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The present-day Internet is powered by Indians: Arun Netravali

Kanchana Suggu in Bombay

One look at Padma Bhushan Arun Netravali, president, Bell Laboratories, and it is hard to believe that 30 years back, this very visionary would bunk classes at Elphinstone College in Bombay just to have bhel puri and kadak chai at Marine Lines in Bombay.

Today, Netravali is proud that Indians have made it big in the information technology industry. "Twelve per cent of scientists in the US are Indians. Indian engineers constitute 30 per cent of the total workforce in technology companies. Thirty per cent of Internet software is written by Indians and approximately 1000 CEOs of companies in America are Indians."

"Al Gore may have claimed to invent the Internet," he said. "But truth is that it is powered by Indians," Netravali stressed.

While projecting the future scenario he pointed out that there will be about 700 million phone lines in the next 15-20 years with 630,000 adding up just next week. Also, the number of wireless subscribers will touch 1 billion by 2005.

He also stated that there would be multiple technologies to provide high-speed access over the last mile mainly through cable modem, fibre-to-home, multiple antennas, ADSL and wireless.

Recognising the competition that countries like China and Russia pose in the offshore solutions space, he said, "We should work harder to keep our globally recognised top position in the competitive markets by cashing in on new emerging areas."

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