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	* [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]		* [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]
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	~~{{Portal\|India}}~~

	==References==		==References==

->GoodDay at 00:34, 29 August 2021

2021-08-29T00:34:42Z

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{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rangaswamy Narasimhan
| image =
| imagesize =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1926|04|17}}
| birth_place = Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2007|9|3|1926|4|17}}
| death_place = [[Bengaluru]], [[Karnataka]], India
| restingplace =
| restingplacecoordinates =
| othername =
| occupation = Computer and [[cognitive scientist]]
| yearsactive = 1954-2007
| known for = [[TIFRAC]]-the first Indian indigenous computer
| spouse =
| domesticpartner =
| children =
| parents =
| website =
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]<br />[[Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship]]<br />[[University Grants Commission (India)|UGC]] [[Homi J. Bhabha]] Award<br />[[Om Prakash Bhasin Award]]<br />[[Dataquest]] Lifetime Achievement Award
}}

'''Rangaswamy Narasimhan''' (April 17, 1926 – September 3, 2007) was an Indian computer and [[cognitive scientist]], regarded by many as the father of computer science research in India.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)">{{cite web | url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_093_07_1016_1017_0.pdf | title=Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007) | publisher=Current Science | date=2015 | accessdate=24 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead">{{cite web | url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/narasimhan-doyen-of-indian-computer-science-dead/article1904922.ece | title=Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead | work=The Hindu | date=4 September 2007 | accessdate=25 June 2015}}</ref> He led the team which developed the [[TIFRAC]], the first Indian indigenous computer<ref name="8 Steps to Innovation">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jcbjAAAAQBAJ&q=TIFRAC&pg=PT83 | title=8 Steps to Innovation | publisher=HarperCollins Publishers India |author1=Rishikesh Krishnan |author2=Vinay Dabholka | year=2013 | pages=320 | isbn=9789350299876}}</ref><ref name="Penguin Cnbc-Tv18 Business Yearbook 2009">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QHrgZYS9fI4C&q=Dr.+Rangaswamy+Narasimhan&pg=PA167 | title=Penguin Cnbc-Tv18 Business Yearbook 2009 | publisher=Penguin Books India | editor=Derek O'brei | year=2009 | pages=600 | isbn=9780143065708}}</ref> and was instrumental in the establishment of [[CMC Limited]] in 1975, a [[Government of India]] company, later bought by [[Tata Consultancy Services]].<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC">{{cite web | url=http://www.cmcltd.com/aboutus/dr-r-narasimhan-first-chairman-cmc-ltd | title=R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC | publisher=CMC | date=2015 | accessdate=24 June 2015 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626115922/http://www.cmcltd.com/aboutus/dr-r-narasimhan-first-chairman-cmc-ltd | archivedate=26 June 2015 | df=dmy-all }}</ref> He was a recipient of the fourth highest Indian civilian award of [[Padma Shri]] from the [[Government of India]] in 1977.<ref name="Padma Shri">{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Shri | publisher=Padma Shri | date=2015 | accessdate=18 June 2015}}</ref>

==Biography==
{{quotebox|align = left|width=21em|''Dr. Narasimhan was a pioneer in the field of computer sciences in India and the principal architect of India’s first indigenous computer, TIFRAC. I would rate him as the scientific equivalent of the linguist-philosopher Dr. [[Noam Chomsky]] in this country for his work relating to language, linguistics and cognitive sciences,'' said [[M. G. K. Menon]], on hearing about Narasimhan's death.<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" />}}
[[File:Beckman Institute - UIUC - DSC09175.JPG|thumbnail|235px|The [[Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology]] at [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]. Narasimhan's early researches were hosted by the university]]
Rangaswamy Narasimhan was born on 17 April 1926 in [[Chennai]] in the south Indian state of [[Tamil Nadu]].<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> He graduated with honours in Telecommunication Engineering from [[College of Engineering, Guindy]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/reso/013/05/0407-0409|author=Srinivasan Ramani|publisher=[[Indian Institute of Information Technology]], Bangalore|date=May 2008|title=Rangaswamy Narasimhan: Doyen of Computer Science and Technology}}</ref> then part of [[University of Madras]] in 1947 and moved to US to obtain his master's degree (MS) in electrical engineering from the [[California Institute of Technology]].<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" /><ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> He stayed in US to secure a doctoral degree (PhD) in mathematics from [[Indiana University]].<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" />

