Vision India 2020: Bioscope

Professor Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon University first urged me to look at micro-franchise as a vehicle for economic development. Today, micro-finance has become a world-renowned phenomenon, especially with Dr. Yunus’ Nobel Prize two years back. [You can read my interview with Raj here.]

Role Model Interviews

Over the last few months, I have done a series of interviews with leaders – CEOs, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Technologists, Academics, and Social Entrepreneurs – which offer insights to young and old alike about key choices – in business, in career, in life. * Jerry Rawls, CoFounder & CEO of Finisar * Philippe Courtot, Founder and

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The Mystery of Katoor

So, were you able to identify the hero of my story? Yes, it was Raj Reddy, world famous Computer Scientist. I have been speaking with him often, and one of the questions we kicked around recently was as follows: (1) 99% of gifted rural youth don’t get the opportunity. The same is true in India

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Micro-Franchise For Venture Investment

For those of you who have read my discussion with Prof. Raj Reddy at Carnegie Mellon, you are familiar with our debate over MicroFinance, MicroEquity and MicroFranchise. We continued drilling down on this topic last weekend, following Sequoia’s investment in Micro-Finance company, SKS. I also wrote a piece referring back to some ideas from 2

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The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 15)

I conclude my conversation with Raj discussing some theoretical benefits of his plan to take high speed network access to the villages. Additionally, Raj explains what he feels is necessary for this vision to come to reality. SM: Anything that improves or provides their livelihood can be the killer app. RR: Yes, that is the

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CZN: Rural Connectivity

We have been talking with Raj Reddy about education, and that led us to the subject of rural connectivity. This morning, we started talking with Maggie Wilderotter, CEO of Citizen Communications, a rural telecom company. Most likely, you have not heard about this company, so here is an overview.

The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 14)

Raj and I engage in a conversation debating the potential uses and benefits of providing high speed network connectivity to rural areas. In the process, we have some disagreements on microfinance models, but agree on the end goal of the killer app: providing a livelihood to the poor population. SM: The question is, by selling

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The Education Problem: Raj Reddy (Part 13)

Raj continues to address his concept of taking bandwidth to underdeveloped populations. SM: It is just sunk costs, that should be OK. RR: They just need to bite their tongues and assume it is all lost, and it will come back via economic growth. So, that is the first problem I would like to solve;

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