

Google’s $10 million 10,000 start-ups plan for India - pagade
http://www.livemint.com/Companies/HYBDxymAK8MELxUGdr8UXJ/Google-Microsoft-to-help-nurture-Indian-startups.html

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nishantmodak
$10 million . 10k startups.

$1000 in Google Adwords + Google Apps credits.

This is what they mean!

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Achshar
$10m for 10k companies is way too less. It stacks up to one grand per company.
Really? That less, they might as well not invest. Compared to startup Chile,
they give $40k as the article itself says. India is not a very costly country
compared to Valley, but 50k rupee is nearly not enough, even to get the
company going, let alone sustain it for a few months. And as far as I can
tell, it is not even an incubator type programme.

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6ren
YC only gives $14,000 for one founder ($11,000 + $3000n)
<http://ycombinator.com/apply.html>. Maybe it's a _lean_ YC, plus India is
cheaper than US (esp SV), as you say.

 _EDIT_ I've heard YC funding gives about 3 months, so 1-1.5 months is 1/3-1/2
that. Of course, one expects to take a pay-cut when doing a startup - the test
is not whether it's comparable to a job, but whether one can actually
_survive_ on it. (note I also said a " _lean_ YC") BTW: I also find
fascinating the idea of non-urban startups, since all you _absolutely_ need is
internet - rural living would be far cheaper (in US too).

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ankeshk
India is cheaper but not 14 times cheaper. $1000 doesn't go far in urban
India. Its 2 weeks salary for awesome developers in India. One to one and a
half months salary for ok to good developers.

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nmdtyvb
USA GDP PPP: $49,601

India GDP PPP: $3,851

12.88 times cheaper

Maybe it's not enough for "awesome developers" who can choose between jobs,
but still it can provide young people (without families) enough money to pay
for shelter and food for many months.

Even in Poland (GDP PPP $20,334) it's enough to survive for 2 or 3 months.

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avemuri
This isn't Google's program, it's Nasscom's (a trade organization) program.
Google is one of the partners and they're investing $10MM. There are several
initiatives that are working in parallel with the goal of boosting startup
activity in India. I imagine the money is going into running the program
and/or providing support to startups, not providing direct cash
investments/grants to companies. Nasscom isn't in the business of directly
acting as an incubator/accelerator.

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crimsonzagar
Oh so this $10 MM is going to the babus in Nasscom. That's even worse. Because
now startups don't get even those $1000 in the name of investment.

Good luck with that Google!

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monsterix
Eric Schmidt is landing in New Delhi in a day or two. How much of this promise
converts into 'invested cash' is something that we all will have to wait and
see.

Looking at the numbers ($1000 per startup) however, it seems more like a sales
pitch, rather a publicity stunt, to appear in the national news. If so,
they've done it quite successfully but it is also a very sad start.

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gjkood
How far does $1,000 go for a young (unmarried) just out of college engineer?

Just for reference I will give you what my first paycheck was 1 month out of a
mid-level engineering college with a Comp. Sc. major. Rs 2,000/mo as a
software engineer. After my boarding (shared) and living expenses I could
still save close to Rs 1,000/mo.

Granted this was 20 years ago and in a non-metro area, so adjusted for
inflation lets multiply that by 10.

So $1,000 (= Rs 50,000) today, could feed a hungry unmarried entrepreneur on a
Dosa (substituting for Ramen here) budget and shared living with friends for
several months.

After all this is a startup.

Keep your eyes off those Aeron chairs and you could manage to run a lean
startup for several months on that.

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arocks
I am not sure if those numbers hold good anymore. The starting salaries have
gone up to 10-25K, thanks to growing cost of living in India. That hardly
gives you a few months to survive.

Even if you were willing to sacrifice a decent paycheck, you need to think of
hosting, marketing and other expenses.

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jrodl3r
Kind of unrelated, but pretty astonished India is ranked so low there, with
all the incredibly talented Indian gentlemen I've worked with over the years.
I wonder how #-of-active-natives-coding holds-up? I'd bet they're near/at the
top of that list.

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ycuser
Techies from India will lap up this opportunity. As I see it, the incentive
for them is not the $1000 bucks, but the chance for their product(if good) to
be showcased on a much larger canvas.

