Bill Gates made me go digital: Advani

By Our Special Correspondent

AHMEDABAD, MAY 31. What attracted the Union Home Minister, Mr. L. K. Advani, to information technology? It was a small biography of Mr. Bill Gates and his Microsoft.

He does not remember where he read the biography, but remembers reading it in 1988 or 89. He was so attracted to the information technology that he decided to visit the Microsoft office at Seattle at the first available opportunity.

``It was after reading the biography that I decided to change my diary and shifted to a digital diary,'' Mr. Advani said. The digitals then had not caught the imagination of the people of the country and was considered to be `foreign'.

Mr. Advani recalled a function in Mumbai when he was invited to visit Pune on a particular day. When he was checking his digital diary to see if he was free, a press photographer took a snap. Next day the picture appeared in a leading Mumbai daily with the caption, ``Mr. Advani, is it swadeshi?''

Mr. Advani disagreed that science and technology could be branded ``swadeshi or videshi''. His faith in swadeshi did not mean that he could not take advantage of the new technologies.

Mr. Advani narrated the anecdotes after laying the foundation stone of the Gujarat Science City here on Wednesday.

The Union Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister, Mr. P. Ananth Kumar, announced Rs. 41 crores for the Science City project.

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