Silicon Valley entrepreneur launches technology initiative

Washington, Aug 16 - An Indian American Silicon Valley entrepreneur has launched a unique initiative designed to get techies to volunteer their time to develop software and applications that will benefit people in India and other developing countries. The initiative dubbed ÒCode for IndiaÓ was launched yesterday by Silicon Valley technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist Karl Mehta. ÒAs a firm believer in the power of crowd sourced and open sourced technology, we have created Code For India to provide tools to fight day-to-day public service issues,Ó Mehta told reporters. ÒCode For India's use of technology will promote transparency, participation and efficiency in the way local people can voice their concern and find solutions,Ó he said. ÒThe transformative power of technology will aid India -- and other developing countries facing similar problems,Ó said Mehta at the launch of Code For India, a non-profit organisation based in Mountain View, California. Though starting small, Mehta has huge ambitions. His audacious goal is to get a million programmers across the globe to donate their time. For now, Code for India has a few hundred engineers from Mehtas personal network here, programmers from companies such as Google, Microsoft and Visa. However, Mehta sees a huge base of potential volunteers from India itself. The top 10 software outsourcing firms, Mehta said, employ a few million programmers. ÒThe goal is to have a team of million software engineers to develop softwares for India,Ó Mehta said in response to a question, hoping that he would soon achieve the targets, given the thousands of requests he has been receiving from Indian techies after it was formally launched on Thursday. Professor Vijay Pande of Stanford University, Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education and Vish Mishra, Venture Director at Clearstone and mentor to 'The Hive' and 'The Fabric' have joined the Advisory Board. ÒCode for India is a unique and commendable initiative whereby the sharpest of computing minds can apply themselves to altruistic causes. TiE Delhi NCR are proud to be associated with the programme,Ó said Deep Kalra, President of TiE-New Delhi. Mehta said the team would volunteer eight hours of software development per month to develop softwares worth USD 8-10 billions per annum. ÒNo amount of check donated by any rich people, would be able to match this massive volunteer effort to address the issues of concern to India through the power of software. 'Think Local, Hack Global' is the mantra for Code For India engineers who are building apps that empower marginalised communities with technology-based solutions to solve public service problems,Ó he said.