Indian entrepreneurship
Don’t need idea or capital
Just get a govt job – and grow rich
The quest for a government job is not about a job but about entrepreneurship. You don’t need idea or capital – just need to pass an exam or somehow get a govt job. After that it is your ingenuity about how to create wealth and build the nation alongside. The most corrupt officials are almost always the most competent. They are also great team players and highly networked.
The most aspirational jobs carry the highest purchasing power and sometimes cost the most to acquire. Eligibility is tough and a huge amount of intelligence is required to ensure you are not caught. Getting caught is not just the end of your entrepreneurial career. It may also land you in jail.
In one particular High Court, it is rumoured on social media that all the judges are related to each other. Thanks to the Collegium. In another High Court false rumours are circulating that two judges had to be transferred suddenly to two different courts because they were having an affair with each other. And justice was supposedly getting compromised. These are complex legal issues about entrepreneurial posts which are difficult to comprehend even for professors of entrepreneurship.
Talking of entrepreneurship, the IIMs use Rs 500 crores of government subsidies but are unable to make entrepreneurs out of their own faculty or students. Except for outliers like Sanjiv bhikchandani or my old colleague Falguni Nayyar – they haven’t been able to produce any entrepreneurs other than a few IITians who also went to IIM. The CA community is the other one who wants to advise entrepreneurs. So much so that they haven’t managed to make entrepreneurs of anyone in their own community.
The IITians continue to be the gold standard because the financiers are all IITians. And if you go to any IIT boot camp – summarise all the slides and the conclusion is that the best entrepreneurial opportunity is to join the civil services. You can google both dowry rates and CBI cases against arrested civil servants to get a good feel about how much you could earn once you get in. If you get in that is.
Isn’t all this familiar
But is it true
Of course not
Most govt jobs don’t pay much. They involve hard work and frequent transfers. There is a lot of politics. And you end up reporting to politicians. In the good old days, they stuck to politics and took kickbacks. Now they take the govt contracts themselves. This requires them to operate outside their comfort zone. And even needs them to work. They have to raise money to invest. For that they need cash. There is no tender pursuer willing to pay them as they have awarded the tenders to themselves. So out of compulsion they have to extort money from struggling businessmen and newbie startups. These either don’t have money or need a completely legal way to do a patently illegal task.
Business is tough
it is best to look for a job
But even that requires entrepreneurship
