EmTech Spl: It's time to invest in rural India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Where do the next big investment opportunities lie in India? It is in providing health care and education to people in rural areas. It is not the leaders of left parties which are making this claim.

This piece of consensus came from participants in EmTech India 2009, MIT's premier technology conference being held for the first time in India jointly by MIT and India's CyberMedia Group.

Taking part in a panel discussion on “Touching A Billion Lives: Investing in India”, Aruna Sundararajan, IAS and CEO, Community Service Centre, IL&FS said that it is time for us to ask why touching a billion lives is important.

“If the India growth story has to be sustained, we cannot achieve that without an inclusive growth,” she reasoned. She said the examples of Kerala and Gujarat can be emulated by others.

“You look at Kerala, the state has done an amazing thing to manage and develop high quality of living that matches the Western World. Investment in ICT has also grown high. So clearly the storyline is that there are opportunities all around. It’s all about picking up the right thing at right time,” said Aruna Sundararajan.

At a time when the Western companies have lowered their overall investment in the technology sector, it seems they have different strategies for the Indian technology sector. See the box below to learn about some of the recent and major investments and expansion plans for India announced by global IT and IT-services firms.

However, challenges are no less. “In Silicon Valley, people invested money in small ventures. But in India there is a blurred line between investments made by various venture capitals. Indian venture capitals have to be part of India’s success story. Entrepreneur stories in India are interesting as well as challenging,” said Sateesh Andra, Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, India.

Besides IT, the healthcare, rural and education sectors are the emerging areas of interest of today’s venture capitalists. “I see a huge opportunity in terms of education - skills development and healthcare. But again the biggest challenge is to reaching out to the bottom of the pyramid,” added Sateesh.

“The rural sector is another emerging opportunity area,” said Aruna. “To reach out to these people, there is a technology and business innovation. But the most important one is the marriage between technology and business innovation.”  

High technology will enable us to reach out to the bottom of the pyramid but that’s not sufficient. “So it’s policy and government - someone who can understand the entire ecosystem and can help to make it a success,” observed Sateesh.

What should the new investments be all about? “From new ventures point of view, we tell our startups to look at five-to-seven-year cycle, especially if you are into a sector (high demand sector). From M&As point of view, startups are already getting value.

Who is to play to the major role in making the new ventures work in the county? Of course, the answer is “government”.

“Government is helping out in building investment opportunity in India,” said Aruna. 

Answering a question from the moderator Jason Pontin, Editor in Chief, MIT’s ‘Technology Review’ on what he thinks are exciting investment areas, Sateesh Andra said that education provides a huge opportunity in a country like India.

Aruna Sundararajan hoped that with private sector realizing the need to invest in rural areas, the growth will finally happen.

“We have been discussing it for ten years, but it is for the first time that the private sector is talking the same language. That makes me hopeful,” she said. She urged companies to design solutions for all areas including healthcare, education, and clean energy by using mobile more effectively.