Transitions have been an intrinsic part of Radha Ramaswami Basu’s career. From two decades at Hewlett Packard, where she launched the company in India and as senior general manager of the electronic software division, helped it grow into a $1.2 billion business, to chairperson & CEO of SupportSoft, a Silicon Valley technology start-up, which she led through initial and secondary public offerings on Nasdaq; and now founder and CEO of iMerit Technology, a data solutions company that powers machine learning and artificial intelligence applications, while making a social and economic impact with an inclusive workforce of marginalised youth and women; she has consistently taken on leadership roles in driving technological advancements. She is also co-founder, with her husband, of Anudip Foundation – a sister foundation of iMerit.
“I don’t see the non-profit sector as a big transition. If you want to scale it, you have to run it like a business – it is a not-for-profit business. You must strategise, bringing in business principles, approaches, planning, and execution. I took my business learnings to the foundation and the social enterprise,” Basu told the Times of India in an exclusive interview at the Indiaspora Forum for Good, in Abu Dhabi, earlier this week.
People call us an AI technology company, which it is, Basu said about iMerit. “It has an inclusive workforce. I think of it as a journey, with AI playing a huge role in creating jobs. Our foundation has helped create over 500,000 jobs and helped young people develop and become a part of the global workforce,” she said. When people voice fears about AI taking away jobs, Basu points out that iMerit is creating jobs in AI by skilling people to take them to the forefront of the global workforce. “We are a technology company and a products company and we also work for inclusion and we work with AI for societal applications,” she said adding that iMerit also has marquee investors such as Khosla Impact, British International Investment, Omidyar Network and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation; big names from the technology sector. “For me, using technology for social benefit is at the core of what we do,” she said.
Basu, who spends time between India and the US, believes in working with the governments in both the countries to leverage the impact of her ventures. “I moved to the US from India 50 years ago and now I primarily spend my time between my two homes. I am not political in India or the US, but I think it is increasingly important to work with the government in the area of AI. Some examples are skilling and job creation, healthcare, agriculture – when you work with government, the impact is magnified. Over the years, I have become more knowledgeable and interested in learning from others who are like-minded and working with the government in areas where technology has broad societal applications,” says Basu. She feels that there are many companies, including iMerit, that are working with responsible and impactful AI.
Basu, who is recognised as one of the most successful Indian American women entrepreneurs and mentors, acknowledges that there was a glass ceiling that she faced when she first went to the US. “My engineering college in Chennai had 2800 boys and 17 girls. When I went to the US for a master’s degree, I didn’t know a single person there and in those days the government of India allowed us only $8 foreign exchange to carry with us. But it was part of my learning to use the resources that I had and to grow. Through that I developed resilience, grit and the ability to laugh at myself,” she said. Her motto is: you go through slips and mistakes; pick yourself up, dust off and move on. “The glass ceiling is there – you have to kick it hard; your foot might hurt a bit but the glass will be shattered and you will recover,” she said.
She also accepts that it is challenging for women in top corporate roles to juggle between a full-time job and responsibilities at home. “When you’re with a client your full attention has to be there, but when your child is sick at home, that needs your entire attention too. Juggling different roles is a quality that women have,” Basu said. Her advice to successful women is to share their narratives and learn self-confidence, grit and resilience from each other. “We should be able to take advice from one another. And I always believe that I should look at every situation and if I can make a difference, I need to go for it; but if it’s something that I cannot change, I need the serenity and wisdom to accept that,” she said.
iMentor has operations across India with 4000 employees working with AI, so she needs to travel back and forth between Silicon Valley, where she has lived for 30 years, and India, often. “With the Indian government having imposed the rule of only 120 days in India per visit, I have to plan my trips very carefully. We have recently set up an automotive AI centre in Coimbatore and I have to spend time there, while our clients are in the US, so I travel back and forth,” she said. But she also feels that she is fortunate living in an age where it is not difficult to travel often between India and the US. “Being part of the Indian diaspora allows us to be part of both cultures. I love my Tamil and Indian heritage. My husband is from Bengal, which is also a state with rich culture. We work with people all over India; in Silicon Valley, we are connected to the diaspora. We are fortunate to be exposed to all this,” she said. Basu sees herself as an optimist and part of a brigade that believes in ‘fixing it’ if there’s a problem instead of complaining. “We are fortunate to make the best of what we have and fight the things that are not good.”