Dr Anand Deshpande is the founder, chairman and managing director, Persistent Systems Ltd, a software development company that releases over 500 products each year for its platform and application providers, and enterprise customers.

Persistent is 18 years old and I can surely say that the journey has indeed been very exciting and fulfilling for me.

About four years ago, we set out to be a 'small-big' company from being a 'big-small' company. We have achieved this goal now. For the next few years, scaling the business will continue to be our focus. We started in the early 90s by working with product companies using an offshore centric model focused on technology excellence. As our unique differentiator, we have continued to develop and refine our expertise, and today we have matured and are recognised as an award-winning technology company specialising in outsourced software product development (OPD).

My dream for Persistent is to see it as a leading player in the OPD category. In my opinion, speed is going to be the essence in our pursuit of delivering value to our customers through innovative technology and business models. Along with speed, flawless deliveries, taking the initiative and responding quickly to all the opportunities, will also play a significant role as we progress ahead and deliver value through innovation.

I believe that information technology would be a key enabler for us to achieve the growth rates desired by all these industries. And the youth will be the driving force to bring about this change. We have a large population of tech-savvy youngsters who are ready to build on the technology platform. They will build applications and new business models that will fuel growth. There are abundant opportunities for youngsters today and I hope they will take the lead to drive this change.