We have to create a new India: Sam Pitroda

The packed hall of venture capitalist, entrepreneurs and IT professional could not stop themselves from giving a standing ovation to Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations after his speech at TiEcon 2012 conference held on May 18 and 19 at Santa Clara Convention Center in California.

Pitroda was the keynote speaker at TiEcon 2012, in his opening note said friends TiE has been part of my life and I am delighted to be at the conference. Pitroda, shared some true facts about India and through his witty remarks brought in frequent applause from the 3,500 plus audience.

"If they can help us and do our things in India they are welcome. There are lot of opportunities in India to innovate. We need their talent, their emotions and we need their connections," said Pitroda to Rediff.com.
He said in his speech, Indian with 1.2 billion has all types of complexities and contradiction and chaos, but that India is changing rapidly.

"We have to create a new India," said Pitroda and stressed on creating innovation which might take 10 to 15 years. He said to the TiEcon attendees, "You can help me in many ways. You all are doing it, but I think we need more interactions, engagement and your presence in India, which is most important."

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However, he requested the venture capitalist and entrepreneurs, to not try to solve the problem of the Delhi government. He said, "In India you do not need talent to identify problems. Please do not do that, as we know our problems. The main thing is what you can do to solve the problem."

He asked the NRI's when you visit India please visit local schools and just talk to them. So, that at least one of them would be inspired. "I think that is the biggest contribution you can make, said Pitroda, "I am saying this because I do not get audience like this to talk."

He welcomed highly talented IT retirees residing in the US to come and teach at the Indian Institutes of Technology  and said, "I need sincere 100 people who want to teach. And added colleges have to use technology to resolve teacher shortage in India.

He also said procurement is very tricky in India because through procurement you make lot of money in India. "We are trying to break this process and be more transparent though there are not many support."

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Highlighting on the work he has been doing with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Pitroda said that it was for the first time in the history of India, that a  prime minister has advisors on innovation, and has set up National Innovation Council, the State level Innovation Council, the Sectoral Council. The government of India has declared the year 2020 'the year of innovation'.

He talked about Innovation Cluster Initiative of the National Innovation Council. There are 50 clusters and India seek to create role-models of innovation ecosystems in the country.  He gave example of the gems cluster in Surat (Gujarat), brassware cluster in Moradabad (UP) and textile cluster at Tirupur (Tamil Nadu).

Sharing some of his upcoming projects he said, "We are soon going to be launching called "thor, four, jour"(Hindi words) center. Where we will give kids all kinds of instruments like computer, printer, watch, tractor and will ask them to break and put it together."

"I predict that India will continue to grow at the rate with 8 to 9 percent GDP for the next 10 years."We have no option but to grow," Today we see the seeds of what our forefathers planted.They focused on education, R&D colleges like IITs.

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But despite this growth, "We realised that we have big challenges, disparity between urban rural,educated and uneducated. We have to grow but we have to make sure that we are growing with our nose to the ground and focus on innovation," Pitroda said, "Everywhere you look around India you need to expand ,excel and provide education. We have to make sure that poorest of the poor should get the best education possible."

This India is looking for capital, technology and talent from all over the world. He said for many countries US is the role model, everybody wants to copy US, which is based on consumption. He said, "We need Indian model for development. We need Indian solution and we need to think differently, apart from all these exciting economic parameters. We cannot take US model in education,because $40,000 a year tuition doesn't make any sense, or the hospital bill you get here."

He said our business wants certain policies and on the other hand we need inclusive growth. We need strong government.

But the biggest problem is talent in the country, we do not have talented truck drivers, bus drivers, plumbers, electricians, professors, doctor etc. "We need 600,000 more doctors," Pitroda said, "We do not have a plant to produce that. Now we are spending $70 billion on education, but that is not enough."

"My job is democratising information. On public information infrastructure the job is to connect India with optical fibre and broadbands, so we have two major programmes, one to connect colleges and second panchayats. The work has begun," noted Pitroda, the father of India's communication revolution.