It is a given that entrepreneurship begins with a great idea and the passion to pursue that idea to fruition. However, if all it takes is an idea then why do only a small percentage of these ideas succeed? Almost 90% of all new businesses do not make it. What then, is the answer? To […]
Opinion
H-1B lottery: Why a loss for Infosys, Cognizant will be a gain for tech start-ups
I’m travelling in the Bay Area, in a cab driven by a woman software tester. She says she has been out of job for months now and driving a cab is the only way she can pay her bills, living just outside of San Francisco. My company is looking for coders and testers but in Asia, I […]
MSME careers: How to unshackle small enterprise growth in India
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) employ more than 80 million people in India and contribute to around 40% of total exports and 37% of total GDP. Yet it is not easy for most of them to thrive owing to lack of funds, obsolete technology and poor production capacity. It is, therefore, …
How GST will reshape the Indian start-up industry
Seen as one of the biggest tax reforms post independence in 1947, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is set to bring forth unprecedented transformation of the Indian economy. There is a lot of conjecture around whether our markets are strong enough to sustain the impact of a radical change of this …
Make in India: Importance of Robotics in the manufacturing segment, and how it can still create jobs
Automation and robotics technologies are in their infancy in Indian medium-size factories since technical feasibility and return on investment (RoI) are preconditions for deployment. Factories review RoI basis a 2-3 year horizon, which becomes a difficult RoI with the cheap cost of labor. RoI nee…
Entrepreneurship in India – Then & now
Start ups cannot operate in a vacuum, they need a supporting eco-system to nurture them. Entrepreneurs have been setting up businesses in India since kingdom come. It is no secret that these entrepreneurs have originated from a dominant caste. How did this community sustain entrepreneurship over …
Why is it a good time to be an angel investor in India
I enjoy being an angel investor, and I believe this is the perfect time to be an angel in India. There seems to be a funding winter, and a lot of the institutional, seed-stage investor money which came from VCs has started to dry up, as evidenced by the Snapdeal and Stayzilla fiascos. VCs no long…
Grooming the next generation
When they start, businesses are usually about personal success. Because of a certain volume, it becomes a larger country-wide or world-wide phenomenon, but initially it’s a question of personal success. This is a certain level of drive, a certain projection of what you are. So that success has a …
What happens while you wait for next big round for start-up investments
Start-up companies seek various forms of funding to help kick-start their operations and, eventually, to scale their growth. Typically, the seed capital ploughed in by the promoters themselves and/or their close friends and kin helps the start-up companies create a workable product prototype and …
The art of doing business under GST
Most of India’s business transactions will soon move through the technology-led GST system. This will change the way firms interact with each other and with the Government. As close to one crore firms/persons will start using this system soon, it would be useful to understand how a firm will comp…