I recently did two interviews with two very different but passionate entrepreneurs: Deepak Shenoy, co-founder of Moneyoga and Dr. Girish Saraph of Vegayan Systems. Over the past year or so I have spent a fair amount of time talking to both of them and have followed their journey as entrepreneurs.
Deepak and I have spoken at length about entrepreneurship, startup environment, Bangalore, etc over the phone, but never got around to meeting over that cup of filter coffee in Bangalore. Blame it on the messy traffic congestion in Bangalore that precluded me from going to his part of town! Deepak is a passionate and seasoned entrepreneur and it was great fun interviewing him. In the interview Deepak made some great points about entrepreneurship in India.
Girish is an academician turned entrepreneur that I met at the TiE Mumbai conference in 2006, where I interviewed him the first time around. He was very excited at having won the TiE_Canaan Challenge for that year and was looking forward to going to INSEAD Singapore to spend 6 weeks there. I remember how Girish patiently and methodically answered all my questions about the software his company was building and gave me the big picture overview that also helped me in getting a better grasp of his company. Methodical is the word that comes to mind when I think of Girish since that trait or character is reflected in the manner in which he has plotted the course for his startup and in the way he did this interview that I did earlier this week.
though the discussion is not mca.gov.in site, let me add my experience.
setting up companies is not a very difficult job at all. though there will be many people like samir who will tell you horror stories about it. i do not point it as his fault. the services and interface could have been better and maybe he has really had some bad experiences with the site.
however, we need to get out of our mindset of ‘everything indian and sarkari has to be pathetic/unworkable/silly’. maybe kamala should try and register a company and see for herself rather than quote anonymous people making sweeping statements.
moreover i agree with the view that the speed of setting up a company has nothing to do with the venture being successful.
yeah, talking about mca.gov.in site, one cannot imagine that one can
have such a slow site for the company affairs division of a country which is supposed to be an IT super power.
It is an ideal example of how the UI shouldnt be.
Try analysing a company out there, and you have to figure out some
numbers of a company, for which there is just no instructions. One has to be a genius to make guesses and figure out things. The error
messages wont tell you anything.
Also, if you dont do things in the right order, you have to do things
all over again. And of course, there are no instructions as to
what is the right order.
I pity my CA. To get my DIN turned from a provisional one to a
proper one, the poor guy had to send my form a
number of times. They will confuse first name and last name and what not. But CAs of course in India are epitomes of patience. They will do all
the dirty work that is required including perhaps standing in queues outside the Babus’ offices and what not.
I tell you one needs to have ultimate in patience to get through this electronic maze. After you register a company, doing business is
much easier! No wonder after one has gone through this test of
fire, Indian entreprenuers could prosper in any other system.
But then, I figure those of Indians who have never been outside
India — for them, this system is like heaven compared to the
hell it was previously. For those who have been abroad, this
is no good.
And btw, after shifting the system to an electronic one, uploading
of every form is charged like Rs. 400/-. I dont know where the
money goes, if they cant use it to increase the server speed.
At least in the manual case, these forms such as one for change
of directors, one could turn them in without paying a fee.
regards,
samir
Kamala,
I think when people abroad and “foreign returns” take a fresh look at India, they want to see things complicated.
India is just another different system. While online and vending machines works well in US, hiring or buying people for money works equally well here.
Think like a entrepreneur to get things done and make money out of it, not like an idealist or educationalist.
– J
Dear Kamla
I have set up a company in India in recent past. And though it took some time, it was not a difficult process at all. Of course you will never get DINs and PINs at vending machines.
Go to mca.gov.in You can apply for the DIN and PIN there as well as search for the availability of company names. You will immediately get provisional numbers. It hardly takes more than two weeks after that. I made some mistakes filling the forms and got an email from the registrar office explaining it.
It is not that difficult to get in touch with a good CA who will help you with all this. It doesn’t cost a lot either.
Btw, I was also foreign returned at that time.
I apologize for my strong statements, but sometimes I just can’t take it.
Kamla,
It isn’t “that” difficult to register a company. Find a good CA and she/he will do the stuff for you. I did face some problem ( while trying to get the name, TCS system software went down) but it isn’t nerve jangling.
I don’t think any new venture fails/succeeds due to the speed/complexity of registering the company. Ofcourse, processes can always be made better. And they are getting better.