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Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande is an unlikely billionaire, and an even less likely "Richest man in India." Wealth, and now fame, sits lightly on this jovial man from North Karnataka's Hubli-Dharwad area. A sixties immigrant who came to the United States to teach, he has parlayed his tech knowledge into entrepreneurial wizardry to make a sensational debut on Wall Street. But at home, he is still a middle class Indian. His wife Jayashree, also an IIT graduate, is a homemaker while his two children learn Indian arts and languages. A fortnight before the Nasdaq splash, Deshpande, hung out with young Indian techies at a Silicon Valley conference, dispensing advise and capital to an army of wannabe billionaires. Dressed casually in slacks and shirt, he spoke cheerfully to Washington Correspondent Chidanand Rajghatta
Q: What is it that is making Indians so successful in this country and particularly in the high-tech field?
A: I think we are intellectually able to wrestle anybody inbusiness. Also, the barriers of getting into business is going down tremendously because there is a lot of capital available.
Q: Are Indians better prepared academically and in terms of training?
A: Not really. In fact, business models are moving so fast that you don't now need traditional management school backups like going to Harvard or Yale. New business models are emerging all the time. In some ways, to be a good entrepreneur, you have to define a new game instead of playing a game better. Being Indian immigrants, we have an advantage in terms of out of box thinking. We come from a very different culture and we look at things differently than Americans. It is turning out to be a huge advantage.
Q: What about our education system? Does it offer any advantages?
A: It could be just be the numbers game. I went to IIT Madras and recently I was back for the 25th anniversary reunion. One thing that has stayed intact is the admission process. It is uncorrupted. Picking 200 outof 50,000 applicants gives you very high quality, motivated students and that is enough of an education. It gives a great pool.
Q: What is the defining moment as an immigrant businessman? When did you think you were going to make it?
A: Oh, I came here wanting to be a professor and became an entrepreneur due to a series of accidents. I think life is always a series of accidents and you just have to grab it at the right moment. But now the Indian community is banding together here and we are hoping to make more such accidents happen!
Q: It's not exactly an Indian trait to help one another in business, especially in India. How is it happening here?
A: Well once you have enough you want to begin to help. The question is how much is enough. After all, how much can one eat and spend? In US, opportunities have created wealth and many US institutions have gained. It has not happened in India. There is no mechanism to give and we are trying to create it with TIE (The IndusFoundation).
Q: I have always thought Indian education institutions are like Indian parents. They will give and nourish but they will never ask.
A: Yes. It is changing, but they are still reluctant to ask. If you look at MIT or Harvard, they will invite you to their gathering, give a speech, and ask you to write a cheque. The Director of IIT came, gave a speech, but did not ask.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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This story was printed from Net Express located at http://www.expressindia.com. Net Express provides a portal to India, with news from The Indian Express and The Financial Express along with sites on travel and tourism, the entertainment industry, the power sector, the environment and much more.
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