TIEcon 2000 Generates Hope

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IT can bring Indians and Pakistanis much closer

http://news.indiainfo.com/2000/11/03/pakit.html

Indian techies to help Pak IT sector

Nov 03, 2000 18:20 Hrs (IST)

Bangalore: A group of Indian information technology (IT) entrepreneurs based in the United States said on Friday that they will set up offices in Pakistan to promote the country`s nascent IT sector.

``TiE (The IndUS entrepreneurs) (http://www.tie.org) is not concerned with political, religious and cultural issues. Entrepreneurship unites and not divides,`` Raj Popli, vice-chairman of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), told reporters on the sidelines of a technology conference in Bangalore.

India and Pakistan have fought three full-scale wars since independence from Britain in 1947 and nearly came to blows again last year over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir. But this has not phased TiE, a network of IT entrepreneurs and professionals of Indian origin based in California`s Silicon Valley.

TiE advises tech entrepreneurs on raising capital, runs businesses and fosters entrepreneurship, and counts some of the biggest names in the global IT industry among its members.

Popli said the group would open offices in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Karachi in February 2001. The organization currently has 22 offices around the world, he added.

Pakistan recently unveiled plans to invest up to 15 billion rupees ($250 million) in the next two years to promote the tech sector, including establishing a virtual university and seven other regular universities focused on information technology.

Pakistan`s software exports are worth something in the region of $30 million to $50 million, compared with India`s annual exports of $4 billion in 1999/2000 (April- March).

http://cgi.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000605/2327932s.htm

Beseech the gods for Net profits Indian dot-coms hope prayers block business demons

By Marco R. della Cava

USA TODAY

SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- In these chilly dot-com days, who would begrudge an enterprising soul some insurance against Wall Street`s cold shoulder?

Some start-ups might keep overhead low; others put off an initial stock offering. But for a few dozen technology start-ups born recently here in the heart of Silicon Valley, staying on the right side of fate has meant calling in a priest.

The companies in question are all run by techies whose family roots are in India. Analysts estimate that this growing ethnic group is behind roughly 900 high-tech firms in the Bay Area.

The religious ceremony in question is a Hindu religious rite called a ``pooja,`` which implores various gods to run interference on undesirable fiscal obstacles. ``In business, they say you need the element of luck, of being in the right place at the right time,`` says Manjunath Kashi, CEO of Avakai Information Networks, a business-to-business Web portal that was blessed in April.

``In our culture, we take care of everything in advance,`` he says. ``We do our due diligence on our business and, if you will, in our religion.``

Has prosperity visited yet?

``Well,`` Kashi says with a smile, ``two VCs (venture capital firms) called the other day.``

Pooja results flow two ways.

In addition to an honorarium for his time, the priest who conducted the poojas, Umashankar Dixit, has received stock options. They have blossomed enough to help him build a temple in Bangalore, his hometown in India. Although Dixit declines to discuss his stocks in detail, he does acknowledge a productive gift of 500 shares from K.B. Chandrasekhar, chairman of Web-maintenance firm Exodus. The shares netted him $12,000.

He plans to return to India after his three teenage children go to college. ``My whole goal here, and back in Bangalore, is to promote our culture,`` says Dixit, who arrived in the USA in 1991 to serve as priest at the Shiva Vishnu Temple in nearby Livermore, Calif.

Although to Western ears the concept of praying for a windfall could seem a bit jarring, in truth most Eastern religions embrace the notion of asking deities to contribute to one`s financial as well as physical and spiritual well-being.

``It`s not unlike asking the bishop to bless a racehorse,`` quips Mark Mancall, professor of South Asian history at Stanford University. ``It`s all simply for good luck. Whereas we might carry a rabbit`s foot, Indians perform a pooja. Every sensible person would.``

Specifically, prayers are recited to both Ganesh, the multi-limbed elephant god of good fortune, and to the female goddess Lakshmi, who perches on a lotus flower and oversees the wealth of the universe.

CEO Kashi has a modest shrine to both gods in the corner of his startup`s cramped $2.75-per-square-foot offices.

On a battered, empty Compaq computer box sit a small statue of Ganesh, a framed image of Lakshmi and $108 in either silver dollars or quarters. The coins represent the 108 gods prayed to during the one-hour ceremony.

``You know you can`t really keep your concentration focused 100% during the whole ceremony,`` admits Kashi with a sheepish smile. ``So this way you assume, with 108 gods, some of them heard what you were saying.``

Executives who have invited Dixit to perform a pooja are quick to stress the cultural foundation of the ceremony.

