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Have you ever looked at that cordless computer mouse and wondered what makes it work? Or at that wireless keyboard, for that matter? Well, if it’s really agitated your mind, here’s the answer: A small wireless technology standard called the Bluetooth enables them to hook up with other devices in their immediate neighbourhood without the need for a wire connection. In the third and final part of his series, Shubhrangshu Roy reports on how India’s knowledge firms are attempting to jump up the technology ladder and what will it take them to emerge at the top

MIND GAMES AT MINDTREE:3

BUILDING BLOCKS FOR BRAND BUILDING

2000-2006

Shubhrangshu Roy

Here's a whopper of a revelation: Chances are that the Bluetooth that goes into the branded wireless mouse or the cordless keyboard or the MP3 playing device may have been architected in MindTree's Bangalore R&D lab.

Vinod Deshmukh, senior vice president and chief technology officer at MindTree says, “All individual pieces that go into the Bluetooth technology have been conceptualised, architected, designed and implemented by us.” And that includes the silicon pieces, the stack, and the profiles that make things work. MindTree develops the pieces and licences them to a Japanese electronics goods maker, a German computer accessories manufacturer and a Taiwanese manufacturer of MP3 players. In turn, they sell them globally as branded products. There’s no way for consumer to know who made the Bluetooth device. And MindTree won’t tell because of confidentiality obligations.

What comes out of the MindTree lab are called building blocks in technology parlance. MindTree calls its building blocks MINTS, or MindTree incubated new technologies.

Researchers at MindTree, now 60-strong, started working on the Bluetooth way back in 2000, when the idea first surfaced promising to revolutionise global communications. Like those cellphone devices that enable your handset connect with your TV, PC, printer and handsfree.

Four years ago, at least a dozen Indian IT companies out of a 100 worldwide, announced huge plans for Bluetooth product development. Today, there are barely two Indian outfits, MindTree and Impulsoft, among a dozen worldwide that are pursuing successful R&D work in this area. “We compete with Ericcson Research, New Logic Widcomm and Extended Systems,” says Deshmukh. What’s more, MindTree is among a couple of companies in the world that has developed a Bluetooth tester.

Technologists at MindTree are now busy developing Bluetooth devices for desktops and projection screens. They are also busy working on ultra wide band (UWB) technology that will help transmit high definition wireless signals from DVD players and video cameras to display monitors at speeds of 200 megabits to one gigabit per second. To better understand what this means, at present our TV channels and VCDs transmit compressed data at 2 megabits per second. A high definition TV requires data transmission at excess of 100 megabits per second. MindTree’s UWB technology should be ready in the next two years. That’s when global technology majors are expected to launch a new series of nextgen branded products.

Now what’s it that the Japanese, the Germans, and even the Taiwanese have that MindTree doesn’t? The answer’s simple: They have the customer. They have the brandname. MindTree has neither. Deshmukh says in the overall product game, the engineering component is very small, may be as less than 25%. “It is the entire packaging that matters. Most of the applications that come out of the Indian IT labs right now are for western customers, though it won’t be long before they appear in Indian stores.”

Which is why, Dr Raghunath Govindachari, technical director at MindTree Research says, “Our philosophy is to work standards rather than go for proprietary technology.” That technology is appropriated by the global brands.

Subroto Bagchi, founder of MindTree and its chief operating officer says it’s not important to be a giant monolithic company that does everything across the technology ladder. Even Yamaha’s bikes have been designed by a company called GK Dynamics for the past 50 years. The business of brand is the business of marketing. For this you need (a) deep pockets and long acting investments, and (b) owning a channel in Uzbekistan. “It’s about how to set up a retail chain and get your money out from there. If you own the brand, you also own the product liability,” says Bagchi.

So that’s the story of Bangalore: Great innovative minds working in great knowledge workshops for western brand builders. There’s money to be made in this business. But few want to spend what they earn. Which is why as a MindTree code writer pointed out: “If Microsoft gives Infosys and Wipro a contract to develop Windows, they'll go ahead and do it. And deliver it to Microsoft on time. But they won’t go out and do it on their own.” (See

MIND GAMES:2)

Yet, when you look deeper, the Bangalore firms actually have it in them to successfully commercialise R&D efforts. Take MindTree’s Bluetooth technology itself. Deshmukh says his lab can modify the technology to make secure and efficient devices for soldiers to communicate with their equipment packs as well as with other soldiers in their immediate surroundings. It can also make Bluetooth-enabled power meters for homes that will render the meter-man’s knock on your door redundant.

Now, when the knowledge is there, what’s stopping Bangalore from commercialising its efforts? MindTree doesn’t have to reach out to the world to sell. India’s 1.2-million-strong Army itself offers a huge market for communication devices. And homes in Delhi and Mumbai that are supplied power by private sector distributors such as BSES and Tata Power can be big potential customers.

Deshmukh says it takes time to sell to the Army. Products developed at state-owned Bharat Electronics Ltd take years before they find their way to the war front. It also takes negotiating skills to deal with bureaucrats and politicians who ultimately decide what the Army buys. As for the power meters, nobody at MindTree ever quite thought of talking to the private sector distributors.

Subroto Bagchi concedes that there’s a point in it that his company needs to look at customers within the country. “On the R&D side, we were too busy selling services to international clients and incubating our R&D work. The government and industry have done a shabby job in commercialising private sector R&D efforts both for the government market and for industry to industry collaboration.”

There’s a beginning at it though. MindTree is collaborating with two-wheeler manufacturer TVS to roll out the latter’s dealer management system. It’s time the local IT industry takes the first steps to commercialise its R&D efforts at a time when India is emerging as the world’s largest automotives hub.

Bagchi sees successful brands coming out of India in the next 10 years, not from the existing industry stalwarts, but from a convergence of market needs and great innovations by discontinuous players.

Till that happens, Bangalore will remain content with its huge army of skilled IT workforce. And the world will continue to get Bangalored as more and more low-end code writing work keeps shifting to India’s knowledge capital.

Disclaimer: While this series draws heavily on the reporter’s interactions at MindTree to understand the world of Indian software, in no manner does it attempt to be a report on MindTree, where many good things are happening beyond the context and scope of this series.

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