RANA

This month’s Entrepreneur Forum provides an opportunity to get up close with Bipin Shah, who is a successful venture capitalist and is very well known for community leadership at JCNC, Milpitas and TiE. Bipinbhai, as he is respectfully called, started his career in the Silicon Valley at Fairchild, the training ground for the pioneering Indo-American entrepreneurs. He then spent over a decade at Altera rising to the position of President, Altera Japan.

After Fairchild and Altera, Bipinbhai has focused entirely on investing in, leading, and guiding start-up companies in the Bay Area. He is a Managing Partner at INC3Ventures and a board member of multiple start-ups. Bipinbhai has provided leadership to the Bay Area Jain community and at TiE, where he is a founding Charter Member and a past Director. We look forward to meeting most of the emerging RANA entrepreneur community at this meeting.

A review of May meeting:

Raj Jaswa discussed an outstanding number of management gems about founding, leading, and growing ventures. He spent a considerable amount of time dissecting his experience at Opti and Selectica. Some of his quotes were:

The best of averages can collectively be far greater than the average of the best

The Indo-American entrepreneur community lacks role models of business leaders who successfully crossed the $500 MM chasm.

At Opti, the executive staff meetings were held exclusively on Saturdays until its IPO - this was one of reasons for its cohesive leadership team and high employee morale.

This month’s meeting had an overwhelming response at more than 25 attendees. At this level, we are pretty saturated for our current format, but happy that the community is benefiting from this unique resource, thanks to the generous support we are receiving from TiE Silicon Valley.

To guarantee yourself a seat for the next month’s forum, be sure to register/RSVP online at our Web site. This also gives us an idea of the number of attendees to expect.

IT/ITeS Zone

The IT/ITeS zone is being developed in a total area of 850 acre. We have already received the ‘Notification’ for the phase I of 188 acre of our IT/ITeS zone, where Infosys, Wipro, Nagarro are joining us to build their campuses. The land development work has already started on site. The zone is being developed in such a manner that offers high flexibility & accommodates dynamic requirements of business expansion.

* Mahindra Technology Park (MTP)–

Our prime initiative within the IT/ITeS Zone - when complete, the park will have 1.5 million sqft of built up area spread over 25 acre having state of the art facilities & amenities.

o Warm Shell space with Plug n Play infrastructure, Thoughtful design having adequate redundancy with seamless broadband connectivity
o Focus on Energy efficiency, Sustainable environment, Green surroundings to help create very conducive working atmosphere.
o Three level Power redundancy - two levels at the grid & ESS stage & third at captive power back up stage.
o Floor plates upto 25000 sqft which can be subdivided based on the need.
o Food Court, Bank ATMs, Recreation Center & the GYM, Jogging tracks etc.
o This is being developed in modular building fashion. The first two buildings having a total area of 200,000 sqft shall be ready for internal fit-out by June 2008.
o Incubation space starting from 2000 sqft each.

Since the development of MTP is in on modular buildings line, while we offer warm - shell space in a building, we can also dedicate building/s to suit the business requirement & accommodate expansion as the business grows.

MTP can also be treated as the ‘Start Up Facility’ with the possibility of making the land available for the campus development at a later stage.

* Developed Land Parcel –

We offer developed land parcels 5 acre onwards. If required, we can do ‘Built – To – Suit’ facilities.

As is clear, we have absolute flexibility to meet the business requirements. Our intent is to attract global best – in- class companies——- provide custom made solutions for their businesses — right from ‘Start Up’ & scalable to ‘Dedicated Campus’ & create a

‘City Of Future’.
Rajasthan - The leap from sight seeing to site seeing

Rajasthan’s strategic location and connectivity has elevated it from its position as a major tourist attraction to its current status as a key business center of India. With a well-developed road network that spreads over 1.55 lakh kms and 14 highways networking the state, it scores high on infrastructure. Its state-wide Optic Fibre Cable (OFC) network is a definite asset as are its airports - 3 domestic and an international airport at Jaipur.