``Whether we have grown up in India or here in the United States, we all are raised with these sorts of traditions,`` says RamaSharma Kristipati, president of VetHeaven.com, a medical supply start-up. ``Even though we are sitting here at the tip of the high-tech world, we try to keep in touch with the old world,`` he says. ``That keeps us balanced.``

When Deepak Chandani scheduled his pooja -- its date is dictated by the founder`s birthday, the alignment of the planets and the name of the company -- he made sure his Western employees were included. Some 60 Indian and Western staffers of Reez.com, a real estate services Web site, jammed into a conference room to hear Chandani and Dixit chant. Some even joined in.

``Initially I didn`t understand what was happening,`` says COO Michael Lancaster. ``But soon I realized that what was being discussed was basic corporate ideals: aiming for success and reducing obstacles.``

Back at Avakai Information Networks` office park, CEO Kashi is eating at an Indian restaurant next to his small suite.

``We want to be a Yahoo for B-to-B commerce,`` he grins between bites of chewy nan bread.

And if the pooja doesn`t bring Avakai such Web-world glory?

``That`s OK,`` he shrugs. ``Hinduism isn`t all about success. It`s about a way of life.``

From the UK times

``In a sign of how Germany relationship with India has been turned upside down, Germany`s foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, was startled to find three days ago that the chief minister of Karnataka,India`s most hi-tech state, was too busy

to meet him.``

http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,223515,00.html

Read complete story at http://www.outlookindia.com/20000529/coverstory.htm

The Best And The Brightest

Near-complete autonomy and a fanatical focus on quality make the IITs the cradle of some of the world’s best talent

A radical thought, but worth considering. What was Jawaharlal Nehru’s greatest gift to the nation? His economic policies lie discredited, most of the public sector behemoths he created look like elephants thrashing about in quicksand, our democracy struggles with the dynasty he left us with, the Non-Alignment Movement is a joke, his five-year plan system a travesty, and Kashmir festers. So what is the one unimpeachably visionary, unquestionably positive thing that he left us, something for which we should be grateful to him?

A radical thought, but worth considering: Nehru’s greatest gift to his nation was the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).And the world seems to agree. IITians today head some of the biggest corporations on earth. To name only a few: Rajat Gupta (IIT Delhi) heads the world’s most famous management consultancy, McKinsey & Co; Rono Dutta (Kharagpur) is president of one of the world’s biggest airlines, United Airlines; Dr Arun Netravali (Mumbai) is president of Bell Laboratories, the world’s finest electronic research centre; Vinod Khosla (Delhi) was co-founder of Sun Microsystems and is one of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley; Gururaj Deshpande (Chennai), due to the massive valuation of his start-up Sycamore Networks, is one of the highest-net-worth Indians on the planet. Some of Silicon Valley’s biggest young stars are IITians. When Valley legend Jim Clark (co-founder of Silicon Graphics and Netscape) decided to transform the US healthcare system with Healtheon, he had a simple strategy: recruit as many IITians as he could find.

One reason for the IITs’ excellence is the fair-and tough-selection process.

Back home, supercorporation ITC is headed by Y.C. (Yogi) Deveshwar (Delhi); housing finance giant HDFC has Deepak Satwalekar (Mumbai) as managing director; NIIT, one of India’s most successful young companies, was set up and is run by two IIT Delhi alum ni, Rajendra Singh Pawar and Vijay Thadani. Nandan Nilekani, president and managing director of India’s most admired corporation, Infosys Technologies, is from IIT Mumbai. Arjun Malhotra (Kharagpur) co-founded India’s largest infotech group, HCL, and then went on to set up US software major TechSpan. Reliance Telecom is headed by B.K. Syngal (Kharagpur), Hindustan Aeronautics by C.G. Krishnadas Nair (Chennai). The list is endless. Check any giant global corporation: chances are there’s an IITian among the top 10 people there. Check any successful Indian company: there will be an IITian among the top four executives.

Money is spent on infrastructure rather than glitz and creature comforts.

Not since the glory days of Eton-Oxford and Harrow-Cambridge has the world seen the alumni from a bunch of institutions wield such power. So what is it about these engineering schools that IIT is today, in the words of Pavan Nigam, who co-founded Healtheon with Clark, ``the biggest Indian brand after the Taj Mahal``?