In 1954, he returned to India, accepting [[Homi J. Bhabha]]'s invitation to join the project team set up by the [[Tata Institute of Fundamental Research]], (TIFR) Mumbai for the development of the first indigenous computer.<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" /> Five years later, the prototype of the computer was ready and the computer was inaugurated by the then prime minister of India, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]], who named the equipment as [[Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator]] (TIFRAC).<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> In 1961, he went back to Illinois, US to conduct further research on [[cognitive science]] at the [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]] and worked as a visiting scientist at the Digital Computer Laboratory of the university till 1964.<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /><ref name="Deceased Fellow">{{cite web | url=http://www.insaindia.org.in/deceaseddetail.php?id=N750514 | title=Deceased Fellow | publisher=Indian National Science Academy | date=2015 | accessdate=25 June 2015}}</ref> His next assignment at TIFR was the establishment of a software development centre and that is reported to have paved way for the founding of the ''National Center for Software Development and Computing Techniques'' (NCSDCT) under TIFR.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> The institution was later renamed as the ''National Centre for Software Technology'' and was merged into the [[Centre for Development of Advanced Computing]] (C-DAC) in 2003.<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" /><ref name="New domain name registration policy soon">{{cite web | url=http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2004-10-26/news/27403856_1_domain-name-internet-corporation-icann | title=New domain name registration policy soon | publisher=Economic Times | date=26 October 2004 | accessdate=24 June 2015}}</ref>

In August 1963, the [[Government of India]] set up an interdepartmental Electronics Committee under the chairmanship of [[Vikram Sarabhai]] for finding ways for self-sufficiency in the electronics industry sector<ref name="Between Dependency and Autonomy">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6hBHL8vlNrEC&q=bhabha+committee&pg=PA21 | title=Between Dependency and Autonomy | publisher=University of California Press | author=Joseph M. Grieco | year=1984 | pages=224 | isbn=9780520048195}}</ref> and Narasimhan was made the chairman of one of the sub committees, entrusted with the responsibility to look into the possibilities of finding ways to reduce dependence on [[IBM]] and [[International Computers Limited]].<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> One of the recommendations of Narasimhan Committee was to establish a national organization for manufacture and maintenance of computers which was later endorsed by the Electronics Commission, headed by [[M. G. K. Menon]],<ref name="M. G. K. Menon: A great Indian scientist">{{cite web | url=http://gonitsora.com/m-g-k-menon-great-indian-scientist/ | title=M. G. K. Menon: A great Indian scientist | publisher=Gonit Sora | date=8 October 2014 | accessdate=24 June 2015}}</ref> and Narasimhan was entrusted with the responsibility which resulted in the formation of ''Computer Maintenance Corporation'', later day [[CMC Limited]] as a fully owned government company in 1977 with Narasimhan as its founder chairman.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /><ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> He was also connected with TIFR at their ''National Centre for Software Development Computing Techniques'' from 1975 to 1985.<ref name="Deceased Fellow" />

Narasimhan was associated with several agencies and organizations for his research; the Industrial Design Centre at [[Indian Institute of Technology Bombay]], the Speech Pathology Unit of [[Topiwala National Medical College and Nair Hospital]], the [[All India Institute of Speech and Hearing]], the [[Central Institute of Indian Languages]], the [[Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts]], and the Centre for Applied Cognitive Science at the [[Ontario Institute for Studies in Education]],<ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> Toronto were some of them.<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> He sat on the council of the [[International Federation for Information Processing]] as the representative of India during 1975-86 and was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Indo-French Centre for the Promotion of Advanced Research from 1988 to 1990.<ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> He retired from TIFR service in 1990 as a ''professor of eminence'' but retained his association with CMC past his retirement in the capacity as an advisor even after the company was bought by [[Tata Consultancy Services]] in 2001.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> He died on 3 September 2007, at the age of 81, in [[Bengaluru]] in [[Karnataka]].<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" /><ref name="Deceased Fellow" />

