Information technology and business are becoming inextricably interwoven. I don’t think anybody can talk meaningfully about one without talking about the other.

--Bill Gates

Bill Gates, Co-founder of Microsoft and one of the world’s top five richest persons, would be the first to agree that India-born CEOs in the US have come to rule the world of information technology (IT) and related businesses that are no doubt inextricably interwoven.  

Asoke Laha is one such CEO who founded InterraIT in the Silicon Valley in 1996 after a glittering career with top IT companies in the US including Cadence. He was also the Managing Director of Cadence India. He is a flag bearer of the Indian diaspora that has put India and its notable IT achievements brightly on the world map. Initially he started InterraIT at his home in Noida in the National Capital Region and then incorporated the company in the US. Operations then expanded rapidly to other geographies—Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, and, of course, India.

Academically, Mr Laha laid a strong foundation for a stable professional career. Having completed his engineering from Kolkata’s Jadavpur University, he did his higher studies in Canada before settling firmly into the world of IT. He had entrepreneurial instincts right from a young age and was looking for the right time and opportunity to venture out on his own. Brought up in a culture where being entrepreneurial was not the norm but the exception—most of his relatives were middle-level civil servants and Government employees—Mr Laha knew that he had to break the mold and challenge tradition. You can read about Mr Laha’s journey with InterraIT in the pages to follow.

We also have an interview with H.E. Lalatiana Accouche, High Commissioner of Seychelles to India. Both India and Seychelles have enjoyed a long-standing, deep-rooted friendship, attributable largely to shared cultural and historical narratives. Also, India’s geo-political interest in the Indian Ocean region syncs in with Seychelles’ own locational advantages.

Bilateral ties between the two nations received a big boost when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Seychelles in March 2015, just 10 months after being in office during his first term. It was reciprocated by a visit by Seychelles’ President Danny Faure to attend the founding conference of the International Solar Alliance in India in 2018. Seychelles aims to transition to 100 percent renewable energy by 2030, and it is here that cooperation with India, one of the two cofounders of the International Solar Alliance, is critical. Please read the exhaustive interview with High Commissioner Accouche to know more about investment opportunities in this Indian Ocean island nation.

Elsewhere in the magazine there is a diverse range of stories covering the Indian diaspora, business and international news. You may also wish to look up back issues on www.indiaempire.com

Happy reading.

Sayantan Chakravarty

sayantanc@gmail.com