The truth is: in a country with an abysmal record of primary education, an inefficient and corrupt higher education system, universities that routinely bow before their political masters to admit unworthies and award gold medals to hooligans, we have six centres of unmatched educational excellence. Six engineering schools, in Kharagpur, Kanpur, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Guwahati, where entry is restricted by arguably the fairest and toughest entrance exams of this level in the world, the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE). Only about 2 per cent of the more than 200,000 boys and girls who sit for the JEE every year get through. They are The Chosen. Unlike almost any institute of higher learning in the world, the IITs have no quotas based on wealth, power, donations or children of alumni (except for the standard 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent of seats reserved for scheduled castes and tribes respectively). Entrance is strictly through merit. You may be the prime minister’s son, but you don’t get to be an IITian if you don’t pass the JEE. IIT Kharagpur director Prof Amitabha Ghosh’s own son couldn’t clear the JEE. The director shrugs it off: ``I did not bat an eyelid because I knew there was no other way out.``

Those who excel in the classroom and outside are given the greatest respect.

No wonder you never meet an IITian who isn’t intensely proud of his alma mater. Every alumnus unfailingly calls his IIT years ``the best years of my life``. United Airlines’ Dutta looks back at IIT as ``a period of learning, of forming relationships, of emotional growth-it was my own little Camelot``. Says Yogesh Gupta (Chennai), executive vice-president of the New York-based Computer Associates: ``The best thing about the IITs was that anyone who was there deserved to be there.`` Adds Infosys’ Nilekani: ``My years in IIT have played a seminal role in shaping both my skills and worldview.``

How does the IIT system consistently create and nurture excellence? The answer is multifaceted and the reality something India can be truly proud of.

The first-and most important-aspect is of course the JEE, which ruthlessly separates the wheat from the chaff. And then, when the 17- or 18-year-old, fresh from his JEE triumph, arrives at the campus, he is immediately plunged into an atmosphere of great intellectual ferment. He (we use the masculine pronoun because the vast majority of IITians happen to be male) will spend the next four or five years in an intensely competitive cauldron where the only things respected are brains and talent. Students and faculty make no distinction between rich and poor, city slickers and marginal farmers’ sons, caste and creed and religion; the only things that matter are ability, expertise, leadership quality. Says Subrata Sengupta (Kharagpur), dean, University of Michigan-Dearborn, College of Engineering and Computer Science: ``The friendships, loyalties and understandings in IIT made national integration a meaningful concept well beyond the slogans of the day.``

Cuts in the IITs’ subsidies have seen alumni rally behind their alma maters.

Appropriately, the first thing a fresh IITian learns is humility. Every boy or girl getting into IIT has been a school topper and quite likely a merit lister in the higher secondary board. But once in, he discovers that there are equally bright, equally hard-working people all around him. ``What did I get out of IIT? The realisation that there are lots of people smarter than I am,`` says Malhotra of TechSpan. ``And that you need to go the extra mile to keep up with these folks.`` ``IIT,`` says Reliance Telecom’s Syngal, ``taught me that competition is the name of the game. We were supposed to be India’s creme de la creme-some 350-odd chosen out of 15,000 to 20,000. Therefore, to assume that you were the best was a folly. You had to be better than the best: the instinct to go for the kill, that instinct never to take anything for granted.``

But though elite institutions, lifestyles are hardly lavish. There are dozens of engineering schools where hostel rooms are more luxurious, the buildings more impressive, the food much better. Indeed, the IITian leads an almost spartan life. Where IITs splurge is on getting the best equipment and most powerful computers for their labs, not on air-conditioned hostel rooms or marble floors. ``IIT Kharagpur was like an ashram,`` recalls Syngal. ``You were far removed from the luxuries of your homes, away from the trappings of city life and the tutelage of parents. After Kharagpur, I could live in a forest or a villa with equal ease.``

Close to the IIT Kharagpur Gymkhana, the hub of extra-curricular activities, scores of young students are clearing campaign posters for the just-completed students’ body elections. Says Manoj, a third year student: ``We do the cleaning ourselves. The rules are simple. The names of those candidates whose posters are not cleared up will be struck off the polls.`` Among the first things IITians are taught is the dignity of labour. Says Gupta of Computer Associates: ``At the mechanical engineering workshops, compulsory in the first year, you just file away at a block of iron for six weeks. Book knowledge is fine, but IITs force you to get your hands dirty.``

The by-product is a quick subliminal course in responsibility for the 17-year-old. ``No one ever forced you to study, but everyone had to,`` recalls Syngal. ``Being responsible was an aspect all of us learnt.`` You had to, otherwise you were out on your butt. The IITs follow a relative grading system: the grade you get is dependent on how other students fare. ``You could get 90 out of 100 and yet get a D because others got more. The prospect was daunting enough to psyche the best students. It pushed you to the limit,`` recalls Deepak Bhagat (Kanpur), head of product strategy at Sun Microsystems, US. ``At Kanpur, you were always running faster and faster to stay ahead. Compared to that, the University of Wisconsin, where I did my MS, was a holiday,`` says Nigam.