The State’s proactive and pro-investment governance has already convinced corporations like Honda Motors, JK Tyres, DCM Shriram and the KK Birla Group and multi-nationals like Coca-cola, Ericsson, Electrolux, Genpact, Infosys, Wipro and Gillette to establish their base here.

Another compelling feature of Rajasthan is the ready bank of quality human resources. 14,000 engineers, 64,000 graduates, 5,000 technical students, 16,500 ITI technicians, 2,30,000 non-technical students, 1370 MCA graduates and 2,650 MBAs graduate every year.

Jaipur ——- the capital of Rajasthan, a prominent global tourist destination, in close viscinity of Delhi & Gurgaon, a vibrant lifestyle and an excellent social infrastructure, Jaipur is indeed a city whose time has come.

NASSCOM and Department of Information Technology & Communication (DoIT&C), Government of Rajasthan, in the month of November 2006, had launched an employment benchmarking test for ITES-BPO in Rajasthan called NASSCOM Assessment of Competence (NAC) TEST.

Approx.2500 students from Rajasthan appeared for this test, out of which approx 2200 students qualified for the interviews. NASSCOM conducted a Job Fair only for NAC qualified students on 31 March-01 April 2007 at Maharani’s College, Jaipur. Companies like Genpact, Infosys, Quatrro, EXL Service, Emphasis, NIIT Smart Service, Fiserve, E-Fund, Cleave Global Services, Auxi Cogent, E-Fund & many more visited the fair and recruited the NAC qualifiers.

Therefore,

A forward looking state—- significantly large talent pool—- best of the infrastructure at very competitive price—- comparatively low operating costs—- very peaceful & conducive working environment—- & to top it all, Mahindra’s commitment to excellence—-

MAHINDRA WORLD CITY, JAIPUR – AN INTRODUCTION

Mahindra World City, Jaipur is a 3000 acre Multi – Product SEZ development just off NH 8 in Jaipur. This SEZ is a joint venture between Mahindra Gesco Developers Ltd. & RIICO – the nodal body of Rajasthan Govt for industrial development.

The Mahindra World City, Chennai — our first SEZ venture already is a success story with companies like CapGemini, Wipro, Infosys, BMW, Sundaram Clayton, TVS & other such highly reputed companies operating out of that development. Today, MWCC is probably the only operational corporate SEZ. We dreamt of something & went ahead with the process of converting the vision into reality. Mahindra World City, Jaipur is our second ambitious project planned by Jurong Corporation, Singapore (JTC), DPR by Ramky Consultants.

The total area, as written earlier is 3000 acres with 2500 acres as the SEZ & balance 500 acres being developed as DTA (Domestic Tariff Area). The PA (Processing Area) is subdivided into dedicated zones.

* IT/ITeS
* Light Engineering & Auto/Auto component manufacturing
* Apparel & Furnishing
* Gems & Jewellary
* Pharma & bio – tech
* Ware housing & Logistics

Because there is life beyond business, we at Mahindra World City, Jaipur, understand that every business is driven by people who have a life after work as well. They have families, leisure interests, daily needs, entertainment and more that make their life complete. Keeping this is mind Mahindra World City, Jaipur, has designed its offering to provide a holistic environment. It will offer premium housing facilities, healthcare, educational facilities, recreation centers, shopping malls and more.

An evening with Rajasthan Entrepreneurs

Anil Data (CEO, Data Infocom)
Nitin Walia (CMO, Data Infocom)
Yogi Durlabhji (MD, KS Durlabhji Gems and Jewelry)
Rajesh Mundra (CEO, Truworth)

Charges: $25 per person | Attire: Business Casual
Wednesday May 16, 7 PM to 9:00 PM
Location:
1313, N. Milpitas Blvd, 2 Floor
Milpitas CA 95035
Phone: 510.710.7199

RANA has taken a proactive role of providing the face of Rajasthan in the Bay Area. It organizes a float of Rajasthani culture at the Independence Day celebration in Fremont. It also hosts highly acclaimed folk and classical performing artists from Rajasthan.

