Release 2.0: The Bangalore Imperative

by Anil Goel

The year was 2005. Information Technology exports from India was on track for the twenty billion dollar mark. The market cap of the leading software firms was at an all time high. The media was falling over itself to celebrate 'New India'. Some said America's days of technology leadership were over. But within the confining walls of the man whose face represented India Inc, the mood was different. He had sensed that the ground was shifting below their feet. Amidst the public euphoria about India's alleged software army, Sudharshan Rao saw an eerie image of carcasses. Carcasses of defunct mills in central Mumbai. Waiting to be sold for their land value. And he knew it was only a matter of time before the market did to him what the Japanese had done to the Indian textile Industry at the turn of the twentieth century... What could an industry that had ignored innovation and relied on cheap labour for half a century possibly do to survive the onslaught? A chilling nightmare provides a clue...a bizzare thought that is equally potent... Release 2.0?

252 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2007

About the author

Anil Goel grew up in Mumbai, India in the 70s and fell in love with computers when he saw one for the first time in the Asiatic supermarket at Churchgate in the 80s. He went on to graduate with honours in Computer Engineering in the 90s and worked in the technology industry for more than a decade before writing his first novel “Release 2.0: The Bangalore Imperative”.

Release 2.0 was hailed as “India’s first IT thriller” and rated very high for its fast pace, imagination and vision of the technology industry, earning Anil the moniker of “Prophet Of Doom” from the Deccan Herald. Exit Point is his second novel. It is based on the internet.

A diehard technologist, who believes the entire miracle of the universe can be reduced to a computing problem, Anil’s stories are tech thrillers that are based on real technology but stretch the limits of what is currently available and what may be possible in the future.

You can find him on http://www.facebook.com/anilgoel.