The quality of students is matched by the quality of faculty. ``The fairness of the entry for students is well-known. But what is little known is the fairness in the selection of faculty. It is easier to gain admission through the JEE route than to get a teaching job. No other institute has such exacting standards,`` says M.S. Ananth, dean, academic courses, and professor of chemical engineering at IIT Chennai.

For more proof, listen to Prith Banerjee, President’s Gold Medallist, IIT Kharagpur, 1981, and currently Walter P. Murphy Professor and Chairman, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northwestern University, Illinois. ``When I came to the US as a graduate student with one suitcase of personal belongings, I brought along my lecture notes from my final year classes in Kharagpur. Whenever I struggled with some upper level courses at the University of Illinois, I went back to those notes. I’ve used those notes many times in developing my own lectures when I taught at Illinois and Northwestern.`` Suhas Patil (Kharagpur), founder of Cirrus Logic and now ceo of Tufan Inc, recalls that when he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for his MS, his first thoughts were that ``IIT professors were actually better than many of the MIT ones``. Netravali, who holds arguably the most coveted position in electronic research in the world, admits the three hours of the Electrical Machines exams given by Prof M.S. Kamath ``felt like an eternity. It taught me humility``.

Add to this combination of high-quality students and faculty the total isolation from Indian politics. There are no strikes, dharnas, protests or holding classes or faculty to ransom. No political party has ever entered the campuses. Says Prof S.C. Sahasrabudhe, officiating director, IIT Mumbai: ``We are centrally funded, so local politicians cannot exercise any clout with us. IIT was set up with the backing of very strong people way back in the ‘60s with the highest values and was meant to be an organisation which maintained standards of excellence. They never tried to interfere. Now the tradition is so strong that no one can think of making or asking for concessions and favours.`` Each IIT, by virtue of the IIT Act, has an autonomous board with no provision of political or bureaucratic nominees on any major committee. These six engineering schools are perhaps the only truly free and fair centres of learning in India.

But, in the final analysis, IITs are about IITians, India’s best and brightest, brought together to learn from and compete with one another, inside the classroom and outside. ``In the end, it’s not about the curriculum, it’s about your fellow students,`` says Venky Harinarayan (Chennai), co-founder of junglee.com. ``The same curriculum and professors, without the students, and you won’t have the IITs. I learned more from my classmates than I did from my profs.``

And it’s not just the technical education, comparable with anything available the world over, that makes an IITian. Says Prof B.N. Sreedhar, dean (students affairs), IIT Kharagpur: ``The training procedure includes great stress on extra-curricular activities.`` Says Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, President’s Gold Medallist, IIT Kharagpur, 1985, and now a professor of computer science at his alma mater: ``An IIT campus is a unique amalgamation of talents-talents not confined within the boundaries of engineering books or tools. IITs help shape a complete person. You can be anything and everything from a white-collar executive to a maverick filmmaker.``

Curricular was interesting. Extra-curricular was really what mattered,`` says Harinarayan. Indeed, inside the IITs, the greatest peer group respect is reserved for those who excel inside and outside the classroom. Next come those who excel only outside the classroom and then those who specialise in cracking the exams. And even there, few IITians have much respect for the student who does nothing but study all day. It’s brains, not bullwork, and talent, not memory, which get peer respect. Malhotra, winner of the B.C. Roy Gold Medal, awarded by IIT Kharagpur to the graduating student with the best mix of curricular and extra-curricular achievements, recalls that when he reached IIT, he wanted to have fun and enjoy his time. He held a number of student body posts and says his outside-the-classroom activities taught him ``how to motivate friends to focus on meeting goals. It was great learning and the basis of my managing people later in life``.

