Making of another Bangalore

What makes Pune the hub of resea­rch and innova­tion?
What's common bet­ween CalSoft, AccelTree, Jopasana, CashTech and rapidEffect?
Well, apart from being five of the 21 short listed companies for Innova­tion at
the Nasscom annual event this year, they are connected by another com­mon
thread. Interes­tingly, all the five are based out of Pune. This makes Pune the
other largest center. There were five nominations from Bangalore as well but
then Bangalore is a name that is synonymous with IT in any context. Compulink,
another Pune-based product develop­ment company was short listed last year at
Nasscom.

So what makes Pune one of the hottest hubs of product
development? While a lot of people believe that it might be too early to reach a 
conclusion, the fact that Pune has emerged as an important center for
technology and innovation is beyond doubt. Said Vivek Mannige, CEO, AccelTree
Software, “Pune has a large number of good quality institutes and attracts
students from all over the country.”  Incidentally,
Pune had more than 38 engine­ering colleges a couple of years back. The number
has grown further in all probability. Added Ajay Phatak, MD and CEO, Jopasana,
“The close asso­ciation of educa­tional insti­tutes, research and develop­ment
institutes and the industry give Pune a winning edge as compared to many of the
other cities. The educa­tional institutes ensure the availability of plenty of
local talent.”

In
its stride

The quality of research and product development that is happening out of
Pune is significant. Take for example CashTech Solutions, a leading global
organization focused on delivering robust cash management solutions for
financial institutions and corporations worldwide. Placing strong emphasis on
research and deve­lop­ment, CashTech's core belief is held in inno­vation
through tech­no­logy. The com­pany was first started in Mumbai, but was moved
to Pune in 1996. Said RN Iyer, one of the founding directors of CashTech,
“Pune was less expen­sive as compared to Mumbai, had a good talent pool and
pro­vided the right eco-system for small pro­duct companies like ours.”

Then there is AccelTree Software. This Pune-based company
is the youngest in the pack. Founded only in 2002, AccelTree was show­cased as
an IT Innovation Company for the develop­ment of the FRED Mobile Framework
which is a rapid application development framework for building and deploying
mobile enterprise applications on the simple cell phone.

Said Mannige, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur with a history of
entrepreneurial startups like Indus Software before AccelTree, “We invested
the first three years in building the framework.” The earnings that came from
the test sites were rather insignificant. “The objective was to build a strong
reliable framework,” explaned Mannige. AccelTree produced its first mobile
solution for Mobile Collec­tions in March 2005 and got its first customer for a
derivate of that product, for the microfinance industry, in May 2005. Since then
Man­nige and team has acquired a total of four marquee custo­mers on the
framework and expects to acquire another two by March 2006. These are expected
to form the base of reference customers. The growth so far has been sweet for
the company.

Advantage Pune

Historically, Pune has been known for the engineering talents it has
produced. This continues to be an edged for Mumbai's relatively low-profile
first cousin. This advan­tage cou­pled with its proximity to Mumbai is what
makes Pune an elite center, as compared to other wannabes. 

Digital, which was one of the first companies to set up
shop in Bangalore in the 80s, had sent three of its US-based execu­tives in
search for an ideal destination to set up shop in India. While Pune, Gandhinagar
and Bangalore were shortlisted, it was Bangalore that won the race. This move
saw the likes of Motorola and TI flocking to Bangalore and was followed by the
rise of the India giant Infosys. The rest as they say is history, which could
have been significantly different had Digital chosen to settle in Pune.

Last 10 years have seen Pune spawn more product development
companies than any other region in the country which have seen a surge in IT
services com­panies. Says Phatak, “Pune surely has the potential to emerge as
the R&D hub of India.” Adds Mannige, “While I do not see any obvious
connection between Pune and R&D, the presence of a large number of engine­ering
and technology insti­tutes have definitely facili­tated the huge focus on
product development.”

Jopasana, for example, helps organizations with speciality
engineering and business applications in the areas of automotive electro­nics,
apart from networking and data communication, semiconductor, industrial
software, life sciences and chemical analysis. Founded in 1990, Jopasana has its
development center in Pune, India with subsidiaries in the US and UK. That Pune
has a strong base in automotive is a known fact, something that was leveraged by
Jopasana for growth in its initial years. 

Several factors energize Pune to be the hotbed for
innovation-pleasant wea­ther; its proximity to Mumbai; and now the inter­na­tional
airport as well; fairly low cost of living; lower real estate prices in compa­rison
to Mumbai; and the presence of quality enginee­ring colle­ges. The presence of
a booming job market now completes the eco-system.

Bhaswati Chakravorty

(bhaswatic@cybermedia.co.in)