A Visionary’s Tale: The lesser-known contributions of Diwakar Nigam — Part 2 #JeenaIsiKaNaamHai

Sometimes, a life story is so inspiring, it deserves to be told twice.

Diwakar Nigam’s brilliance has shone brightly in the often-overlooked corners of technological innovation. While others zigged, he zagged and often those stories are buried in time. But his pioneering — and silent — contributions to the evolution of Indian software are worthy of a standing ovation.

In the previous edition of this series, I explored Mr. Nigam’s journey. My inbox has since been flooded with messages from readers who have learnt from him. Newgen, being a publicly listed company, has well-advertised accomplishments but I felt there were still hidden gems to uncover. So I spoke to Gautam Brahma, ex-Hughes Software, a quiet champion for many of Softek’s early experiments.

Gautham’s insights, as an outsider looking in, offer valuable lessons for early-stage entrepreneurs. Beyond simply creating affordable versions of US products, Indian startups can take notes from Mr Nigam’s fearless and committed approach to innovation.

Back in the early 1980s, when computers were still a novelty, Softek was spearheading a revolution. This was long before the intuitive interfaces and seamless integration we take for granted today. The world of computing was a complex labyrinth of standalone applications, each with its quirks and hiccups.

Mr. Nigam saw a gap. In a radical departure from the norm, he led the development of Soft Office, a suite of software that bundled word processing, spreadsheet, and database functionalities. Softek’s user-friendly design was far ahead of its time. The unified experience saved people the effort of learning multiple interfaces and they could easily switch between tasks and move data seamlessly.

I want to take a short break here from Mr Nigam’s journey and talk to you about the landscape. Mr Nigam is the same vintage as greats like Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji. The two took India beyond the horizon, especially, when it came to IT services. I spoke about how Mr Nigam zigged, while India was leveraging its human capital, he decided to leverage product. Softek became one of India’s first software product companies.

Unfortunately, being a trailblazer comes with its risks. The market wasn’t quite ready for such a leap. Hardware was so expensive that users expected software to be priced in, which hurt Soft Office.

“Only a customer who had used the other applications in a real-world business environment could appreciate the relief of using Soft Office,” recalls Mr. Brahma. “But Diwakar rolled with the punches when things didn’t work.” Another visionary quality.

Mr. Nigam also demonstrated the value of specialised software and its potential to empower users. In the initial days of computing, offices were dominated by mechanical typewriters. The introduction of electronic typewriters, while a significant improvement, still needed to be improved, especially for languages such as Hindi.

The Softek team addressed this issue with Akshar, a Hindi word processor that reduced the reliance on typists. Although its benefit was limited to a smaller part of the country, the software solved a genuine problem and Mr. Brahma remembers people were willing to pay for it.

Besides word processing, this innovator has influenced the broader computing landscape too. While it was still a small Delhi-based company, Softek wrote an impressive piece of software for Wipro’s 1980s mini computers. Wipro had acquired a US company, gaining mini PC hardware and software. They turned to Softek to create compilers. Their COBOL compiler was so fast and bug-free, Mr. Brahma who was using it felt compelled to dig deep and find out more about the company that built it.

Even in the first years of starting Newgen, Mr. Nigam’s approach to product roadmaps was crystal clear:

• He envisioned a user-friendly, customisable product, similar to the current edition of MS Word.
• He prioritised no-code/low-code solutions, even before these terms became popular.
• His roadmap focused on accessibility, adaptability, and continuous improvement, ensuring Newgen could meet the diverse needs of global customers.

Their first development was a service — a widely used one, in fact — that could recognise text and made document scanning and retrieval easy as cake. Despite the temptation to chase revenue with that service, Mr. Nigam made the strategic decision to build products. More proof of his daring to dream.

It is no wonder his work has quietly inspired future generations of developers. He is among the stalwarts who paved the way for Product Nation.