``The extra-curricular activities taught us self-confidence, how to handle uncertainty, how to approach complex problems, how to collaborate with other intelligent individuals,`` says Netravali. ``IIT was a fantastic place to develop as an individual.`` NIIT chairman Pawar feels that it was ``a life lived to the fullest. It pushed up my energy levels``. Patil of Tufan recalls that even something like an inter-hostel gardening competition was taken so seriously that budgets were passed, botanical books opened up and soil composition discussed. Says ``Desh`` Deshpande, founder and chairman, Sycamore Networks, and one of the richest Indians alive: ``I worked hard but I also learnt that you have to have fun all along the way.``

Thus, in the four or five years he spends there, the IITian faces incredible competition, takes phenomenal stress and enjoys himself hugely, all at the same time. Recalls Harinarayan: ``The biggest advantage an IIT education gives you is confidence in your abilities. My experience gave me the confidence to dream.`` Says Purnendu Chatterjee (Kharagpur), president of the New York-based Chatterjee Group: ``IIT set the pace and built a foundation for standards. I realised that I have a great deal to accomplish but you must also have fun alongside.`` Pawar, who was the general secretary of the students affairs council plus captain of the IIT Delhi hockey team, says: ``Today, when I hold 72-hour non-stop workshops at NIIT, it reminds me of my undergrad days. The habit of hard work, discipline and responsibility has carried through to this day.``

Says Prof S.G. Dhande of IIT Kanpur: ``IIT gives its students the confidence and ability to face new and challenging problems in any sphere-whether in management or technology or finance. This explains why IITians are not just found in technology jobs but heading investment banks, airlines, marketing companies.`` Companies of every ilk hanker for IITians, simply because they are the best and the brightest, not just for their engineering knowledge.

By the time he leaves his alma mater, the IITian is a tough, cosmopolitan man, supremely confident that he can take on the world and win. He will also remain, for the rest of his life, intensely loyal to his IIT. And loyal IITians today are putting their money where their mouth is. For years, critics have carped about the Indian taxpayer subsidising the education of IITians only to see them take the first flight out to the US of A. Today, they are giving back. In 1992, as part of the economic reforms process, the government cut IIT subsidies dramatically. And the alumni rallied around instantly.

IIT Mumbai’s alumni have already contributed more than $20 million to their alma mater. Silicon Valley tycoon Kanwal Rekhi donated more than $2 million to set up a School for Information Technology. Infosys MD Nilekani has given more than Rs 11 crore. In the US, IIT alumni have set up the IIT Mumbai Heritage Fund. IIT Mumbai hopes to raise Rs 500 crore by 2008, its golden jubilee year. ``But the alumni are gung-ho,`` says Prof Narayana Murthy, dean, resource development, ``and think it’s too long a period and hope to do it faster.`` Expatriate IITians, all those brains that were drained away in the last 30 years, are also back as venture capitalists, angel investors, employers. It’s payback time.

The government’s slashing of subsidies also forced the IITs to focus on other sources of income like industrial consultancy. A perennial criticism of the IITs has been that they lived in a world of their own and their technological expertise did not help Indian industry. All that has changed now. IIT Kharagpur earned Rs 14 crore last year from consultancy. Says Prof B.N. Mitra, dean, sponsored research and industrial consultancy: ``We have traditionally worked with a lot of Indian companies. Now the mnc deluge has started. Our current research includes work for companies like at&t, Bell Labs, Motorola, Microsoft, Compaq, GE Caps and Oracle.`` Indeed, IIT Kharagpur has developed some stunning new technologies in the last few years. In a project sponsored by Goodricke and the Indian Tea Association, IIT scientists have broken the age-old myth that tea, especially the superior variety, can be grown only in hills which attract plentiful rain yet do not retain the water. ``We have proved that excellent tea can easily be grown on laterite soil where rainfall averages between 1,100 and 1,200 mm a year,`` says Prof Mitra. Currently, the institute is working on technologies that can grow tea on vast tracts of fallow land in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.

So in a way, the subsidy cuts have helped unleash new energies within the IIT system. Says Prof Anand Patwardhan, IIT Mumbai alumnus, and currently teaching at its School of Management: ``In the ‘70s, IIT was a teaching institution; in the ‘80s, there was a focus on research; and in the ‘90s, the scope was further expanded to include knowledge and wealth creation.``

The dream lives on, stronger than ever. And perhaps nowhere stronger than in the youngest IIT, at Guwahati, where the second batch is about to graduate. IIT-g is hell-bent on matching the standards set by its older siblings and also attempting to set new benchmarks. Every hostel room has an Internet connection. IIT-g is the only one offering a BTech in Design, which it sees as its usp. Says Sudhakar Nadkarni, head of the department: ``In years to come, this will be the course to apply for.`` Nadkarni is adapting the design course to local conditions too. Bamboo and cane craft for instance. ``We get master craftsmen from the northeastern states who impart training to our students who then try to adapt the designs through mechanisation,`` he says. Top technology meets native Indian talent. That’s the way, one suspects, Nehru envisioned the IITs to be.

