[VeluM]

While we are getting personal here, it is unnecessary. There are individuals who have been successful in setting up businesses, but this thread is about India's Elon Musk. Looking at what makes him who he is today (points that have been stated previously), the stand-out ones for me are the will do make a difference to the future of humanity, and drive to continue in the face of enormous odds of all kinds.

Paypal had an impact because in those days it was a pioneering product / service, but we have our own PayTM today. Useful, but hardly changing the future of humanity for the better.

Tesla and SpaceX are both pioneering and will (if they continue to succeed) change what we think will happen in the next decade in terms of pollution, cheap electric travel, and interplanetary travel. That's a scale of impact that setting up a successful IT company - while making some people rich and many people's lives easier - is not.

So the person we are looking for in India is someone who thinks bigger than me, my family, my city/state or even country, but think of what s/he can do to positively impact the future of humanity as a whole.

[amitk26]

Why India doesn't have an Elon Musk ? Answer is very simple why so few Revas on the road and why even on team-BHP fanboyism for Reva is absent ?

I do not mean to deride anyone however in development curve we are far behind any medium income country of Asia and Latin America
leave alone high income countries of western Europe and Americas. So naturally our market and preferences lie elsewhere. A son / daughter of middle-class needs to play safe and get a routine job for sustain himself perhaps his /her next generation can think of doing something different ( which is happening now a days in certain pockets)

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/india/gdp-per-capita

One can afford to experiment as a consumer and try unproven technology and products if and only if pocket allows for failure of experiment.
And entrepreneur can experiment if and only if there is a customer who is willing to experiment.

PS : While seeing GDP or Per capita Income do not go by that PPP farce PPP multiplier factor is so high for India because we often do not pay fair wages to underclass and negotiate prices too much with street vendors who do not have market power.

Seeing this we are doing far far better then any other low income country in similar bracket.

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by amitk26

One can afford to experiment as a consumer and try unproven technology and products if and only if pocket allows for failure of experiment.

And entrepreneur can experiment if and only if there is a customer who is willing to experiment.

The first statement has been echoed by many members, and is indeed a vital factor.

The second point is revealing - we, as consumers, also have a role to play to unearth a Elon Musk - hmmm, very thought provoking

[Guite]

This topic has come up at a time when I was thinking about an Indian innovation that we can all be proud of. The trigger for this thought was a visit to a large prescription glass showroom. I had just chosen an Essilor lens and was about to make payment. When the showroom boss was informed my choice, he started selling me their in-house brand.

The eye test shows that I need reading glass and so am a good candidate for progressive lens. The Essilor lens I chose was not, a progressive lens from this brand being very expensive. I wanted top quality optics, and considered getting a separate reading glass later.

The in house brand progressive lens offered by the boss was just a little bit more expensive than non-progressive Essilor lens. Both are transition lens. However I was adamant on Essilor because brand reputation and quality matters a lot to me. My current lens is a Carl Zeiss btw. This boss did not appreciate my point, so I chose not to conclude the deal that day.

While this boss made his sales pitch of their product being exported and quality world class, I was not convinced. Which brings me to my point: which Indian product(s) can we proudly call world class? Which Indian brand(s) command world wide respect?

I can't really think of any in consumer products. Maybe there are some niche products, but nothing to capture mass imagination. Okay, maybe Bajaj. Not the autorickshaw, but the motorcycle division. Their autorickshaws have gone downhill, it now runs on extremely noisy diesel engines. Their motorcycle line-up is pretty refreshing in terms of product design and technology.

My general perception is that Indian companies do not invest in R&D, and so there is little or no innovation in the products that come out year in and year out. There is also general casual approach to anything, also called the chalta hai attitude. Moreover, as already pointed out by many before, the environment in our country is not conducive for innovative thinking, and materialising it. An Indian Elon Musk is very far off.

[apachelongbow]

The root cause IMO may be because we Indians don't want to be innovators? After all inventing something, or innovating an idea or a concept is simply put, very very hard work.

We would all rather take the easy way out of a overseas job, earning in dollars, getting an engineering degree, a MBA from somewhere and then join the IT/tech bandwagon to proceed to US with green-card dreams. Or join the family business, or launch a new business, but stay within the rules, find loop holes and rake in the moolah.

When we are culturally respecting the concept that any money, however earned is the only sign of respect, how will any person be prepared to spend his/her lifetime trying to innovate/invent something new, without knowing the end and in all probability being poor for a long time?

I am only discussing what I may think may be one of the reasons of us not producing an ideator or innovator, by no means would I want to disrespect anyone who has chosen to proceed down the conventional path.

[tsk1979]

@ VeyronSuperSprt

Huh. Thats what this thread is about. Lack of support, ecosystem and a host of dalals starting big dalal bodyshops. Not the lack of dna or intelligence.

Coming to also rans Its okay if vlsi or chip design is beyond your comprehension. This subject is very difficult and complex and not everyone can comprehend the expertise and intelligence needed.

And speaking of large companies...they were pretty small when they came with a market shaker idea. Eg google.

[amitk26]

And to top it you've found fault with Apple's success too. .

Apples sucess has nothing to do with Innovation and apple is one of the least innovative company.

I understand it to be hard for you to comprehend so two quick hints.

1. Innovation just does not mean UX design .. Granting UX design patents is more of a non-tarrif trade barrier. Google search Richard Stallman and his views. Richard Stallman was class mate of Bill Gates with 180 degree outlook in life.

2. Check, list of top 5 patent filing companies in world. Coming up with 10nm fab process or something like Dr. Watson is far more complex a job than a patent on a physical design and fighting lengthy court battles. Just check how many contributions I 3G 4G and 5G are from apple.

And last but not least no rejoinder from your side is required and I am not going to respond any further to any trolling.

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Firstly, It's the success and the appreciation people place on an innovation that indicates it's value (however simple the idea maybe) rather than the complexity or the number of patents needed.

Secondly, many complex ideas and patents haven't seen the light of day so it's of no value to anyone including the patent holder and is no indication of innovation.

[tsk1979]

@ VeyronSuperSprt

Seriously you are unable to comprehend chip design. I do not mind it because I fully understand that its beyond everyone's capabilities. No probs. Its okay.

Before we can have a proper discussion you need to bring youself up to my level. As a start you can educate yourself that we do not have fabs here but chip design centers. Fabs are mostly in taiwan and china as manufacturing (assembly line) is mostly there now. Chip design and chip fab (assembly line as per laymen ) are different things. Chip design means actual product design. Its not repeated but done once. And then assembly happens. If you want to improve your education about this there are lots of dedicated sites which can give u an introduction about chip design.

[arunkumarsarat]

This discussion is turning out to be similar to the debate on 'Why brain drain' that we always used to have earlier. The people who take risks are those who are not afraid to lose and I don't think India has ever thought of creating such a breed of graduates.

In our country each one of us are conditioned right from our college days to aim for a safe career and students are deemed to be very successful if they get to work for a multinational corporation. Very few educators and even fewer parents encourage the putting up of an innovation into a business proposition.

Even though things are changing, during our college days none of us were encouraged to innovate, except during our school science fairs.The day we start encouraging our school children to innovate is the day when an Indian Elon Musk will be born. But for that we need to give more emphasis to research in our schools and colleges and invest in state of the art laboratories. Both governmental as well as parental support are also absolutely essential.

[AJITHAAA]

As long as we are the back office of the developed world. Innovation and emphasis & funding/support for innovation will be on the back burner. Elon-Musk's here will have to wait.

[gsurya]

I have a different take on this. No poor country has innovators who build new products out of the blue. Can someone point out a few?

For every Elon Musk, hundreds of entrepreneurs failed. But even so, its likely they & their families didnt go into poverty as can easily happen in India.

Not having any social support system of any kind in India is a huge thing. Even China is seeing innovators only now in the last decade when income levels have gone above a certain watermark and there is some level of Govt supported medical / pension available.

I could venture out of regular employment only after I felt "safe", that too only because my wife is well employed, neither of us came from money.

Only when I could create enough assets of my own, I felt I could take risks with some of that & my time to try something.

Am I risk averse? Maybe, but I couldnt gamble my entire family's well being on hunches. I want to create something without risking total loss of assets at start up. Willing to lose half, yes.

[acurafan]

Lot of it boils down to concentrating on what is important. Elon Musk concentrated on 1st world problems such as Space Travel, Efficient Money Transfer, Extended range electric cars, High Speed Public Transportation etc. None of them were unique or I will call innovation, but he took the concept and worked on it to make it as good as it can be under the present technological constraint.
An Indian Elon Musk probably can be one who solves emerging market problems, such as Low cost water purifier (http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=35442.php), Refrigerator that does not need electricity thereby increasing food safety (Mitti Cool),Vaccine for TB and Malaria, Low cost diagnostic kit (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/media...ping-countries)
Unfortunately basic science research is poorly funded in India and expecting innovation without proper training is unsustainable. There can be one or two genius who can overcome such odds but it goes back to the saying about swallow and summer ...

[vrprabhu]

Originally Posted by acurafan

An Indian Elon Musk probably can be one who solves emerging market problems, such as Low cost water purifier, Refrigerator that does not need electricity thereby increasing food safety,Vaccine for TB and Malaria, Low cost diagnostic kit

To continue with your list, please go through this site - http://nif.org.in/index.php

What we are talking here is, about people having come up with a radical idea / concepts (path breaking ones), and putting his whole and soul to make it work / happen ....

[Wheeliej]

One thing to add here. I know someone who had a taxi booking app ready much before ola and taxi for sure. Ofco

He approached many local taxi companies and even pune airport but everyone wanted the technology for free.... nobody seems to want to pay for anything here, so how does an entrepreneur be born? Does he spend his time running after vcs and private equity investors?