When I agreed to do this review, I was unsure whether the book would hold my interest for a complete reading. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my fear was misplaced. More than that, the book offered a wealth of information and strengthened my positive feelings for the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) system and its graduates. It could, of course, be said that for someone who has been part of the system for nearly half a century, this required little reinforcement from outside.
The writers are three very young alumni of IIT Kharagpur. In fact, two of them are still students at the Institute at the time of writing this review. This fact itself tells a story: the enormous admiration students and alumni of this oldest IIT have for their alma mater. In any case, they seem to have been sufficiently inspired by the success of their seniors as innovators and entrepreneurs to choose to research and write about this success. The result is this book, which would be a useful addition to the bookshelves of all young people who would like to do something off the beaten path.
The 20 stories chosen for this book are mostly simple, but they have several common links. Besides a shared alma mater, all attribute their success primarily to the confidence they gained as individuals and as team-workers during their stay on campus. An outsider may find this remarkable, but it would appear almost axiomatic to students of IIT campuses anywhere. The learning at these campuses extends well beyond the classrooms, with brilliant minds learning from each other and shaping each other’s thinking constantly.
In a way, therefore, the stories compiled here would find resonance with similar stories that could be told for the graduates of other IITs. It is just as well that the first such compilation should coincide with the platinum jubilee of the oldest IIT, where it all started.
Though the stories have a common underlying theme, they also highlight the original and different approaches these alumni took down the path of innovation and entrepreneurship. Each has a different motivation and a different outcome, with a strong self-belief and a shared grit and determination to succeed.
Thus, there is Suhas Patil, who uses his technical prowess to bring about a paradigm shift in technology trends. He goes on to become a legend in Silicon Valley, having pioneered the VLSI design company called Cirrus Logic, and then inspiring dozens of such initiatives. But there is also Harish Hande, whose business model was created by a desire for social good when he conceived the solar-lantern company SELCO.
And if proof were needed of the range and versatility of the alumni of this institute, there are social engineering entrepreneurs like Kiran Seth (of Spic Macay fame) and Arvind Kejriwal, who helped create deep awareness about India’s unsolved issues of public accountability and took a few, not insignificant, steps in this direction. Indeed, the collection of individuals in this volume is astounding, to put it mildly. I would recommend the book to all young people who are looking for good role models. They may not all be famous but are, nevertheless, inspiring.
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As might be expected, the majority of the entrepreneurship stories are in information technology (IT) or sectors allied with IT. But there is a fair sprinkling of business development stories from infrastructure, manufacturing and other sectors. What is intriguing is the range of successes in fields as diverse as retailing of farm-produce as part of social entrepreneurship to providing high-tech IT services like diagnosis of the security environment of a company’s networking and computing infrastructure.
The only fault one can find with the book is that the stories are largely laudatory — a fact natural in a book written primarily to showcase the institute in a positive light in its platinum jubilee year. There is no pretence of deep research in the actual stories that must have played out at back of each of these case studies — and the bitter experiences or the ecstasies that must have accompanied them.
Finally, while the lone case of a woman alumnus entrepreneur (Anuradha Acharya) makes for interesting reading, it is reflective of the general refrain that even after 60 years, IITs’ female student population remains low at 15 to 20 per cent.
The book is worth reading for anyone who wants to know what makes techno-entrepreneurs tick, or get a feel for the kind of experiences they go through when chasing the entrepreneurial dream at a young age. It certainly makes a good addition to the repertoire of books written either by or about IIT alumni. May the breed have a long and healthy life!
The reviewer is former director and current professor of Electrical Engineering, IIT Delhi
THE GAME CHANGERS
Yuvnesh Modi, Rahul Kumar, Alok Kothari
Random House India
262 pages; Rs 150