Did Modi own, buy digital camera costing Rs 7 lakh in 1987-88, also used email?

The tweet that was deleted

Counterview Desk
In an interview to the news channel News Nation, aired on Saturday last, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declaring that he had approved the air strike despite bad weather because he felt the clouds would hide Indian planes from Pakistani radar is known to have become a laughing stock across India.
While PM’s remark gained prominence after the BJP’s official Twitter first put it out before deleting the tweet, this is not the only remark which is being cited as Modi's alleged "fekugiri" (boasting).
If the interview reveals that the PM overruled the suggestion by experts, who possibly included militarymen, to go ahead with Balakot air strikes because of clouds and heavy rain, a Facebook post has brought to light more from the interview to say how the interview is full of "fekugiri", claiming, it shows "how much he lies and with so much confidence."
Writing on his Facebook timeline, Rajendra Bhaduri, a militaryman adorning medals, says, "Feku claims that he owned and used a digital camera in 1987. The only known commercially launched digital camera in 1987, which was not portable and did not have attached memory was the US made MegaVison Tessera which costed costed between $50,000 - $60,000.

Bhaduri wonders, "In 1987 the USD was about Rs 13. That would make a MegaVision Tessera cost between ₹6,50,000 and ₹7,80,000. Add Customs duty of 1987 rates... However, Modi claims '35 saal bhiksha kar ke khaya', toh fer 7 lakh ka camera kaise khareeda?" ('Modi claims he 'lived on begging for 35 years', then how was the Rs 7 lakh camera bought?), At the same time, Bhaduri seeks to "expose" Modi who suggests in the interview that he used email in 1987-88.

Except from the FB post:

In the same "Cloud radar" interview, Feku goes on to claim about his attachment to gadgets and how he owned a digital camera in 1987 and also transmitted pictures of some Advani rally in Ahmedabad to Delhi. The camera he describes as a rather bulky one.
Oh yes! He claims that he is "probably" the first person in India to use digital camera.

Official history of digital camera

1. First digital camera of any kind ever sold commercially was possibly the MegaVision Tessera in 1987 though there is no documentation of its sale known.
As per MegaVision's website, MegaVision's Tessera was the first digital camera offered for sale in 1987. Since Photoshop and modern computers didn't exist, MegaVision made their own image processor, the 1024XM, and Capture Station software.
It was a rather largish camera which did not have any internal memory and was tethered to a computer. It costed between $50,000 - $60,000. The first Tessera system went into regular use in early 1989 at a commercial photo studio in Minneapolis.
2. The first portable digital camera that was actually marketed commercially was sold in December 1989 in Japan, the DS-X by Fuji.
3. The first commercially available portable digital camera in the United States was the Dycam Model 1, first shipped in November 1990.
It was originally a commercial failure because it was black-and-white, low in resolution, and cost nearly $1,000.
4. In 1991, Kodak brought to market the Kodak DCS (Kodak Digital Camera System). It used a 1.3 megapixel sensor, had a bulky external digital storage system and was priced at $13,000.
In 1987, Modi could have owned only a MegaVision Tessera which by all available open source information was not a handy portable camera. Also since it needed its own specialised software, a compatible computer would have been needed.
Modi is known to have visited USA as a RSS Pracharak for the first time in 1993. Wonder how did he get to buy a MegaVision Tessera in 1987 from the USA costing $50,000 - $60,000?

Official history of email in India

Rajiv Gavai, professor of the Theoretical Physics Department, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), was one of the first Indians to work to set up a email network in India. He initiated setting up of a similar BITNET-based academic network in India.
In 1986, after the government nod, five Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Madras), IISc (Bangalore), National Center for Software Technology (NCST) of Bombay and Department of Eletronics (DoE) were involved in the Education and Research Network (ERNET) project.
In 1986, a dial-up link for email exchange was set up between NCST and IIT Bombay. Very soon all ERNET partners were on dial-up ERNET email and academics in these institutions started sending emails to all over the world.
By 1991, the ERNET community crossed 1,000 and hundreds of persons started using email in these sites. The initial investment to have ERNET mail was around Rs 30,000, without a printer.

***

PS: In the same interview Feku claims to have had a digital pad and a stylus to write on some time in the "90s".

Comments

Anonymous said…

Please make the missed call WhatsApp message in
in other Indian languages too, will get more
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