And two, Sycamore, which is in the business of optical networking, competeswith giants like Lucent and Nortel Networks on the one hand and ruthlesslycompetitive start ups on the other. Ostensibly, he does an awfully good job.Which is why, when Deshpande talks, people listen.

In India to deliver the keynote address at a Nasscom-sponsored meet, hebelieves in India's potential to become world headquarters for the softwareindustry.

What is needed, however, he says, is a strong backbone network. "A strongpolitical will accompanied by an ability to move fast will make India an ITsuperpower in the years to come," he observed. He added that the variousinitiatives taken both at the government and private sector levels wasimpressive. "India has the talent and it should take inspiration from othercountries which have moved faster in IT ," he said.

More pertinently, Deshpande said, India ought to create an environment thatcatalyses greater conviction among young entrepreneurs to create wealth inthe economy.

Equally important, he said, is the degree of freedom that the systemprovides. Because it freedom which allows entrepreneurs to reinventthemselves in the business.

Failures though, he pointed out, are very real in IT. But that, he argued,is part of the game.

On companies, Deshpande said that Indian software and technology companiesmust arm themselves with talent, finance and transparency in governance.That, he said, will provide the ability to move speedily in internationalmarkets.

And on Sycamaore Networks, Deshpande who co-founded it in February 1998 withtwo scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), saidthat its products offer the potential to slash the complexity and costsassociated with multiple conversions. All optical networks can addtremendous flexibility because new wavelengths can be added at willwithout affecting other traffic.

Deshpande said that Sycamore is projecting that bandwidth demand willeventually be met in real time. He said that users will be able to get thebandwidth they want, when they want it and to get more for less.In the future, he said, Sycamore will use wavelengths of light to zapinformation across the world. It is building products that will tackle thegrowing demand for scarce bandwidth by creating virtual lightpaths, severalof which can travel within a single optical fibre, to move voice and datatraffic over fibre optic cable networks.