We need to create opportunities in rural areas: Zoho CEO Sridhar Vembu

With his move from Bay Area to a faraway farm, Vembu is living his 'locally rooted, globally connected' philosophy, writes Shine Jacob

On a 625-km bus ride from Chennai to Tenkasi, a good 12 hours from Tamil Nadu’s east to west coast, scenes from Swades keep playing in my head. The 2004 Bollywood blockbuster could well be the life of the man I am making this journey to meet.

Like the film’s lead, Shah Rukh Khan, Sridhar Vembu, the poster boy in India’s software-as-a-solution (SaaS) ecosystem, shunned his comfortable life in the US to settle down in a village that barely has motorable roads.

It is not an easy drive to the Zoho Corporation founder’s home. His farm is in a village