INDIA CAN BE ROLE MODEL IN MANY LOW-COST INNOVATIONS

INDIA CAN BE ROLE MODEL IN MANY LOW-COST INNOVATIONS

ONE of the richest American Indians, Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, has come to symbolise serial entrepreneurship and its rewards better than anybody in the tech industry. Having created companies like Cascade Communications, Sycamore Networks, Corel and Tejas Networks, Boston-based Deshpande’s net worth tops $7.6 billion today. He is also the founder of MIT Tech Innovation Lab. On an India visit, the Hubli-born son of a former government staffer, tells Harsimran Julka that it is essential to have extreme challenges or ‘near-death experiences in life’. Edited excerpts:

• What has been your near-death experience or the hardest challenge in life as a technopreneur?

In 1982-84, I helped Motorola build their business, and then in 1984, I moved to Boston to become an entrepreneur. In those days, if you wanted to become an entrepreneur, you had to go without salary for a year just to show your commitment. My first ‘near-death experience’, as I call them, came when just after three months of setting up, my partner and I split up due to difference of opinion. My wife and me had just a month of cash left to support us. Fortunately, we started up Corel Networks despite the cash crunch. We ultimately got funded. Then I started Cascade Communications and later sold it off to Ascend. Near-death experiences are important for one to grow and broaden your comfort zone. It doesn’t mean you should necessarily look for physical trouble. Unfortunately, a large number of middle class families in India never go through such experiences. They try to live a safe and secure life. The worst thing that happens to them in the course of the day is probably that their tea is too cold, or they experience an infrastructure bottleneck. Near-death experiences increase one’s ability to take pain. A lot of people in India worry about mundane things, about going to a good college, getting a good job, marrying then having kids, and then worry about retirement. Rather, they should worry about doing things which excites them. They should know where to go next and what to do next. This is how an entrepreneur is born.

• Apart from Tejas Networks, there are very few large tech product companies in India. Do you think India can produce a Facebook or a Google?

It’s not necessary for India to produce the next Facebook or Google. Masses in India don’t need Facebook as much as they need good infrastructure and education. Necessity is the mother of invention. India can be a role model in many low-cost technology innovations. The fact that India can produce the same innovation at 10%-20% of the price in the West is amazing. Be it in education or telecom, the next big wave of innovation is expected to come from here. Tejas is worth Rs 600-700 crore. Only when we reach Rs 6,000 crore, can we call ourselves successful.

• How easy is it to become a technopreneur in US as against in India in the changed global environment?

Entrepreneurship in the United States is now like World Cup cricket where only a select few get to play in the team, and even fewer get to win. But entrepreneurship in India these days is like street cricket, where any one can play and win a prize! Ten years ago, it was easy in the US to be an entrepreneur. Now, it’s much easier in India and China. In the US, there is a lot of competition for getting funds. In India, you can get funded for $10-$12 million, whereas in the US you need $20 million. And then prove that you can make it worth $500 million. In India, you can easily build an idea. But India still doesn’t offer the university-funded entrepreneurship, as exists in the US.

• Do you think telecom and internet can solve a lot of India’s problems?

I think internet and telecom will change delivery of a large number of services including education, governance and healthcare, even journalism. The rate of change is higher in India. And there are a lot of problems to be solved.

-THE ECONOMIC TIMES.