Run to other countries and bitch about India!
2015 it was.
The startup culture. Companies in India — specially in Bangalore and Delhi, the straight neighbours was the zone of startups. Companies had huge investments and the founders of those businesses made a lot of money.
We, the college seniors were awed by the big houses that they lived in and the super cool office space they had. I remember back in 2010, we the middle class home, would dilute curd with water and eat curd rice. With steady coming in the country, thanks to the functioning government, there was more money coming into the pockets of the people. When a human gets more money, the first hing they invest in, is food — and then it might be housing and education. So the increase in money in each individual pockets increased the thickness of curd in our home. So the diluting of curd in 2010 to eating curd like a cake in 2015, was a lay-man’s way of saying, we were growing rich and our economy was growing high.
So back to 2015, the time when I need to make a living on my own came up. Looking for companies, which could give a huge salary and I live off that money was the aim. Today, after seeing money, continuously for 3 years, getting billed every month, I see money a numbers in a game and nothing more. The more I talk of money and the society converts to a materialistic one, the first thing that is going to get hit is relationships — family, spouses, brothers, kith and kin. So money is just a number in the game of life. So its just a game. Winning and losing is a part of it. But giving it your entire focus should be the approach.
Indians love money and they all run to western — capitalistic countries for higher salary and better living. They in turn bitch about India having poor infrastructure and a sick attitude towards life. Agreed, whatever they say is true and should be acknowledged. The first part in solving a problem is accepting that there is one.
I was among this interested group, who wanted to be young employers. Get the weight of these young minds, who want to be business owners. So for the investors meet, we all used to go out, pitch our ideas and the credentials of the team and get the Series A, B, C….. funding. When we all were going through this cycle of funding — money coming in and going out, we hit the subject of taxes.
Taxes as citizens. Taxes as employees. Taxes as employers. That is when the opportunity of meeting the current incumbent minister of corporate affairs of Indian government — Piyush Goyal came. That was astute in speaking. So it was in the room of 10 business owners, representing their companies and they were raising issues to the minister. An SVP from Infosys, was talking about the tariffs in some XYZ country of Africa and his company was not able to go there and sell products and services. Out of the 10 company reps in the room, 8 of them were small companies. The advise from the minister to us was — as a company, from day 1 you should think of going global. That hit me. I liked that.
While leaving that room, I kept thinking, the minister in the government wants in the Indian companies to go global, why cant the government itself go global.
My suggestion — bring in South Korean students to study in Indian colleges for graduate programs and then work in Indian companies. probably they would start companies here and making a living here by paying taxes and contributing financially and experiencing the high quality education infrastructure in India.
So instead of Indians running to other countries for higher salaries and then bitching about things in India, the government could strategise and bring talented people from lower economies and offer them education and employment so that they can bitch about their countries by applauding the merits that India offers. So the government advising the Indian companies to go global, should follow its own advise on going global.
