Indian ex-IBMers reunite again in Mumbai after 40 years

It’s been 40 years since the American IT giant, IBM, closed down its operations in India in 1978. However, its legacy still lives on and is celebrated passionately with ex-employees — thanks to the efforts of K.R. Naik, Executive Chairman of Smartlink Holdings Ltd.

The 40-year reunion was organized by Naik, which was held at the plush JW Marriott, Sahar, in Mumbai. This initiative was started by L. H. Bhatia to celebrate the 25-year reunion at Beech Caffic, Versova in 2003, and the tradition has been carried with ex-IBM employees across India getting together to take a walk down memory lane after 30 and 35 years. This was the fourth reunion hosted by Naik for his ex-IBM colleagues and their families.

“It gives me great pleasure to host the 40-year reunion. It’s incredible that even after so many years; we share a strong bond and love for IBM. We’ve had a wonderful time reminiscing about the days that were and catching up with what everyone is currently doing,” commented Naik.

The reunion held on 28th April saw many ex-IBMers and their families travel to Mumbai from their respective hometowns post their departure from the Mumbai IMB office. They shared their beautiful and heartfelt moments together at the get-together. It was indeed commendable to see how their bond has remained strong despite the years and their respect for the culture of IBM — truly a one-of-a-kind event, which proceeded with fun, jokes, speeches, memories and live music followed by dinner and drinks.

1978, India: The end of IBM in India.

IBM India had an infamous exit in 1978 — thanks to George Fernandes, who was the industry minister in the Janata government at the time. He was known for pushing IBM out of the country over foreign exchange rules. While 1978 was the year of final wrap-up from the Indian shores for IBM, troubles for the tech giant had started way back in 1967. IBM was flourishing in the Indian market for nearly two decades since their entry into India way back in 1951. IBM India was facilitated by Jawaharlal Nehru himself.

The IBM exit.

The actual reason for the tech giant’s exit from India was the power struggle with the Indian government. IBM was soaring with a market share of a whopping 80 per cent at the time, where the company could dictate the industry's growth rate by deciding which products were meant for the Indian market. Troubles began when the Vikram Sarabhai-headed Electronics Committee wanted it to end IBM's business practice of bringing in old machines to India. The machines would be refurbished and leased out at inflated rates to government departments.

IBM wanted to grow in computer technology in India, but the system of lease and maintenance resulted in a culture of dependence and hindered the natural growth of engineering and programming skills among users.

Later, the department of electronics (DoE) was formed and wanted to command over the situation. Parliamentary investigation into IBM and ICL’s functioning provided further ammunition against the two multinational firms. And then came the big hammer — the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was the main reason for IBM's exit.

IBM ruled the computer industry space in India for nearly 25 years. This single ruling helped create a computer culture in India and paved the way for the introduction of computers on a large scale in the country. The company’s existence created a pool of highly trained computer professionals in systems engineering, programming and maintenance and IBM's training programmes which helped develop basic knowledge about programming.

The comeback.

IBM came back to India soon. Came 1980 and CMC was set up to maintain IBM computers in India, which was its first customer. IBM, in 1986, then sent a proposal to DoE to set up a software development and training institute in the country, and in 1989, IBM was soon supplying majority systems to the Aeronautical Development Agency. Finally, they returned back to India in 1992, after a two-year talk with the DoE, in collaboration with the Tatas.

Tata Information Systems Ltd became Tata IBM in 1992, which finally then became IBM India later in 1997, and today it is one of the largest employers in the private sector here.

The Ex-Employees of the original IBM India.

While there were around 150 employees from the Indian multinational company at the time of the exit, many were taken aback with the instantaneous decision by the Indian Government and IBM to shut shop. Many were left out with almost nowhere to go. Many were trained professionals and the job market for this profession was scarce at the time.

Soon, some employees headed back to their hometown in search of new jobs. While some were lucky to find some job ahead, others ventured into businesses. Today, most have crossed the age of 80, still, meet and yet praise and talk about the culture of work they adopted by the multinational company the during the earlier days. They still remember and discuss the way they used to work, communicate,   While a few have passed away Many still love today

One such ex-employee was Kamlaksha Rama Naik, who later joined ORG System Ltd after being laid-off from IBM, where he was part of a 6-member team to build line printers that would print 1000+lines per minute. Later in 1984, he founded Virtual Computer Pvt Ltd, which was amongst the first in India to import a wave-soldering machine for PCB manufacturing in India. He later entered into networking products as a distributor for D-Link, only to start his own networking products as a joint venture with D-Link. Today, he is the Executive Chairman for Smartlink Network Systems Ltd, which is well-known for its networking products under the brand such as Digisol.

With inputs from Mail Today.