Ask PG: Have you ever been to India or planning to?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1878484

by skbohra123 • 16 years ago

50 41 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Would be really, really great to have you here and take a deeper look on the startup scene here. May be I am just being to ambitious.

pg• 16 years ago

Never been, but I'd like to go one day.

skbohra1233• 16 years ago

and we would love to welcome you here.

petervandijck• 16 years ago

I have been a few times, and it's a truly fascinating country. Well worth a visit / vacation.

edanm• 16 years ago

While we're on the subject, have you ever been to Israel? Great startup scene here too.

shachar• 16 years ago

seconded

rick_2047• 16 years ago

There is an even inspired by startup school in India. Its by IIM-A called CIIE. And they do not concentrate just on web startups. Maybe you can visit that sometime

bosky101• 16 years ago

i'm trying to get ryan carson (FOWA) and geeks on a plane (GOAP) to visit india in '11. will love to have you here as well.

on another note, the first seedcamp 'india' edition is happening in mumbai dec '10.

neilxdsouza• 16 years ago

Hey - thanks for this news. We were not selected for the YCombinator round, but I just sent in an application for the seedcamp 'india' edition. Im from Mumbai :D

arnorhs• 16 years ago

I was there for 5 months last winter. I'd like to live there. Crazy country but so nice.

rbyrne2• 16 years ago

I know I'm not Paul Graham, but since we're on the subject...

I'm very excited and am actually going for two weeks in May/June for a class to Delhi, Mumbai, and maybe Jaipur/Agra on the way for a day or so. Any recommendations besides the obvious things everyone does/sees?

SingAlong• 16 years ago

If you are coming to bangalore, lets meet :)

skbohra1233• 16 years ago

yeah, that would be awesome.

lappet• 16 years ago

If your are going to Mumbai, don't miss the street food. Especially the vada pavs. And you must absolutely take a ride in the local trains! Save the touristy stuff for later.

devasiajoseph• 16 years ago

I would recommend Kerala also. Its in the far south

timruffles• 16 years ago

I'm heading out there in January, couldn't be more excited :) Any HN folks out there?

Edit: Just found out there's a BarCamp there - http://groups.google.com/group/barcampkerala?pli=1 - maybe I'll head along!

kingsidharth• 16 years ago

You should attend Startup Saturday in Delhi http://startupsaturday.headstart.in/

indraneel24• 16 years ago

There's really so much to do that you can't do it in two weeks, but be sure to explore as much as you can. Careful with the food, though, some of it may not be so great for your stomach.

avinashv• 16 years ago

I can really only speak for Mumbai, as I've visited Delhi only as a tourist myself a handful of times.

The charm of Mumbai is on the streets. The street food, the markets, walking on Marine Drive etc. If you let me know when you're coming and some way to contact you, I'd love to grab a drink and show you a few interesting places in the city.

profitoftruth85• 16 years ago

If you can take a trip into Punjab, it's breathtaking to take a walk in the morning fog amongst the irrigation canals and fields of crop. If you have any local friends it's a lot of fun to visit places like that which you wouldn't normally visit.

ajays• 16 years ago

Whoa... Delhi/Jaipur in May/June? That's probably the worst time to visit the north. I was there this year in May, and the temperatures were regularly over 45C (113F) during the day. It's hot, Hot, HOT in May/June. If you're not accustomed to that level of heat, you'll have a tough time.

AndrewS• 16 years ago

I've only spent about a week in India (Delhi, Agra and Jaipur). It was a good trip, but not necessarily 'fun'.

If there is one thing I learnt (as a caucasian), it is that anyone who talks to you on the street (who doesn't have an obvious reason to be there like a shop keeper with merchandise) is probably trying to scam you. Trying to buy a train ticket to Agra from Delhi was a nightmare; we ended up organising a taxi through our hotel. It was hard going from being used to trusting directions and advice from strangers at home, but I got over that pretty quick.

Also, carry plenty of small change; anyone who does absolutely anything at all for you will expect a tip.

Have fun :)

rbyrne2• 16 years ago

Wow thanks for all the responses everyone. I am actually going with a few other students for a college class and am not sure how much freedom we have (to go and grab drinks etc) but I will let those who offered to meetup know when I find out.

It is actually a finance class and we are going to look at some publicly traded companies, but Startup Saturday sounds awesome. I am going to go and talk to my professor and see if we can all attend in either Delhi or Mumbai (depending on our schedule). It would be great to be able to check out some smaller and newer companies as well as the larger and more established ones already scheduled, at least that's the argument I'll make with my professor. And it just looks like a lot of fun.

lusis• 16 years ago

Haven't been in about 10 years but it was an awesome trip. I would love to go back some day after the kids are grown. I spent a month there interviewing H1B candidates.

rikthevik• 16 years ago

I've very excited to see India from a tourist perspective.

From a business perspective, I'm a little leery. I've read too many articles on the bureaucracy and corruption that makes running a business tough, even for the locals.

enry_straker2• 16 years ago

Take things with a pinch of salt.There's a local saying here which, loosly translated, is as follows:

That which you see is false; That which you hear is false, only that which is well researched is true.