The dream lives on. Thank you, Panditji.

By Shantanu Guha Ray and Neerja Pawha Jetley

With Charubala Annuncio, A.S. Panneerselvan, Nitin A. Gokhale and Vasantha Arora in New York

Viewpoint/ Cover Story

THE BEST OF WORLDS





``Five years with a highly select group of competitive kids develops your ability to survive in a highly competitive environment.``

Gururaj Deshpande

IIT Chennai

Chairman, Sycamore Networks

``IIT was a period of learning, of forming relationships, of emotional growth-it was my own little Camelot.``

Rono Dutta

IIT Kharagpur

President, United Airlines

``When I went to MIT for my MS, I found that my IIT professors were better than many in MIT.``

Suhas patil

IIT Kharagpur

Founder-CEO, Cirrus Logic

``It was the best education. IIT trained us for almost anything we might have to face. It was a fantastic place to develop as an individual.``

Arun Netravali

IIT Mumbai

President, Bell Laboratories

``Most IITians abroad are successful entreprenuers and professionals. They are great abassadors for the country.``

Rajat Gupta

IIT Delhi

CEO, McKinsey & Co.

``You could get 90 out of 100 and yet get a D for others got more. The prospect pushed you to the limit.``

Deepak Bhagat

IIT Kanpur

Strategy head, Sun Microsystems

``In IIT Kanpur, you were always running faster and faster to stay ahead. After that, my MS in the US was a holiday.``

Pavan Nigam

IIT Kanpur

Co-founder, Healtheon

``In IIT, I realised that I have a great deal to accomplish but you must have fun while achieving your goals.``

Purnendu Chatterjee

IIT Kharagpur

President, The Chatterjee Group

``What did I get out of IIT? The realisation that there are lots of people smarter than I am.``

Arjun Malhotra

IIT Kharagpur

Co-founder, HCL Group; chairman, TechSpan



MINDGARDEN

Six ways to rule the World

IIT KHARAGPUR

Established: 1952

Largest number of courses, including several not offered by other IITs.

Excels in post-graduate studies and research

Some distinguished alumni:

Rono Dutta, president, United Airlines

Purnendu Chatterjee, president, The Chatterjee Group

Suhas Patil, founder, Cirrus Logic

Arjun Malhotra, co-founder, HCL Group

B.K. Syngal, CEO, Reliance Telecom

IIT MUMBAI

Established: 1958

Chemical engineering education comparable with the best in the world

Some distinguished alumni:

Arun Netravali, president, Bell Laboratories

Kanwal Rekhi, Silicon Valley venture capitalist

Nandan Nilekani, managing director, Infosys Technologies

Deepak Satwalekar, managing director, HDFC

Rakesh Mathur, co-founder, junglee.com

IIT CHENNAI

Established: 1959

Computer Science is its forte

Some distinguished alumni:

Gururaj Deshpande, chairman, Sycamore Networks

C.G. Krishnadas Nair, managing director, HAL

Venky Harinarayan, co-founder, junglee.com

T.T. Jagannathan, group managing director, TTK Group

Sunil Wadhwani, CEO, iGate Capital

IIT Kanpur

Established: 1961

Computer Science at IIT Kanpur is the most coveted course among all IITs

Some distinguished alumni:

Rakesh Gangwal, president, US Air

Umang Gupta, CEO, Keynote Systems

Pavan Nigam, co-founder, Healtheon

Deepak Bhagat, chief, product strategy, Sun Microsystems

Ashish Gupta, co-founder, junglee.com

IIT DELHI

Established: 1963

Physics and mechanical engineering are a big draw

Some distinguished alumni:

Rajat Gupta, CEO, McKinsey & Co

Vinod Khosla, founder-CEO, Sun Microsystems

Y.C. Deveshwar, chairman, ITC

Rajendra Singh Pawar, CEO, NIIT

Mohanbir Sawhney, e-business theorist

IIT GUWAHATI

Established: 1995

Only IIT to offer BTech in Design

Distinguished alumni:

Only two batches have graduated till date

umairr,

[...``Indians are not helping Pakistanis in the US... even though it has Pakistani members...``]

membership has its privileges! ;O)

ZZ Reply #4: ``I believe Indian community should not bother to help out Pakistanis. Watching the ungratefulness of Bangladeshis like signalph, I believe money generated will go to lashkar-e-toyba for terrorism in India and not generating beter ties between two countries.``

This is an interesting comment. It suggests that the Indian community in the US has been helping out the Pakistani community. I don`t think that is the case. Neither community is helping the other, nor is it harming the other (although the recent efforts of the certain US-based Indian organizations to get Pakistan declared a terrorist state, and to stop Clinton from visiting Pakistan, seem to have been directed at harming Pakistan).

