The positive results of the first phase of reforms will force us to globalise with greater vigour in the next 10 years

Could I have made it big if I had stayed on in India? No. My answer stems partly from my personal experiences and my middle-class upbringing. If I had stayed in India, I possibly wouldn't have mustered the courage to take the entrepreneurial leap. There were no role models for us to emulate. The fear of failure in India is just too high. But in the US nobody knew me, so failure was not a problem.

Mine was a little different from the other Indian success stories in the US as I hadn't gone there to study. I had worked in India for Wipro from 1983 to 1990 for a full seven years and knew the environment quite well. Also, I didn't have the financial strength to start a business while I was in India. But none of these reasons came into play in the US.

I landed there in 1990 to set up the US operations of Rolta and decided to stay on. I started a company in 1992 with just $5,000 in my pocket. The whole ecosystem of the US is conducive for entrepreneurship. People in the US, especially in Silicon Valley, do not care about nationalities and aren't wary of working with startups. I got my first contract from an Iranian-American. All they are concerned about is: can you deliver? The willingness to take risks is also built-in. However, I have witnessed that culture grow in India in the last few years.

In India, till the 1990s, nobody knew how the rest of the world worked. Nobody had heard about the internet or cable TV. Today the country is just an e-mail away.

I don't think people understood too much about the export market. The Reserve Bank of India and others too did not give it much thought. If you took a machine abroad and left it with a prospective customer for trials, you could not enter India without the machine. That would be a FERA violation. The thinking was that people travelled abroad more for pleasure than for business.

Starting a company in India was a sin. You had to grease scores of palms for something as trivial as getting a phone connection. I headed a committee on venture capital with an aim to cut red tape for entrepreneurs. We had to grapple with issues that were till then taboo in corporate India such as winding down of companies. Things have changed somewhat since then. Unnecessary paperwork and delays frustrate entrepreneurs even today. Money is global today. It could be in Euro, Dollar or Yen. For investors there is still a lot of ambiguity on how to take their money out-something which is of great importance for them. And issues like convertibility add to their woes.

In the US, there's no dearth of role models. We have had examples like Kanwal Rekhi, who was a techie but excelled in managerial roles and setting up companies.

I was brought up in Chennai. I did my BSc. in physics from Madras University and be from Madras Institute of Technology. I joined Wipro and spent seven years in the company in customer service, sales, and as a marketing manager in Europe. Wipro was a great training ground and I still put into practice what I learnt there. The fact that several ex-Wiproites work with me now has also helped in a big way.

The other big attitudinal difference among Indian-Americans is that they go out of their way to help each other. It's a huge network. I distinctly remember a cold December evening in 1995 when I met Kanwal Rekhi virtually empty-handed. He said, "I like you because I see the brilliance of a Madrasi with the bold attitude of a Punjabi." He gave me $250,000 and ever since has been my friend, philosopher and guide. I have also invested in companies with Indian parentage like Aztec, e4e and have been actively involved in garnering investments for India.

In 1991, the first wave of liberalisation took place and gave our economy a big push. Since 1997, the biggest growth engine of our economy has been technology. Now there is a "broad-based" momentum towards wealth creation. But being a democratic nation, we tend to pull in opposite directions. Even today we have labour problems. The next 10 years will see a faster rate of growth as the positive results of the first phase of reforms will force us to globalise with greater vigour.

Intellectual property will be the cornerstone of the next big wave. We not only have the mindshare but also the walletshare in it. So the fundamentals are getting set now for a higher rate of value creation. We should have a three-pronged growth strategy. Improve basic infrastructure, reduce wastage of government money where private sector can be involved and liberalise forex policy.

We Indians are used to making the most of limited resources and that is the key for successful entrepreneurship. We also believe earning money before spending it. With all the necessary constituents in place, the stage is set for India.