Nitin Bajaj

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host, Nitin Bajaj, and joining me today is Vivek Wadhwa. Vivek, welcome on the show.

Vivek Wadhwa

Its good to be on with you.

Nitin Bajaj

Thanks for having us here.

Nitin Bajaj

Its great to be doing this in person. Have been following your work for many years. I’ve cited you in pretty much all of my research. Thank you. Absolutely. So let’s start with who is Vivek

Vivek Wadhwa

I don’t know what I am anymore because I’ve we have done so many things. I founded companies. I’ve taught in academia, you know, many different universities, mentoring entrepreneurs. Mhmm. God knows what I’m doing.

Nitin Bajaj

I mean Well, you’re making a huge impact, and that’s for sure.

Vivek Wadhwa

Thanks.

Nitin Bajaj

But before we get deeper into the work you have done and and you continue to do, let’s play a small game. We call it, underrated, overrated. These many different themes that impact us as a community, your one word take on those. And, let’s start with crypto.

Vivek Wadhwa

Crypto, I mean, this is something that, my son and I, strongly disagree with him, and he teach he teaches with me. He’s really into it. He thinks that, when the dust settles, it will, there’ll be a lot there. Even NFTs have a future. And I look at it, and I call it Beanie Babies. I remember when, Beanie Babies were a big thing, and everyone was excited about them. They would gain, you know, 1,000 of dollars of values for a $5 little bunny. Well, beanie babies crashed. Well, what Tarun, says to me is that, well, the same thing happened with Nitin, in the dotcom boom Mhmm. That Amazon crashed. You know, a lot of these, tech companies, Google crashed.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm. At

Vivek Wadhwa

the end of it, you know, you have $1,000,000,000,000, values that have been built. Yes. So I I suspect that there’s gonna be something that emerges from it. I think Bitcoin is a scam, without doubt. And 90% of the 90 maybe when 99% of these cryptocurrencies are a scam, but there may be some good ones that come out of it, and there’s some long term value created.

Nitin Bajaj

K.

Vivek Wadhwa

Let’s watch and see.

Nitin Bajaj

Alright. So underrated for now. Alright. What about

Vivek Wadhwa

overrated for now.

Nitin Bajaj

Overrated for now.

Vivek Wadhwa

Okay. And what happens remains to be same.

Nitin Bajaj

Okay. What about, real estate?

Vivek Wadhwa

Real estate, it has long term value, because it’s a, you know, tangible thing.

Nitin Bajaj

Right.

Vivek Wadhwa

And, you know, it depends on which part of the world you live in. Here, in Silicon Valley, people want to come here from all over the world. Right. And they do come here. There’s competition. So, you know, right now, we may be, going through a a stagnation period.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Vivek Wadhwa

Prices may drop 5 or 10%, but at the end of the day, there’s there’s real value here. True. Because, you know, like, we are right now, you know, on top of the world and top of Silicon Valley. This has real value. True.

Nitin Bajaj

Well, by the way, yes, you know, the view is amazing. I’m having a hard time focusing on the camera because I really wanna look back there.

Vivek Wadhwa

Right.

Nitin Bajaj

So okay. I agree with you on the real estate. What about stakeholder capitalism?

Vivek Wadhwa

You know, the republicans are calling it work capitalism. Yes. The democrats are calling it, you know, responsibility. It’s in between. I mean, you know, companies the alternative is the evil that the tech industry is doing. I mean, Facebook, they monetized, social media Mhmm. To the point that they’re alienating societies. Mhmm. So, you know, if Facebook acted it would be a wonderful thing for the world. You know, that doesn’t mean that they should be championing political causes

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Vivek Wadhwa

But they should at least take responsibility.

Nitin Bajaj

Right.

Vivek Wadhwa

So I call it, you know, ethics and values and morals and and putting the interest of humanity ahead of money. Mhmm. So whatever, you know, you label it, whether it’s woke or whether it’s not woke, it doesn’t matter. I mean, the fact is that, all of us have a responsibility to uplift, society and not to do evil. True. And many companies don’t understand that. I mean, you’ve got the Philip Morrises, of course, who’ve been there, you know, the the villains rightfully so. But now the tech industry has also become a villain.

Nitin Bajaj

True. Right. With power comes responsibility. And if you don’t use it right way

Vivek Wadhwa

Exactly.

Nitin Bajaj

Yeah.

Vivek Wadhwa

Yeah.

Nitin Bajaj

On that note, what about metaverse?

