印度蓄势引爆创业潮

    印度人口增长迅速，对如何解决就业问题却没有明确方案，特别是在密拉特这样的城市。有鉴于此，创业可能让印度受益。2011年的最新人口普查数据显示，密拉特的人口为340万——摩根士丹利（Morgan Stanley）2011年发布的印度城镇化进展报告则指出，当地就业机会的增长落后于消费。

    人们一直认为初创型企业——特别是技术型公司是个潜在的解决方案，前提是要为它们建立一个有利的生态系统。就劳动力而言，印度拥有绝佳的机会。据行业组织Nasscom介绍，大约有300万印度人在从事IT工作，印度的工程人员数量居全球第二（每年约有70万工程类毕业生）。

创业扶持机构的崛起

    5月底，在一个炎热的星期天，办公空间出租公司91 springboard宽敞的地下办公场所里正在举行一次创业活动。从这里沿着街道望去，能看到一座漂亮的地铁站和一家宝马车经销店。这里曾是仓库，现在已经成了初出茅庐的创业者的聚集地。91 springboard由三名创业者组建而成。就经验和背景而言，他们和阿卢瓦利亚相差无几。

    32岁的瓦伦•查瓦拉在美国完成了大学学业，还在纽约市为高盛（Goldman Sachs）工作了一年半。2005年他返回印度，但继续为高盛工作到2007年。随后他辞职，创建了一家专项咨询公司，帮助初创型企业在起步阶段筹集资金。可惜的是，他得到的投资有限，业务发展得也很缓慢。他在两年时间内签下了40名客户。查瓦拉随后离开了这家公司，又做了几次尝试，但都没能成功。2012年，他把自己的一家公司转让给了旅游网站MakeMyTrip。之后，他萌生了这样一个想法，那就是开办一家公司，而它的目标客户都是和自己一样的创业者。

    查瓦拉说：“创业者最头疼的是什么？基础设施薄弱，网络很差，而且很难获得资金。我们希望能解决这些问题。”跟他合作的有阿南德•维姆里和普若内•古普塔。维姆里毕业于斯坦福大学（Stanford）工程专业，最近刚从加利福尼亚返回印度；古普塔则是80多家初创企业的顾问。他们在寻找办公地点的过程中说服了查瓦拉的一位叔叔，租用了他在Mohan大厦的仓库。这座大厦位于新德里东南郊——在印度，家庭的影响总是如影随形。他们从自己的存款中拿出启动资金，把其中的一大部分用于室内粉刷，安装发电机以解决新德里经常停电的问题，铺设网线，以及装修，把它改造成适于人们逗留的地方。在这个过程中，他们也碰到了让自己头疼的问题——维姆里说，有一次他们不得不对付一位承包商，原因是后者故意抬高建材价格。

    Entrepreneurship is a potential boon to a country wondering how exactly to employ its rapidly growing population, especially in towns like Meerut. According to the most recent census in 2011, Meerut has a population of 3.4 million -- but job opportunities lag consumption, as suggested in a 2011 Morgan Stanley report tracking Indian urbanization.

    Startups -- particularly tech companies – have been touted as a possible solution, if an ecosystem is built to support them. India has a huge opportunity in terms of manpower. The country has an IT workforce of about 3 million and the second-largest number of engineers in the world (around 700,000 graduate every year), according to industry group Nasscom.

The rise of entrepreneurial support groups

    One hot Sunday in late May, at a cavernous, underground office down the road from a gleaming metro station and a BMW dealership in New Delhi, 91springboard is hosting an entrepreneurship event. 91springboard is a co-working space, a former warehouse and a gathering place for budding entrepreneurs. The organization is the brainchild of three entrepreneurs who couldn't be more different from Siddhartha Ahluwalia in terms of experience and background.

    Varun Chawla, 32, went to college in the United States and worked for Goldman Sachs (GS) for two-and-a-half years in New York City. He returned to India in 2005 but kept his bank job until 2007, when he quit to start a boutique advisory firm helping startups secure early-stage funding. Unfortunately, investment was limited, and business was slow. In two years, he signed 40 clients. He left that venture and started a couple more, all without success. Then, in 2012, after selling one of his companies to the online travel site MakeMyTrip (MMYT), he came up with the idea of starting a business that would target entrepreneurs like him.

    "What are an entrepreneur's biggest hassles? Infrastructure is poor, networking is weak, and it's hard to get capital," he says. "We wanted to address those problems." His partners included Anand Vemuri, an engineering grad from Stanford who'd recently returned to India from California, and Pranay Gupta, an advisor to more than 80 startups. After an initial search for office space, they finally convinced one of Varun's uncles -- in India, the influence of family is never far – to let them rent his warehouse in Mohan Estate, on the outskirts of southeast Delhi. A large chunk of their initial investment -- drawn from savings -- went into painting the walls, installing generators to guard against New Delhi's many power outages, laying Internet cable, and making the space fit for human habitation. Along the way, they had their share of hassles -- at one point, Vemuri says, they had to deal with a contractor who was artificially inflating the price of construction material.