When we launched Express Computer way back in March 1990, there was scoffing. “A weekly for the information technology industry? You must be joking! Barely enough happens in a month in the Indian computer industry,” said cynic and optimist alike. Indeed, the flimsy 8-page rag that EC was back then made one wonder, briefly, if the scoffers had something in their scoffs and scorns after all.

Well, as Thomas Edison once said, opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. But we pretty much put our nose to the grindstone and got on with it. Don’t know if it was prescience or just pure chance, but it turned out that our timing was just perfect. The industry expanded and flourished, and so did we—news bureaus all over the country, contributors from all over the world, syndication, global alliances, and a vast reach. Express Computer soon became the primary and definitive source for news for anyone in the industry who wanted to stay updated with the latest.

I remember Narayana Murthy of Infosys, at one of the early Nasscom events in Delhi, complimenting us in public, saying, “It just goes to show what people can achieve when they really set their minds to it.” Indeed! And ditto for Infosys as well, most certainly.

This was at a time when computer magazine publishing in India was scarcely beyond fledgling status. Express Computer in fact served as a training ground for many an aspiring technology journalist several of whom are now the helm of a wide range of IT magazines, websites and research agencies all over the country.

As the years went by and information technology leapt centre stage, IT news reportage was now all over the place in the financial dailies, on TV, and on a bazillion specialised websites. So EC had to evolve into more than just a newsmagazine. And evolve it did. Between 1996 and 2001, the various Editors put their stamps of individuality onto the magazine and that’s culminated into the classy, analytical, in-depth, research-based, trend-forecasting enterprise computing mag you’re reading right now.

We’ve chosen to mark our Twelfth Anniversary with this special issue that puts together in one power-packed edition a succinct, sector-wise analysis of what’s in store for the industry in the coming financial year. We also focus on the trailblazers in each of these sectors as they outline their plans for the next twelve months.

The computer industry has become a far, far more complex space than what it used to be a decade ago. The pace of change is so rapid and the ramifications of every new technology advancement so intricate, that it’s impossible for the CIO to keep track of everything independently. With this level of complexity, analysis and forecasting is a daunting prospect—yet our crack team of writers and editors has been able to put together, in collaboration with our research partners and industry experts, what I’m sure you’ll agree is one of the most succinct and accurate trends analyses in the business.

So what’s the financial year ahead going to be like anyway? Find that out inside. But first, join me in a toast to both EC and the industry as we sing a couple of lines of that Sinatra classic:

“...You think you’ve seen the sun, but you ain’t seen it shine; You ain’t seen nothing yet, the best is yet to come, and babe, it’ll be fine...”

- Val Souza, Editor
valsouza@expresscomputeronline.com