Vivek Wadhwa

Metaverse, if Facebook, Zuckerberg tried to hijack it. Mhmm. Virtual reality is going to become, you know, the way we communicate with each other within 5 or 10 years Mhmm. Or maybe even be sooner than that. So the, this virtual reality is coming. Mhmm. Metaverse, there’s a lot of hype and, you know, Facebook nonsense. They’re exaggerating, what it is and trying to, you know, stake a claim to real estate and so on. So leave all the hype aside. Virtual reality is gonna is gonna be the next way we communicate because, you know, we could it’s just as well instead of being up here, we could just as well do this on Mars or True. In Tahiti or somewhere else. True. True. So there those virtual worlds are coming.

Nitin Bajaj

What about stock market valuations?

Vivek Wadhwa

You know, steady you know, slow and steady. You have bubbles that pop, but you’re building real value there.

Nitin Bajaj

And

Vivek Wadhwa

so, yeah, I think there is something real to stock markets because it’s based on something tangible. It’s not like crypto where, you know, Bitcoin, it’s now being manufactured or nothing at all. It’s based on real value being created. True. Right.

Nitin Bajaj

Well, thanks for playing along. Let’s, talk about something that’s closer and more personal to you. You touched upon you’re doing many different things. If I were to ask the question, what do you do for a Vivek? What would that be?

Vivek Wadhwa

I retired from teaching a few months ago because I got tired of this virtual, you know, nonsense. Because the virtual reality isn’t to the point that you can, you know, teach innovation on it. True. So now I’m focused on a bunch of projects. Mhmm. I lost my dear wife to cancer. And this is 3 years ago, and it was devastating for me. So much so that the only thing that kept me going was her wish that I prevent other people from suffering the way she did. So I put together a grand plan to cure cancer, and I was able to hook up with some amazing, scientists and entrepreneurs in India who had a mission to transform India’s cancer care system, but that’s being implemented. So a lot of my energy for a couple of years was spent on focusing on curing cancer. Mhmm. Now the project called Carcanos Healthcare is in autopilot, with an incredible team. They’re doing all the things they need, so they don’t need me. Along came another, technology I’ve been involved with for a decade, which is to, provide 100% clean water. Mhmm. A company in Chile, run by a scientist Alfredo Zalese, had made a breakthrough in being able to convert water into plasma and the 4th chain of matter back into water, thereby getting the cleanest water on the planet in terms of, you know, living organisms in it. So for many years, I I supported and invested in it, then I checked out of it. And, you know, then I reengaged. We helped the company get it back on its feet. And now it’s hired a plus management team. It’s got lots of funding, and it’s now gonna provide clean water to all of Latin America. But they also made an amazing discovery, during the pandemic when everything was in slow mode. They they they realized that they could generate what’s called plasma activated water from the same technology. What’s plasma activated water? You know, if you look at, the the places which have the most lightning Mhmm. You’ll notice that the the vegetation is the most fertile over there. Because what mother nature does is this is the way the mother nature preserves and protects the planet. Lightning is a force state of matter. Mhmm. Massive amounts of energy to create lightning. Mhmm. And then when it goes through the air, which is 78% oxygen and Mhmm. 19% sorry. 98 78% nitrogen. Mhmm. 18%, you know, oxygen. The bio the students can correct me on that. I’m I’m close. Sure. Nitin 1 or 2 percent of the right numbers over there. Essentially, what happens is that the water in the rain Mhmm. Adds nitrates to it Mhmm. And it adds a molecule which turns h two o o into h two zero two, which is hydrogen peroxide. Right. And then you have all these, the species, you know, the, that are, in the water. What they do is that they produce the flora to defend themselves. It’s like a vaccine for humans, and it adds fertilizer to the ground. Well, the devices that Alfredo built can do the same thing. Interesting. Inexpensively, and I’m talking about a 1000 watts of energy. Mhmm. Large volumes. I mean, you know, in gallons, you know, you know, per minute, you can now generate plasma activated water. So now so I basically persuaded the 2 largest farms in Florida to pilot the technology, and the couple of universities are testing it as well. And so far, the results are astonishing. I mean, we’re talking about launching the real and now my ambition is to help this company, help its executives launch the next green revolution. You know what Sri Lanka tried doing with this stupid, you know, organic thing? They weren’t ready for this. If they had technology such as this, they could have achieved that. Because you would simply now start putting plasmatic Nitin on the plants, and it’s a 100% organic. And, you would need pesticides also. So already I’ve now, connected with Anand Mahindra about it in India and Mukesh Ambani. Mhmm. They had their teams looking at it. So as soon as we get this technology working in Florida, we’re gonna take it to India. And Wadhwa bit of luck, launch the next green revolution, which is, eliminates the need for pesticides or reduces the need for pesticides and chemical fertilizers. So that that’s another project I’m working on. And then and then another technology sort of technologies which I’m now looking to take to India and the developing world is to remediate the sewers, to essentially make the sewers inert so that I mean, you know, the the the you know, our our holy river, the Ganga, it’s really become, it it’s shocking to me that, you know, even though the Ganga is revered, they dump pollution into it. They they dump sewage into it. Mhmm. What is wrong with us? Yes. Well, the problem is that they have no other choice. So that, you know, they pretend to pray and they pretend to, the the Ask for forgiveness. We have to yeah. We have to do what we have to do. But what if you could now make the sewage inert so it doesn’t pollute? It doesn’t make people sick? This is a project which I’m gonna be starting on over the next few months. I’m already speaking to a who’s who of Silicon Valley about supporting Minit. Mhmm. We may be able to produce inexpensive units, few $1,000 units power powered by a couple of solar panels that provide, the ability for entire villages to have a 100% clean water going into their into the, the rivers and thereby reduce or eliminate the disease that’s caused by it. So that’s the next big project I’m we’re gonna be working on. It’s all about now helping humanity and, saving the planet. So that’s what my my mission right now is, to do all the good I can while I can still do good for the world.

