India Post News Service
MILPITAS, CA: The Jain International Trade Organization (JITO) launched the JITO USA, San Francisco Chapter, on June 16 in Milpitas, California with the objective of promoting economic empowerment, growth, and social service of its members and the Jain community at large.
More than 250 Jain professionals and leaders attended the launch of the San Francisco Chapter of JITO USA. The launch celebrations were kicked off in the presence of the Mayor of the City of Milpitas, Richard Tran, Assemblyman Ash Kalra, Motilal Oswal, Chairman, Jito Apex India and Chairman & Managing Director, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd., Sanjay Lodha, Chairman, JITO International Wing, Prem Jain, Chairman JITO USA & former President of JAINA, Captain (Dr) Sushil Jain, Chairman, Jain Society of Washington DC & former President JAINA, Rajeev Pandya, Chairman, JITO New York Chapter, Regional Vice-President JAINA, Dipak Doshi, former Chairman, Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago, and Kamlesh Mehta, Chairman of the Jain Center of Northern California.
Among those who joined the celebrations were venture capitalists Ravi Mhatre and Lev Mass, as well as medical device executive Dr Mudit Jain, philanthropist Mohini Jain and Dr. Selwyn Sundaram from Surana & Surana Law Firm (from India).
In the last 10 years, JITO has established many credible benchmarks in the vast landscape of professional and social organizations. With 66 chapters and more than 7000 members, JITO is the single largest worldwide organization of prominent Jain business people, industrialists, entrepreneurs, and professionals in India and abroad. JITO has chapters in Dubai, Hong Kong, UK, Nepal, Australia, Thailand, Uganda, Kenya, and New York to name a few and is continuing to expand.
In his opening remarks, Kamlesh Mehta, Senior Vice President at Virsec Systems, shared his views on challenges faced by new immigrants today and how JITO can provide opportunities by connecting with other members. Mehta spoke on the importance of understanding the impact of new technology applications, promoting entrepreneurship, creating a platform of mentorship for all age groups, and researching Jain history.
Sanjay Lodha, Chairman, JITO International Wing, talked about how JITO is creating global platform for all Jains to come together and prosper in all fields. He mentioned growth of JITO globally from one chapter to eleven chapters in the last 12 months driven by global interest and synergy. He stressed the point that JITO can be a connecting dot for second and third generation Indian American Youth to connect with India.
Prem Jain, Founder & CEO of Pensando Systems, shared his view on the importance of a united community to connect and communicate. He presented several areas where more work is needed that will benefit the Jain community worldwide. Some of them are business leadership, diplomacy, global trade, economic empowerment, and education. In terms of global trade, JITO is connecting businesses across the border with the aim to provide more opportunities and access to different markets to its members. He suggested that the members of JITO International work together to help structure JITO USA.
Dr. Sushil Jain, CEO and founder of Refractive Surgical Captain, who has worked closely with Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, and Barack Obama, as well as several members of Congress, stressed the importance of legislative advocacy. He mentioned the importance of working together to understand political changes and engaging with members of Congress. In addition, he suggested Jains empower members of the community and to learn from those outside of it.
Local and international business leaders shared their entrepreneurial journeys during several sessions, including Power of Networking, Entrepreneurship, Medical Innovation, International Trade Opportunities, and Women Empowerment:
Motilalji Oswal, Chairman & Managing Director, Oswal Financial Services Ltd, expressed his support of the new Silicon Valley JITO chapter, emphasizing its power of networking. He cited the unprecedented growth of JITO in India as an example of how it will benefit our community. He also discussed the JBM (JITO Business Network and Technology) Platform, which has done thousands of transactions, as well as the most important objectives of JITO – economic empowerment, education, and service. Each category comprises various initiatives and service projects, including an incubation center, employment exchange, internship programs, etc.
Ravi Mhatre, Founder and Managing Partner of Lightspeed Venture Partners, stressed the importance of service. The Lightspeed venture firm, a global venture power house, focuses on enterprise technology and supporting businesses that have great ideas and helping them turn into world class products. According to him, technology is a core engine that is driving economic prosperity and expanding the GDP of many countries. The exponential rise in the number of connected devices in the last decade will inevitably require technology and infrastructure to support them, and he sees great opportunity in this area. In addition, he spoke about three new upcoming frontier areas: artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain technologies.
Lev Mass, General Partner at Venture Capital Firm Crux Capital, previous COO of the Cloud Business Group at Yahoo, and co-founder of Hortonworks, discussed the great potential of a community of entrepreneurs working together, using the global professional success of Jewish communities as an example. While Jains should stick together, he also described the importance of inclusivity and diversifying community networks to encourage growth.
Nirmal Baid, Vice-President at VISA, interviewed Mohini Jain, philanthropist, professor, and chairwoman for Jain Studies at UC Davis. regarding the importance of women’s active participation in different walks of life. Mohini shared the details of her childhood motivation to participate in philanthropy and the personal fulfillment it brings. Furthermore, she spoke about what inspired her to bring Jainism to the forefront of religious studies at UC Davis. She voiced that religious studies, in general, do not have a good platform in education. She believes the message of Ahimsa and Anekantvad should be a key foundation for everyone.
Dr. Mudit Jain, a well-known expert in the medical industry and past chairman of TAI firm (2012-2014) discussed the landscape of medical devices, innovation, and venture capital investments in the medical device industry. Healthcare is the largest employer in US and is expected to grow by 20% in the next seven years, partly due to the large aging population. The global medical device industry is worth $350 billion and the US comprises 50% of that market.
He talked about a few new devices that are currently being developed, but also cautioned about the often short life of many startups in the medical device industry, due to the many regulations involved in bringing them to the market place.