==Legacy==
Besides the contributions in the development of the first Indian computer and founding of CMC and the ''National Center for Software Development and Computing Techniques'', Narasimhan was involved in bringing the computer sector in India together and was successful in founding a society, the [[Computer Society of India]] in 1964 and became its founder president, a post he held till 1969.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> He was involved in research in the area of the theory of behaviour,<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" /><ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> extending his studies to first language acquisition, [[artificial intelligence]], computational modelling of behaviour and modelling language behaviour, and was reported to be the first to discover an analogy between ″formal grammars of natural languages and the formal structures underlying picture processing″.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> He carried on his research on ''synthetic pattern recognition'' during his stint at the [[University of Illinois]] from 1961 to 1964 into TIFR and ″developed a meta theory and approach to the study of language behaviour″.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> His argument was that the use of behaviour to specific uses must have been evolutionary and as such, use must define the structure or mechanism. This was the topic of his book, ''Modeling Language Behaviour'',<ref name="Modeling Language Behaviour">{{cite book | url=http://ltrc.iiit.ac.in/~anusaaraka/DOWNLOADS/nlp_panini_book/nlp-book-source/erefs.tex | title=Modeling Language Behaviour | publisher=Springer Verlag | author=R. Narasimhan | year=1981 | location=Berlin}}</ref> which is considered to have offered alternatives to the concepts of [[Noam Chomsky]],<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> drawing comparisons with the American cognitive scientist.<ref name="Narasimhan, doyen of Indian computer science, dead" />

Narasimhan studied the environment a child (9 months to 3 years) is exposed to while he or she acquired their first language. This [[ethological]] study of language behaviour acquisition led him to the discovery that the pre-literate oral language behaviour differed from the literate language behaviour and while the former is genetic, the latter is acquired.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> He postulated that this difference was analogous to ''connectionist [[Artificial Intelligence]]'' that included non literate modes of functioning and ''rule-based Artificial Intelligence''. His book, ''Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Agentive Behaviour'', released in 2004, details his findings.<ref name="Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Agentive Behaviour">{{cite book | title=Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Agentive Behaviour | publisher=Tata-McGraw Hill | author=R. Narasimhan | year=2004 | isbn=978-0070531536}}</ref> The book is reported to have propounded a new understanding of early education of children.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" />

Narasimhan's studies in the 1960s and 70s at Illinois on computational modeling of visual behaviour is known to have proposed a ''new grammar'' for analysing the visually given image. In order to have a better understanding, his team at Illinois developed a new language by name, ''PAX'', and the group worked on developing a hardware working on PAX to analyse the retinal image but the project was abandoned after a while.<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /> Besides several articles written in peer reviewed journals,<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> he published two more books, between the release of ''Modeling Language Behaviour'' and ''Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Agentive Behaviour'', released in 1998 and 2004 respectively. Both the books, ''Language Behaviour: Acquisition and Evolutionary History''<ref name="Language Behaviour: Acquisition and Evolutionary History ">{{cite book | title=Language Behaviour: Acquisition and Evolutionary History | publisher=Sage Publications | author=R. Narasimhan | year=1998 | pages=220 | isbn=978-0761992325}}</ref> and ''Characterising Literacy: A Study of Western and Indian Literacy Experiences'' were published by [[Sage Publications]].<ref name="Characterising Literacy: A Study of Western and Indian Literacy Experiences">{{cite book | url=http://www.indianbooks.co.in/bookmart/characterising-literacy-a-study-of-western-and-indian-literacy-experiences.html | title=Characterising Literacy: A Study of Western and Indian Literacy Experiences | publisher=Sage Publications | author=R. Narasimhan | year=2004 | isbn=9780761998297}}</ref> He was also associated with the publication of the book, ''The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge'' as an editor<ref name="The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge">{{cite book | title=The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge | publisher=Sage Publications | editor=R. Narasimhan | editor2=J. Srinivasan | editor3=S. K. Biswas | year=2004 | asin=B0086PPAWY}}</ref> and edited the 1993 special issue of [[Current Science]]<ref name="Current Science">{{cite journal | url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/ | title=Current Science | journal=Current Science |date=March 1993 | volume=64 | issue=6}}</ref> featuring [[Artificial Intelligence]].<ref name="Deceased Fellow" />

