India for beginners

With his experience gathered from travelling and working with over 35 nationalities, Prateek Khare, Swiss startup representative at swissnex India, discovered that there are still several stereotypes that people relate to India and how little has been published about the recent developments in the country.

In the article published on swissinfo.ch, Prateek informs startups about India and the Indian market at large:

Growth and opportunities
Being a developing country India has its fair share of problems and chaos. But India and its people know how to manage the chaos and function effectively. Many experts from the west have arrived in India with the intention of teaching western efficiency to Indians. But many of them have returned much wiser, having learnt lessons of patience, managing uncertainty, giving up control, building and managing relationship and trust with business partners and employees, etc. that one automatically learns from everyday life in India.

With the advent of technology, there are no international borders in the virtual world. Access to information is no longer a competitive advantage and Generation Z is always connected. The education and social structure in India imparts at least one core skill in every Indian student and that is ‘competitiveness’. This is reflected in India’s recently reported GDP growth hitting 7.3% in 2015, which is predicted to rise as high as 7.6% in 2016, making India the fastest growing economy in the world.

Among its over 1.2 billion people, India arguably has supreme intellectual capital in its young workforce and world’s second largest English speaking talent that is flexible and trainable. Most of the Fortune 500 companies have a substantial number of CEOs/COOs/CTOs, among others of Indian origin – and this is now becoming a normal global norm. India has unsaturated market opportunities in high-tech and social entrepreneurship. The country also has the world's third-largest number of billionaires and a 250 million strong middle class with good purchasing power, international exposure, tastes and experiences.

Conducting business and living in India is cost effective compared to the West. The current government’s focus on ‘Startup India’ and grassroots innovation, has created an upbeat mood in the nation with respect to trade and commerce. As a result, India’s and specifically the southern Indian city of Bangalore’s rank in the global start-up ecosystem move up a few notches every year –currently 15th. In response, big companies, education and R&D, support organisation, service providers, investors, and innovators are slowly but steadily improving infrastructure in India.

(RAN)