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| BUSINESS - US INDIAN BUSINESS |
| NRI Summit Spotlights Hot Sectors in Economic Downturn | | By RICHARD SPRINGER | | | indiawest.com | October 29, 2009 03:54:00 PM |
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MILPITAS, Calif. – Ways to benefit from opportunities during the current economic downturn was the theme of the NRI Global Summit here Oct. 24.
Panels were heavily weighted toward venture capital opportunities, new technology trends and how increased trade and business between the U.S. and India can benefit the non-resident Indian community in America.
 The summit was organized by the Delhi-based NRI Institute, led by founder and national secretary general Jagmohan Singh; and Dr. Shan Nair, co-founder of U.K.-based Nair & Co., and international president of the NRI Institute.
The NRI Institute and the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin International Mauritius are planning a joint event to honor “Pravasi Indians” at Pravasi Divas 2010 in New Delhi Jan. 9-10, Singh said.
In his brief introductory remarks, Nair, who heads an outsourcing service company with more than 700 customers in over 40 countries, said that more high quality companies are started in economic downturns than in upturns.
Vinod Dham, founder and executive managing director of IndoUS Ventures LLC, in his keynote address gave an overview of the accomplishments of the three major locally-founded organizations that have paved the way for the growing influence of Indian Americans in the U.S. – The Indus Entrepreneurs, The American India Foundation and the host of the conference, the India Community Center here.
Eschewing his usual introductory title of “Father of the Pentium chip,” the former Intel Corp. engineer pointed out that more than 130 engineers were involved at Intel in developing the Pentium chip, so there “were many more founders.”
Dham’s main message was that the U.S. and India need to initiate a “greater linkage in higher education” and more “joint doctorate programs recognized by both countries.” India, he added, has a “serious lack of high-quality education.”
The second keynote speaker, WebEx founder Subrah S. Iyar, spoke in a pre-recorded interview because at the time of the conference he was in New York to attend his daughter’s singing recital in Carnegie Hall.
Summit chair Diana Rohini LaVigne, former editor of India-West’s Life & Style magazine, peppered Iyar, whose company was acquired by Cisco in 2007 for about $3.2 billion, with a good mix of career-oriented and personal-life questions.
Iyar, currently chief strategy officer of the collaborative software group at Cisco, admitted he is less the workaholic than people assume. He said he has to be motivated by challenges and doesn’t need to keep busy.
Iyar pointed out the irony that entrepreneurs want the freedom to do new things, but when they succeed it brings more responsibilities that unfortunately curtail their freedoms.
He opined that the next decade will see a “massive explosion” in the “software as a service” sector. “It is poised to take off” and will “change the landscape,” he predicted.
A former executive at Intel and Apple, Iyar downplayed the challenges that giants like Microsoft presented to his Web conferencing start-up.
One shouldn’t be “in awe of large companies,” he said. “They are completely defeatable.”
In a keynote panel on where venture capital is heading, B.V. Jagadeesh, chief executive officer and president of 3LeafSystems and co-founder of Exodus Communications, pointed out that there have been four recessions in the U.S. since 1984, “once about every seven to eight years.” Each time a new technology emerged: computer networking after 1986; the Internet after the 1991-93 downturn; and the mobile Web after 2001. He said he expects to see Web 2.0 to continue its meteoric rise and a “facelift in the data center” sector.
Prashant Shah, managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, whose firm invests almost exclusively in software, said he expects cloud computing, virtualization, security and storage to be hot areas.
Vish Mishra, senior venture partner at Clearstone Venture Partners and president of TiE, pointed out that rules for investing haven’t changed. “It is still the strength of your business plan,” he said.
One thing that has changed, added Saad Khan, partner at CMEA Capital, is that entrepreneurs in the Web 2.0 world “can build a company for less than $1 million,” so they can fund their start-up solely through friends and angel investors.
Nair told India-West that he hoped that the summit was the beginning of a “cross-fertilization of ideas between” Indians in the U.S. and India. “It has gone entirely beyond my expectations,” he enthused.
Nair admitted that the panels were top-heavy on venture capitalists and short on private equity. He said he believes the synergies between India and the U.S. are closer and less byzantine than those between the U.S. and Europe.
The summit included two sets of three other concurrent panels on topics including outsourcing, India and the U.S. in transition, and what it takes to lead in a recession.
The entertainment program, hosted by TV Asia reporter Pooja Jain, included performances by Giju, San Jose Taiko and Ishaara.
MC chores at the summit were ably and professionally handled by LaVigne and Raj Mathai, sports director of NBC-TV Bay Area.
Awards were also given out to a select group of NRIs. |
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