==Awards and honours==
Rangaswamy Narasimhan was an elected fellow of the [[Indian National Science Academy]] (INSA),<ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> [[Indian Academy of Sciences]],<ref name="Past Fellows">{{cite web | url=http://www.ias.ac.in/php/pfell_all.php3?alpha=N | title=Past Fellows | publisher=Indian Academy of Sciences | date=2015 | accessdate=25 June 2015}}</ref> [[The National Academy of Sciences, India]]<ref name="Deceased Honorary Fellows, Foreign Fellows and Fellows">{{cite web | url=http://www.nasi.org.in/deceased.htm | title=Deceased Honorary Fellows, Foreign Fellows and Fellows | publisher=The National Academy of Sciences, India | date=2015 | accessdate=25 June 2015 | url-status=dead | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528102550/http://www.nasi.org.in/deceased.htm | archivedate=28 May 2015 }}</ref> and the [[Computer Society of India]]<ref name="Rangaswamy Narasimhan (1926-2007)" /><ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" /> and held the [[Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship]] from 1971 to 1973.<ref name="List of Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows">{{cite web | url=http://www.jnmf.in/flist.html | title=List of Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows | publisher=Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund | accessdate=25 June 2015}}</ref> He received the [[Homi J. Bhabha]] Award from the [[University Grants Commission (India)|University Grants Commission]] in 1976<ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> and the [[Government of India]] awarded him the civilian honour of [[Padma Shri]] in 1977.<ref name="Padma Shri" /> The [[Om Prakash Bhasin Award]] was conferred on him in 1988<ref name="Deceased Fellow" /> and [[Dataquest]] magazine selected him for their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994.<ref name="R Narasimhan, The first Chairman of CMC" />

==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Calculator]]
* [[Centre for Development of Advanced Computing]]
* [[CMC Limited]]
* [[University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign]]
{{div col end}}
{{Portal|India}}

==References==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | title=Modeling Language Behaviour | publisher=Springer Verlag | author=R. Narasimhan | year=1981 | location=Berlin}}
* {{cite book | title=Language Behaviour: Acquisition and Evolutionary History | publisher=Sage Publications | author=R. Narasimhan | year=1998 | pages=220 | isbn=978-0761992325}}
* {{cite book | title=Characterising Literacy: A Study of Western and Indian Literacy Experiences | publisher=Sage Publications | author=R. Narasimhan | year=2004 | isbn=9780761998297}}
* {{cite book | title=Artificial Intelligence and the Study of Agentive Behaviour | publisher=Tata-McGraw Hill | author=R. Narasimhan | year=2004 | isbn=978-0070531536}}
* {{cite book | title=The Dynamics of Technology: Creation and Diffusion of Skills and Knowledge | publisher=Sage Publications | editor=R. Narasimhan | editor2=J. Srinivasan | editor3=S. K. Biswas | year=2004 | asin=B0086PPAWY}}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Civil Service}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narasimhan, Rangaswamy}}
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in civil service]]
[[Category:1926 births]]
[[Category:2007 deaths]]
[[Category:Scientists from Chennai]]
[[Category:Indian neuroscientists]]
[[Category:College of Engineering, Guindy alumni]]
[[Category:California Institute of Technology alumni]]
[[Category:Indiana University Bloomington alumni]]
[[Category:University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign people]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy]]
[[Category:Fellows of The National Academy of Sciences, India]]
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian biologists]]

Rangaswamy Narasimhan - Revision history

CleanupBot II: Removed empty portal template using script

->GoodDay at 00:34, 29 August 2021