Start-Up Ecosystem in India - My take

Just came across a term – ‘wannapreneurs’; term is coined by the author to describe wannabe entrepreneurs. This write-up is to express my take and understanding of the term.

To start with, a few facts – no. of start-ups in India grew from 3100 at the end of 2014 to about 4200 at the end of 2015, thus emerging as third largest start-up community globally. A total of $9 billion was invested in Indian start-ups in the year 2015. No. of investors in India has increased from 220 at the end of 2014 to 490 at the end of 2015. The numbers are extraordinary and mind boggles! And there are so many that do not even make the list.

So, what is good in these numbers, or, simply put what good this start-up revolution serves in the broader perspective of socio-political-economic growth of the country? Rough estimates indicate 73 percent of Indian start-up founders are in the less than 36 years age group. And a lot of these founders are bright young graduates from premier institutes in the country. In my opinion, this is proof that as a nation, we might have been able to somewhat hit the brakes on brain drain. 5 years back, almost every young mind pursuing a degree from a premier college/university wanted to move out of the country in search of greener pastures. Now, a few of them are shunning foreign dreams and staying back to start and build a company – the no. of start-ups operating out of Powai area in Mumbai, most founded by IIT graduates, stand testimonial to the fact. Again, there are individuals who are giving up plush jobs elsewhere and using their years’ of learning and experience to build something good in their own backyard.

Second, as new and fresh minds enter the business scenario, ideas generate, leading to better utilization of resources, increased efficiency in operations and overall higher productivity. Third, with more businesses targeting for a share of the same pie and fierce competition, overall product quality and service quality improves. As the quality improves, it opens up demand in international markets as well, leading to overall economic growth of the country.

Now coming back to my take on wannapreneurs, let us answer few basic questions about start-up.

What is a start-up?

It is a business that has been newly started.

What is the objective of a business?

To make money (unless it is operating in non-profit domain)

Is there any other objective?

NO.

Does a huge seed round/series A, B, C funding indicate that the start-up is a success?

NO.

When does a start-up become a successful business?

When it starts generating profits and creating value for stakeholders.

In a nutshell, start-up is a newly started business that has to make money – and from personal experience, it is no joke. A lot of people get bored of their 9 – 5 jobs and start talking about ‘doing something of own’. I say, bad idea! Getting bored of jobs can be a reason to go on a vacation, not to put one’s money, career, and time at risk by starting a business. Starting a business is a no-frill job, even brutal at times. It requires persistence, hard work, patience, passion, focus, sacrifice and all of these, over and over again. Endurance is pushed to limits every single day and nights of frustration become rule rather than exception.

Again, there are entrepreneurs who want to be entrepreneurs so that they can talk about it in social circles – they can show how different they are. Speaking Mandarin, taking a road trip from Leh to Kanyakumari, becoming a PADI certified Scuba diver are probably much better options if one needs conversational subject matter and one wants to do something different – plus, with each of these, one gets story of a lifetime without risking much.

So, to sum it up, this start-up revolution surely is going to put India on an accelerated path to growth, prosperity and development. Brilliant minds will build great organization with their unique solutions. There can’t be 100% hit-rate – there are bound to be a few hits and a lot of misses – so one has to keep on trying. But, for anyone starting-up, the objective and goal needs to be crystal clear, and that for any business is to make MONEY and CREATE VALUE FOR STAKEHOLDERS – it is not about any amount of funding, it is not a means to break-free of routine life and it is not for a story to tell.

Data Source: thenextweb, HT, YourStory

A desperate attempt to revive my blog

"When I was young, I always found it hard to write a letter. All the things that came to mind seemed too trivial to be writing about. I would spend hours with a blank paper in front and the fountain pen in hand, but still, couldn't put pen to paper. As I grew up, I realized that the art of good letter writing is based on the concept that nothing, in fact, is too small, nothing too tiny, to be written about."

We don't write letters these days. Instead, we have shifted to e-mails, blogs and lots more impersonal ways of communicating. However, the truth about writing remains unchanged. With these thoughts, coupled with, a sudden urge to put myself back on the blog-map, I will try to key together a few things that, at this point of time, are on top of my mind.

