Technology is central, not money

My life, and my philosophy towards it, remain much the same today when my so-called wealth'' is Rs 2,000 crore, as it was a decade ago w...

My life, and my philosophy towards it, remain much the same today when my so-called 8220;wealth8221; is Rs 2,000 crore, as it was a decade ago when we first promoted HFCL. If anything, my working hours have increased! Our central or core value is still leadership in technology, massive Ramp;D, and developing of indigenous technology. The money in itself, has little meaning. Today, I hold around a fifth of HFCL8217;s equity which totals around Rs 11,000 crore but it matters little since I can access it only if I divest my equity, which I have no plans of doing.

In any case, my Rs 2,000 crore of 8220;wealth8221; keeps changing every day, depending on how the market reacts, so I don8217;t even keep track of it. Getting excited by market capitalisation is like living in your own house, and getting excited about its value going up how does it matter, if you8217;re not selling it?

Ironically, when I was a child, I lived with my father in his own house. Today, with all my 8220;wealth8221;, he lives with me in my rented house! My children, a son and a daughter, are aiming at becoming an engineer and architect respectively professionals in their own right. Nor is there anything in their lifestyle, which sets them apart from any of their friends.As far as I8217;m concerned personally, and as far as HFCL8217;s basic philosophy is concerned, if we don8217;t develop technology locally, we8217;ll always be dependent on foreigners, and they will keep taking us for a ride.

To give you just two examples of what we did at HFCL: We developed microwave radios for Rs 6 lakh in 1993, when DoT was buying them from foreign companies at Rs 25 lakh or so. Similarly, we got technology from Marconi of Italy and used purely local suppliers to build and sell optical fibre terminals for Rs 85 lakh at a time when global players were selling them for Rs 2.5 crore. The country saved around Rs 700 crore because of our ability to develop technologically.

We8217;ve now set up a new Ramp;D centre in Gurgaon, just outside Delhi, with 150 people and we plan to expand it by another 100 soon. This year, we hope to be able to commercially sell products developed here, and earn around Rs 125 crore. We8217;ll be setting aside 3 per cent of the turnover from new products developed by this centre half of this will be given to the engineers as incentives, and the other half will be ploughed back for Ramp;D in this centre alone. Overall, around 5 per cent of our group turnover, will be spent on Ramp;D.

As you know, we8217;ve sold ten per cent of our equity to Kerry Packer, and the main reason for this, apart from the money which is welcome, is that we8217;ll benefit from Kerry8217;s experience in e-commerce and in establishing global relationships. So, we8217;re getting into the dotcom area. But what we8217;ll continue to do, and that is our mantra, is that our main money will still come from equipment supplies and turnkey services. So even when the dotcom shakeout takes place, we8217;ll still be doing well since our Ramp;D efforts will give us new products, for new markets.

The writer is the chairman of the HFCL group. His 8220;wealth8221; is currently assessed at Rs 2,000 crore