On a individual basis the relations between Indians and Pakistanis are quite good in the USA. Lets hope they stay this way. Although, there are some cracks appearing at the community level. I think the aims of both communities in the USA should be to help their own countries and not to harm the other country.

If you look at investment in IT, you maybe surprised to find that Pakistani VCs have actually funded more Indians than vice-versa. The reason is that their are far more Indians to fund than Pakistanis. Also because the primary motivation of a VC is to make money. However, the fact remains that more Pakistan-American money is going into Indian-American IT businesses, than vice-versa. I am not sure whether there is any Pakistani IT company that the Tie bigwigs have funded (if someone knows of one, please let me know), even though it has Pakistani members, and is supposed to be a South Asian organization.

So you can sleep easy. Indians are not helping Pakistanis in the US. Certain Indian organizations are actually starting to promote an anti-Pakistan agenda (luckily, TIe is not one of these). Rogue army ads, terrorist state declarations, stopping the US president from visiting Pakistan etc. should be left to the politicians. Initiating this kind of stuff from the US is only going to put the two communities against each other. Let`s hope TIe is able to stay away from political issues, and survive as purely an organization for entrepreneurs.

Ras,

Thanks for an informative read. Ever notice how business and the economy, like poetry and the arts, never receive as much attention as politics or psycho-social babble?

Regardless, I write on the eve of the commencement of the APSENA 2000 conference. I go with high expectations. This is the first conference of its kind I have heard of - organised by the Association of Pakistani Scientists and Engineers of North America, to do with the new economy and overseas Pakistanis. It is being held in Washington DC, and will hopefully be a good platform for networking, business and social exchange among the Pakistani-American community.

While I do hope to report on this, I wonder if there exist any other forums akin to the one I mentioned - I know, for instance, of APPNA - Association of Pakistani Physicians of North America. A central resource, like a website or an information manager, would benefit the community in incalculable ways.

In the end, let me add that a very contributive part of the fabric of South Asian America are the non-Indian South Asians, and by this, like you, I do not mean Pakistanis, but all other South Asians also. We`ve gone too long identifying with the banner that is `India`. This term applied to us in colonial times, but in this politically aware age, `South Asian` is by far a more inclusive term. Let`s hope we all use it more often.

Manail

Ras,

Thank you for a vivid description of the event.I have a small piece to share with you about Bapsi Sidhwas recent visit to Palo Alto.

As an aside, it was your comment about Bapsi and her speech at the event which made me chuckle. From your description, it appears that she was very much in her spirits and ``enjoying`` the event. I happened to be present at a casual lunch session scheduled in her honour by the south asian studies deptt at Stanford University. I asked her about her recent travels, and she was quite amusing in her recounting the San Hose trip. She said that it was perhaps the last time, she would give her talk while being simultaneously projected onto two live widescreens placed precariously behind her, where every square cm of her face was being scrutinized by the ``technocrat`` population present, which made her atrifle self-aware. Nevertheless, she admitted it was a ``fun`` event, though one which she does not intend to indulge in the near future. Technology and the arts are separate, and well a union in the form of the SJ spectacle, is not recommended.

At one stage during her interview, she did remark that the writer Salman Rushdie was moved by her first book, and had used a form of her expression in his book, i believe the Midnight children. Asked as to whether she would like to have the popularity Rushdie enjoys, she said `` I think not``...with a glimmer of a smile on her face.

when asked``What is it like to be an acclaimed pakistani english writer in Pakistan``,she chose her words very diligently, and replied...``It certainly is not easy, as the majority of the Pakistani critics have yet to come to terms with my gender, and secondly myr fame outside Pakistan;clearly some of them still question her claims of beinga writer, let alone an acclaimed one``. Though she was hesitant to include her origins as a lahore-based ``parsi`` , into the equation, when questioned directly about it,.. she tended to dismiss it quite lightly,. as ``possibly yes``.