Recently, RANA hosted Bhopa and Bhopi, traditional cloth storytellers, who narrate the epic of Pabuji from memory with music, dance, and singing. The event brought together people of all ages - children, grown-ups and seniors.

Previous to that, RANA hosted an exclusive preview of an art exhibition focusing on the art of Mewar over the past 5 centuries. The exhibition was organized by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and brought together more than 75 pieces of art from all over the world. This exhibition was the first of its kind in the world - there has never been such a big display of Mewar art - outside Rajasthan.

RANA also hosted the Holi celebration free to all participants - whether they were RANA members or not. The present Executive Committee would like to invite the opinions of RANA’s community members to make this an even more dynamic and responsive institution.

RANA is a voluntary and non-profit organization and needs all the help and effort that you can provide it. Please post replies to this post or respond to us by email - comm@rana.org

RANA is organizing a picnic to meet its future, new and current members. RANA will provide space, parking, and some barbeque food. Those attending should bring a pot luck lunch to share with others.

Directions and parking

Picnic location is Central Park, Santa Clara (directions, map). This place is centrally located for all those in the west side of Bay area, and is also easily reachable on close by for those coming from the Peninsula or East Bay. Great America Parkway (and 237 if you are coming from East Bay) will get you straight to the picnic areas.

• Parking and Directions At 909 Kiely Blvd enter parking lot. Look for signs of Santa Clara Community Recreation Center when parking your vehicle. The parking lot is close to Kaiser and Kiely.

1. from 880 - Take W 237, exit at Great America Parkway and continue on Kiely.
2. from 280 - Take Saratoga Ave N. exit and turn left on Kiely and go past Homestead

• The picnic will be right behind the community center.

Pot luck lunch

1. Please bring pot luck lunch to share with everyone - twice as much as you would prepare for yourself is more than enough. Bring no more than 2 dishes because there is likely to be plenty of variety.
2. Besides that RANA will provide free barbecue food - makki, mathira (watermelon) and thandai.

We are looking for help in organizing the picnic. We also plan to bring music, games, activities, and laughter to the picnic. We are looking for volunteers who can:

• Bring some team sport - say a volleyball net and a ball
• Organize kids activities - say coloring and painting, water gun fights
• Stand-up comedy - short skits, jokes, and mimicry

If you can help in any of these ways, please contact us - events@rana.org or 408-761-7146.

General Meeting

The picnic will also provide us an opportunity for a brief general meeting. We hope to find out how RANA can be more effective in your lives and the community, to discuss where RANA is going and what you would like it to be in the future. Register now.

P. S. Put on some sunscreen - there will be plenty of sun (expected temperature 72F).

This month we are bringing the eminently successful Raj Jaswa to speak as an entrepreneur who has succeeded in both the hardware and the software business. From 1988 to 1996, Raj served as co-founder, President, and Director of Opti (Nasdaq: OPTI). From 1996 to 2002, Raj served as co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Selectica (Nasdaq: SLTC), an enterprise software company.

For the past four years, Raj has been the President of TiE Silicon Valley and will continue in that position until 2008. Raj received a bachelors degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, a masters degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto, and an M.B.A. from Stetson University.

Last month’s review

Last month’s Forum featured Narpatji Bhandari. The audience was in rapt attention to the travails of Narpatji and was extremely surprised to learn of the kinds of challenges he had weathered including the tremendous financial and professional hardships caused by his ouster from the company that he had founded.

The main lesson one took away from the meeting was to never give make a compromise with a lie and to not take it lying down. It is all to easy to bend before the investor-board-lawyer nexus, but Narpatji showed some spine and stood up for himself even when pretty much everyone, except his family, had written him off.