Globally, product development business is termed to be at $250-300 billion. Of this Indian product development business is $1 billion, which is just a miniscule of the potential. Predictions are that Indian product companies have the potential to reach $ 15 billion by 2015.

“There is a lot of momentum in the field of product development and this is the right time to harness the opportunities. The major issue here is to change the fixated mindset of people and focus on product development, creating the ecosystem, looking at seed funding, growth capital, HR etc issues,” said Nasscom President Kiran Karnik addressing the Nasscom Product Conclave 2007 on Monday.  “The first initiative here is to clarify the objectives and the roadmap,” he added.

Success stories

Nasscom Product Forum Chairman Subhash Menon said, “as we deal with product development business seriously Indian companies will have to learn from the success stories  — look at revenue models, IP creation and capabilities.” “VC funding is available for Indian companies, for instance IDG Ventures is planning to invest about 40 per cent of their funds in product development business in India,” he added.

Instacoll Chairman & Chief Evangelist Sabeer Bhatia said, “It is necessary to think out of the box for generating ideas and innovations. Innovation does not need hugh R&D investments, but only 10-15 talented people. Also lot of product innovation happens informally and between people from cross-disciplines.”