Arun Natarajan reports about an article appearing in Business Standard that beginning January 2005, Zee Telefilms (a premiere Network channel in India, also a chief competitor of Sony Asia) will air an 36-episode show in which entrepreneurs will get an opportunity to pitch their B-plans on TV.
While the US has moved to the likes of Survivors, Fear Factors and Apprentice, it is very apparent that grass-root entrepreneurial spirit has caught up in India. This is a fundamental and a very positive change. The number of companies getting funded in India has increased and every month one or the other groups of VCs are scouting in India.
I remember that while trying to raise money in early 1999, I was bluntly asked what is my collateral for raising 500,000 Rupees ($11,000 approx.). The majority of VC firms (most of which were run by banks and other government institutions) were only funding core infrastructure and not software startups. I did get couple of appointments from two VCs, the parents of which were actually funding software companies here in the Valley. Both the sessions were actually spent in orienting them of the developments on the WWW. No wonder my ‘crappy’ software idea never got any attention.
Guess, which side the wind is blowing for people like me? But then, there is Murphy’s Law–Ha, I’ll always miss the train!