In a new book, American science historian Ross Bassett looks at the careers of 850 Indian engineering graduates from MIT and their enormous contributions to India.

For most of the 20 century, when the very idea of a high-tech India seemed improbable, the foundation was actually being laid to make the dream a reality. India recently sent a space probe to orbit Mars; and Indian-born engineers were named chief executives of two top global technology firms. In his new book, The Technological Indian , American science historian Ross Bassett, analyses the careers of 850 Indians, who earned engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 1880 and 2000, and looks at their enormous contributions to India’s technological destiny.

Excerpts from an interview:

Did Indians first begin enrolling at MIT in the 19 century?

Indians had been going to MIT since 1882, far longer than I would have thought. Bal Kalelkar, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, wrote in 1940 that he was not seeking an MIT doctorate in engineering for personal glory but “to serve our motherland through my profession and to see her in a better position”. Many went with the desire to develop skills that would help build the Indian nation. The graduates who came back in the 1940s and ’50s were precious commodities in helping India develop its technological infrastructure.

Scions of business families went to MIT too.

Yes. Perhaps the closest connection was between the Birla family and MIT. G.D. Birla got the institute to assist in developing Birla Institute of Technology and Science into a premier engineering institute, a private version of the Indian Institutes of Technology. Birla’s grandson Aditya studied chemical engineering at MIT in preparation for taking on a leading role in the family business. S.L. Kirloskar went to MIT, as did members of the Lalbhai, Godrej, and Chauhan (Parle Products) families.

And some MIT graduates helped create the information technology (IT) industry in India. How did that happen?

In the 1950s and ’60s, MIT was ahead of all U.S. universities in computer technology. A number of Indians who went to MIT then got exposed to computer technology simply because working at a computer centre was a way they could fund their education. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was started by three MIT graduates and then later led by another MIT graduate, F.C. Kohli. Narendra Patni started another early IT venture and he was also an MIT graduate. The team he assembled later left to form Infosys, so MIT was indirectly involved in it.

In post-liberalisation India, have MIT graduates tended to return home?

Among Indians who had graduated from MIT in engineering since 2000, more of them do return to India, but the vast majority stays in the United States, often taking positions either in Silicon Valley or on Wall Street. The technological Indian is a citizen of the world.

Does the institute help spur India’s space programme as well?

Brahm Prakash, who did a doctorate in metallurgy from MIT, came back and served as the first head of the department of metallurgy at the Indian Institute of Science. He was a key lieutenant to Homi Bhabha in the atomic energy programme, and later led the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. During that time India developed the SLV3 launch vehicle, which put the country’s first satellite into orbit in 1980. He was a mentor to A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the project manager for the SLV-3.

In the 1960s, when immigration policies became favourable to Indians, MIT graduates began to work for big name high-profile research labs. Did some become entrepreneurs?

One of the first really successful Indian entrepreneurs in the US was Suhas Patil, who founded Cirrus Logic in Silicon Valley in 1981. He is a co-founder of TiE, the Indus Entrepreneurs, which mentors other entrepreneurs. Silicon Valley personality Vivek Ranadive, who did his undergraduate studies at MIT, says his fascination with America began when, as a 12-year-old, he heard on the radio the Apollo moon landing. In 2009, the tech entrepreneur gained fame as a middle-school basketball coach. His daughter’s team, which did not have too many skilled players, stuck to a stratagem and won games. Ranadive, who came to the U.S. with only $50 in his pocket, became a local hero when he bought Sacramento Kings and kept the NBA team in the city.

Tell us about the man who put India on the world’s steel plant engineering map.

M.N. Dastur, whose father was a clerk at Tata’s steel company in Jamshedpur, had worked as an engineer at the steel plant himself. Then, funded by a Tata scholarship, he went to MIT, where he earned a doctorate in metallurgy in 1949. He worked with one of the world’s leading steel consultants at their office in New York City. After his return to India in the 1950s, he went on to play a particularly important role in building up India’s technological capacity. As India looked to the Soviet Union, West Germany, and Great Britain to help it build steel mills, he argued that Indians could design more cheaply steel mills that were better suited for the Indian environment. He found a great ally in Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and established a steel consulting business. His firm was scheduled to design the great steel mill at Bokaro, but the Soviet Union offered to finance the mill’s construction if its design was used. Dastur and his firm provided India with a wealth of steel expertise and gained global recognition.

V. Vijaysree is a science journalist based in Boston.