India is today a land of opportunities like the US if one is ready to "brave the bureaucratic hassles", an Indian entrepreneur who was MIT's first international blind student has said.
"The good news is, things are very different now.If you are willing to brave the bureaucratic hassles, India today is the land of opportunities like the US," said Srikanth Bolla, the CEO of Bollant Industries.
"Look at it this way. Our India will grow at 8 per cent a year for next 25 years. Assuming that all the growth is in the cities, our cities would grow at 15-25 per cent a year in terms of GDP. In other words, you would become rich in India by just starting up a business," