The screen revolution

SIGNS of middle age were obvious at a recent gathering of Nasscom, the club for India’s giant IT industry, which now has sales of $100 billion and is dominated by outsourcing firms. The venue was a hotel in Mumbai, a five-star fortress of foyers and finger food. The guests of honour were politicians. Grey-haired, well-fed executives sat and talked in jargon. It was hard to spot anyone close to India’s median age of 26. Things have come a long way since 1981 when Infosys, a bellwether Indian IT firm, was founded in a flat by seven hungry engineers with $250.

Yet if you walk to the exit of that hotel and reject the option of an expensive limousine, or of hailing a bashed-up street taxi, and instead press “Book now” on your phone screen, another Indian tech scene appears. The application links a network of taxis using satellite positioning, cheap Chinese-made smartphones, souped-up Google maps and credit cards. A 6km (4-mile) drive north in a modern car will deliver you to a snack shop, above which is the firm that runs the system. Olacabs was set up in 2010. Its co-founder, Bhavish Aggarwal, is a 26-year-old engineer who has worked for Microsoft in Seattle. He has raised a slug of venture capital, some of it American, and says business is growing at 30% a month. “When you start you are viewed as a fool,” he says. “But if you are worried about that, you’re in the wrong line of work.” His goal is to transform transport in India’s congested cities.