~ PM Modi invites the business leaders to India to promote business and entrepreneurship~
Bangalore, 6th Oct 2014: Dr Romesh Wadhwani, Founder and Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation and Founder and CEO, Symphony Technology Group (STG) was among a group of top Indian- American CEOs, venture capitalists and higher education leaders who attended a private meeting with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The meeting took place in New York on Sept. 27 during PM Modi’s five day U.S visit in backdrop of massive euphoria and just prior to a historic large-scale gathering of Indians and Indian- Americans at Madison Square Garden in New York that saw 20000 attendees – billed as one of the largest gatherings ever for a speech by a foreign leader.
The meeting was marked by very high energy and upbeat mood amongst the business leaders in light of the efforts of the new Government to revive investments, boost growth and resolve growth impediments such as bottlenecks on energy supply.
Dr Romesh Wadhwani, Founder and Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation and CEO, Symphony Technology Group (STG) was extremely impressed by the Prime Minister’s resolve to make development a people’s movement, his unequivocal focus on good governance, and values of democracy and inclusive economic development. ”I found the Prime Minister to be very impressive, articulate, informed, pragmatic and pro-business”, says Dr. Wadhwani. He further adds, “PM Modi’s commitment to job creation and skill development is extremely encouraging to Wadhwani Foundation’s efforts of accelerating economic development by creating millions of jobs and I look forward to Prime Minister’s gracious invitation to come to India and intensify Wadhwani Foundation’s efforts towards job creation and job fulfillment.”
While the Indian American business leaders expressed interest in contributing to human resource and research , Prime Minister Modi spelt out some major initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and Digital India project. ‘Make in India’ campaign strives to make India a manufacturing hub for domestic and foreign companies. On the other hand, the Digital India project, which is PM Modi’s ambitious e-governance initiative aims to ensure that government services are available to all citizens electronically and all can benefits from the latest information and communication technology as villages across India are enabled with high speed internet.
About Dr Romesh Wadhwani, Founder and Chairman, Wadhwani Foundation:
Romesh is a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist with passion for wealth creation. After building three large scale successful companies in three decades, the last of which was sold for over $9 billion, Romesh founded the Wadhwani Foundation in 2000 to which he has committed to donate most of his wealth. He is also a member of the Gates Buffet Giving Pledge. Romesh envisioned high impact social change in emerging economies through sustained economic acceleration. This vision led to the launch of Wadhwani Foundation’s five Initiatives through which the Foundation drives large scale job creation and skill development in multiple countries.
Romesh is also the Founding Chairman and CEO of Symphony Technology Group, a 10 year old PE firm comprising of 20 companies, with a combined revenue of USD 3 billion and 18,000 employees.
In August 2012, Romesh was appointed by U.S President Barack Obama as General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC, a key administration post. Romesh is also a Board Member of Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington DC. He is a proud recipient of the prestigious ‘Non Resident Philanthropist’ award at the Forbes India Philanthropy Awards 2013 and also features in Forbes 400 list. Romesh obtained a B. Tech degree from IIT Bombay and an MS and Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.
About Wadhwani Foundation:
Founded in 2000 by Dr. Romesh Wadhwani, the Foundation’s primary mission is economic acceleration through job creation and job fulfillment in India and other emerging economies by undertaking large-scale initiatives in entrepreneurship, skills development, innovation and policy support. During the last 14 years, Wadhwani Foundation has launched five high impact Initiatives in India, with an aim to help create and fill 25 million jobs in the next 5 years.
For job creation, Wadhwani Foundation established the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) in 2003. Since inception, NEN has resulted in 2,000 new startups with 12,000+ direct and 50,000+ indirect jobs and is now tracking 1,500+ new companies each year. NEN has built a strong network with 600 colleges, 4000 mentors and 3200 faculty in India that continue to inspire, educate and support emerging entrepreneurs. Thousands of practicing entrepreneurs and startups are also supported through NEN’s Entrepreneur Academy www.nenonline.tv that features hundreds of short videos from experienced entrepreneurs, angels, VCs along with dozens of longer video courses and blog posts.
For job fulfillment, the Foundation has set up the Skills Development Network (SDN) which supports multiple college, high school and employer initiatives for entry level mid-skill jobs. SDN has developed and implemented several major skills initiatives with MHRD and State Govts. in a public-private partnership providing support to vocational education programs in 500+ high schools and 200+ UGC colleges and 100+ companies in Healthcare, Hospitality and Retail. SDN focuses on market driven analysis to identify in-demand jobs in different geographies and uses a technology platform for skilling by integrating online/in-class skills education through a digital/video curricula and pedagogy.
Other Initiatives of Wadhwani Foundation include:
Opportunity Network for Disabled (OND) is aimed at mainstreaming the educated disabled into sustainable high quality corporate jobs through a business value proposition of lower attrition and higher productivity in hiring the disabled. The Foundation supports the training and placement of disabled individuals into mid-skill entry level jobs with the goal of placing 100,000 disabled over five years.
Research and Innovation Network (RIN) aims to upgrade and compete at world stage, India’s research eco-system by catalyzing ‘Centers of Innovations’ in partnership with existing research Institutes. The Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering – WRCB was established at IIT Bombay in 2008. WRCB is leveraging bioengineering research along with the cross-disciplinary technical capabilities of IIT Bombay towards bio-sensors, low-cost devices, drug delivery and bioinformatics. Shanta Wadhwani Center for Cardiac and Neural Research (SWCCNR) was established in January 2012 at the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine (InStem) in association with the National Center for Biological Sciences (NCBS), focuses on cardiac and neurodevelopmental biology with a broad goal to support research aimed at understanding regenerative mechanisms operating at the cellular and molecular level in the heart and the brain.
Policy: Wadhwani Foundation’s Policy Research Centre, New Delhi provides data driven research inputs for informed policy actions towards creating a people-centered, high growth economy. Wadhwani chair on US-India policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a leading bi-partisan policy “think tank” in Washington, D.C, aims to accelerate India-U.S economic activities.