Hotmail website founder Sabeer Bhatia Saturday said innovation was not allowed to prosper in India the way it was in the west and bureaucratic hurdles were a big hindrance to investment in the country.

The Chandigarh-born Silicon Valley's poster boy - who sold his Hotmail website to Microsoft for $400 million - said there was enough talent in India, but it needed the right kind of encouragement.

Even as Bhatia spoke on these lines on the concluding day of the three-day information technology (IT) conclave - E-revolution 2005 - here, the show seemed to be dominated by bureaucrats from Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, central government and other related government agencies.

Punjab Governor and union territory administrator S.F. Rodrigues said it was essential for everyone to look for Indian solutions for problems that existed here instead of just aping the west as suggested by Bhatia.

Bhatia had Friday expressed interest in setting up a Rs-10-billion biotechnology facility in Punjab.

"Punjab missed the IT bus 10 years ago. It should look at newer fields like biotechnology," he had said.

Speakers at the event, especially from the private sector, emphasised that Chandigarh should plan its future infrastructure right now if it wanted major IT investment in the next few years.

They said that sufficient land for commercial activity, high-speed connectivity, feasible and fast transportation system, adequate housing facility, proper law and order, systematic power and water supply and faster air and rail links to other metros were required if the city had to dot the world's IT map.