From Pascal to Pichai - the Internet story

If you need to cram for an interview or public exam on computers or the Internet or even if you just want to keep abreast of the breathless developments in Cyberia -- Mohan Sundara Rajan's   400-page book, "The Internet: A Revolution in Progress" is both necessary and sufficient reading. Sundara Rajan is a veteran  science communicator and his latest work, published by the National Book Trust, is a steal at Rs 380, covering as it does the vast scope of the subject  in a succinct, readable style  that encompasses everything from  the beginnings of computing with  Charles Babbage and  Blaise Pascal,  through the early mainframes and PCs  to the birth and  continuing evolution of the Internet, right up to today's pressing issues of Social media,  privacy and net neutrality.

I know of no other book that weaves the  story of Internet's Indian  achievers so convincingly  into the  fabric of mainstream Net history:  Vinod Dham's development of  the Intel Pentium chip;  Shiva Ayyadurai's "invention" of email; Sabeer Bhatia's  launch of  free  Web-based Hotmail; Vinod Khosla and the launch of Sun Microsystems; Sundar Pichai's development of the Chrome browser and OS...

From Pascal to Pichai, from von Neumann to  Satya Nadella;   from Babbage to Bhatia, this is a fascinating  tale of Information Technology, not forgetting its Indian heroes.  Available online from NBT.gov.in.