As a person who started a software product organization in 1995, i can tell you that pre-conceived notions are just that. Preconceived.

zoomzoom• 16 years ago

you will probably get more offers of hospitality on this post than ever before.

eriksank• 16 years ago

My experience with Indians is fantastically good, but I am wary of India itself.

They have a very elaborate system of granting and refusing permission for doing practically anything, called the "license raj" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licence_Raj). The ultimate purpose of that system is to make sure that the designated winners win, and that the designated losers lose; as everybody happens to be born into their designated places.

If the situation accidentally starts working out differently, the "license raj" bureaucrats will keep changing the rules, until the social order desired, has been restored, and the designated winners are winning and the designated losers are losing again.

Nowadays they pretend that they are abolishing that system, but that is not true at all, because they cannot abolish its underlying motivation. As soon as too many designated losers start doing too well -- instead of starving as they are supposed to -- they will urgently reign in that kind of social disorder.

As a foreigner, you cannot expect to be anything else but a designated loser; even though you are probably still considered "touchable" :-)

ankeshk2• 16 years ago

This is true. You absolutely need to know the art of bribing to get things done in India. Because people who pay Rs50-100 ($1-2) to the right person will jump way ahead in the line. So if you don't bribe - or don't know how to bribe - things will take very very long for you. This goes for everything from getting a new internet connection to filing papers for a new company incorporation.

The reasoning about "everybody happens to be born into their designated places" is not true however. India had the caste system. Not anymore. Sure you'll find a few pockets of exceptions - a few villages that still think they are living in the 16th century. But by and large, this is not true.

If you can hustle, you can succeed in India.

Case in point:

Dhirubhai Ambani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhirubhai_Ambani Made his money in textiles and oil, gas, energy.

Gautam Adani http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautam_Adani Made his money in shipping.

Both of them were very poor once. Their stories outshine Horatio Alger stories.

jarsj• 16 years ago

You are talking about the India before 1991. "Licence Raj, also the Permit Raj, refers to the elaborate licenses, regulations and accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run businesses in India between 1947 and 1990.[1]"

There has never been a more supporting ecosystem for entrepreneurs in India. Shaadi.com/Rediff.com/Naukri.com/JustDial.com and many others are just few of the success stories.

enry_straker2• 16 years ago

The India of today is not the india of the 80s.

That would be like comparing communist china of Chairman Mao's era to the china of today.

The whole process of dis-mantling the license raj was started by the current Prime Minister in 1991 when he was appointed the finance minister of india. He has continued to push his economic agenda on modern india and the results are plain to see. A GDP growth rate among the highest in the world for the last 15-20 years. Among the world's leaders, i doubt if anyone has half his knowledge of world or indian economy or his educational qualifications.

There is a realization within the entire beurucratic and political framework about the importance of openness and integration with the global economy. Which is one of the reasons why so many IT and BPO organizations have sprung up all over india.

RockyMcNuts• 16 years ago

How fortunate that in the West incumbents never benefit from government favoritism, or bailouts when they fail spectacularly.

flacon• 16 years ago

India is great. I spent 6 weeks there. Not really a good place to just wander around though....I will eat you up....assault all your sense at once. I recommend getting a few contacts before heading over there and then work from there. Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad seem to be the big centers of tech over there. Have fun!

jganetsk• 16 years ago

I am going to Mumbai and Goa for 2 weeks in December, would love to meet up with some hackers.

ankeshk2• 16 years ago

Buzz me when you'll be in Mumbai. My email is in my profile.

aberkowitz• 16 years ago

It is unclear what you are trying to accomplish with this post. If you want to talk to PG, perhaps an email would have been better; if you wanted to start a discussion about startups in India, the title could have been rephrased.

As you might have guessed, this is my personal opinion - so feel free to take it, or leave it.

writetoalok• 16 years ago

Its an innocent, curious question. Don't see why it has to accomplish anything.

That said I would be interested in PG and other peoples response on this question.

endtime• 16 years ago

>Its an innocent, curious question. Don't see why it has to accomplish anything.

Because if you post something on HN that doesn't accomplish anything, you are lowering its signal:noise ratio.

skbohra1233• 16 years ago

I don't know why this post is getting so many upvotes and got onto front page. May be more people are interested in this topic? I thought sending a private email asking this question would be awkward, whereas here he can choose to answer or just ignore it.

jason_kelly• 16 years ago

I will be staying in Hyderabad for 6 weeks in Jan and Feb. It will be my second time there, and I'm definitely interested in plugging into the hacker scene there. Any events/tips to know about?

gauravgupta• 16 years ago

There's probably no big "startup scene" here worth talking about (except may be in Bangalore) but if you are in Delhi, it'll be great to to meet you :)

panbhatt• 16 years ago

most welcome skbohra,, hope to see forward to your visit. please contact, if required help in Delhi, NCR.. my contact id is in my profile...

Ask PG: Have you ever been to India or planning to?

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