Valley of digital gods: Talk on India's tech trailblazers ignites minds

There was not a single empty seat in the house with students even sitting on the carpet as it was houseful at a lecture mdash How Indians won the Silicon Valley mdash at the Nehru Science Centre Mahalaxmi on Friday morningDr Shivaprasad Khened director of the Centre started by addressing the sticky point that Indians in technology in the USA were at times viewed as those who undercut jobs and are lowly paid and that is why they get the jobs at Silicon ValleyAs his rapt young audience listened Dr Khened continued We see giants like Satyam Shivam and Sundaram in the technology space Some amongst you might turn out to be one of themBy Satyam he meant Satya Nadella of Microsoft Shivam stood for Shiv Nadar of HCL the Information Technology behemoth and Sundaram was Sundar Pichai of GoogleDream bigKheneds crisp introduction was followed by a motivational address by R Ramanan mission director of Atal Innovation Mission NITI Aayog Ramanan said A boy from a small town called Rameswaram dreamt big He was Dr Abdul Kalam missile man and one of the foremost scientists in the worldHe further said Sixty five per cent of Indias population is under the age of 35 which is you all There is tremendous energy in this country It is time to transform this energy and make India the Silicon Valley of the worldSpeaking to the students Ramanan said Live by the adage dream big like Dr Abdul Kalam said Believe in yourself like Swami Vivekanand said and finally put a ding into the Universe in the words of Steve Jobs This means to do something outside the realms of what you think is possibleIndian imprintAfter that rousing address Professor Shivanand Kanavi said with a laugh that the catchy title of his address mdash How Indians Won the Silicon Valley mdash was on the advice of a marketing whiz Kanavi added Digital technology is not limited to the narrow view of IT It is in fact much broader than that Indian talent is sought after and so many Indians have made such wonderful contributions There have been students from municipal schools in Mumbai who have shaken up the world of technologyDesi whirlKanavi who has authored the book Sand to Silicon The Amazing Story of Digital Technology added Silicon Valley was a small strip in Northern California but such has been its impact that it has grown out of its defined geographical boundaryHis lecture was accompanied by a number of slides chronicling the humongous contributions of Indians to Silicon Valley Names of the most outstanding Indians with a short biosketch followed as Kanavi showed one slide after another It was a dazzling deep dive into the desi movers and shakers of the digital world An interesting mention was of Atiq Raza of Pakistan in the chip industry segment Kanavi said He is a great friend of India There is no IndoPak divide in technology The trailblazers in Silicon Valley and beyond were a mix of vision passion belief discipline and entrepreneurship Those in the auditorium young and old could not help but be moved that the digital technology torch is being held aloft by India and its light looks to continue blazing across the UniverseCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates