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India
Status: Just notes so far
Last changed: Thursday 2012-10-11 07:26 UTC
Abstract:
writeme
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Table of Contents
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Disclaimer: Everything on this page reflects my personal opinion and
is therefore subjective in nature. There are certain facts and
statements based on common sense and knowledge but really, there are
also a bunch of personal opinions of mine. Please keep that in mind!
However, I am trying to be as objective as possible with the contents
from this page. I hope you will find most of it helpful and/or at
least somewhat interesting to you and your cause.
India, the ancient, the eternal, and the ever new...
— Michael Wood in "The Story of India"
Why (not) go to India
Only go if it makes sense for you and your environment — the ultimate
goal must be to make others and yourself happy and improve things in
general.
differences in a few words
- Europe: clean, save, rich but unsustainable depth, boring (for me),
spirit of optimism towards the future
- India: dirty, save, huge gap between the rich and poor, exciting
(for me), spirit of pessimism towards the future
- where do I go? one of the major cities and/or tech-hubs e.g.
Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, New Delhi. Mumbai stands out the
countries major financial center and business hub in south-west
Asia. Do not even consider rural areas as the infrastructure there
is... well, there is none ;-]
why go
- good education (Mumbai University; PhD and MBA)
- growing economy, market size
- Mumbai: like Los Angeles (Holloywood; film industry) and NYC
(financial center) in one city
- weather
- culture
- adventure: if you are like me, that is, restless, independent and
adventures then India really is the place to go to these days
- you want to see/feel rapid change in society
- if you are young, financially independent, skilled and
well-educated and skilled in areas of the global market with
foreseeable growth in the future
why not go
- fierce competition; be prepared to work up to 80 hours/week for a
few years
- startup; high probability to fail
- left-lane traffic ;-]
- do not go if you do not feel comfortable with monsoons and/or
crowed places
- you do not speak English; all business people in India speak
English
- broadband Internet lacks at least 10 years behind Europe/US, both,
in terms of speed and availability (not even every city has
broadband, let alone rural areas)
Being a Foreigner
- working permit also known as visa
- it is not like the for example the bay area where, when you walk
out the airport, you are immediately one of them as soon as you
walk out of the airport
Daily Life
- differences to Europe (Austria and UK)
Numbering System
Housing
Cost of Living
Locality
Traffic / Commuting
- do yourself a favor and do not be reliant on any sort of transport
except your feet on you daily commute from home to work; public
transport in India is the most crowded one in the world; especially
true for all the major cities but especially Mumbai
Economy
Key Figures and Factors
- growth by numbers and industries; projections
Internet
- broadband Internet lacks at least 10 years behind Europe/US, both,
in terms of speed and availability (not even every city has
broadband, let alone rural areas).
- As of now (November 2010) there are only roughly about 4 million
broadband subscriptions in India (that is only about 3% of the
Indian population).
Marketplace
Market Size
Areas
Foreign Investments
Starting a Business
Pre-start
- permanent address (office or flat)
- Find a Recommended Chartered Accountant (CA) and Lawyer
- personal PAN Card
- Apply for a DIN (Director Identification Number)
- Apply for a DSC (Digital Signature Certificate)
- Apply for a Company
- company PAN Card
- Apply for a Company TAN (Tax Account Number)
helpful links
Staffing
you need to staff those areas
- sales
- marketing
- engineering
- legal
- accounting / business
- operations / QA / Support
Hiring
- http://teknatus.com/blog/pjain/five-ish-team-building-pitfalls-faced-by-startups-in-india.html
- competent people in India are perpetually trying to figure out how
they can go off on their own and be their own boss or work for a
big brand like Google. Startups obviously haven’t developed a
brand name so recruiting good talent in India is much harder.
- Recruiters will typically take a month’s salary for “freshers” or
mid-level candidates and they can take up to twenty percent of the
total package for a senior candidate. Everything is negotiable so
don’t hesitate in negotiating these fees.
- Recruiters are notorious for placing a person and then recruiting
them for another job within three months.
- intellectual-property theft in India really is an issue; people
mostly do not even recognize they are doing something wrong when
taking other peoples design work or source code etc.
- ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) do not work very well in
India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employee_ownership You may wind
up giving the employee some options later on, if they stick around
for some time or if you sell the company or go public but for
various sociological reasons, “cash is king” so save the equity
for those who really value it.
- Building a "cheap talented team", doesn't work in the Indian
context. Talented techies and business people in India aren't
cheap. They may be slightly cheaper than their counterparts in
Silicon Valley or NYC but that's limited to cost of living
differences. Good talent in India is pretty expensive.
- you need to find a way to filter out the out-of-the-box thinkers
which are able to be innovative rather than work based on patterns
they picked up in university or by their former employees; the
Indian education system, society and its big companies have a
culture of following orders and wanting to be told what to do next
(sounds harsh but is true); might come from history e.g. the
colonial times http://www.pluggd.in/entrepreneurship/why-wipro-infosys-and-tcs-are-the-axis-of-evil-for-indian-startup-space-2439/#comment-84258
Firing
Salaries
Marketing / Public Relations
Sales
Legal
Miscellaneous
Internet Connectivity
Networking
Internet
Building a Brand
Product
- India is not the US or Europe or any other developed nation for
that matter i.e. for the majority of people right now (2012 or so)
there is little demand for Facebook & Co but a huge demand for
basic things (housing, basic infrastructure, environmental
technology, power production/supply, transportation, etc.).
- a service company usually has positive cash flow very quickly as
opposed to a company that needs to develop some product, introduce
it to the market and wait for the revenue stream to develop; see
"Here is how to start"
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