We should be inspired by the
extraordinary efforts of a number of Indian
doctors in America who have started forprofit
and not-for-profit hospitals in India
and who have been instrumental in sharing
their advanced medical treatments and
skills with the medical community in India.
Or take the example of Dr. Victoria Hale,
who recently founded the Institute for
OneWorld Health, a non-profit agency that
seeks to find cures for diseases around the
world which tend to be neglected by
private drug companies for lack of revenue
potential.There must be better ways for us
to help India than by putting on variety
shows and Indian melas to raise money for
charities.

If we really want to help India, why
don't we work to improve the quality of
thousands of private technical schools in
India where millions spend their hardearned
money for an education that turns
out to be worthless because the course
material is not up to par? More than they
need our money, these schools sorely need
our skills to determine which technologies
should be used and how most effectively to
teach students to use these technologies.
We should strive to bring all Indian
engineering colleges up to par with IIT.
And why limit our charity efforts to India?
Why not improve the quality of technical
schools for inner city residents in the U.S.?
In leveraging our unique skills, we can
benefit people in infinitely more powerful
and lasting ways than by merely donating to
charity.

After the 9/11 tragedy, Oracle CEO
Larry Ellison offered to help the U.S.
government by participating in the creation
of a national ID card system. Ellison,
realizing that America could benefit from
his company's unique technologies and
talent pool, kindly offered his services to
the national government. Why can't we
follow Ellison's lead in helping the Indian
government? For instance, the current
Indian tax system is in shambles, with only
two and a half percent of the Indian
population paying taxes. What India sorely
needs is an IT system that keeps track of
who pays and who fails to pay taxes. This is
where the unique skills of the plethora of
Indian IT professionals in the U.S. can be
harnessed to make a real difference in the
way India is run. It's high time that we
asked ourselves, is there a way to use our
unique talents for the betterment of our
country?

siliconindia's Fifth Anniversary

The first issue of siliconindia went to press
on August 15, 1997. Five years later, we
could simply pat ourselves on the back and
say that we have come a long way since
then. However, just as living a long life or
having a fat bank account is not a measure
of someone's success as an individual,
surviving for five years and increasing our
print run to 90,000 are not the true
measure of a magazine's success. For me,
siliconindia's success is reflected in our
subscribers' statements of how much they
have benefited from reading our magazine.
When siliconindia was founded, the focus
group consisted in a single person: me, a
techie with an entrepreneurial bent. Five
years later, we receive a steady stream of
helpful suggestions from our readers every
day. I would like to thank all of you for
being involved and helping us in every
possible way. Let's keep the flame burning
for years to come!