Blogging from our India Summit: More with Less for More – India’s Global Leadership

This was cross-posted on the Forum’s main blog:

Carol Realini, CEO of Obopay, Inc. and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, is blogging from the India Economic Summit, held in New Delhi 14-16 November 2010.

by Carol Realini (@carolrealini)

The conversation since I arrived in India last week has been about entrepreneurship and inclusive growth. Technology is expected to be center stage in both areas. Although India’s first wave of technology industry growth was focused on developing offerings for both the US and Europe, now the entrepreneur focus is on India as a market.

All the right elements of success are in place – rich supply of talent, angel and venture capital, and lots of market needs right in front of the entrepreneurs in their home market. Mobile broadband is expected to create significant breakthrough in Internet access for all – emerging middle class (300M) as well as the traditionally underserved (700M). The size of the market opportunity takes everyone’s breath away. Once conquered, then going beyond India to Asia, Africa, and Latin America will provide even more opportunity.

But entrepreneurs need a different rule book here. Some things are the same; be bold, focus, evolve quickly with market learning’s, build a great team, find money anyway you can (sweat equity, friends and family, angels, venture, strategic money). Other things are different. Think differently – think about serving a billion people – some whose lives will be mobile-centric and rural. Also think about packaging, distribution that fits the needs of the “bottom of the pyramid”.

So if entrepreneurs do scale with products and services at the bottom of the pyramid, will that change things for those at the middle and the top? The Nano –a new category of very low priced cars – is being purchased by people who previously would buy a Mercedes. And it makes a “cool” statement about them – I am smart, innovative, and I prefer small footprint purchasing.
For my business, mobile financial services, one of the key question is whether the models we are developing for rural India will change the way the urban middle class banks? I think so, at least for some – because the focus on simplicity, mobility, empowerment, and very low cost will have broader appeal than just those people where it is a necessity.

This makes India especially well suited for global leadership around financial inclusion. India has 700M underserved Indians waiting for products and services that fit their needs. So as this wave of innovation takes off, expect breakthroughs that will be bigger than their intended audiences. Not sure India Has Risen is the right tagline. Possibly a better phase is India, we are just beginning to shine.