hey guys
gopal srinivas chairman of the TiE awards committee and the chairman of TVS  capital funds has started announcing the TiE entrepreneur awards for 2010

hey all
I am going to be at TIEcon chennai tomorrow the whole day . so do drop in and soak in as some of the most brillant minds of our business world share their views on many interesting topics .
So now that i have told you where i am going to be dont miss out on a golden opportunity
opportunities like this comes once in a blue moon .

Entrepreneurship: A Global Economic Imperative

Entrepreneurship is a very powerful paradigm – which truly has the ability to empower people – create jobs, revive communities and enhance development in the region. It is entrepreneurship which directly contributes to economic growth and sustaining development. It is the new entrants to business who are the important catalysts of innovation, which leads to economic growth.

In the US, since 1980s, net job creation occurred primarily in startups, and it is the new companies that have been boosting overall job growth for over 2 decades. The number of people filing for unemployment stands at a staggering 15 million, and the need for new entrepreneurs is crucial to sustain such advanced economies.

In India too, the need for entrepreneurship and startups has never been greater. The youth comprise over 40% of the total population presently. Between 2010-2030, India will add over 240 million people to the working class population. Countries like India and China need entrepreneurship to keep the growing young population employed.

Victor Hugo had said, “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” That idea, is TiE, an organization with the principal mission of fostering entrepreneurship globally. The Indus Entrepreneurs (aka TiE) was born in Silicon Valley in 1992 when a handful of Indian Diaspora decided to give a gift of entrepreneurship development to the society that has been so rewarding to them.

Fast forward, the TiE Network today has 56 chapters in 13 countries, and is comprised of 2,500 seasoned entrepreneurs and mentors as charter members, and 10,500 aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals as members. TiE Chapters around the world organize a range of quality programs and events that promote entrepreneurship and deliver benefits through mentoring, motivating, networking and education opportunities.

TiE Chennai is one of our leading Chapters, with a strong mentoring pool and exemplary charter members, committed to the cause of developing entrepreneurs. We are honored to have R. Ramaraj, co-founder of Sify.com, Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technologies, KB Chandrasekhar, Kalpathi Suresh and many more successful business leaders supporting TiE Chennai.

TiECON Chennai is one such annual event that celebrates the year’s successes and milestones. This year, the TiE Chennai team features some stellar advisors and mentors sharing their entrepreneurial journeys, such as Kanwal Rekhi, Ajit Balakrishnan, and Gurcharan Das, among others. A unique feature this year is also the ‘Entrepreneur Awards’ celebrating both ‘Entrepreneurs’ and the ‘Mentors’ in the community.

We salute the people of Chennai for supporting TiE and best wishes for a very successful TiECON.

PK Agarwal

CEO, TiE Global

.Ajit Balakrishnan is the founder, Chairman and Managing Director of the Company. He is also a director of Rediffusion Dentsu Young & Rubicam Private Limited, India Abroad Publications, Inc., India In New York, Inc., India Abroad Publications (Canada) Inc., Value Communications Corporation and VuBites India Private Limited. Mr. Balakrishnan is also Chairman of the Board of Governors of The Indian Institute of Management Calcutta and Chairman of the Working Group of Internet Governance set up by the Government of India. Mr. Balakrishnan holds a Bachelors degree in Physics from Kerala University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. Mr Balakrishnan holds a B.Sc. degree in Physics from the Kerala University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He also attended the Owner/President Management Program at the Harvard Business School. Mr Balakrishnan has won numerous awards for his entrepreneurial and management skills including the Path Breaker Award given in December 2000 by Dataquest, a leading Indian IT publication.

N. Sankar     

N. Sankar serves as the Chairman of The Sanmar Group and its associates, operating in diverse areas such as Chlorochemicals, Speciality Chemicals, Shipping, Engineering, Insurance and Cement. Mr. Sankar has been an Independent Director of Bata India Ltd. since February 2005. He has been a Director of NOCIL Limited since July 2005. Mr. Sankar serves on the Board of a few institutions outside the group, such as F.L. Smidth Limited. He has been the Vice President of the All India Tennis Association, and President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket and Tennis Associations. Over the years, Mr. Sankar has held office in several public bodies representing trade and industry: President of Assocham and Chairman of Indo-US Joint Business Council. Mr. Sankar is involved with the management of many educational and charitable organizations. Mr. Sankar has been the Honorary Consul General for Denmark in South India since 1989. He has also received awards recognizing his services to business and industry, including the 'Lala Shriram National Award for Leadership in Chemical Industry' from the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was awarded the 'Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog' by the Danish Government in recognition of his services. He holds a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, USA.

 He did Master's Degree from  the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Kanwal Rekhi               

Kanwal was born in Rawalpindi (then in British India, now in Pakistan). After the partition of India, his family settled in Kanpur, India. In 1967 Rekhi graduated as an electrical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India and in 1969 he received a Master of Science degree fromMichigan Technological University. Kanwal has been a major donor to Michigan Tech, including a gift of $5 million for new computer science facilities. He worked as an engineer, systems analyst, and manager for many years before starting his own business venture in 1982. After graduating and moving to San Jose, at the age of thirty-six he cofounded and served as CEO of Excelan, a high tech company. Forbes Magazine writes that Excelan pioneered Ethernet networking technology, one of the basic building blocks of the Internet.

Excelan was a manufacturer of smart Ethernet cards, and was also credited for the commercial growth of the internet protocol TCP/IP. The company merged with, and was acquired by Novell in 1989 and Kanwal was given a seat on the board. Dorothy Leonard and Walter Swap speak highly of him in an article on The Knowledge Coach, January 10, 2005 in Research & Ideas section of Working Knowledge weekly newsletter, Harvard Business School.

Kanwal was awarded the 2010 Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri Award for Distinguished Service in April 2010 by California Institute of Integral Studies. He was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 1987 by the Arthur-Young/Venture magazine. He was named to the Board of Advisors to the President of Michigan Tech and in 1997 was honoured with a doctorate in Business and Engineering. Kanwal is also involved in increasing the visibility of premier educational institutions in India. He gave US $3 million to IIT Bombay to help set up a new School of Information Technology, named KReSIT (Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology), which opened in 1999.

Kanwal Rekhi is a past Chairman and trustee of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs, a nonprofit support network to provide advice, contacts, and funding to Indian Americans hoping to start businesses. Forbes Magazine reports that Kanwal has helped energize TiE and as a philanthropist he has made major contributions to education, supporting universities on two continents. He is a prime benefactor of a foundation in India that identifies talented students without funds, and provides them with college tuition and living expenses. He is also Chairman of the Centre for Civil Society, a think tank in India. He is currently a board member of Pan IIT USA, Inc, the alumni organization of the Indian Institutes of Technology