Nitin Bajaj

Right. I’m not surprised the amount of impact you create because you’ve done this most of your life.

Vivek Wadhwa

But now after losing my wife, my life’s mission is to do what she said to help others. True. To, you know, better humanity. Because she she knew that without her, I would be completely devastated without I’d be lost. Mhmm. That’s why, you know, her, you know, command to me was spend your life helping others doing good for the world. So that’s my mission in life now. This is, frankly, this is why I stopped teaching because, you know, teaching 40, 50 students, fine, you’ll impact 40, 50 students, but what if you can impact 40, 50,000,000 people? True. What if you can impact a 1000000000 people? True. With advancing technologies, which is what I teach, I know you can do it. So it’s with the cancer project. Mhmm. What we’re about to do is to give India a base to to, to build a $100,000,000,000 medical industry Mhmm. On the one hand. On the other hand, to now come up with all the data and biospecimens we need to cure cancer. Mhmm. India is about to leapfrog the world, leapfrog the west in, in cancer treatment. And it’s I’m not the only one saying that. The advisory board that I put together has the top scientists they’re the people who tried to help me save my wife, Devinder. Mhmm. They’re helping me with this. They believe that India can now leapfrog the West, that this cancer bunch moonshot that president Biden has done Mhmm. It’s gonna be left in the dust with what we’re doing in India. This is what the folks at Harvard and Mayo Clinic, you know, would say as well.

Nitin Bajaj

That’s amazing.

Vivek Wadhwa

So this is of India. So if we can now cure cancer, we can now launch a green revolution, and now we can improve health. I think that’s about, you know, as much as I can possibly achieve in in the rest of my lifetime, and that’s what I wanna do.

Nitin Bajaj

Oh, you’ve surprised yourself before, and I won’t be surprised if you surprise yourself again. They said

Vivek Wadhwa

I’m gonna do it.

Nitin Bajaj

You will do it. And, you know, you do it. You mentioned with a little bit of luck, I don’t think where you’re involved, luck is needed. Because

Vivek Wadhwa

No. I mean, it’s always in God’s hand. It’s always luck. I mean, I mean, you know, we can just do our best, and I’m doing my best at the end of the day.

Nitin Bajaj

You’re too humble. So tell me about, you know, as you’re going through this, these are huge problems. Right? These are the size and scale. As you think about these, what’s the one big challenge you face?

Vivek Wadhwa

Right now, nothing is stopping me. Mhmm. Alright? I don’t have challenges. It’s just a matter of of, putting pieces together and making these things happen. I mean, when I came to the cancer project, you you know, what Vivek given me confidence is that I came to the cancer project. After losing my wife, you know, why am I in this secluded place? Mhmm. Because I wanted to get away from the world. And this is I mean, it’s a beautiful setting Right. But I need to be away from because for many months, I couldn’t do anything. Or, you know, I was literally, I mean, I cut cut off myself from the rest of the world. And then I started focusing on putting together a grand plan to cure cancer. So the plan was to get, to larger long notch largest clinical trial in world history to get the data and biospecimens open source and make them available to researchers all the world, break the back of the corrupt medical institutions we have in America by doing what can’t be done in America is making all the data available to scientists all over the world to now cure cancer. That’s what my goal was. I couldn’t do it in America. Because if I started doing Nitin America, the medical establishment would sue me. True. So the next thing was, where do I go? So I wanted to go to India Mhmm. Because India doesn’t have an an industry to to protect. It’s corrupt, but not in in the medical industry because it has no industry to put protect. So I needed to go and see, Narendra Modi, the the prime minister of India. And, also, I wanted to see the Dalai Lama Yeah. Because I wanted to get the Dalai Lama’s blessings for my for my wife. Mhmm. And also for, one of my nephews who was suffering from cancer brain cancer. He also passed away. I wanted to get the Dalai Lama’s blessings for both of them. So how do you do that? Well, I was persistent. I mean, I you know, long story, but I was able to get a meeting with with prime minister Modi. I spent half an hour with him and also half an hour with the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama gave his blessings, and he also offered to host a academic conference