As I pause and look back at the two years that went by, there has been no life changing events, as people would call it. Still, I got my first car, fell in love, lost a football match 9-0, resigned, rejoined back, made new friends, lost touch with old ones, witnessed Ustad Zakir Hussain playing live, gulped 5 lts of beer at one go, learned to make rotis, all in this same period of two years. And while, each of them individually might not have the potential to change a life, together they surely do.  And I have changed; and so has the world around me. While some went abroad, a few shifted to IT and the rest got married! 

During the PG tenure, we have been through hundreds of group discussions, innumerable case studies, presentations that covered up almost all sectors, all industries, even to the extent of vinyl chappal (courtesy: Sumant Sharma). But never was I part of any discussion or presentation that had anything to do with mining! But still here I am, twenty-seven months and counting, working with India's biggest producer and exporter of iron-ore in the private sector. So, now I am a Power engg who has forgotten thermodynamics, a Marketing MBA who has forgotten the 4Ps and 7Cs and instead is now trying to understand what happens when we put a grizzly with larger mesh or how to track wheel-loaders through GPS!

About a year back, I happened to be on a road-trip to Karnataka (courtesy: Praveen, Tanuj and Indra). Two days holiday on a/c of Ganesh Chaturthi coupled with Sat-Sun made for a nice long weekend, and off we want in the shining black Vento. And the rest, as they say, is history! We devoured thirty-two eggs between four of us, stayed in cheap lodge, slept with bed-bugs, negotiated a fifteen km long pothole-filled, narrow, steep slope amidst heavy rains(and it was dark) with the amazing night at Om Beach as the fitting finale.

Now its time for me to go and watch the Rise of the Dark Knight and I would be damned if I miss this show! So, here's to good health and good life..Cheers!   

Life @ Goa

It’s been three months since I have started working with this company.

My work life:

Positives: Lots of freedom to work, on the job training (no boring lectures) lots of new things to learn, posting in Goa. Also this is the first time I m getting paid for learning. But till now, the best part of the job remains that 3 weeks induction we had and the day I had my first salary.

Negatives: Primarily, daily commuting between Panaji and Vasco (60km) & night shifts (a few though).
In a nutshell, a decent place to start your career with.

Keywords: Barge, vessel, loader, unloader, bunder, fines, lumps, draft, tide, bill of lading etc

Key acronyms: NOR (Notice of Readiness), TML (Transportable Moisture Limit), BMS (barge monitoring system), CCP (Central Control Panel).…just to name a few.

The climate here in Goa has been a spoiler, initially the heat & humidity of May and then the incessant rainfall of June-July. Sometimes it rains for 3-4 days at a stretch which becomes particularly irritating if it includes weekends also.

A special mention has to be made of the food in Goa. It’s a diner’s paradise; the diner must be non-vegetarian though.

Sher-e-Punjab Classic – Authentic Punjabi cuisine, tandoori chicken being its specialty. Meal for two costs around 800/-

Sher-e-Punjab – Inexpensive good food along with quality and fast service. Meal for two costs around 300/-

Kebab Street – Awesome kebabs, the best being mutton adraki. Others items like chicken kasturi, chicken achari are also superb. Nice ambience, nice décor, great service with additional live music on weekends. Meal for two costs around 800/-

Goenchin – Easily the best Chinese food available in Panaji. Meal for two costs around 600/-

Corus – Chicken Picata is a must have!! Vegetarian dishes are also good here. Meal for two costs around 500/-

Riorico – This restaurant inside Mandovi Hotel offers decent food though price is on the higher side. Meal for two costs around 800/-

Moonlight Shack @ Anjuana – Authentic Italian food available at reasonable prices. From the outside it looks like any other shack but stands out with its amazing wooden pizza and lasagna.

Also not to forget awesome pav-bhaji, chicken savarma and chuski at the Miramar beach.
That’s all for now. Cheers!!  

Fresher's party

We had a fresher’s party day before, finally. There was a lot of hue and cry about fund raising for the event. While the donators doubted credibility of the organizers, the organizers retorted saying the senior batch (i.e. my batch) is either too ‘kanjus’ to part with the money or they had a ‘jaani-dushmani’ with the juniors.
Anyways, the party took place, thanks to the organizers whose untiring efforts paid off.
The list of programs included
• Drinks (Both hard and soft)
• DJ

WTF !!!!!!!!!!

