The web didn't really start until Christmas day 1990. There were about a dozen web sites world wide. Mosaic the first graphic browser didn't get released until February of 1993. Prior to the web Internet was there. Popular services that were available prior to the World Wide Web were electronic mail, news groups, ftp, telnet. In India Scientific Research Institutions under CSIR had email facility through ERNET in 1986. Some universities were fortunate to be connected through ERNET.

In 1993, I remember accessing text based web servers through a dedicated line from Hyderabad to New Jersey. I was then in Satyam Computers, the first private company in India to acquire a 64kbps dedicated link. In fact, Satyam was refused such a high speed link by VSNL who said: “When we are having one 64 Kbps for the entire country, what will you – a single company that too in private sector – do with that high capacity bandwidth all by yourself?” It took almost a year to convince the bureaucracy. The very next year twelve 64 KBPs lines were asked for and installed.

I used a command line based web browser (text only) was actually called www! BSNL – the only ISP then – charged higher for accessing graphical web servers. We could read about graphical web sites only in foreign magazines. Satyam was the first company to offer training programmes in learning Internet.

Thinking of the progress this web has made, it is mind boggling. There is no parallel to the impact it has created. We are all fortunate to be living at this point of time where all types of technologies are getting converged. Let us hope future will be brighter.