Poonam Gupta-Krishnan addressing
the Technology
Innovation Summit
on Oct. 23 in downtown Chicago
By Sunthar Visuvalingam of Desi Talk
The day-long Technology Innovation Summit (TIS)
hosted on Oct. 23 by Northern Trust Bank in downtown Chicago brought together
visionary Indian American innovator Sam Pitroda, US technology corporations, and
local government administrators amidst exchange and excitement. TIS organizer,
Poonam Gupta-Krishnan, CEO of Iyka Enterprises, explains her initiative to Desi
Talk.
What do you hope to achieve from TIS?
This summit came about because of
challenges that several municipal technology managers have shared with me over
the years. There are two major issues they face today: 1) keeping pace with the
fast-changing technology landscape; and 2) the government bureaucratic process
itself. Unfortunately, there is still a gap between the two resulting in
inferior services to citizens, less jobs, and a higher and disproportionate cost
to conduct government operations. Our goal is to spur discussion among major
stakeholders on how to improve local government technology, connect bureaucrats
with thought leaders in innovative technology, and help them design effective projects
by highlighting best practices.
Why was Sam Pitroda invited as keynote speaker?
Pitroda brought the telecom revolution to
India when 80% of the population was rural and 1990s reforms were still far
away. He has succeeded in taking his vision into political and governmental
processes and is playing an active role at the national level in innovation,
technology, and public policy that is bringing over a billion people together. Over
the last 2 decades, here in the USA, we are seeing a decline in the creativity
and innovation that had made our country great. My hope was that Pitroda would
impregnate the US government technology scenario with is hard-won wisdom. Indeed,
Pitroda made paradigm shifting remarks with pertinent examples, such as fears
of information security (privacy) holding back the efficient delivery of
education, healthcare, and other basic services to the poorest of the poor. The
$3 billion National Knowledge Network has been launched in India. It consists
of 1,500 connection point nodes operating at a bandwidth of 40 gigabytes to
pull together all of India’s universities, libraries and higher learning
institutions. When Pitroda met with President Obama last November, they decided
to launch a joint open-source, open government platform for the U.S. and India.
This August, Pitroda met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to announce
that this platform will now be available to all countries free of charge. The
Network—already available to Japan, the European Union and the United States—enables
their universities to seamlessly interact across continents.
How can India and the US learn from each other?
Seen from far the two countries, developed
and developing, are very different. However, Pitroda pointed out that Western
service model is not scalable as it focuses on a minority population of the rich
and not the majority population of middle class and poor. He talked about
democratization of knowledge, redefining the role of educators, making talents
a universal commodity, political will, and affordability of services. All of
these scenarios apply also to the USA. So from the technology services point of
view there are more similarities than difference between the two countries.
How different were the aims of last year’s summit?
The themes were the same but in 2011 we
focused on the collar counties. This year we wanted to provide a much larger
perspective ranging from the international to local nuts and bolts. [Ed. Note:
Collar counties are the five (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will) that
border on Cook County. Though tied to Chicago economically, they have very
different values than does the core city.]
What has been the feedback from TIS 2012 participants?
TIS 2012 offered a pyramidal structure with
Pitroda bringing the international perspective, Toni Preckwinkle the county
vision, with panels covering specific challenges at the interface between the
processes of technology and government agencies. Most feedback, largely favorable, was on Pitroda’s
inspirational speech and how well the event was put together, with ongoing
offers of support from individuals and corporations.
Tell us about Iyka Enterprises and your role as its CEO
Iyka, which I founded in 2000, is now serving
Europe, North America, and South Asia. A certified minority, woman owned
company, Iyka provides data management services to government, financial
institutions, healthcare, education and telecom. I was listed among the “Top 100
Under 50 Executive Leaders” by “Diversity MBA” magazine; Iyka as “Top 10 Fastest-Growing Asian Businesses” by
the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), “Top Employers to Work
For” by “The Business Ledger,” and “Fastest-Growing Minority Company” by the
Chicago Minority Supplier Diversity Council. I have served on a number of
boards, including North West Housing Partnership, Metropolitan Asian Family
Services, IT Industry Group, Minority Input Committee, as well as governmental
legislative committees. I have MSc.
degrees from Illinois State University and Kanpur University in India. Prior to
founding Iyka, I worked for Cabot Corporation and INX International.
How did you end up in Chicago and this techno-vision?
I was born in a humble Kanpur family. My
father was an orphan who became the most educated of all in his extended
family. I was the first girl in all my extended family ever to go to high-school
and beyond. Growing up I was not happy seeing the world around especially for
women. All I wanted at first was to do the best I can then give it back to improve
the world around me. Against many odds and fierce resistance, I got admission
in Illinois State University and came to USA to be something. I was never
satisfied by doing only “the job.” I left my “regular” job to start my own business
in 2000. Earning money has never been my prime objective but making a
difference in people’s lives has always been at the core of my being. I have
served in many non-profits so far as well helped the needy in USA and India. Making
a major impact in people’s life gave me solid self-confidence.
Small business has its own challenges but
it really bothers me to see that we look at government for all solutions. It is
true that government support is necessary but at the same time citizens have to
be engaged. I saw a gap in technology, Innovation, and leadership. I had some
discussions with Illinois Institute of Technology’s Innovation center and
decided to put these pieces together to bring about Technology Innovation
Summit. Going forward, I would like to invite major corporations to join hands in
building an innovation center for government technology.