My earlier perception about a fresher party was that there are certain events (could be game show, live performance..etc), followed by food, drinks, dj and stuff like that. Basically it provides a platform where seniors and juniors interact.

Coming back to the topic, I don’t know whether this ‘fresher’s’ party did perform the basic function of interaction. But what I certainly do know is that this isn’t something we should be proud off and this isn’t something our juniors are going to remember. Yes, for some time to come they will remember the 10-12 pegs they downed or the no. of times they vomited or the way they were carried off to rooms.

Not only fresher’s, whenever there is any sort of program this institute seems to be following the 2D model i.e. daru and dj….be it annual fest, senior’s farewell or whatever it is. People drink like fish, dance through the night to the tunes of some cheap Hindi music and attend next day’s lecture with a bad headache.

Ok..I might have started to sound like the good old grandfather. So let me make myself clear that I am not averse to either of drinking or dancing. It is definitely an integral part of events like fresher’s, farewell etc. But I just cannot come to terms with the idea of daru and dj being the sole components of a program.

You could also say that since 80% of the people are enjoying then what’s wrong in that?!

This isn’t a question of right or wrong. This is an issue of real distortion of concept of merry-making. This is about degradation of one’s own independent thought processes. Just because you are at a place where drinking and dancing is deemed hip and cool is it really necessary to be part of the process???

Also all day long we talk about innovation, creativity etc. Then why are we still following the model of partying framed by the devilish mind of some ‘vella’ people, year after year. Can’t we have something that is more suited to an educational institute.

Again you will change only when you feel the need to change. And we don’t have time to stop, think and understand. So it goes on… :-)

Movie Review : Madly Bangalee

The story revolves around members of a Bangali Rock band named'Madly Bangalee',ex-Bassist turned car mechanic Bobby Uncle and his foreign return friend San who also was a musician.The first 45 minutes was free flowing and gripping enough.It showed the inner conflicts of the band and how San,in spite of earning wrath of the band members in their first meet,become their manager.But after that the story loses plot and meanders into the problems of their families.

The best part of the movie was its cinematography.The views of early morning mist,the Ganges were simply breathtaking.The next best thing for the movie will easily be Chandan Sen playing Baburam.He provided comic relief for an otherwise drab script.

Best Quotes of the movie :
"Amar kaaj holo pode cellotape lagano"-Baburam
"Amai 1ta dishi phone dite paro ? Amarta ekhane kaaj kore na"-San

Music of the movie is average with songs like'Ke acho kothai' standing out.

The worst part of the movie was Pishima.Her narration of the chronicles of her youth to San wasn't at all in good taste.The movie dealt more with the family problems than music.Overall a very average movie.

It was around 11 at night.We were coming back to hostel and after a sumptuous dinner at Karims we all were in high spirits.Suddenly we heard a lady screaming at the top of her voice.We slowed down the car only to see an young lady riding an Activa shouting at us and asking us to stop the car.She was accusing us of dropping a bottle on the road!! I was so sure of not having done any such thing that I asked her to shut up and get going.But soon after we realized that one of our friends has really dropped a thing.And on an highway it really can be dangerous considering the number of two wheelers plying.She was only trying to make that point.After that we were prompt enough to slow down,accept our mistake and say sorry.But the point here is that the young lady was right.And while few other women riding alone at the middle of night would dare to confront six youngsters,this lady was gutsy enough to come up and make us realize our mistake.This really was heartening to see and a pleasant change from what I have seen in Kolkata a few days back.

The Kolkata incident :

It was a day after Aila had hit Kolkata.Other than the usual flooding of roads hundreds of trees were uprooted,power cables snapped and a large part of the city were left in the dark .The next day I went to Birati.While on my way back my bus stopped near Kakurgachi.I peeped outside to see around 15-20 people blocking the road.They were demanding quick retrieval of power to their homes.Valid demand! We waited a while hoping they would move away and let us go.An ambulance got stuck and they wouldn't even let that go.The ambulance driver tried to plead with them but he was literally manhandled as a few hundreds looked on.And the best thing the hundreds of people,who were also stuck up in that blockade,could do,was to murmur a few slangs at those blockaders,curse the government and wait for some more time.And on top of it all,as I and my friend tried to get down to stand with the driver,some tried to dissuade us advising against getting into such things!!Anyways,we got down and though we thought of talking to the blockaders,in the end we decided against it.Because after what happened to the driver we knew that nobody is going to come to our aid in case some untoward incident occur.As we started walking towards Ultadanga,I was left wondering over a few things.

