Though India has been emerging as a hotspot for new ventures and start-ups, but it holds the symbol of being notoriously bureaucratic and a red-taped structure in the global market.
India may be home to many of the largest global outsourcing and IT consulting firms, but attracting American-style entrepreneurism here has been slow or rather sporadic.
The frustrations of setting up or doing business in India include numerous hurdles in licensing and making other filings, and pressure for bribes, which Americans cannot legally give and are not used to.
Due to this reason, many start-ups try to avoid the red tapism by only catering to private clients and by making products that do not need governmental approval. There have also been incidents where business owners have had to adjust business plans quickly to get around such complications.
The other obstacle that American entrepreneurs face in India is to find and retain good employees. The Indian job market is so turbulent that it’s not uncommon for a young person to quit jobs just to get a pay raise somewhere else.
In the case of Rahoul Mehra and Glennis Matthews Mehra, both founders of Saf Labs, a biotechnology trading company in Mumbai: After setting up a business in New York and then moving their base to Mumbai, India, they both soon realized that due to the Indian government delayed biotech funding for its new five-year plan, Saf Labs’ business was eventually going to dry up in India. The Mehras realized they had to move away from the Indian market and focus more on international opportunities.
Well the flip side is that despite such challenges, many American technology entrepreneurs are seeking to pursue the country’s untapped opportunities, even without the influence of a multinational corporation backing them.
With only one motivation: the sheer potential of tapping a population of 1.2 billion people with a stable middle class. They say that if you could do business in India, you could do it anywhere!
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