Dated, June 17, 2009
Times of India

After a five-year stint as the Director-General of the Centre for Development and Advanced Computing (C-DAC), here, S. Ramakrishnan has passed on the baton to Rajan Joseph, who was the executive director of C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram.

Grid computing, along with language and super computing facilities, has been one of the major highlights during the tenure of Ramakrishnan.

Ramakrishnan told TOI: "When I took over, the resources were limited and we badly needed to build a stable team. It was a major task bringing together the available talent and build appropriate teams and deliver the goods. I think I pulled it off pretty well and, as a result, C-DAC is well established in the market."

On the road ahead, Ramakrsihnan said: "I have things in my mind but I would not like to reveal anything at the moment since I am still working out the possibilities."

Meanwhile, taking charge as the D-G, Joseph said: "There are various challenges ahead of me. The present-day C-DAC has been created through the merger of different organisations five years ago. People from diverse culture and background came together. I will have to bring together this pool of talent and strengthen the team."

"Timely completion of projects will be my priority. Keeping consistency in delivering projects as per deadline will also be looked after," Joseph added.

C-DAC was started in 1988 as a scientific society of the department of information technology (formerly, department of electronics) to primarily aid in design, development, and deployment of advanced IT-based solutions.

PARAM, the first Indian supercomputer, was developed by C-DAC, putting India into the selected club of nations with these high-end machines.