Firstly,when will Kolkatans get to acknowledge that there are other ways of protesting than disrupting life in the city.I mean we live with these exotic thoughts of being a cultural state full of socially aware literary genius.We boast of great educational institutes where youngsters supposedly think ahead of time.(There were also a few young IT engineers in the road blockade brigade..which we could make out from the tags of reputed software firms they were carrying----they could be from one of those institutes).And the best you can come up with after you are left with no electricity for about 18 hours due to a natural calamity is to harass your fellow citizens.I might not be intelligent enough but I really fail to find any progressive thoughts here at least.Nor does it testify to the high IQ level that we boast of.Since,CESC being a profit making organization they would want to restore power as fast as possible to minimize losses.Its like when you have got nothing better to do you can always disrupt social life and it will give you a sense of achievement.People associate Bengal with strikes and blockades.As far as I am concerned it's a social stigma that we need to get rid off(though I don't see that happening in near future)

The next thing is the tremendous patience showed by the people who were stuck.It was almost 11 at night..and people traveling to far off places were really getting late.And still they would sit still and blame god & the government for every goddamn problem they face.I understand that you donot want to be the first person.But when somebody is being the first you should at least have the balls to stand beside him/her.And if you can't even muster that much courage,stop blaming others for your woes, because you deserve it and probably much more.

We need to understand that Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose is past,Rabindranath Tagore is past,Satyajit Roy is past..even Sourav Ganguly is past.These are our few prized possessions.But on this present date,we have nothing to show for as a common bunch of people sharing the common mother tongue.One of our senior professors here once said that'in Bengal,if you see the cover page of Das Capital you become half-Marxist,and if you read the introductory page then you are full Marxist'.It pains for me to hear such things,it hurts when you get to hear such things about your fellow citizens.Its high time that we try to get a bit more knowledgeable,a bit more forthcoming and act in a way a civilized society demands

Mothers Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day.The good,loving and caring kids took their mother out for a dinner or gave her some gifts to show that they care.Lesser mortals didn't give a damn and spent the day with their friends or the television set at home.I am one of those assholes who belong to that second group..people who think their life depends on a Manchester derby and people who would prefer to watch KKR lose again rather than spend time with his mom.Ohh...their should be new laws in place to teach these irresponsible,insensitive assholes a lesson !!

This is the way the world thinks.Not only Mother's day...we have Father's day,Sons and daughters day,Women's day,No Tobacco day,Eat whatever you like day etc.Soon there will be shitting day,pissing day,aunt's day,uncle's day.Anyways,coming back to Mother's day and what inspired me to write this article is a piece of news I saw on TV.The title of the program was like 'Mothers' day celebration at old age homes'.It showed children coming to old age homes to wish their mom.The television channel portrayed it like it was the noblest activity ever done...that these children who stay away from their mothers would still remember to wish Mothers' Day.So you desert you parents in the first place and make up for it by remembering them single day a year.

I would prefer being an asshole rather than such a hypocrite.I don't need to tell my mom that I care.She is not my girlfriend..she is my mom,for God's sake!!If I really do care my mom would know it before I do.

Important days:
As a kid the most important day in my life was my own birthday.On that day I would get lots of chocolates and nobody would scold me and I WOULDN'T HAVE TO STUDY.

I grew up and came to know about children's day,Gandhi birthday,independence day,republic day and Netaji's birthday.These days were special because we used to have a holiday.

In High School Valentine's day acquired prominence.It was important as I loved watching those awe-inspiring flow of emotions all round.

I passed school and moved into college...and friends' birthdays became important.And trust me,it really was a Herculean task to remember all.Also I came to know about something called Friendship day.I remember it more because it was the first time I gifted somebody something..and it was a oversized friendship band.

Nevertheless,there's nothing wrong celebrating days like Mothers day,Fathers day etc only a long as you do it in the right spirit