion. In India too, we had ICICIOneSource gobbling up CustomerAsset for $ 30 Million; Wipro acquires SpectraMind. Infosys acquires IQ Financials in USA. Polaris acquires Orbit in May to become a Rs 1,000 Crore company (gets battered with the unfortunate arrest of its CEO in December in Indonesia).

Microsoft becomes the No 1 company (in terms of market capitalization) pushing GE, the long time giant behind; Infosys beats EDS (world’s second largest IT services company) in November in market capitalization. iFlex & Bharti manage IPO after a long gap for any interesting Initial Public Offering.  

Finally, it was a proud day for all of us in Karnataka – a huge cutout with the map of Karnataka was sitting on the top of NASDAQ Building in New York in September! 

Let me wish you all a very Happy New Year 2003!