India to embrace Silicon Valley culture

MUMBAI: India is all set for the creation of a Silicon Valley culture in the country that nurtures entrepreneurs and ideas, Professor Richard Dasher, director US-ATMC, executive director - CIS, Stanford University has said.

He was speaking at the Stanford ATI's India Global Entrepreneurship Conference 2005, one of the most significant events promoting high-tech entrepreneurship in the South Asian region.

Rakesh Mohan, Deputy Governer, Reserve Bank of India inaugurated the conference here. Prestigious Indian academics, venture capitalists, government officials, corporate executives and entrepreneurs discussed the central theme of "The Idea of Silicon Valley in India: Feasibility, Lessons, and Trends."

Prof Dasher said, "While the entrepreneurial environment in the US is highly evolved, I believe that the current Indian scenario presents one of the most opportune times for the creation of a Silicon Valley culture that nurtures entrepreneurs and ideas. It's just a matter of time before the Silicon Valley culture takes off in India as today's entrepreneurs emulate their American counterparts.

Within the Indian economy today there are a variety of sectors where innovative ideas have tremendous potential to flourish through entrepreneurial ventures. Stanford ATI will continue to provide a platform for the exchange of innovative ideas, guidance and intellectual inputs towards promoting high-tech entrepreneurship."

ATI is a group of and faculty members from Stanford University who are interested in business issues in Asia. The aim of the organization is to cultivate entrepreneurship through hands-on entrepreneurial experiences and by promoting relationships between the valley and technology clusters throughout Asia.

Gurcharan Das, former CEO, P&G and venture capitalist said, "With Indian entrepreneurs having proven their mettle in the Silicon Valley, this event

explores the creation of such an incubator within the Indian context. Such initiatives from prestigious universities like Stanford through its ATI programme lend an invaluable insight with regard to the ingredients that go into innovative entrepreneurship."

Dr. Naushad Forbes, Avnish Bajaj, Neeraj Roy, Balakrishnan, Swati Piramal, Farhad Forbes, Prof. Deepak Phatak, Akhil Gupta, Pravin Gandhi, Saurabh Srivastava, Gurcharan Das and Manish Kejriwal also spoke at the conference.