Category — Telecommunications

As cell phones have proliferated in India, so have the number of instances where owners forget to charge their devices or where the owner’s home has an extended power outage and is unable to charge the device. People have come up with hand cranked chargers, solar devices and more to fill the gap. Now Nokia is introducing a bicycle charger for the millions of Indian who may ride a bike to work or for work.

Nokia Bike Charger: handlebar attachment

Pedal power drives system which comes with a charger, bottle dynamo and a phone holder which attaches to the handlebar of the bicycle. 10 minutes of bicycling gives 28 minutes of talk time.

Dynamo for Nokia Bike Charger

The kit sell for about $32 and goes on the market this month.

Takeaway: Appropriate innovation is what causes Nokia to be the leader in India, despited any trouble they may have elsewhere. Take that Steve Jobs

As  mobile handset sales in India accelerated, there was one outcome to be expected- a race to see which mobile companies would enter the market with their latest offerings. In an Asia-wide survey carried out by Synovate on consumer behavior, it was found that Indians are the most ‘social’, of all in the group surveyed, not hesitating to use their cell phones while eating or partying. (In my experience, Indians will also use their phones during movies and funerals!).  The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has estimated  700 million cellular phone users in 2010 (Some phones are shares among families, so this number is higher than the number of current subscriptions)

So, it’s no wonder that Dell has set its sight firmly on the Indian market. On 3^rd Feb 2011, they released two smart phones, the Android powered Dell Venue and the first Microsoft Windows  7 powered phone for Dell, The Venue Pro.

The former has a stylish, one touch interface with a 800 x 480 pixel resolution. It runs on Android 2.2 and has a 1GB internal memory and a 16 FB microSD card included. It also supports business users with WiFi, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. The Venue Pro has a sliding interface for input  and a more hefty price tag of Rs 34,990 (US$ 771). It also has a 1GB flash Rom and a 16GB stored memory card. Currently it is also offered as a bundle package with the Microsoft video game console the Xbox Pro, for the Indian techie who must have everything.

While there may be some concern that Android phones are outsmarting most other options, Dell is confident that the Venue Pro will be much in demand in the Asian market. Both phones also have what is growing to be an increasingly popular requirement in all cellular phones- a high megapixel camera and a richer media setup to store music and photos. They also come with Dell’s Proprietary UI called Dell Stage,  first shown the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month.   In the Indian market, these phones will be competing against Motorola’s Atrix and Droid models and Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X10.

While the company has a long history in India’s personal computer market, it entered mobile telephony  just months ago in  November 2010, with their XCD28 and XCD35 handsets, followed by the Dell Streak. Bolstered by their success, they are planning to launch a 3G network over the next few weeks.

APW President Systems Ltd. which designs and manufactures standard and customized racks and enclosure systems in India, serving information technology and telecom end-users, was acquired by French giant Schneider Electric. In 2009, Schneider Electric acquired Bangalore-based Meher Capacitors, which makes power factor correction capacitors and another local company, Conzerv Systems, in the energy efficiency market.

With 380 employees and annual sales of about $22 million, APW President Systems has manufacturing facilities at Pune and Bangalore. Laurent Vernerey, Executive Vice-President of Schneider Electric’s IT Business commented: “APW President Systems Ltd brings to us the expertise to customize racks and enclosures for our global data centre customer base. With this acquisition, Schneider Electric becomes a leading Indian player in integrated data center infrastructure solutions and further accelerates its development in the domain of data centers.”

Schneider Electric proposes to acquire shares representing a maximum of 75% of the share capital of the company by acquiring a minimum of 55% of the share capital from the promoter shareholders of APW President Systems Ltd.  and up to 20% of the share capital of the company pursuant to a mandatory open offer to be made to the other shareholders.

More such acquisitions, joint ventures and partnerships are likely to unfold as India builds out its infrastructure. Western companies are also beginning to consider India as a base for regional operations in surrounding countries.

American investors should well be aware of the emerging economies growing rapidly on the continent of Africa. Indian industry has already put into action a collaborative effort with the national government to develop strategies toward competing with China and European nations for capturing these business growth opportunities, particularly in East Africa.

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma accompanied a delegation representing 187 Indian companies to “Namaskar Africa,” meetings held October. 14-15 in Nairobi, Kenya. This event involves a series of opportunities promoting India-Africa business networking organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

Part of the strategy has Sharma meeting with the top Kenya government representatives – President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga. Additionally, FICCI President Rajan Bharti Mittal, vice chairman for Bharti Enterprises, leads the Indian business delegation that has expressed a strong interest toward developing telecom business opportunities in Africa.

India currently experiences bilateral trade of $30 billion throughout Africa. Efforts are underway to expand trade into East Africa where trade revenue is much lower at $4 billion. The countries with representatives meeting with Indian counterparts include Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and Seychelles.

A challenge toward successfully competing has brought together both industry and government leaders in India in order to devise a plan that will “level” the field. In a study released by FICCI, one strong competition challenge presents itself because Chinese companies are government-owned with far greater capital at hand for investment than any privately owned Indian companies. According to the report India is attempting to counter the offers from Europe and China by extending credit lines to African companies. “This will help source capital goods from India,” Mitra said in the report.

Africa has experienced  5.4 percent economic growth throughout the past decade and the outlook is rapidly improving. The FICCI report further states that: “For the first time in over three decades, a large number of African countries have begun to show sustained economic growth at the rates that are similar to the rest of the developing world and exceed that of most of the developed countries. The study discovered several areas of opportunity for Indian companies in addition to telecom including healthcare and pharmaceuticals, road and railway construction, general construction, power and mining.

Fellow IIT Alumnus and friend, Dr. “Desh” Deshpande, was just appointed to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke.  The secretary said that the Council will support President Obama’s innovation strategy by helping to develop policies that foster entrepreneurship and identifying new ways to take great ideas from the lab to the marketplace to drive economic growth and create jobs.

In America since the Industrial Revolution, basic research in public and private sector research labs has spawned new technologies and inventions that led to new businesses. And those entrepreneurial businesses have been important drivers of job creation. Firms less than five years old have accounted for nearly all net new jobs in America over the last 30 years. Yet, as a share of gross domestic product, American federal investment in the physical sciences and engineering research has dropped by half since 1970.

Readers of this blog, know of my commitment to global innovation and my firm’s support of accelerating innovation by any means necessary. I was tickled to realize that I have personally met several member of the National Council in the last 11 years (see bolded names below).

Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande is one of the most remarkable individuals I have ever met. He sold one of his early companies for over $2 billion and it eventually was absorbed by Lucent Technologies. I bought shares of his next public company, Sycamore Networks which had a spectacular IPO and great rise before it got caught in the telecom downturn in the early 2000′s .  Desh chairs  a charity that feeds 1.2  million schoolkids everyday in India. He’s been Chair of TiE Global in which role I saw him in my native town of Kanpur India, exhorting entrepreneurs. He is on the board of MIT and I saw him with President Susan Hockfeld on another trip to India. Desh is a member of the Pan IIT Leadership Circle, where he lends his vision to my colleagues.

Innovation in the U.S. today is carried forward not by Americans alone but also by visionary internationals like Dr. Deshpande.