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Vivek Wadhwa

Of of naturalist, you know, scientist. And by the way, the Dalai Lama had cancer. True. He he cured he treated himself with a combination of western and eastern medicine. Mhmm. So he offered to help me with that when I’m ready. Prime minister Modi, I was amazed how brilliant he was. He was able to you know, you know how fast I talk and and how Yeah. He was able to keep up with me. And so he was speaking Hindi, but he understood everything he was saying, in English. And I could understand his Hindi, but I couldn’t speak very well in Hindi. He kept up with me, and then he told his principal scientific adviser, he said professor programs yeah. Wow. Program He basically commanded him to make it happen. Wow. You know, long story, but it government didn’t follow-up, but they did, connect me with all the right scientists Mhmm. Who may are making all this magic happen. So, you know, you figure that if I can now go and, meet the prime minister Lama and put something like that in place, what is the big deal in trying to get together a project to to, treat sewage and to get this device, which is, you know, designed by scientists in Chile who’d also designed the water technologies. Mhmm. So if I can do that, I can now make this happen. And I’ve already spoken to a couple of my friends over here. They said, Vivek, if you’re gonna do it, we’re gonna support you. I don’t need a $1,000,000 for this. Let’s say, we’ll put it. Let’s win a $100,000 each, and we’ll make it happen. So I’m gonna make that happen as well the next 12 months or so. We’re gonna build the technology necessary to, to solve one of India’s biggest problems. This is

Nitin Bajaj super amazing.

Vivek Wadhwa

But, you know, and Nitin, the reason why I’m discussing this, this is the second time I’m publicly discussing this Mhmm. Is because if I can do it I mean, I’m an old guy. I mean, you know, completely broken. I mean, after my loss of my wife, I was completely devastated. You know? Now I’m back to health because this is keeping me energized. But if if this is what I can do, what what about everyone else who’s watching this who’s at the peak of their careers, who have access to, you know, the same technologies that I do? And people there are many, many, many people. The majority of people are smarter than I am. So if I can do

Nitin Bajaj

it, why can’t they do it? And every every person that puts an effort around this, it augments the other one. It magnifies. And these are big problems that we’ve been facing for a very long time.

Vivek Wadhwa

Right? Today, we can solve the grand challenges of matter. I mean, you know, for the people who listen to me the first time, go to my website, vadwa.com Yes. And watch some of the videos there. Watch some of the lectures. I read some of my articles. This is stuff I teach, and I I write about. I talk about all the time about how advancing technologies, everything from artificial intelligence to computing, sensors, networks, digital medicine, quantum computing, all advancing exponentially and converging and making impossible things possible. We can now solve the problems of humanity. We just have to now, you know, figure out how to put the pieces together Right. And get together with each other to make it happen.

Nitin Bajaj

Have the intention. Have the focus.

Vivek Wadhwa

Make it happen. We can all

Nitin Bajaj

make it happen. True. True. And, again, thanks for taking the lead. Absolutely. Thanks for showing us the path.

Vivek Wadhwa

I’ve got nothing better to do, so I might as well save the world. I’m not teaching anymore, so why stop teaching so I can focus on bigger projects. True. Right.

Nitin Bajaj

You know, I would have asked you what’s the one big exciting opportunity, but you’ve already answered that. There are 3 of them. And you know?

Vivek Wadhwa

And and a couple more after that, which I’m thinking about also.

Nitin Bajaj

And I’m sure you’ll knock these out in the next few months, and you’d be looking at the next 2.

