TiE International president Kanwal Rekhi, who was in Ahmedabad to announce the seeding of its sixth Indian chapter here on Monday, recalled that TiE had opened 13 chapters in America during the last eight years but set up as many as five chapters in India in a span of less than 18 months.Explaining the objectives of TiE, he said, "It's not just for Venture Capital(VC) or the latest technology, but for `angel investment' and `networking' with their counterparts in the Silicon Valley through TiE that appeals most to the Indians."

It is not that other federations of trade and industry have lost the sheen, but there is a sudden rush among entrepreneurs and particularly those connected with Information Technology (IT) to join the TiE league.However, explained Rekhi, "We are not very keen to go on adding chapters for the sake of numbers. The core group watches a centre for six to 12 months. The members have to show persistence and punctuality and only then a chapter is opened."

So far, TiE has opened five chapters in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai. After Ahmedabad, it could be Calcutta. And, then on, he hinted, the new chapters might be opened on state-wise basis rather than city-wise.As the name suggested, he told newspersons, TiE was more a movement that sprang from the grassroot to bring Indian entrepreneurs in America closer. When TiE was established in San Fransisco Backbay, it had no plans to expand. There was a demand from Los Angeles and now it has chapters all over.Although IT and IT-related entrepreneurs comprised the bulk of TiE members, there are a number of success stories in VC, bio-technology, packaging etc. The Houston chapter is more in the hire-purchase business, which is yet to pick up in a big way in India.

A non-profit organisation, TiE offers three types of memberships, namely (i) associate membership for young budding entrepreneurs with a fee of Rs 3,000 per annum, (ii) corporate membership with a fee of Rs 75,000 pa, and (iii) angel investors is by invitation only to the already succesful leader and also for Rs 75,000 pa.

He said that bureaucrats in key positions are made honorary members by virtue of playing a significant role as `enabler' to entrepreneurs.Earlier, in an interactive session, jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gujarat Council and the State-owned Gujarat Informatics Ltd (GIL), Rekhi said that Indian entrepreneurs have already succeeded especially in IT industry. There is no reason why they could not attain the $50 billion software exports target by 2008 as projected in the Nasscom-McKinsey report released in 1999-end.

He said the result can already be seen. The average annum income of an IT professional in India is $15,000 as against an average Indian's $500. He said that it has been widely realised by now that the IT industry could grow best in the private sector alone. The government can play the role of facilitator or regulator.

In his address, Nasscom president Dewang Mehta said one of the most important contributions of the government in boosting IT exports was to give income tax rebates when it was needed the most. Referring to the role of government of Gujarat, Mehta said, it has been one of the least interfering types and ranked the highest (3.84 on a scale of 4) in terms of a business-friendly government vis-a-vis other state governments in a Nasscom report due for completion shortly.

JS Rana, secretary (IT), Gujarat, said that availability of bandwidth at affordable cost was the key issue before the government. Over 25,000 km of optic fibre cable would be available in Gujarat by 2000-end. Eight of our 63 international gateways have been allocated to the state.