TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2008, Asia’s Largest Entrepreneurial Summit: Day 2

Theme of TES 2008 is ‘Inclusive Entrepreneurship’

Bangalore, December 17, 2008: The second day of TiE Entrepreneurial Summit 2008 (www.tiesummit.org) continued with sustained focus on the importance of “Inclusive Entrepreneurship”. Dr. Carl Schramm, President and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, S Gopalakrishnan, CEO & MD, Infosys Technologies Limited, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & MD, Biocon India Ltd, Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson & Founder, Arghyam, Ramesh Ramanathan Co-Founder, Janaagraha, Satish Reddy MD and COO, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Subroto Bagchi, Gardener & Director, MindTree Ltd and a host of other renowned innovators and entrepreneurs shared their knowledge and experience with the 1500-strong delegates throughout the day.

Making the Presidential address, Dr Schramm, one of the world’s leading thought leaders on social entrepreneurship spoke about entrepreneurs who not just “build economies but expanded welfare as well.” His talk focused on the unseen futures that entrepreneurs had enabled in India.

The importance of TES 2008 was emphasized by Captain G R Gopinath, CEO, Air Deccan who had on the previous day also delivered a talk to a standing ovation. “Entrepreneurs destabilize the status quo. They create wealth and jobs for the country. Governments have to create the ecology for the entrepreneurial spirit to thrive and translate ideas and dreams into great enterprises for equitable growth. And TiE is doing a great job in giving the fillip to the dreams of entrepreneurs to take the plunge” said Captain Gopinath,

Taking off from the first day, the summit continued to evince great interest in budding entrepreneurs. Scott Cook, Founder & Chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit Inc in his keynote address shared his journey in building Intuit in to one of the most successful personal finance companies. Microsoft, a worldwide partner of TiE, announced the formal India launch of BizSpark, the entrepreneurship support program with Sheila Gulati, General Manager, Microsoft Corporation delivering the partner keynote address to a packed audience.

A special panel discussion exploring how microfinance was poised to empower the next million entrepreneurs chaired by Rohini Nilekani, Chairperson & Founder, Arghyam, saw a lively debate on how to change the structure of global capitalism to include the needs of the poor. Speaking on the subject, Nilekani said that “de-risking entrepreneurship for the poor was a priority.”

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & MD, Biocon India Ltd, one of the key panelists in the discussion on ‘Igniting India’ anchored by Shereen Bhan, Delhi Bureau Chief and Executive Editor, CNBC TV 18, provided thoughtful views on where Indian entrepreneurs were headed and how they could transform the future of the country though their risk-bearing nature and their unrelenting drive for innovation. Speaking about TES 2008 and the importance of entrepreneurship, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson & MD, Biocon India Ltd said, “The Indian economy thus far has been shaped by two distinct waves of entrepreneurship. The first wave of entrepreneurs built India’s manufacturing sector which has attained global leadership in Generic Pharmaceuticals and Engineering goods. The new millennium saw the second wave of entrepreneurs who built world class knowledge-led services sector in IT and Life Sciences. The next wave of entrepreneurs has a unique opportunity to pursue innovation led product development that has the potential of positioning India as a global hub for Research & Development.”

The special panel discussion chaired by Som Mittal, President NASSCOM on ‘Outsourcing, Offshoring, Obama, Over-reaction’ witnessed many interesting views raised on the subject of outsourcing, and offered fresh insight into the future of outsourcing. Mittal remarked that TES 2008 was “A great event. The spirit of entrepreneurship was visible all across – the large participation notwithstanding the economic priorities reaffirms the confidence we have in the future. IT industry in particular has grown through entrepreneurship and will also be our future growth engine. With thought leaders willingly sharing their learning is of great value for upcoming companies including NASSCOM members.”

William Bissell, Managing Director, Fabindia Overseas Pvt Ltd, shared his inspiring journey with Fabindia Overseas Pvt Ltd.

The second day of the summit saw budding entrepreneurs networking with established industry leaders. The event continued to see participants in large numbers drawn by the marquee names from industry sharing their insights on microfinance, funding for start ups, opportunities in media and entertainment, challenges in healthcare, growth in mobility, human resource management as well as key questions related to incubation of new ideas and ventures.

The one-to-one mentoring and one-to-many Guru Talk forums continued to see aspiring entrepreneurs seeking guidance from eminent Industry leaders such as Naren Gupta, Founder and Managing Director, Nexus India Capital, Harish Bijoor of Harish Bijoor Consultants Inc.

Raman Roy, Chairman & MD, Quatrro summed up the day saying, “Today there is no doubt that India has some of the finest minds in the world – these fertile minds show potential entrepreneurs who can be game changers. We need to help unlock their potential and the invaluable capital that they represent. TES 2008 will help crystallize some of the action required to unleash that potential.”

The summit continues into its third and final day on December 18, 2008. Focused on Clean Tech, the day will commence with unique sessions by Dr. R K Pachauri, Director General, TERI, inspiring My Story sessions by Satya Narayanan, Chairman, Career Launcher, Harish Hande, MD, Selco-India, Mahesh Patel, Chief Innovation Manager, Gujarat Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN), panel discussion on energy efficiency, the funding of clean tech start-ups and will culminate with the conference valedictory session.

About TiE

The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) (www.tie.org) is a global not-for-profit organization focused on promoting entrepreneurship. TiE helps budding entrepreneurs by way of advice, guidance and assistance from successful & experienced entrepreneurs and professionals. There are currently more than 12,600 members and over 1,800 charter members in 52 chapters across 11 countries.

About TiE Bangalore Chapter

The TiE Bangalore Chapter (www.tiebangalore.org) is the largest Indian TiE Chapter and amongst the top five largest TiE Chapters in the world, with around 850+ Associate Members and over 130 Charter Members. The TiE Bangalore Governing Council comprises of industry leaders such as Nandan Nilekani of Infosys, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw of Biocon, Ashok Soota of MindTree, Dr Sridar Mitta of e4e, Pradeep Kar of Microland, B V Naidu Group CEO, Vanpic Ports Pvt Ltd and Poornima Jairaj Executive Trustee Amber Valley Residential School.

For further information, please contact:

Bringi Dev, Executive Director

TiE Bangalore Chapter

+91 98 440 84873

bringidev {at} tiebangalore(.)org

Vidhya Arvind

The Practice

+91 93 791 68989

vidhya {at} the-practice(.)net