An Indian entrepreneur and founder of a startup has engaged in some controversy after he told “high-salaried individuals” to leave the country since the environment here stifles innovation. With a stellar academic background from one of the most prestigious Indian engineering colleges with further studies in the US, the entrepreneur has shared what he has encountered since coming back to India in 2018 to start his own company.
Now leading a “well-funded business” with a staff strength of 30 and an average salary of ₹15 lakh, the frustrated entrepreneur took to a comprehensive Reddit post and said, “Leave India! It’s high time! And I’m saying this as a person running a successful business!
He went on to say in a rather long post that he felt “regional hate” in less than a week and narrated how vegetable sellers, taxi drivers, amongst several others treated him badly, and accused Indians of “no ethics at work or anywhere in life”. This makes him regret that people usually get “judged on the way you look”. “If you don’t look rich or wear branded clothes, you’re treated like filth”, he further said.
The entrepreneur was very vocal about India’s bureaucratic landscape and said excessive regulations often kill innovation. He shared a grim experience his app had become a part of-a fraudulent case. Though he cooperated with the police to get to the bottom of it and returned the money of the victim, an FIR shot against his company remained pending, with police seeking bribes to close the case. You have to be a bureaucrat, politician, or celebrity to get things done with ease,” he noted.
Another major grievance he expressed was the heavy load of taxation without any proper governmental service in return. He cited one experience in Goa, wherein he tried to organize a group to make use of the dustbin provided for the purpose and was rebuked by the people not to “mind other people’s business.” “Civic sense has become extinct in this country,” he summarized, highlighting that this happens routinely.
Moreover, the entrepreneur depicted a really sad future for India’s economy: he warned about a possible “terrible economic collapse” and added the depreciation of the rupee. He said that innovators should move to places like the UAE or Thailand, which he believes is more fertile for disruptive ventures to happen.
In a nutshell. leave the country where they’ll even tax your popcorn because they’re out of ideas to make it a $5 trillion economy,” he said, in an apparent reference to new GST norms that slap up to 18 percent tax on popcorn.
