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the 2009 wharton india economic forum
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titled india the road ahead took place
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in philadelphia and brought together
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CEOs of leading Indian companies
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investors heads of nonprofit
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organizations sports celebrities and
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Bollywood stars to discuss where India
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is headed in an age of economic
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uncertainty Indian knowledge at Wharton
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brings you one-on-one conversations with
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these leaders Thank You mr. partier for
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joining us we all know you from hotmail
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which the rumor on the street at least
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is sold for four hundred million dollars
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I don't know if you can confirm that but
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you've since been involved in various
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other ventures can you tell us about
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some of these other projects that you
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have been with since hotmail sure sure
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definitely one of the ones that I'm very
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excited about which we will go live in
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the next month or two is a company
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called insta call and the specific
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product that we have developed is called
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live documents and this is based on a
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new technology it's flash based it's a
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complete software written in flash and
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it runs on the Adobe's integrated
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runtime environment but the advantage of
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this is that it is a complete
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replacement for Microsoft Office for all
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the three components all the four
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components I should say Word PowerPoint
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and Excel and outlook but the unique
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advantage being that it runs on every
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platform which is you know on PCs on
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Macs on UNIX on Linux and within the
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browser and it lends itself to you know
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better security and better collaboration
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so that is one company that has been
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working on this technology for the past
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three or four years and I'm quite
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excited about then there's another
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company called subsea bolo which is a an
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audio conferencing platform that we have
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developed for developing markets such as
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India and Malaysia and some of the
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African countries this allows carriers
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cell
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carriers in these countries to offer an
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inexpensive way of providing
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teleconferencing services to their
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subscribers the next product that we
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will launch on on this platform is a
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mobile PBX so instead of people having
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to buy PBX equipment and install it in
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their premises they'll be able to do it
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virtually and we we hope to partner with
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some of the carriers in these developing
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countries then there are a couple of
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others one of you must have heard of
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nano city I'm hoping to develop an
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entire city outside of Chandigarh and
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also now in Gujarat which will emulate
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the vibrancy of Silicon Valley and we
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hope to do that by providing modern
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infrastructure and also providing you
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know a platform for education I mean you
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cannot have Silicon Valley with luck
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without the knowledge so it will be a
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knowledge city and hopefully it will
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grow into you know becoming a center for
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creation of intellectual property in
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India now some of these other projects
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are distinctive but the first project
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that you mentioned there are other
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players right there's think office and
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others what makes your program
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distinctive yeah we've looked at all of
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the competition including Google Docs
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and Zoho and a whole bunch of others all
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of them have taken Open Office the
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entire open office suite and put it on
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the web and in other words they have web
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enabled Open Office Open Office itself
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has a number of limitations it is not
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fully functional when you compare it
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with product version of office for
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example the excel does not have macros
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we have chosen not to take that bath and
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instead develop our own own suite of
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applications which not only matches the
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functionality of office but takes it one
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step further for example we have
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integration with Twitter we've got
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complete ability to publish any charts
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or any graphics that are created
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in Excel on and onto any webpage we have
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also enabled PowerPoint to be widget
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eyes so that it can be published as a
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widget that can be embedded in any any
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HTML document or any document on the web
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we've integrated it with Google and
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Google Maps so if you look at say names
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of certain cities instead of just
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putting up a bar chart with the names of
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those cities it will actually bring up
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these cities on a map so it allows us to
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be more web 2.0 like because we are
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based on the web and also on the desktop
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we can very easily integrate with other
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web-based services
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now you had obviously hotmail which was
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exceedingly successful at the venture we
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are also entering a period as you know
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economically which we in the on the
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internet side at least we had
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experienced at the time that you were
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launched your artists do venture which
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was buffeted by those while there are
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come crash in a sense can you tell us
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what lessons we can learn from
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I guess not come crash that may be
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relevant to us in terms of what's
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happening now yeah it's very pertinent
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question and it's very relevant relevant
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one as well we've I really personally
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learned from you know going through the
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dot-com crash personally and I think one
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of the things that we have adhered to
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ever since then with all of my companies
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is to keep our costs low and luckily we
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we are developing products that are
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substantially lower priced with the same
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level of functionality or even greater
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so we think actually we are uniquely
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poised well poised for this downturn
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because every company today is looking
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to cut costs and rather than creating
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new products that you know would require
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companies to to change to alter their
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their way of operating
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all of these company
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that I have mentioned to you do the same
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thing at much lower costs for example
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example take a look at subsea bollo it's
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built on Asterix
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which is an open software for telecoms
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and it enables these telecom operators
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to provide the same service such as at a
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substantially lower cost
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same thing with live documents if
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Microsoft charges you know $400 per copy
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retail we can sell the same service at
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five dollars per user per month so we
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think we're uniquely poised and one of
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the things that we've done quite
