4 ms·

I hope investors put more money in India in medtech, biotech, Pharma and Agritech instead of this current trend of investing in worthless consumer startups. Ind

I hope investors put more money in India in medtech, biotech, Pharma and Agritech instead of this current trend of investing in worthless consumer startups. India is much more stronger in biotech and Pharma than IT which is primarily a outsourcing work based on human labour cost arbitrage. Indian eco-system is very complex and many of the figures are made up for investment by startups without any means of verification. Given cost of acquiring users in India is very very low, getting large users to show traction even for a mediocre or fake product is easy. India leads the IT outsourcing industry which offer manpower as a product to support a legacy system or software on which most developers in developed nations don’t want to work as there isn’t a big future in it. Most famous Indian IT companies are mostly Human Resource Management company optimised for cost arbitrage between the salary in India vs US (and other developed places). Most IT firms processes are made around mandays (already a gender biased term), to make sure salary paid is 1/5th to 1/6th of the overall revenue this person generates from customer. Except few, most startups are get rich quick schemes in India in which founder takes the money and there isn’t any recourse for investors given the rule of law takes ages to have results examples like Oyo and BYJU are everywhere.

segfaultbuserr 6y ago
> India is much more stronger in biotech and Pharma than IT Interesting. I'd like to see a citation.
- pstrateman 6y ago
  India ignores other countries patents on medical things. Not sure what the legal justification is, but the actual justification is obvious.
  - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
    Yes, we all know it, but this is the only thing I know about biotech and Pharma in India. It doesn't really tell how "much more stronger" the industry is than IT, which is why I asked for a citation.
  - dragonsh 6y ago
    Not sure what are you implying, this isn't true India plays by WTO and international rules [1]. It uses provisions enshrined in the bilateral treaty and also the rules of global trade. India still today do not support evergreening of patent's by incremental changes. It only grant patents to original innovations. If you need more information about it probably read the 1970 patent act [2], in India which started those specific innovations in pharmaceutical formulations and made medicines affordable not just for India, but for most of Africa and many developing countries. [1] https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds50_e.htm https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds50_e.... [2] http://ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_patent-act-1970-11march2015.pdf http://ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_pat...
    - pstrateman 6y ago
      Sounds like the legal justification.
  - markdown 6y ago
    > India ignores other countries patents on medical things. And thank goodness for that. Millions upon millions of lives in the developed world have been saved by Indian generics. > Not sure what the legal justification is It's a sovereign nation.
  - matheusmoreira 6y ago
    India is not alone. Brazil and several other countries have resorted to the same measures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license
  - naruvimama 6y ago
    "Evergreening" isn't a legitimate practice but exist just as tax havens and gambling do. The US is a very poor example of getting things right in healthcare, the prices of healthcare are inflated to astronomical rates so insurance can make a cool profit. The price of medicines in the US is a poor scale to use across the world.
- dragonsh 6y ago
  Take a look at biocon story how they revolutionized diabetes management [1] and second check this report [2]. If more investments go in this area, India can very well be at par with US/UK and Germany in medtech, pharmaceutical and biotech areas. [1] https://store.hbr.org/product/oral-insulin-breakthrough-innovation-at-biocon/W11276 https://store.hbr.org/product/oral-insulin-breakthrough-inno... [2] https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovations-in-Indian-Drug-and-Pharmaceutical-Have-Tyagi-Mahajan/719c3070d31e94e5cd3ae43c8caf77163298462d#citing-papers https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovations-in-Indian-...
  - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
    Thanks, just added them to my read list. Looks like a fun read.
blueblisters 6y ago
> Most famous Indian IT companies are mostly Human Resource Management company optimised for cost arbitrage between the salary in India vs US (and other developed places). I think you're ignoring the changing tech landscape in India - the same cost arbitrage that allowed IT outsourcing is now being used to build capital efficient tech startups who get much longer runway on the dollar compared to startups in the US or Europe. Of course, finding a Western market for most Indian startups is still very challenging, but I expect this model to become more successful over time.

segfaultbuserr 6y ago

> India is much more stronger in biotech and Pharma than IT Interesting. I'd like to see a citation.

pstrateman 6y ago
India ignores other countries patents on medical things. Not sure what the legal justification is, but the actual justification is obvious.
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
  Yes, we all know it, but this is the only thing I know about biotech and Pharma in India. It doesn't really tell how "much more stronger" the industry is than IT, which is why I asked for a citation.
- dragonsh 6y ago
  Not sure what are you implying, this isn't true India plays by WTO and international rules [1]. It uses provisions enshrined in the bilateral treaty and also the rules of global trade. India still today do not support evergreening of patent's by incremental changes. It only grant patents to original innovations. If you need more information about it probably read the 1970 patent act [2], in India which started those specific innovations in pharmaceutical formulations and made medicines affordable not just for India, but for most of Africa and many developing countries. [1] https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds50_e.htm https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dispu_e/cases_e/ds50_e.... [2] http://ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_patent-act-1970-11march2015.pdf http://ipindia.nic.in/writereaddata/Portal/IPOAct/1_31_1_pat...
  - pstrateman 6y ago
    Sounds like the legal justification.
- markdown 6y ago
  > India ignores other countries patents on medical things. And thank goodness for that. Millions upon millions of lives in the developed world have been saved by Indian generics. > Not sure what the legal justification is It's a sovereign nation.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  India is not alone. Brazil and several other countries have resorted to the same measures. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_license
- naruvimama 6y ago
  "Evergreening" isn't a legitimate practice but exist just as tax havens and gambling do. The US is a very poor example of getting things right in healthcare, the prices of healthcare are inflated to astronomical rates so insurance can make a cool profit. The price of medicines in the US is a poor scale to use across the world.
dragonsh 6y ago
Take a look at biocon story how they revolutionized diabetes management [1] and second check this report [2]. If more investments go in this area, India can very well be at par with US/UK and Germany in medtech, pharmaceutical and biotech areas. [1] https://store.hbr.org/product/oral-insulin-breakthrough-innovation-at-biocon/W11276 https://store.hbr.org/product/oral-insulin-breakthrough-inno... [2] https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovations-in-Indian-Drug-and-Pharmaceutical-Have-Tyagi-Mahajan/719c3070d31e94e5cd3ae43c8caf77163298462d#citing-papers https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Innovations-in-Indian-...
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
  Thanks, just added them to my read list. Looks like a fun read.

blueblisters 6y ago

> Most famous Indian IT companies are mostly Human Resource Management company optimised for cost arbitrage between the salary in India vs US (and other developed places). I think you're ignoring the changing tech landscape in India - the same cost arbitrage that allowed IT outsourcing is now being used to build capital efficient tech startups who get much longer runway on the dollar compared to startups in the US or Europe. Of course, finding a Western market for most Indian startups is still very challenging, but I expect this model to become more successful over time.