18 Facts About Rangaswamy Narasimhan

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was an Indian computer and cognitive scientist, regarded by many as the father of computer science research in India.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan led the team which developed the TIFRAC, the first Indian indigenous computer and was instrumental in the establishment of CMC Limited in 1975, a Government of India company, later bought by Tata Consultancy Services.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of Padma Shri from the Government of India in 1977.

Dr Narasimhan was a pioneer in the field of computer sciences in India and the principal architect of India's first indigenous computer, TIFRAC.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was born on 17 April 1926 in Chennai in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan graduated with honours in Telecommunication Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy, then part of University of Madras in 1947 and moved to US to obtain his master's degree in electrical engineering from the California Institute of Technology.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan stayed in US to secure a doctoral degree in mathematics from Indiana University.

Menon, and Rangaswamy Narasimhan was entrusted with the responsibility which resulted in the formation of Computer Maintenance Corporation, later day CMC Limited as a fully owned government company in 1977 with Rangaswamy Narasimhan as its founder chairman.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was connected with TIFR at their National Centre for Software Development Computing Techniques from 1975 to 1985.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan retired from TIFR service in 1990 as a professor of eminence but retained his association with CMC past his retirement in the capacity as an advisor even after the company was bought by Tata Consultancy Services in 2001.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan died on 3 September 2007, at the age of 81, in Bengaluru in Karnataka.

Besides the contributions in the development of the first Indian computer and founding of CMC and the National Center for Software Development and Computing Techniques, Rangaswamy Narasimhan was involved in bringing the computer sector in India together and was successful in founding a society, the Computer Society of India in 1964 and became its founder president, a post he held till 1969.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan's argument was that the use of behaviour to specific uses must have been evolutionary and as such, use must define the structure or mechanism.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan studied the environment a child is exposed to while he or she acquired their first language.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan postulated that this difference was analogous to connectionist Artificial Intelligence that included non literate modes of functioning and rule-based Artificial Intelligence.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was associated with the publication of the book, The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge as an editor and edited the 1993 special issue of Current Science featuring Artificial Intelligence.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan was an elected fellow of the Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, The National Academy of Sciences, India and the Computer Society of India and held the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship from 1971 to 1973.

Rangaswamy Narasimhan received the Homi J Bhabha Award from the University Grants Commission in 1976 and the Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1977.