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effectively is keep our development
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costs and people costs very low from an
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entrepreneurial standpoint though you
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know confidence and bluster was you know
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it is an important segment and we are
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living in a time where clearly fear is
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talking the land what impact does it
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have on the entrepreneurial spirit and
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what do you say to those entrepreneurs
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who feel that fear at this moment
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necessity is the mother of invention so
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while on the one hand you are correct
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there is a general fear that has
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pervaded new you know the entire
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marketplace and that includes
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entrepreneurs I I would I will say that
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funding for new ideas and new startups
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has and will come down substantially
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but having sent said that so will the
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competition so if you've got a unique
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enough idea and you have to really be
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careful about identifying market need
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this is actually a great time to start
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companies but you've got to be very
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careful in that you really hit a true
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market need and for that it's safer to
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tread you know there are two ways you
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can innovate in at least in three ways
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you can innovate innovate in Silicon
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Valley you can make something
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substantially cheaper at the same price
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or you can make something substantially
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better at the same price or you can make
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now with this new mantra of clean
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technology you can make something
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substantially cleaner at the same or
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reduce price these days if you can do
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something you know you can create
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something which is substantially cheaper
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that will do I think the best because
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the marketplace is looking to lower its
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costs across the board whether it's
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companies or its individuals they're
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looking to find the same quality and
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that's the reason why you know netbooks
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for example have become so successful
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and so popular and people talk of the
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netbooks being the next revolution
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because there's they are approaching the
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price points that the One Laptop Per
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child initiative was hoping to achieve
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you know using a cheaper processor and
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doing the same thing at about you know
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$299 per computer so that's getting down
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to that level so that's the advice I
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would give to entrepreneurs that look to
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doing something which people are already
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familiar with which people have already
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purchased in the past but try to see if
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you can shave the cost and provide the
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same value at a lot cheaper price now
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you have also I guess been an
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entrepreneur both in the US and now in
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India one I guess why did you choose to
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make that shift to India and how would
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you I guess evaluate climate for
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entrepreneurs and India's versus that in
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the US well there are opportunities and
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challenges in both places the advantage
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of a very well developed marketplace
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like the United States is that it's a
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lot easier to sell if you've got
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something unique and something which is
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far superior to what exists like once
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again in India people are looking to get
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their once sorry there needs fulfilled
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at a large cheaper price so it's a very
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price-sensitive market the advantage of
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you know developing something in India
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it's that the costs of development are a
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lot lower but so also are the
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inefficiencies of the marketplace
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because of the poor infrastructure in
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the country you know and you've got a
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battle power cuts and and water
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shortages and you know frequent
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infections spreading through your office
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space I mean the human productivity does
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take a beating and on the other hand in
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the u.s. you know it's it's you to find
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quality talent at least in the high-tech
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space it's a lot easier at least in
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Silicon Valley but the opportunity of
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servicing a market which is at the
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bottom of the pyramid of you know 606
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700 million people who've never you know
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used certain products I think that is is
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a true challenge and and at the same
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time a great opportunity and so you know
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entrepreneurs have to be creative in in
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packaging their products and then
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squeezing costs out to service that
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market finally I guess you came to this
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country as an immigrant and I just had
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the opportunities that you did and you
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recognized that in these under these
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economic pressures there are pressures
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to essentially close that free flow of
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human capital what's your sense on that
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no I think that's a really bad idea
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because increasingly the world is
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becoming more global and I think as a
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human species if we have to advance we
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have to bring down barriers and to a
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great extent inexpensive communication
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has already done that you know people
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don't need to physically be present or
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live in a particular place in order to
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do business in and I think it's
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beneficial for every country to open its
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markets both ways because while for
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example I mean take the example of this
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very recession while the entire Western
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world is suffering from a slowdown India
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is still growing I'll be that a much
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lower rate of growth than before but
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there is a tremendous opportunity like
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take for example the housing sector you
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know in India 40 million new homes need
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to be built to
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of course these have to be low-cost
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homes to because you know 200 million
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people live in huts and don't have
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access to modern amenities like power
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and water and and modern sewage
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treatment facilities
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similarly with cellular phones Indian
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cell phone market is growing
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same thing with cars while there is you
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know 2 cars per family in the United
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States there is one car - I think 70 or
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80 people in India so they also up offer
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great markets so it would be a bad idea
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for any government or any country to to
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restrict that that that free flow of
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trade and information and ideas and and
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and experiences across borders I mean I
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have learned a lot from India I've given
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a lot back to India and vice-versa you
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know I have learnt a lot over there that
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I've deployed over here and taken a lot
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of ideas from here over there so I think
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there has to be a more seamless
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you know flow of both information ideas
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and capital across the world thank you
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mr. Walia you're most welcome
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you
