Papers by Sébastien Bianchi
This academic thesis takes into consideration the startup ecosystems of Silicon Valley (United St... more This academic thesis takes into consideration the startup ecosystems of Silicon Valley (United States) and Bangalore (India). Bangalore is a city where considerable efforts have been dedicated to the promotion of the innovation since more than one decade. Today, in India, the city of Bangalore exemplifies a successful and world famous ecosystem of innovation which was comparatively set up decades ago in Silion Valley. Therefore, I took the opportunity of doing an internship at swissnex India in Bangalore to explore this startup ecosystem and depict its features in comparison with Silicon Valley’s. Even though there are differences between United States and India based on culture, society and economy, as to the structure of their respective startup ecosystem we can for sure draw points of analysis to identify and understand the levers by which innovation and entrepreneurship can be fostered to make a startup ecosystem successful and drive economic development in a region: high-impact entrepreneurs, community and culture, government and regulation, universities and education, incubators and accelerators, and capital sources.
This academic thesis takes into consideration the case of India which represents a developing cou... more This academic thesis takes into consideration the case of India which represents a developing country that is making a considerable investment in information and communication technologies (ICTs) for over a decade. This country presents a significative urban-rural divide related to underpriviledged socio-economic conditions in rural areas in contrast to the more favorable socio-economic conditions of urban areas. In fact, rural India counts over 700 millions inhabitants (around 70% of the population) but generates not more than 20% total GDP. ICT can be decomposed into four dimensions (4 C’s framework) which serve as shift levers for bridging digital divide in India: computing, connectivity, content and capacity (human). Sub-factors of the urban-rural divide affecting the nature of digital divide can then be identified by observing their relationship with the sociocultural and socioeconomic situation of rural India: awareness, availability, accessibility and affordability. There are, however, plenty of ways or models to strengthen rural livelihoods; the one I chose to examine in this work is the private and for-profit model of ICT-enabled kiosks as it aims at scaling a business model into small businesses very quickly, while making them self-sustaining. Through three case studies, which are ITC e-Choupal (currently still operational), n-Logue (no longer operational) and Drishtee (still operational but evolved), critical issues encountered with that model for bridging digital divide and driving socio-economic development in rural India will be discussed: sustainability and scalability of the business model, adaptability and affordability of the services provided, innovation of the infrastructure and the connectivity model, awareness of the villagers and training and affordability of the village-based entrepreneurs. There is not a simple answer to the question asked in the title of this thesis; nonetheless, it is somehow possible to state that no private and for-profit model based on ICT can survive if it does not effectively consider at least one of the four sub-factors of the digital divide previously cited.
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Papers by Sébastien Bianchi