Forget the US of A, stick to India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: As part of the recently launched ‘10,000 start-ups' program, National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) organized ‘In Conversation with Vivek Wadhwa - A talk from Entrepreneur, Researcher and Innovation visionary Vivek Wadhwa - Director of research at Duke University and fellow at Stanford Law School.

The agenda of the session was to acquaint young Indian tech entrepreneurs with the disruptions that are taking place globally in the field of technology and how India startups can leverage these innovations to solve humanity's grand challenges.

Emphasizing upon the need for India to re-invent itself from a nation of IT professionals to Technology Innovators, Wadhwa highlighted the massive opportunity that exists in solving problems related to Healthcare, Energy, Water, low cost information technology and additive manufacturing.

On the sidelines of the event, Wadhwa said: "Technology is advancing so rapidly that by the end of this decade, industries will be decimated and newer industries will emerge. There are many opportunities available for startups today to create tomorrow's billion dollar businesses and to start solving some of humanity's grand challenges. Today, India is at the verge of an Internet boom-greater than what the US experienced and there are many opportunities entrepreneurs can tap to solve big problems for India and the world."

Wadhwa shared that while there is an air of pessimism in the developed world about the exploding problems of the world and the growing scarcity of resources, he felt confident due to some of the remarkable technological advancements made across the world which are not just restricted to the developed world but are also happening in emerging countries like Chile and India.

He predicted that Healthcare is undergoing a tectonic shift and smartphones are poised to replace doctors for more than 80 percent of health related problems. Medicine is increasingly becoming digital and Indians have the opportunity to build apps and medical records for patients globally. He added that due to advancements in Genome sequencing which has drastically brought the costs down, in the next 20-30 years, medicines are going to be prescribed based on Genome, which opens a floodgate of opportunities for software developers.