BHARAT DARSHAN – INDIA’S FIRST COMPUTER
I am pleased to share a very brief story about development of Computer Technology in India and use this opportunity to pay my very respectful tribute to Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha who provided leadership in developing India’s capability in Nuclear Science, Electronics Technology, and a variety of allied fields. Under Dr. Bhabha’s eminent leadership, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) added Computer Section as part of its Electronics Instrumentation Group by 1955.
Professor PVS Rao shared with me the story about designing and building India’s first electronic, and digital computer by a team headed by Professor. R. Narasimhan at TIFR’s Electronics Instrumentation Group. The building of India’s first computer is a very significant milestone in India’s development in the field of Electronics to make the country self-reliant. The team initiated work during 1955 putting together several tens of thousands of individual components such as resistors, capacitors, vacuum tubes, and making wire connections. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru visited TIFR during 1960 and named the computer as ‘Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator(TIFRAC).
At TIFR, under Director Professor. B V Sreekantan, a team headed by Professor PVS Rao developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System(Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES) under a plan initiated by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi who insisted upon India’s self-reliance in this aspect of using technology to defend India. In this monumental task, 50 scientists, engineers and 70 Air Force Officers worked together. While TIFR played the lead role, work was carried out by Bhabha Atomic Research Center(BARC), Air Force Simulation Center, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd(ECIL), Electronics and Radar Development Establishment(LRDE), and Tata Electric Companies(TEC). I am pleased to post some photo images of events at TIFR associated with development of India’s Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES.
I am pleased to add a few photo images of staff members who worked at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research(TIFR) as part of a team that developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System(Air Defence Ground Environment System or ADGES). My hearty congratulations to Professor PVS Rao and all others who developed India’s Air Defence Data Handling System ‘ADGES’ at TIFR.
At Bhavanajagat.Org, I define Life as Knowledge in Action. The essence of life is about using information in performance of living functions. Human organism is a complex system that receives information, processes information, stores information, retrieves information to perform guided, goal-oriented, purposive, sequential actions. Even if spend my lifetime, I will not be able to list all the functions my human body performs to keep me alive. I appreciate the development of Computer Technology for it helps us to use and handle information with great efficiency.
Rudranarasimham Rebbapragada
Bharat Darshan-Air Defence of India-ADGES Project2
Bharat Darshan-TIFRAC – Bhabha centenary paper2009
