Summit Notebook

from Abhiram Nandakumar:

A garage, a beaker and a Bunsen burner

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, one of India’s most influential businesswomen and among the world’s most powerful women, says she’s an accidental entrepreneur.

Mazumdar-Shaw has shown that modest garage start-ups can extend beyond software and hardware companies. She set up what is now India's largest listed biotechnology company in 1978 and she encourages others to follow suit.

“Today a lot of early stage research work can be done in a garage,” she said at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

Mazumdar-Shaw reckons opportunities for bio-tech startups are huge, considering the demand for sophisticated technology like genomic based systems, diagnostics for cancer stem cells, and high-end synthetic biology. All these are usually developed in small labs across the country.

“What I find today is that there are a large number of very innovative young biotech entrepreneurs who are doing things in a very small way. CellWorks is doing very interesting work on drug design.”

Her advice to budding entrepreneurs – If you have a novel idea and are looking to set up a business, don’t think twice, just go for it.

from Sakthi Prasad:

From coffee beans to brick buildings

M.R. Jaishankar, chairman and managing director of real estate firm Brigade Enterprises, the youngest of 12 siblings, started his career in the family business of growing coffee beans.

 But after a nasty labor dispute, which resulted in the burning down of his factory in 1984, he saw an opportunity in the real estate business in the then sleepy Bangalore city -- and tasted big success.

Jaishankar said his first real estate loan of 10 million rupees in 1984 was considered so large that it had to be approved by the bank’s board of directors.

 In contrast, he said in today’s IT-driven Bangalore, a loan of 10 million rupees could be approved at the level of a branch manager.

 Perhaps even possible that people do sign such a deal these days over a cup of coffee?

from Sakthi Prasad:

Real Estate – To invest or not

Everyone of us has our own ideas about a dream home and usually wonder if it makes a good investment or not. 

But for Abhijit Mukherjee, president of the pharma firm Dr. Reddy’s, the choice is very clear -- He is not a big fan of real estate investment. 

While speaking to Reuters journalists at the India Investment Summit in Bangalore, Mukherjee cited the American example of a recent real estate crash and wondered whether India, too, is headed in the same direction. He said buying a house and holding it for value appreciation over a number of years is not a good idea.

Notwithstanding his skepticism, he said he is thinking of changing his apartment. But he was quick to add that it is not a very exciting investment.

Mukherjee would rather park his money in a high-risk, high-reward investment like equities.

from Sakthi Prasad:

The brave new world of Ideas

The world was built on ideas and in the absence of innovation, mankind would have continued to live in stone age.

Of course, Rostow Ravanan, chief financial officer of Mindtree, would subscribe to the view that new ideas are absolutely necessary to promote business growth. Well, who wouldn’t? While talking to journalists at Reuters India Investment Summit, he vigorously defended his company’s foray into designing smart phones saying it is a new idea, which may as well pay off.

Ravanan, in a philosophical manner, said the world is “spermicidal” and is designed to kill new ideas -- but that will not deter a company like Mindtree in pursuing business opportunities. Just because the smart phone market is perceived as crowded, it is not a good enough reason for Mindtree not entering the market.

 When he was pushed by Reuters journalists to provide some color and details regarding the company’s smart phone project, he evaded the volley of questions in an innovative manner: He said he is paid not to reveal the details before the official launch.

from Sakthi Prasad:

New Contracts are like honeymoon

As the old adage goes, it is easy to build a new house as compared to remodeling an old one. If one would like to extend this adage to the new-age IT industry, then we could use what L. Ravichandran, president, IT Services of Tech Mahindra, told the Journalists at Reuters India Investment Summit in Bangalore: it is easy to negotiate new contracts with the clients rather than renegotiating old ones. He likened the new contracts to that of a honeymoon -- both the customer and the service provider are happy. But, of course, he did not extend his metaphor to old contracts by likening it to a marriage gone vinegary.

Ravichandran also pondered over the fate of fixed lines telephones. According to him, the fixed line phone will not be done away with altogether. Instead, it will be increasingly used to deliver other digital services like broadband internet, IPTV etc.  So in a perverse way, landlines may continue to be used, but not much to make phone calls though.

from Sakthi Prasad:

India Investment Summit comes to Bangalore

Executives of real estate, technology and pharmaceutical firms will be exclusively talking to Reuters journalists about their companies’ growth plans, challenges they face and business opportunities that are available within the wider context of India investment story.

Stay tuned.

Infrastructure still top-of-mind in India

On Monday, we kick-off the 2010 India Investment Summit. We’ll have exclusive interviews in Mumbai and Bangalore. In 2006 we held the first Reuters India Investment Summit. It was my first time in India. I’ve had the privilege to return every year. How time flies. Here we are four years later. Some of the key players may have changed but the big, over-arching theme is still the same: Infrastructure. It’s the key to realizing the country’s potential but bureaucracy, tough financing and hesitant overseas investment have slowed development in the sector, calling into question the future of India as a powerhouse.

India has had only mixed success in its efforts to accelerate construction of roads, bridges and power plants. The statistics are mind-blowing…the country is growing at 8.5% and has a population of 1.2 billion that is making a mad-dash from the countryside to sprawling cities. Call them growing pains…in India’s expanding cities there is an acute need to speed project approvals, implement new financing models and attract overseas investment for much needed infrastructure. But, while the business opportunity is tremendous investors looking to India as a way to play the emerging markets are wary given the history of missed deadlines and red tape that makes getting projects completed a challenge.

Is red tape getting better or worse? Which sectors are attracting most interest? How do returns compare with similar projects globally? How do sector companies attract foreign investment in large projects? Are the challenges forcing investors and developers to look overseas instead?

These topics and more will be the key points of discussion at the Reuters India Investment Summit in Mumbai and Bangalore September 27-29.

To read our exclusive stories and analysis starting September 27 copy and paste the link below to your browser: www.reuters.com/summit/IndiaInvestment10

The Reuters India Summit comes to Bangalore

On Wednesday, the Reuters India Investment Summit comes to the information technology hub of Bangalore.

The city has become synonymous in the West with outsourcing and “cheap labor” but is rapidly emerging as a hot spot for research and development. Bangalore is also marching ahead in the information technology value chain. Some companies like Wipro actually outsource work from India to Egypt.

However, the city poses several challenges for the multinational companies. Infrastructure growth in the city hasn’t kept pace with population growth and economic development. Power cuts are frequent, and it isn’t uncommon to see pothole-filled roads clogged with traffic against a backdrop of modern glass and steel buildings.

Other challenges for the outsourcing industry include pressure from populist U.S. politicians, who point out that the economic recovery hasn’t been able to curb unemployment. Buffalo, though, is unlikely to take away any jobs from Bangalore in the foreseeable future.

The Bangalore leg of the Summit will feature senior executives from the information technology giants including Infosys, Wipro, Mphasis, Mahindra Satyam and SAP.