FROM 1980 TO 2047 TIME LAPSE FROM NIIT'S LENS

A throwback-look at NIIT's journey is also a peek into India's evolution in the genes of IT, talent and business models. This timeline is a book of IT and Talent, with every decade inking a new chapter. Let's turn this photo album.

- Pratima H

NIIT was not just a pioneer of a new industry. It was also a welcome disruption in many facets of talent building - marking new career paths and business levers. And it's a story that started decades back. In an exhaustive video interview, Dataquest Editor Sunil Rajguru dwelt on the many talent layers with the legend himself-Rajendra S Pawar, Chairman and CoFounder, NIIT Group.

He first shared how NIIT shook up the story of talent and skills in India right from the 1980s. Rajguru rightly asked about Liberalization, Y2K and the Internet-so many changes in the 1990s. So, what was that era like?

TURN OF THE CENTURY SLOW MOTION ARRIVAL OF IT

Those were fantastic decades, Pawar reminisced. "When we launched NIIT, it was like an idea whose time had become. It was born at time-important in the history of computers and IT. We had seen companies being set up. It was clear to us that while computers were manufactured in India, the constraint was on the people side. Our mission was to bring people and computers together. The 1980s were full of action and innovation in all forms. Like multimedia education. We made it a point that we were in the business of learning-not a commercially-dominant player. We launched programmes in computer training. We created network models. We hit 200 centres in 40 countries."

The genesis of this revolution was the coming of IT renaissance-and NIIT played a role in learning, content and talent aspects of it. With the 1990s, Liberalization came. With Y2K, the dotcom bubble also began. "It was a time when we built the first virtual university-a little ahead of time. We were pushing innovation so early on." He reflected upon some seismic shifts that happened in those years.