Over the next 10 years, India needs to use technology to solve its problems. It has to start working on products and services for the Indian market

I left India in 1973. It is hard for me to say whether I would have been successful had I stayed back. I believe one's career (and life) is a series of accidents; that it is hard to predict how things will turn out; and that it is even harder to predict how things would have turned out. However, it is possible to look back and see how things were in the past. In the 1970s the difference between India and the US, in terms of technology, was vast. I graduated in 1973 from Indian Institute of Technology, Madras-and I specialised in computers and communication-but I never saw a computer till I moved to Canada.

There are several things Indian that helped me succeed. The work ethic inherent in India's culture provided a solid foundation; its philosophical roots, a sense of balance. There is also a big advantage to being an immigrant because new opportunities can be created only when one changes something in the system; it is sometimes easier to do that when you are an immigrant. Then, there's thrift. In India, most of us grew up with few resources and learnt to do with them. The ability to manage with little gives one the leverage to explore new opportunities and take risks. The pay-off is that if you win, you win big. Business in the US is, and has always been, a meritocracy.

If you look at people like me who moved to either the US or Canada in the 1970s, you'll find several similarities. In the 1970s, we excelled in universities as graduate students. In the 1980s, we made a name for ourselves in universities, as distinguished researchers, and in industry, as technical leaders. In the early 1990s, we proved we could be technical managers, and by the end of the decade we had arrived: Indians were accepted as managers in sales, marketing, and business and general, as CEOs, as entrepreneurs, and as founders of companies.

What I have listed is a broad trend and several of us participated in it. It would have been very difficult to get a similar trend going in India. That it isn't impossible has been proved by the likes of Narayana Murthy. The result is that it is now possible to build profitable global companies in India.

Today, there isn't very much of a technology gap between India and the rest of the world. Advances in telecommunications have created a global economy and we are rapidly getting to a point where something has the same value anywhere in the world irrespective of where the 'value' has been added.

Over the last 10 years, India's success in software has proved that it can compete with the world's best in the knowledge-based service sector. As is evident from hectic industrial activity, this can be extended to call centres, business process outsourcing outfits, financial services back offices, and biotech research centres. India can continue to position itself as a low-cost provider of highly-skilled knowledge-based services. This will create huge opportunities for all kinds of business activity in India. I see several great entrepreneurs and great companies coming out of India in the next 10 years.

That won't be enough. Over the next 10 years, India needs to use technology to solve its problems. It has to start working on products and services for the Indian market. There's an opportunity for India to become the world leader in applying advanced technology to solve problems vital to the global economy; management guru C.K. Prahalad calls this 'technology for the masses'. The government, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and scientists need to work together to harness this opportunity.

I am working on a theme along these lines. I am the Chairman of a Bangalore-based company called Tejas Networks. I am excited about the role this company can play in the rollout of telecom networks across India over the next few years. Once it has successfully established its presence in the Indian market, it can cater to a global market. Around the time I left India, it would have been difficult to visualise such a progression. Today, it isn't just a dream; it is reality.