Indian Startup Scene: Buzzing with excitement

And, I am Made in India...

Recently, +Shikhar Mehra,  a friend of mine shifted his base to United States of America and fell in love with the country. What really attracted him was the startup scene out there. It's full of energy, zeal and things happen really fast. You get an idea today, plan for it a week and could launch it the next week and if lucky, your investors could actually make an exit within six months. (You could be optimistic..!!)

Apart from startup scene in USA, he also was out of his wits when I talked about the startup scenario in India. It was like there is nothing happening. Things just drags on and nothing concrete ever takes place. I tried but couldn't actually make him understand.

So, when I came across an article on Indian startups, I thought it might make a dent on his mind.

India's attempt to ignite a startup boom

Most entrepreneurs remember vividly when they decided to strike out on their own. For Siddhartha Ahluwalia, the moment came over breakfast, in 2009. Then 22 years old and an engineering student at the Indian Institute of Information Technology & Management in Gwalior, he was interning at India's premier graduate business school -- the Ahmedabad campus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM-A). An IIM-A student sat down at Ahluwalia's table and started to talk about his own business -- a tech platform that served TV ads at train stations. "IIM-A is full of energy regarding entrepreneurship," Ahluwalia remembers. "You meet a lot of new entrepreneurs." The fired-up Ahluwalia enlisted three friends as co-founders, and they started work on an advertising platform for doctors' offices. Ahluwalia went door to door in his hometown of Meerut -- an industrial city 50 miles from New Delhi -- trying to get doctors excited about the product. Ranked as one of India's fastest-growing cities, Meerut is frequently cited as a hub for future growth in India -- an international airport and a major Delhi-Meerut highway are in the works. More importantly for Ahluwalia and his friends, Meerut has several pharmaceutical companies and medical schools.

Rest of the Story >>