Vivek Wadhwa

No. No. Fingers crossed. That’s that’s Because the cancer project, I I feel very confident about it. Mhmm. You know? I mean, Venkat Ramachandran, Monek, Kyrakos, and, you know, Binay Panda, they’re a bunch of amazing Indian, philanthropists and arts and artists working on it. They have their heart in the right place, highest ethical, moral values. So I’m very happy with the way it’s going. The water technologies, you know, with, the sim a former sim CEOs of Siemens Canada, Robert Hart, heading Nitin. And now the team that he’s brought in, all these senior Siemens executives, he’s got it in great shape. It’s gonna happen. So now I’m focused on the next set of challenges. The sewer treatment and Yeah. Absolutely. And and

Nitin Bajaj

And I’m super excited. I mean, the

Vivek Wadhwa

solution seems amazing. I’m 70% confident that we can make it happen. So let’s see what happens. Well, good luck on that.

Nitin Bajaj

Now as we look forward, let’s look back and, talk about 2 experiences. 1, that blew your mind. And, you know, you hit the ball out of the park, and you surprise yourself. And the other one where things didn’t work out as you had expected, and it became a lesson.

Vivek Wadhwa

Well, I’ll I’ll go back to the 2 part of this. This is saying. Okay? Yeah. You know, the fact you see, I’m not a medical researcher. Right. I learned everything about cancer and trying to save my wife. Okay? So because I was I’m you know, I’m gonna stay positive here. It was devastating for me. Then I said, okay. I’m gonna put together all the pieces so that we can cure cancer. That the other people don’t have to suffer the way she did because so I had 3 labs ready to create personalized vaccines for her. Mhmm. Except they didn’t know what what, you know, what to target, what antigens to target, and so on. The data wasn’t there. Mhmm. So I said I’m gonna get the data together for other cancers. Mhmm. And I put together this grand plan, asked, these scientists I was working with to help me. Mhmm. And, you know, they spent a lot of time, and I was amazed by Keith Flaherty from Harvard Medical, the director of, clinical research over there. He spent many hours with me coaching me through it and helping me put together this plan. I’d say there were a bunch of scientists like that who who put all the effort into it. So the fact that I could do something like this and put together a grand plan and then, you know, get people helping me and then, you know, connect with the right people, so that showed me I can, you know, do whatever I need to do. And then you talk about failures. This technology I was talking about from Chile, the Alfredo’s realized that It failed 3 times. Alfredo was almost in bankruptcy 3 times. He kept, you know, running people would take advantage of him. I mean, he’s very, you know, decent human being. People who keep keep taking advantage of him, but deals would fall through. So, you know, basically, it was a matter of being persistent and pursuing your dreams. That’s what Alfredo did. And now, like I said, when I’m talking about not only bringing clean water to billions of people, but launching the next green revolution. I’m, you know, 80, 90% certain that we can now launch the next green revolution. Not a 100% yet, but, you know, 80, 90% certain. So that’s gonna happen. So it’s a matter of, you know, having the confidence Mhmm. Coming together with the right people and just being persistent. You know, the at the end you know, when I did all of these projects, at the end of the day, what occurred to me was that I have to try.

Nitin Bajaj

True.

Vivek Wadhwa

This is what, the Gita teaches us. It’s all about,

Nitin Bajaj

you know Effort. Effort. Yes.

Vivek Wadhwa

But even if you fail, you made the effort. True. So when I do these things now, it’s all about putting the effort in. And whether it succeeds or fail, I have no control over it. True. This is why I’m saying it’s luck. It’s we’re really more than luck. It’s, you know, really, god has a role in this. True. So my attitude is I’ll do whatever, I can and, you know, rest it up to God and luck to to make things happen. That’s the best I can do. True. Yeah. Now let’s

Nitin Bajaj

come to my favorite part of the show. We call this the one line life lessons. We would love to hear some of your one line life lessons. You sprinkled some of them.

Vivek Wadhwa

The life lesson is that make the most of what you have. I mean, we we with my wife, I mean, I, you know, think over and over again what could I have done more for her. You know, how could we how could I have been a better husband and so on and so on. So you just have to realize that life is very short, and you have to make the most of every moment. Cherish, you know, that we we cherish your partners. Cherish your children.

Nitin Bajaj

Mhmm.

Vivek Wadhwa

Cherish your friends. Make the most of every every moment because the only regret you’ll have, why did I do more? Why wasn’t I, you know, better human being?

Nitin Bajaj

True. Right. Vivek, thank you so much Absolutely. For making the time to be with us, to share your journey, your story, and most importantly, for doing what you do and for saving humanity. It’s

Vivek Wadhwa

I’m gonna put the effort in, and whether I succeed or not is not in my hand.

Nitin Bajaj

We are already succeeding, you are you are leading us, you are helping show the path, and I think that in itself is a huge success, but the progress you’ve made with the team you’ve put together is really, really amazing. Thank you.

Vivek Wadhwa

Best wishes to everyone.

Nitin Bajaj

Thank you so much. Alright, my friend.