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The architect of Cyberabad
A key figure in the development of the IT industry
in many southern states, J A Chowdary is best known as the architect
of STPI Hyderabad. Srinivasa Rao Dasari talks to the man who still
has a few unrealised ambitions
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| J A Chowdary, former development commissioner
and chairman of the board of STPI, Hyderabad and Chennai |
Jakkampudi Adisheshaiah Chowdary, popularly known
as J A Chowdary or just J A, is one of the pioneering figures of
the IT revolution that took place in Andhra Pradesh during the 90s.
He was instrumental in setting up STPI, Hyderabad and selecting
the place for the Hyderabad Information Technology and Engineering
Consultancy (Hitec City) project. He also played a vital role in
conceptualising and setting up the International Institute of Information
Techn-ology (IIIT) in Hyderabad. Chowdary has played an important
role in the development of the IT industry in southern states like
Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in his capacity as the
development commissioner and chairman of the board of STPI for Hyderabad
and Chennai.
Chowdary had been an advisor to the state government
in implementing e-governance pr-ojects that made AP a frontrunner
in the country. After making AP a favourable destination for global
IT majors, there was hardly any challenging task left for Chowdary
at STPI-H. He then opted for a challenging management career in
the corporate IT sector with an objective of running an IT product
company successfully from the state. The Hyderabad Mana-gement Association
(HMA) felicitated Chowdary with the Silver Jubilee Award for his
remarkable contribution to the growth of the Indian software industry.
The Hyderabad Software Exporters’ Association (Hysea) also
presented him a special award.
The early years
After completing his MSc (Electronics), Chowdary
started his career as a lecturer in Guthi Government College in
Ana-nthapur district. Bored with the teaching job, he quit it and
joined electronics research projects. His drive for challenging
tasks made him quit this job also. Chowdary then joined Indian Space
Research Org-anisation (ISRO), which he considers as the first break
in the career.
Careerscape
On account of family reasons, Chowdary wanted
to shift to Hyderabad. He joined BHEL (R&D division), which
sponsored his MTech programme at IIT (Chennai). He got a meritorious
invention award from National Research and Development Corporation
(NRDC) for his creative work on micro processor-based online pollution
monitoring system that gave him the first public recognition in
his career.
He then joined the Depart-ment of Electronics
(DoE), now ministry of IT, as a deputy director and worked on quality
software assessments. When the STPI scheme was evolved in 1988,
he was the first employee and posted at Bangalore to monitor Texas
Instrument’s STPI unit there. Chowdary became the first founding
director of STPI-B in 1989. He was instrumental in framing the rules
and regulations of STPI. After the success of Texas Instruments,
many MNCs started coming to Bangalore. He gained a lot of recognition.
Unfortunately he lost his wife, who died of brain haemorrhage, and
that made him change the place.
From Hyderabad to Cyberabad
Chowdary returned to Hyderabad as director of
the Hyderabad centre of STPI (STPI-H), which was set up in 1991-92.
Chowdary identified the place for STPI-H at Mytrivanam in Ameerpet.
This has turned out to be the first ‘Silicon Valley’ of
Hyderabad and paved the way for creation of the Hitec City project.
During the early days of STPI-H, Chowdary played
a crucial role in convincing the state government about the potential
of IT in the city. As a result, the state government allocated land
for the satellite earth station, which was considered to be the
first breakthrough in terms of IT infrastructure.
“The recognition came in three phases over
a period of time. Initially, local entrepreneurs showed interest
in setting up business units in the IT sector. Then gradually NRIs
started coming to Hyderabad. Later this trend attracted MNCs to
set up their shop here to take advantage of the low cost of manpower
and IT infrastructure. In those days, we faced three problems—lack
of global-standard IT infrastructure, no high-speed data communication,
and no single window system. STPI-H has successfully come out with
suitable solutions for these challenges. The lack of global-standard
quality manpower led to the creation of IIIT. Many international
airlines were not interested in operating services to Hyderabad.
With the help of the state government, we lobbied with the Centre
to get international airlines to Hyderabad. This helped in attracting
a number of MNCs to set up their units,” says Chowdary, recalling
the first phase of the IT revolution in AP.
The low cost of living, global standard IT infrastructure,
higher level of loyalty among IT professionals, and an industry-friendly
state government helped STPI-H register more than 100 percent growth
rate for several years.
Unfulfilled task
Chowdary had an unfulfilled dream during his
stint at STPI-H. He wanted to see more high-value service companies
and products from the state. After setting up a comprehensive IT
infrastructure and with the Hitec City project coming up in a phased
manner, Chowdary realised that his role as a facilitator at STPI-H
had ended. Despite suggestions from his friends and family, not
to leave the central government job, he opted for a management career
in the corporate IT sector.
He joined Metomor Enterprises Solutions (India)
and later moved to Portal Player (now Pinexe Systems), which is
into producing high complex integrated chips for consumer electronics
industry. He successfully mentored the implementation of a complete
product life cycle to make different products. The company currently
accounts for about 70 percent of the audio juke box market.
Chowdary made efforts to enhance IT exports
from the sta-te and took several measures to help SMEs in this sector.
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