Next Google, Yahoo, Microsoft from India?

Next Google, Yahoo, Microsoft from India?
This is a question that lot of Indian entrepreneurs ask themselves. Everyone wants to see a global product company coming from India, but the dream hasn't yet materialized.

I have myself stumbled across this question many times. I saw again these things at the Emergic post.

Just summarizing from the above post, looking into the reasons for not many technology startups from India:
- Salaries of MNC's make joining startup unattractive
- Newer startups focused on services than products
- OEMing product creation to market leader
- Lack of Vision to think big and global
- Lack of angel and early-stage funding

The first three reasons are in one way or the other related with taking risks. Indians (especially young people) are culturally less bolder to take drastic steps. But nevertheless its mainly due to the fact that there aren't many successful tech stories from within India. People like Sabeer Bhatia (Hotmail fame) continue to inspire young lads. My belief is once the journey of continued success starts right here in India, there will be no looking back.

In IIT, we used to call a certain group of people "Fighters". And there's no dearth of fighters in India. But to build an environment that could lead to explosive growth of startups as in Silicon valley, I believe lot of initiative needs to be taken both by the government and the existing entrepreneurs.

Taking the quote from Emergic, "Indian companies lack vision to think big and global." Yahoo, Google, Microsoft - all were started by very young and bright people. On the contrary, young and bright people studing in indian universities (including IIT's) do lack the vision to build on the next innovative idea. Not many people at undergraduate level can think about the next big problem that's gonna hit the world and India doesn't produce enough PHD's. It's not about being not enthusiastic enough or hard working, I have encountered the most brilliant people here in IIT. It's mainly because students don't have a proper direction. We still work on projects, BTP's MTP's which don't hold any relevance. The next innovative research is just missing.

Focussing on tomorrow, the creations that will change both today's and tomorrow's world for the better is very important. And that I think would be the key for building not just one but a multitude of successful companies from within India. In order to leap ahead, we need to build the next Stanford's and MIT's right here in India.

Angel investments, Early stage funding all are needed but to have a real success story, India needs to move ahead in terms of its university education. Even a five pointer in IIT on moving to US does pioneering work! We need to look back and see what all we have missed and fix up things.