Brigitte Daniel - 2011 USA Eisenhower Fellow

In Bangalore there are many US companies that have their research hubs located in this State.  I was very excited to meet with them, in particular Google, Microsoft, and Oracle.  I have been telling many people when they ask “How are your meetings going”, and I reply “Very well”. I go on to say “that it’s funny, I am learning more about US companies being in India than when I am in the US”.  This is very true.  Having the opportunity to meet with US companies in India that if I were to try to meet with them in the US, would be very challenging.  The conversations have been very interesting and provided great insight into the global tech eco system at play.

Google http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/about/

I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Lalitesh Katragadda, the head of the Google India facility. This was a hard meeting to obtain, but boy was it worth it in the end. Lalitesh is a true techie! After studying in India, then heading to Carnegie Melon where he founded his own Robotics company, he was promptly recruited by Google and is making impact in more ways in a short period of time than most do in a lifetime career. I met Lalitesh at the Google offices located at the RMZ Infinity facilities, Bangalore. We discussed many topics of importance that pertain to the global digital divide and society in general. From his standpoint, the main issue is and will be bandwidth.  Hands down. His opinion, devices will be available and will continue to become more affordable, content will always be there and readily available, but if India, the US, or any other Country truly has a digital divide problem and wants to tackle it head on, the increase of affordable bandwidth will be the key to success.  In order to facilitate all of the innovations and other application development that will help and progress underserved communities, the need for speed, will be the leverage needed to sustain and deploy successful models. 

I also believe that wired networks and/or a hybrid of wired and wireless networks are the best way to provide and deploy broadband initiatives, I have never heard the issue framed in such a way. Very thankful for his insight. 

During the meeting Lalitesh also introduced me to James Kelly. James is one of the originators of the Google Gig for a City program that took place last year in the US. This was Google’s plan to deploy a gig of bandwidth into a select city to increase broadband deployment and engagement.  The City of Philadelphia submitted a proposal for to obtain the much sought after Google partnership, but was not selected as a finalist.  In true Google style,  this was a very progressive program that stirred up the Nation.  Who wouldn’t want a network deployed in the City to specifically serve underserved communities???  Of course, it was great to meet James and discuss the program and Google’s next plans for fiber networks. Received many suggestions and his thoughts on the matter.  I honestly could have spoke to them for hours. Very enlightening and inspiring to hear their individual and institutional perspectives. Definitely plan to stay in touch with both Lalitesh and James. You never know what could come out of this meeting…..but I hope for continual conversations. Thank you Google!

Microsoft http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/default.aspx

Another great meeting occurred with Microsoft. I met with Ed Cutrell who leads the Microsoft Research team in India. I met with Ed and his team in their new digs and beautifully designed eco friendly facility located in Bangalore.  For this meeting, Ed video conferenced members of his team from South Africa, the US, and remote areas of India.  That was a great start to a wonderful meeting.

With his team, Ed went into detail about the Microsoft India emerging markets priorities and the various innovations and initiatives they are working on as they pertain to global development and technology engagement.  I was able to sit down with them for a long time discussing the numerous broadband developments and impediments nationally and locally and there was interest to consider the innovative applications and developments that Microsoft is developing in the emerging markets and applying them to a US underserved marketplace. 

All in all, very good meeting to have with a US company that has a large stake and origins in the tech movement globally.

Thank you Ed for all of your support and time!

Oracle http://www.oracle.com/in/index.html

This meeting was very well. I met with Mr. Satyananda Bhandary and his young team in Bangalore. Mr. Bhandary is the Vice President of Oracle Direct.  He has been with Oracle India for over 10 years and has grown the Indian market for Oracle in leaps and bounds.  I loved that Mr. Bhandary had his entire team of about 10 people there for my presentation.  I was able to speak with all of them and get their input, suggestions, advice, and solutions for about 2 hours.  Great team and good to know that Oracle is willing to work with and partner with small businesses in the US to provide various forms of affordable support for all business IT needs.  Support can be offered in the form of cloud computing, engineering, software development, hardware acquisition, and infrastructure networking support….basically Oracle is an end – to end provider.

The fact that is an US based company with a great reputation, history, high standards, and very well known in the industry, but in addition, has great development teams all over the world, will be very helpful as Wilco progresses with our own technology initiatives. 

Thank you USA! Glad to know we have your support, as a small business, across the seas ;-) 

B