India Now Becomes a Tech Hub, For Indians

Small cos bring smarter technology for local use It is unlikely that Gramener, Anaxee and Stelling are companies that most people would have even heard about, but these and others like them could represent the new frontiers of India's software industry. Over more than two decades, India earned a reputation as the global leader in software outsourcing, but product companies — perceived as the mark of a true technology powerhouse — have been few and far between. With Gramener and technology product companies of its ilk coming up in large numbers across India, that anomaly is on its way to being set right.  While India is still a long way from showcasing a Microsoft or a Google, unobtrusively, technology companies have sprung up across the country to create products and solutions that meet the demands of local businesses. Quite unlike an Infosys or a Wipro, which are the creatures of global demand, product companies are coming up with innovations made in India, by Indians and for Indians.  From helping capture fingerprint and iris data for the Aadhaar card to crunching numbers so that chicken live healthier and longer, these companies are using cuttingedge technology to provide tailormade solutions      for Indian needs. "We have reached an inflection point," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom). The ecosystem is just about right for product innovation in the country and India is about to emerge as a leader in software products, she predicted.  Small is Beautiful      Gramener  WHAT IT DOES: Unlocks hidden insights from huge chunks of data and uses visualisation to develop foresight for critical business decisions  CUSTOMERS: Airtel, Novartis, Suguna Foods, Mahindra Satyam      Anaxee Tech  SPECIALISES IN biometrics-based identity management and attendance solutions  Unique Identification Project (Aadhaar), Jabalpur Municipal Corporation, Barbeque Nation      Stelling Tech  PERSONALISED real-time information services to rail passengers  Indian Railways Selling Innovative Solutions  The company that helps enhance longevity for chickens is Gramener, founded by former executives for IBM, Deloitte and Accenture, and based in Hyderabad. It does so by analysing data provided by Suguna Foods, its client and one of the biggest in the poultry business. Gramener finds disease patterns to let Suguna know what precautions to take and even makes recommendations about how much sunlight the birds must be exposed to, the type of feed, and even the structure of the shed in which they are housed.  Suguna, whose sales top . 4,200 crore, has deployed an enterprise information technology system from one of the world's largest software makers but it turned to the two-year-old Gramener to find answers to specific problems. "Gramener's business intelligence helps us take the right decisions at right time and we also get value for money," said GB Sundararajan, the managing director of Coimbatore-based Suguna. Zinnov, a management consultancy which closely tracks the technology sector, has estimated that since 1990, fewer than 3,400 product companies were seeded in India. But between now and 2015, up to 600 will be created every year, its director Praveen Bhadada said.  "Startups are able to crack this market by selling niche innovations to solve specific problems. The global products brought in by big firms may not be relevant to the unique needs of the domestic market," he said.  Solving these specific problems is what Indore-based Anaxee Technologies is doing for the Nandan Nilekaniled unique identification project. Anaxee was founded after getting an incubation opportunity and seed funding of . 20 lakh from NirmaLabs, a technology incubator promoted by detergent maker Nirma. It recently won a contract to sell biometric systems to the Jabalpur Municipal Corporation in Madhya Pradesh for monitoring attendance of sanitation workers, a solution that has led to the discovery of many ghost employees. Zinnov estimates that more than 5,000 large enterprises and over 10 million small and medium businesses in the country are ready to adopt technology. This will mean that product companies will have a big role to play in pushing the expansion of the $30-billion (. 1.6-lakh-crore) technology market by some 18% this year.  Even the Indian Railways, which has an annual plan outlay of over . 60,100 crore, has recognised the need to embrace the innovation developed by local product firms. Noida-based Stelling Technologies has developed a technology platform — trainenquiry-.com — which provides personalised, real-time information services to passengers about their journey and the location of the train on mobile phones and the Web. Started in 2011, Stelling has developed the platform in collaboration with the Centre for Railway Information Systems.  Like Stelling, Bangalore-based Vyoma Technologies found a business opportunity in tapping the millions of people who buy tickets at railway reservation counters with advertisements for their clients. Vyoma has integrated its software with the railway booking system and installed dual display infotainment systems at reservation counters for clients such as Canara Bank, ITC and the tourism departments of Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Founded by former tennis player Shriranga K Sudhakara and orthopaedic surgeon Madan Mohan Ballal, the company received angel funding from Indavest. Vyoma aims to install its systems across all railways stations in India and clock Rs 100 crore in revenue in the next three years.  "Working with a startup is more economical, innovative and flexible compared to multinational companies," said Anwar Hussain, a railway official based in Bangalore.  Nasscom's Gupta said an important reason for the blooming of technology product companies is that professionals with experience of working with global corporations are becoming entrepreneurs and creating intellectual property. Besides, inexpensive technology, angel investors and mentor networks are supporting entrepreneurs to build products. Even Germany's SAP, the world's largest maker of business software, believes that entrepreneurs and small- to midsized businesses make up the backbone of the economy. "They have the ability and power to drive innovation, create jobs and enhance economic stability," said Priyadarshi Mohapatra, vice-president for emerging business at SAP India. "They are helping to run lean and efficient operations."