Dr Shrikanth Sola is a cardiologist in Bengaluru. / Linkedin/Srikanth Sola

Internationally reputed cardiologist Dr Srikanth Sola, who is also the CEO of Devic Earth, was raised in the United States and pursued his education at Stanford University. He continued his medical studies at Harvard University and later earned his degree from Duke University. But motivated by a desire to contribute to his homeland, he returned to India to "serve his country."

“I went back to India because I wanted to serve my country and worked with the poor,” he said, as he began sharing his inspiring life story to a room full of deep tech startup experts and founders.

While working in Bengaluru, Dr Sola observed the devastating impact of air pollution on heart disease among his patients, including young people in their 20s and 30s. “What I did is I put together with my bioengineering group and we developed a technology to clean the air at scale,” he said.

His company Devic Earth’s product called Pure Skies uses wi-fi enabled technology to handle airborne gaseous and particle pollutants. Pure Skies targets particulates like PM10 and PM2.5 and nano sized particles below 1 micron.
 

Dr Sola was speaking at a lunch reception on the sidelines of the SelectUSA Summit in Washington DC attended by a delegation from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry and the Government of Karnataka. The luncheon was organized by the Indian American Business Impact Group (IAMBIG).
 

FICCI and the Government of Karnataka delegation participated in the @SelectUSA Summit in Washington D.C. The deep tech start-ups across drones, AR&VR, retail, sustainability, and semiconductors were represented by their CEOs and founders. The delegation was led by Chair of FICCI… pic.twitter.com/alzO6EcFyE

— FICCI (@ficci_india) June 24, 2024

This year marks India's largest delegation ever in history at SelectUSA, one of the speakers at the event emphasized. Surpassing China's previous record, India's delegation underscores its rising influence and the abundant opportunities available, he said. “Somebody who is competing with NVIDIA, it's an amazing thing to hear. Somebody worked with Bill Gates, and somebody who has got a degree from Stanford, Duke, and going back to India,” he said.

Another speaker at the event praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his team for their support in navigating India's defense ecosystem swiftly and efficiently. He emphasized the need to streamline processes to expedite defense contracting, noting the challenges involved in mitigating bureaucratic hurdles.
 

Driving innovation

Ullas Kamath, Chairman of FICCI Karnataka State Council, led a delegation from Karnataka comprising seven deep tech startups supported by the state government. “The objective here is to showcase our talent from Karnataka and also help them to get their networking in the US, both in terms of business and also for capital,” he said.

Kamath expressed that several startups are interested in establishing offices in the US, highlighting the positive interactions over the past few days. “We got good support from Indian businessmen operating from Washington DC and we had a great time with investors. I'm very happy that the Government of Karnataka is taking such wonderful initiative and it was a great experience overall,” he said.
 

FICCI's support for tech startups in emerging fields

Poornima Shenoy, representing FICCI in the US, spoke on behalf of the organization and the Karnataka government, which has backed their delegation of tech startups to the US.

“We have startups in the space of AR, VR, AI, space tech. They are seeing enormous traction for investments, mentors, as well as business partnerships. We hope the traction is continuous and continues to grow,” she emphasized.

Exploring opportunities in India-US relationship

One of the speakers at the event expressed admiration for the attendees who had traveled to explore the opportunities presented by the India-US relationship, particularly in the American market.

He highlighted the access to capital, technology, and potential opportunities available in the US market, emphasizing the importance of peers in validating and enhancing ideas for further development.

“The US market where you have the capital, you have the technology, you have the possible opportunities, peers, who are there to revalidate your ideas, to enrich your ideas, to see how you can actually further work on your own ideas or your own thoughts,” he said.

Barada Sahu, CEO of tech company Mason, recalled his experience working at Microsoft Robotics, where he developed various robots for Bill Gates before moving to Silicon Valley. He highlighted that his company has created a robot capable of learning tasks such as painting and making dosa or chapati.