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I’ll bet that in 5 years, if you stacked up a TechCrunch 50 of Indian start ups versus a comparable number of U.S. startups, it would be a pretty even match. I

I’ll bet that in 5 years, if you stacked up a TechCrunch 50 of Indian start ups versus a comparable number of U.S. startups, it would be a pretty even match. I think there's something distinctly Indian about making 5 year plans, even if they sound ludicrous (when I lived there, many people told me that 'India would be a world superpower in five years'). I think it might have something to do with this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_of_India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_plans_of_India.

jagjit 17y ago
Yeah, the five year plans have been rather a bane for the Indian economy. In fact, central control and planning in all spheres are generally looked up to in India. We even used to have joint families which were very common till very recently - a joint family is where many generations of a family tree under a patriarch live together. Even businesses till recently were more likely to be family owned. Entrepreneurship in India is on the rise now though. But my problem with the article is that the author is talking about taking on Silicon Valley, but he does not have a region or even a city to compare. He is just taking a whole country - India - and talking it up. Silicon valley is what it is not just because there is a secret formula which you can use to replicate. I am not even sure if there are places in other parts of US which are comparable to the ecosystem here. These kind of articles probably make for good copy. But without first trying to understand what makes Silicon Valley unique even in US - they are nothing but misleading.
anamax 17y ago
> I think there's something distinctly Indian about making 5 year plans I suspect that it's more "human" than Indian. A five year plan is short enough that it looks reasonable but long enough that you don't have to do anything for a while at the beginning. And, when the 5 years is over, few people remember what they were promised at the beginning, especially if you've started a couple of other five year plans in the interim. The five year plan may be ideal for getting resources to not do anything useful.

jagjit 17y ago

Yeah, the five year plans have been rather a bane for the Indian economy. In fact, central control and planning in all spheres are generally looked up to in India. We even used to have joint families which were very common till very recently - a joint family is where many generations of a family tree under a patriarch live together. Even businesses till recently were more likely to be family owned. Entrepreneurship in India is on the rise now though. But my problem with the article is that the author is talking about taking on Silicon Valley, but he does not have a region or even a city to compare. He is just taking a whole country - India - and talking it up. Silicon valley is what it is not just because there is a secret formula which you can use to replicate. I am not even sure if there are places in other parts of US which are comparable to the ecosystem here. These kind of articles probably make for good copy. But without first trying to understand what makes Silicon Valley unique even in US - they are nothing but misleading.

anamax 17y ago

> I think there's something distinctly Indian about making 5 year plans I suspect that it's more "human" than Indian. A five year plan is short enough that it looks reasonable but long enough that you don't have to do anything for a while at the beginning. And, when the 5 years is over, few people remember what they were promised at the beginning, especially if you've started a couple of other five year plans in the interim. The five year plan may be ideal for getting resources to not do anything useful.