Anyway, if someone's total property is worth 18 thousand crore rupees, then even the auditor will not object to buy a private jet plane worth 300 crore Rupees. And when money is limitless then what is difficult?
Even though, when Laxmi tears the roof and showers money, such decisions do not seem expensive to anyone. Maybe that's why buying a jet plane for a billionaire is like buying a Maruti car for a manager. But Saraswati along with Laxmi, Chairman of Zoho Corporation, Sridhar Vembu, was kind. So their intentions were totally different from others.
Private jet buying away, he told his company board of directors that they want to move the Joho Corporation headquarters from California, US to elsewhere. Company officers were disturbed by this idea of Sridhar. Because there is no other place in the world than California's Bay-area for the software industry. Google, Apple, Facebook, Twitter or Cisco, all of them are living in the same area, flourishing. But Sridhar was going to take a bigger unexpected decision.
They shifted from California to Seattle or Houston. They wanted to return to Chennai about 13000 kilometers away from America. He said in the board meeting that if Dale, Cisco, Apple or Microsoft can set up their office and research centres in India, why does Zoho Corporation refrain from returning home?
The board remained silent in front of Sridhar's logic and questions. The decision had been made. IIT Madras engineer Sridhar had pledged to go back to Madras. They had already purchased 4 acres of land to install company's new headquarters in a village, District Tenksi in Tamil Nadu. And according to the announcement, October 2019, i.e. exactly one year ago, Sridhar started the Global Headquarters of Zoho Corporation in Mathlamparai village of Tenksi district. Not only that, the 2.5 billion dollar Joho Corporation also shocked many in the tech world by achieving a record revenue of 3,410 crore rupees in software development business last year.
Why did Sridhar want to return home country?
Sridhar, did not return home country due to the pressure of any agency or bank or stock exchange in America. They weren't even competing pressure. They were not even starting a new business. They returned home with a positive thought, not for any negative reason. He vowed years ago that if Joho succeeded in business he would invest a large portion of the profit in the homeland. They will also spend the company's profits on giving modern education to village children. With this intention, they first opened free modern schools for children in Mathlamparai village. The knowledgeable of computer technology is also building Zoho University in Sridhar village where future software engineers will be ready. In an interview in Forbes magazine, Sridhar explains that migration from the village can be prevented if technology is linked to rural areas. “Talent in the village, willing to work, if we connect children with modern education then we will get a big talent pool in the village. That's why I also go to kids class and teach them too. My attempt is to connect the village with satellite. We are not just erasing the distance, not just backwardness, but we are going to deliver better than the city from the village. Even if the product is software” says Sridhar.
Photos show that Sridhar is a very simple and simplicity person. You'll often see them in Lungi and Bush Shirt. They walk on bicycle to visit the village and tehsil. From his conversation, expression, does not realize that Sridhar is a billionaire software industrialist who has employed more than Nine Thousand people with mostly engineers. Their company's operations spread from the US to Japan and Singapore where Nine Thousand Three Hundred tech personnel got employment. Sridhar says he will provide around Eight thousand tech jobs to Indian villages in the coming years and shift global service to non-urban areas of the country. In villages with education they are setting up modern hospitals, sewer systems, irrigation, market and skill centers.
One question to you now
What is the reason that the public cannot test diamonds like Sridhar in the country? What is the reason we worship pseudo heroes by ignoring real heroes? If Sridhar wanted to be flying on private jet plane in California today, staying in Seven Star Luxury Villa, investing his earnings abroad. What did they need to return home? Yet the country does not care about their sacrifice?
Are people like Sridhar becoming irrelevant now in this country, which is colored with mud and hatred? Or are we becoming so poor and shameless that we are looking for worthless instead of Narayan in Narayan?
Many polar stars like Sridhar are enlightening the country today but the shine of these stars does not make the society silent. Their karma, does not illuminate news channel headlines. And those who are being enlightened in the morning and evening can give you nothing but darkness.
My urge is from you. If the future of children is to change, shut down the news channel for a while and around yourself. Find Sridhar in your village country.