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K.G. Kumar

TALENT, innovation, ideas, enterprise - the qualities that form the pillars of a competitive industrial society are also the qualities that lie behind the acronym TiE, which stands for The IndUS Entrepreneurs, a global, not-for-profit organisation created by US-based professionals and corporate executives whose roots can be traced to the Indus Valley.

These roots have now stretched to Kerala with the formation of a TiE Chapter, based in Kochi, which was formalised last week. Two months back, the idea was first announced by a group that comprised the creme de la creme of corporate Kerala - Jose Dominic of Casino Hotels, Kochouseph Chittilappily of V-Guard, K.A. Joseph of Kerala Venture Capital Fund, Shivdas Menon of Sterling Farms, C. Balagopal of Terumo Penpol and Achamma Joseph of Soft Systems Ltd.

The slogan bandied then was `Kerala Can'. For a State more inured to the idea of `cannot', `will not' or, at best, `not now', the TiE dream of an industrial resurgence will, no doubt, have more than a fair share of doubting Thomases.

But remember that many of these Thomases - a common name in the Syrian Christian community, which has a remarkably solid presence in the Indian American diaspora - are thriving beyond Kerala's shores.

According to the 2000 US Census, the Indian American population stands at 1,678,765, a 106 per cent increase over the 1990 figures. The population of the Indian American community is nearly equal to the entire population of the State of Nebraska.

While there are few accurate censuses of how many of these Indians belong to Kerala, around 30,000 Keralites are estimated to live and work in the US, which makes it the second most preferred destination for emigrating Keralites, after the Gulf.

Kerala's kinship with the US is, however, more evident in its physical quality of life indices. Though the State has a per capita income between $298 and $350 a year - about one-seventieth of the American average - its human development profile is notably First World.

Consider this: The life expectancy of a North American male is 72 years, while that of a Keralite male is 70. Kerala's birth rate hovers near 18 per thousand, compared with 16 per thousand in the US, and it is falling faster.

In other words, as an observer put it, demographically, Kerala mirrors the US in social and human development indices, with, importantly, about one-seventieth the cash in its own pockets. Richly poor - that is Kerala's irony.

That fact is surely not lost on TiE, for it knows that these are the very attributes that it should try and leverage. By billing itself as `The Innovation Ecosystem', TiE seeks to provide positive leadership role models, create value through informed entrepreneurship, and pursue a modern, scientific and forward-looking approach.

Given Kerala's level of social development, these goals ought to be within TiE's reach, provided it generates the right kind of hand-holding needed for Kerala's entrepreneurs.

That, again, is right up TiE's street. One of TiE's core activities is `mentoring', these days a much-bandied management buzzword. TiE, however, claims that its version of mentoring goes beyond areas of business strategy and planning, and covers areas such as career counselling (not, it hastens to add, to be confused with job-seeking), general mentoring, or simply providing an opportunity to learn and share ideas with the mentors.

As TiE spreads its wings in India, it is likely to spread pipe dreams as well. Every chapter will strive to outdo the other in encouraging and fostering entrepreneurship.

For instance, the TiE Chennai Chapter, one of India's most active, claims that its objective is to "duplicate the Silicon Valley success story in India, particularly to the State of Tamil Nadu".

How many Silicon Valleys can India support? And for a widely wired State like Kerala, the more relevant question perhaps is: should the State sprout several Silicon Valleys or should it tie up loose ends first?

TiE has a great deal of hard work ahead in Kerala, for, in the end, there are no ties in the race to the top rank in entrepreneurship.

The writer can be contacted at kg@tug.org.in

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