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India
Status: Just notes so far
Last changed: Thursday 2012-10-11 07:26 UTC
Abstract:

writeme
Table of Contents
Why (not) go to India
Being a Foreigner
Daily Life
Numbering System
Housing
Cost of Living
Traffic / Commuting
Economy
Key Figures and Factors
Areas
Foreign Investments
Starting a Business


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

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system

Housing

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_India
    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housing_in_Mumbai#Mumbai
  • http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-02-02/india-s-hamptons-lures-mumbai-s-rich-famous-as-economy-booms.html

Cost of Living

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_living
  • http://www.immihelp.com/forum/showthread.php?t=66982

Locality

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malad
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malabar_Hill
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardeo
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chembur

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

  • Europe and especially the US have unsustainable depth; if anything, things will just get worse there (at least for the majority of people; middle class is going to vanish sooner or later).
  • in today's age, unless you are focusing a large part or all of your business in India, there is no good reason to setup a "cheap" development center in India; see staffing
  • http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/india-vs-the-us-a-visual-comparison/
  • http://www.indax.com/business.html

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
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_size#Size_parameters
  • obviously only middle and upper-class
  • http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Tracking_the_growth_of_Indias_middle_class_2032

Areas

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_process_outsourcing

Foreign Investments

  • http://www.investinindia.com/news/india-government-likely-consent-foreigners-setting-limited-liability-partnerships-llps-sectors-7h32
  • http://www.dfj.com/index.shtml

Starting a Business

Pre-start

  • http://www.lawguru.com/legal-questions/-business-law/starting-business-india-foreigner-information-584683621/a
  • http://teknatus.com/blog/pjain/namaste-india.html
  • http://teknatus.com/blog/pjain/seven-steps-to-starting-a-company-in-india.html
  • register Domains and trademark
    • you will need a logo
  • permanent address (office or flat)
  • Find a Recommended Chartered Accountant (CA) and Lawyer
    • http://www.neerajbhagat.com/trends-india.html
  • personal PAN Card
    • personal bank account
  • Apply for a DIN (Director Identification Number)
    • http://www.mca.gov.in/MCA21/dca/din/DIN.html
    • notarize the passport
  • Apply for a DSC (Digital Signature Certificate)
    • http://www.mca.gov.in/MCA21/dca/dsc/certifying-new.html
  • Apply for a Company
    • http://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/steps.html
  • company PAN Card
    • company bank account
  • Apply for a Company TAN (Tax Account Number)
    • http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in —> TAN section

helpful links

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tax_Deducted_at_Source
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_account_number
  • http://www.mca.gov.in/
  • http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/india/
  • http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/india/starting-a-business

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
  • http://teknatus.com/blog/pjain/hiring-and-firing-at-a-startup.html
Salaries
  • http://www.payscale.com/research/IN/Country=India/Salary
  • http://www.paycheck.in

Marketing / Public Relations

Sales

Legal

Miscellaneous

Internet Connectivity
  • http://blog.pjain.me/2009/06/04/broadband-in-india-is-far-from-a-reality/
  • http://www.broadbandindia.com/internet/internet-service-providers-in-mumbai/
Networking
  • network/contacts

Internet

  • http://www.proto.in
  • http://www.tie.org
  • http://headstart.in
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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