Month: March 2007

India Needs More Incubator Funds

Sramana Mitra writes about the seed investment situation in India and says “more money chasing India, and simply not enough deals to absorb the interest. A VC mentality “India is booming, let’s send $200 Million to India” prevails at the moment in Silicon Valley. The grass, washed by the monsoon rains, seems infinitely greener in India, than the dry California hills along Highway 280.”

She adds that the “truth is, India is still very busy being the back-office of multinationals. It is downright impossible to hire senior management for startups, luring them away from $100,000+ packages.” Go read her insights and recommendations on what needs to happen in the incubator space.

Private Property

AP reports that a man from New York was fined Rs 209 and “kicked out” of the Puri Jagannath Temple for being a non-Hindu.
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Making Distinctions

Hauled from the archives, here is a bit on the distinction between information and knowledge. This is important because I think we are in an age of superfluous information (followup to that here.) Making distinctions aids comprehension and consequently the ability to efficiently effect change. I like to distinguish between economic growth and development because economic development is the goal and in many cases economic growth is the instrument for development.

Rambling on about technology and development

This one is a pointless ramble. OK, most blogging is. But this one is only more so.

Invariably during discussions on India’s development, technology is thrown around and often the notion that India will leapfrog some barrier or the other surfaces. I find myself disagreeing with many of those propositions. I think much semantic confusion is caused by not having a clear understanding of the terms.
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Craig Barrett on the OLPC

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has powerful interests on both sides of the debate. It is easy to guess who’s on which side. Bill Gates, for instance, is predictably against the OLPC as it does not use Microsoft software. The OLPC is not using Intel chips. That could explain why Intel Chairman Craig Barrett will be a critic. Mind you, merely because they are not disinterested observers, it does not follow that they are wrong in their criticism of the OLPC project of Mr Nicholaus Negroponte.
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