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Rakhee - The First Indian Computer


The first Indian computer was Rakhee (code named Shanti) and started operations in the year 1978. It was meant for people in construction business. Rakhee could precisely calculate the amount of steel, cement, number of bricks etc. required for any building. It could also store and file those numbers safely, and reproduce the figures on request.

Check for yourself:

Scene from the Hindi film Trishul (1978) directed by Yash Chopra.



This was probably the first ever reference to "Computer" in a Hindi film. However, Computer had already arrived in India by that time. State owned Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL) first started manufacturing computing system in the late 1960s. And between 1973 and 1977, ECIL became the leading manufacturer of computers in India, well ahead of IBM (which eventually was forced out of Indian market).

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Image: Rakhee on album cover of Vijay Anand's 'Black Mail' (1973)
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Comments

  1. Beth Loves BollywoodSep 9, 2009, 7:08:00 PM

    Oh Rakhee! What can't she do!

    I do not know how I've never seen your blog before, but I am delighted to have stumbled across it! The link that got me here? The Mithun center spread, of course! I'll have to keep reading other posts just to wash out my brain.

    cheers
    http://bethlovesbollywood.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vinayak RazdanSep 9, 2009, 8:18:00 PM

    Hey Beth, thanks for dropping in,love your blog! I do read it often, it's kind of hard to miss if one is interested in Hindi films.

    ReplyDelete

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