The Indian who invented the USB port, and the 1st woman sheriff | #56
Also, how a fire led to the creation of a famous tech company
Mitron,
“IT+IT=IT; Indian talent + Information technology = India Tomorrow” - Narendra Modi
You all must have seen the WhatsApp forward:
Google CEO is Indian
Adobe CEO is Indian
Microsoft CEO is Indian
And the order or sequence of bytes of a word of digital data is Endian
The last part is something we made up, but India has contributed a lot to the tech world - something we can all be BMKJ about. This week’s newsletter is dedicated to interesting stories about India and the world of tech.
Things we learnt this week:
The mastermind behind the USB port was Ajay Bhatt. His wife wanted to print a few letters for her daughter’s school project and was having difficulty in connecting a printer. The idea of having a standardized port to connect different hardware devices was born out of that. Wonder if he can plug it in correctly on the first try.
PayTM has played a major role in the FinTech scene in India. Its parent company though owes its name to BSNL. One97 which owns PayTM was named after a BSNL helpline number 197 - with which you could enquire about other phone numbers. We’re surprised Vijay Shekhar Sharma didn’t borrow BSNL’s tagline for his business - “Collecting India”.
One of India’s best software products was as a result of a fire at a cloth store. A fire devastated the business setup by a Marwari entrepreneur Shyam Sunder Goenka. The only thing they could salvage was the computer from the shop floor. The computer fell into the hands of Shyam’s son Bharat Goenka, a Maths graduate, who worked on creating Tally from that computer. From there on, things just tallied up for them.
From IWTK, with love
The story of Mithan Lam - the first woman to practice law and the first woman to be appointed sheriff of India.
You know who created India’s first film camera? The artist might surprise you.
Only in India
A film star files a petition and then asks her fans to join the live court session.. A fan decides to sing “Ghoonghat Ki Aad Se” you know... Just like any normal court session. We’re still not sure if this is real or a Faking News article tbh.
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