India should have its own Silicon Valley: Sabeer Bhatia

He co-founded Hotmail in July 1996 and sold it to Microsoft in 1997 for $400 million. Since then he has been involved in a number of initiatives involving web and telecom businesses. But none of them has managed to give Sabeer Bhatia the sort of success Hotmail gave. Bhatia spoke to N. Madhavan about his recent initiatives, his next big product and what future Indian whiz kids should do to make it big. Edited excerpts:

Q. What is engaging your attention these days?
A. I am focussing on two initiatives. One is AMP Technologies - a real estate software plus services company that helps large property real estate companies manage their assets better. The software helps them take better decisions as they get actual analytics on the financial health of the properties they have. For instance if you have 10 malls, you will get real-time data on the financial health of each property, which can be accessed using a phone, tablet or computer. We also have a services arm that implements this software.

The other initiative is Jaxtr, a prepaid SIM card for international travellers. We have been working on this for the last five years. It went live earlier this week. The difference with other such cards is that we are a carrier ourselves. This enables us to offer competitive rates. Our rates are 60 per cent cheaper than what, say, Matrix charges. The SIM card currently works in four countries: USA, UK, Mexico and Canada. We hope to operate across 30 countries by the end of 2013.

Q. It is 15 years since Hotmail was founded. When can we expect the next big product from you?
A. Jaxtr has the potential to be my next big product. Just look at the size of the market. Out of the seven billion people in the world, one billion travel. Each one of that one billion has a pain point - roaming charges of $3 to $4 per minute. Here I am giving them a $20 card to solve that problem.

Q. How are your other initiatives doing?
A. Arzoo.com is doing fine. We are expanding into hotel bookings. The online travel portal has doubled its revenues since launch and it will again double revenues next year. JaxtrSMS - a bulk SMS sending portal -- has about two million users. The Nano City that we are creating in Gujarat to replicate Silicon Valley has been progressing, though slowly. Here we are dealing with government, land acquisition etc. It will take some time. I am the principle architect cum investor.

Q. Can Silicon Valley be replicated here?
A. Why not. India should have its own Silicon Valley. We have the talent. All we need to create is the infrastructure.

Q. What is your advice to future Indian whiz kids?
A. Don't stop thinking of a new idea. Every new venture starts with an idea. An idea that solves people's problems will certainly do well. Also act on your idea, but before doing so, evaluate whether you have the capacity to do it. Success will surely come your way.