Prabhudev Konana of the UT business school.

The booming global business possibilities between the United States and India is the focus of the TiE conference this Saturday in Austin.

The conference is hosted by the Austin chapter of TiE or The Indus Entrepreneurs.

More than 30 speakers from all over the world will take part and share their ideas.

The topics range from film industry collaborations between "Balliwood to Hollywood" to venture capital investment opportunities.

Speakers include Pramod Haque, the top-rated venture capitalist according to Forbes Magazine and Balliwood director Shekhar Kapur.

The conference is at the Renaissance Hotel in Austin. For more information, call (512) 305-0575.

News 8 Austin's Paul Brown spoke with Anupam Govilm, the president of TiE-Austin and Prabhudev Konana, of The University of Texas, who helped plan the conference.

Q: What is the mission of TiE?

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	Indus entrepreneurs A conference will focus on investment opportunities in India.

Govilm: The sole object of helping entrepreneurs. And we started the chapter in Austin in early 2000. And our philosophy here is really to nurture and mentor entrepreneurs and help them find the right resources so they can start and grow their businesses … The idea is to help entrepreneurs … find information and meet the people who can educate them about what's happening in terms of how companies here are leveraging, outsourcing resources. How companies are tapping the market in India and increasing the number of venture funds.

Q: What's the business school's interest in this?

Konana: Our students have to be global managers. Historically, we have been placing students in Texas or within the U.S. We have a huge opportunity for students to look beyond the U.S. boundaries … And if you take most of the companies, including Dell, most of the growth is happening in Asia … So, strategically it's very important for our students to understand this global market.

Q: What has the traditional business relationship between the United States and India been?

Konana: It's been fairly small but nevertheless the U.S. is easily the largest trading partner … In recent times, the focus has been outsourcing, offshoring, but surprisingly India exports a lot in textiles and gems.