In December 1987, I got a STD call from Delhi. I was to meet the then Prime Minister with the Director of IIT Bombay and make a presentation on my nuclear reactor.
On the chosen day Prof B. Nag and myself made our way to the Prime Ministers office. I had a set of transparencies to be used on an overhead projector. I had used a software called Harvard Presentation Graphics to make those slides and print them on a dot matrix printer. They were then photocopied on transparent plastic.
We had been given thirty minutes. The meeting lasted three hours. Prof Nag was no small person. Before becoming Director of IIT Bombay, he was Chairman of the Electronics Commission. He used to live in the same house in Lutyens Delhi where part of the Gandhi family then lived. He had helped set up BEL, GCEL and the various state electronics corporations. The Prime Minister held Prof Nag in great respect. He had introduced the family to an enterprising telecom entrepreneur called Sam Pitroda who had set up CDoT. He was instrumental in setting up the Semiconductor Complex of India in Chandigarh.
The meeting started with Prof Nag asking Mr Gandhi how he was liking his job. It then went on to my introduction. Prof Nag described me as one of his most enterprising students who could pull off the most crazy things. Like make a feature film. And now I wanted to make a nuclear reactor which could be put on a truck like a generator. Three hours later, we were told that this needs to continue. Mr Gandhi asked me what I wanted. It was a question I did not have an answer to.
A month later I was back. This time the nuclear head honchos were in the room. At the top of the table was Mr MR Srinivasan who was rather surprised to see me there. Now I had an answer to what I wanted. I wanted the govt to sponsor making my nuclear reactor. But there was no provision to do any such thing. Prof Nag mentioned that a concept called venture capital had been invented in USA to do such things.
The IFCI chairman was called to sit with us and figure out what this venture capital was. It was a case of five blind men discussing what an elephant looked like. No one knew anything.
But to cut a long story short, in early 1989, an entity called the Risk Capital Technology Consortium was created by IFCI. It was headed by an iit Kanpur alumnus DINESH SHARMA Their office was located just behind the Sai Baba temple on Lodhi Road.
In December of 1989, they sanctioned venture capital of Rs one crore for a company called Perpetual Power Technologies Pvt Ltd. This was India’s first venture capital funded company with Umesh Rakhra a iit Kanpur/ iim Calcutta alumnus and myself as founders. The objective was to make a perpetual power engine.
By the time the company was formed, the government had changed. VP Singh became the new Prime Minister. Suddenly the tide changed against nuclear. I sought an appointment with the PMO. I never did get one.
But there is more …
