Bangalore may be aiming for the title of the 'Startup Capital of India', but the ever-promising politicians have absolutely nothing for upcoming ventures, feel young entrepreneurs.
Bangalore may be aiming for the title of the 'Startup Capital of India', but the ever-promising politicians have absolutely nothing for upcoming ventures, feel young entrepreneurs.
dna invited a few young entrepreneurs to its office recently for a discussion on what politics means to them. Most of them said there was a disconnect between entrepreneurs and the political class. Amuleek Singh Bijral who runs Chai Point (a chain of tea outlets), Mainak Chakraborty who has started Green Power Systems (a clean tech firm that converts kitchen waste into biogas), Kiran Datar from Moxtra (a company which designs mobile solutions), Shradha Sharma, who started Yourstory.in, (a news service that covers startups and entrepreneurs), Ahalya Matthan who runs Ally Matthan Creations (a perfume business) and Seema Jaising of Helms Briscoe (an event management company) shared their thoughts.
"There is a distance between the political class and entrepreneurs", said Bijral, a Harvard graduate who is originally from Kashmir, but has made Bangalore his home for last six years. He strongly feels that no politician in the city has till now touched this crucial aspect of Bangalore: entrepreneurs.
"I feel there is no attempt by parties to offer entrepreneurs anything," quipped Chakraborty.
He said that in the initial stages, startups need help from the government in the form of resources and infrastructure, but this support is missing in Bangalore.
The entrepreneurs said they could not fathom why the political class had been turning a blind eye towards entrepreneurship, the "golden goose" that is creating jobs. Datar said that during the Y2K, there was a conscious effort to build Brand Bangalore, but the good work has vanished. He asserted that there has to be a focus on promoting entrepreneurship in the state, given the importance it holds.
What about their brush with corruption? Bijral, Datar and Chakraborty said mostly they deal with bureaucrats and they have not come across any corrupt bureaucrat. Datar underlined that all is not that bad in Bangalore.
However, Matthan and Jaisingh had a different opinion. Matthan recalled how the BBMP officials once pestered her to get trade licence, which, she said, she did not need as she is not into trading. She said initially she chose to be idealist and put her foot down, but had to relent after a couple of months. Emphatically, she said she cannot think of getting work done at labour office without pleading with the officers continuously, with her hands folded. She nodded as Jaisingh said that in this industry, you have to pick and choose your fights.
The issue of women's safety did figure in the discussion. Both Matthan and Jaisingh said they feel free to use public transport when they go abroad, but cannot even imagine doing that in Bangalore. They said that in terms of women's safety, Bangalore's condition has deteriorated in the recent past. Sharma, who hails from Bihar and has lived in Mumbai, said Bangalore is safer than her hometown but definitely nowhere close to Mumbai.
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