‘Opportunities in reverse engineering’

The Pune chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), started in Silicon Valley in 1992 by successful entrepreneurs, will hold a seminar on reverse engineering at the International Convention Centre, Senapati Bapat Road, at 6pm on Friday.

According to the TiE, Indian companies import Rs50,000 crore to Rs1 lakh crore of goods every year in mechanical, electrical and instrumentation industries. Using this knowledge, entrepreneur Shekhar Kulkarni set up and now successfully runs his venture, Manik that manufactures valves.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, he said, “Huge opportunities exist in reverse engineering as several products go off patent. This is not just in the field of engineering. The markets are wide open. There are thousands of products imported into India that are not difficult to manufacture. Entrepreneurs should focus on this, as it is a huge untapped manufacturing and marketing opportunity. Unfortunately, reverse engineering is looked down upon, while actually it is something that should
be encouraged.”

Kulkarni said even the patent rights are never given in perpetuity.

“This is because the lawmakers expect people to copy such designs, processes that lead to better products. While innovation has its role to play in every field and country, making money and bringing value to your customers does not always require huge budgets and efforts in innovation, which may or may not succeed in the marketplace,” he said.

He urged entrepreneurs to take advantage of perfectly legal and valid opportunities that exist on account of many products going off patent. He said this does not mean a mere replication of a product.