I have to admit she is a very relaxed speaker, and her fluency in gujrati, english, and punjabi trIckled through almost effortlessly in her usual conversation. Unfortunately i could not make it to the screening of the movie ``The earth``, later that evening, where she read from her latest book ``Cracking India``. Some of you might not know that the book had to be renamed on the request of Harper and Collins( I think, the american publishers) from ``The candyman``, which is a sort of reference to the ``drug`` culture, in US. In fact the publishers decided on the new name of Cracking India, as they wanted to convey the flavour of the book, in its title. However she still felt, that the ambiguity ``Cracking`` vs ``Crack`` (Drugs)still lingers on...

Friends later told me that she was truly in her element, at her bookreading.

Regards

Asim Hayat

India and Pakistan should work together to advance hi-tech cooperation. Here are some links for techno-savvy folks.

http://www.fortune.com/fortune/2000/05/15/ind2.html

http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/software/20000509/A44685-2000May5.html

http://www.ecompany.com/articles/mag/1,1640,6607,00.html

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/05/08/Business/Business.6372.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/05/03/BU102886.DTL

http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/industry/20000502/A30652-2000Apr28.html

http://www.asianweek.com/2000_04_20/biz_indianamerican.html

Re: arshy, #1

I think you need to make a distinction between the behavior of the Indian government, ie, BJP, and the common citizens of India, especially the Hindus. The common Indians have nothing against Pakistan, they accept Pakistan as a separate country, want to live in peace with it, want both countries to get rid of abject poverty inflicting their respective countries, and prosper together. Ditto for the Pakistanis. I believe that is the view of Ras, as expressed in this article, and that is what TiE seems to be promoting.

If we could get rid of the fanatics who see everything in black and white, South Asia would be a wonderful place. Fanatics, just like poverty, is a curse. I hate to say this, but both countries are cursed. Hats off to people like Ras and organizations like TiE who are trying to remove this curse.

Ras

[``...Let us ... have more TIE`s and not nuclear rivalry... and no Kargils.. And let us find a collective success in business because South Asians need to fight poverty much more than each other. ...``]

Amen !! Soum` aameen ! Well said brother.

...SR

Thanks for a positive article. Sometimes the tenor of Indian and Pakistani web-sites depress me (maybe I have added to the depression of others with my own posts). It is important to remember that the average visitor to these Indo-Pak web-sites is a highly politicized person (myself included)and therefore tends to look at thngs through a political identity framework. It is always good to be reminded about the non-political class. I was happy to note the high Pakistani turn-out at TiE. I had read in CHowk that TiE was turning into an Indian forum and Pakistanis were being marginalized but this article seems to indicate otherwise. God bless them all. The use of the word IndUs is quite a masterstroke - appealing to Indians, Pakistanis and Americans alike.

Ras

in the end of this article you mention a positive perspective in analyzing Ms Sidwa. However you must realize that Pakistani and Indian people are and never were the same people. I stand firm on Jinnah`s statement which i cannot quote since i dont have the book ``praise be for jinnah`` with me at my University`s computer lab. but i can try my best to reflect my view on his words, ``There is not one nation present here, not a muslim and not a hindu``.

so to say that india was cracked, literally we are backing the Hindustani agenda of Pakistan should have never been created. India was never cracked, india never was there to begin with until 1947. Wherever you research you will find that The land which is now Pakistan, India and Bangladesh has always been subjected to so many conquests. Pakistan specially, has a different character than India or any other country in the region. We have Aryan, persian, turkish, arabic, greek, chinese, mongolian, afghan, and african influence not only apparent culturally but also physically.

i do not support the media that tries to show pakistani and indians having any ties. If i had to pick one country which is maliciously trying to destroy another country i would have to pick India. It has always blamed its domestic problems on Pakistan, and it has always regarded Pakistan as an enemy. The Indian politicians know for a fact that India stands with no chance of winning an argument over Kashmir, so the indians use a different tactic to gain international favor, especially USA`s favor. The indians deliberately try and infact do use the Kargil incident and many other skirmishes to renounce any talks with Pakistan. This is out of hatred for the nation that they could not defeat which they have tried 3 times already. Indians know for a fact that Pakistan`s military is much more strategically advanced so they beg USA to request Pakistan to pull-back. its a shame that over 70,000 indian military men could not vacate the kargil area of just a few hundred Mujahideen. This is why they blamed that it was Pakistani Army regulars so they will not look like a shame in the eyes of their own country.