I am Anurag, CEO of a company called NewGenApps (http://newgenapps.com)
Brief Intro, ex Infosys, withn an H1B which I let expire. Worked a lot with clients in internatioanl markets like US, Europe and Australia as a consultant. Founder member of the Microsoft Business Solutions practice in Infosys, bang at the the time when Satya Nadella was given charge of this division in Microsoft
I read so many articles about tech and future of tech everyday written by amazing journalists in US and esp based in Silicon Valley, which is center of the earth for everyone. They have companies like (starting with HP), Apple, Google, FB, Yahoo
I decided to start a company in a God forsaken place Lucknow, UP India. Why? many ask me and ridicule me...still do, taunting I could have earned crores elsewehre.
Because I am from Lucknow. Lucknow is the capital of one of the most backward states in India, but the political capital of India as UP is the most populous state in India, sending 80 of 540 representatives in Indian Parliament. The California of India. Unfortunatley thats the only comparison, we have the worst leaders lead us. One of them builds her own statues, the other says (2009 manifesto) that computers are evil.
I came back in February 2009 to set up my company here. The journey has been tough. I wanted to create a world class organization here and by many parameters we have done that!
As of today we are trying to build world class productcs which have been fairly successfull.
My dream is to build the Lucknow-Kanpur corridor as a Silicon Valley of India. We have an IIM in Lucknow and IIT in Kanpur. I hope we have a political leader who shares the same vision. We produce great talent through the sheer numbers of our population, but all of us have to go outside to flourish!
The youth also have to unite and understand our power. You need not go to B'lore or NCR and pay companies to train you (yes our political masters, this is a common occurence). Please provide oppportunities to us.
We want to build an Apple, MS, Oracle out of this region. We can do it. Building an IT park where big services companies come offering low value work to undergrads (Btech in India) is a shame
Help small companies who have dreams to grow, and become the next Apples HPs, Googles.
If you cannot do that its a shame. You would have encouraged the best talent to go away, entrepreneurs like us feel disheartened and lost the opportunity to be a great statesman. All we can do then is to go other places and be second class citizens, either in Indian states like Maharashtra or countries like US!
Reagrding SV magazines, if any of you political leaders will be able to build it here then one fine day ( and I dont know if it will come in my lifetime) SV reporters wil come here in droves and give us thae same news coverage and idolism as they do in SFO
I hope any one of you understands thats.
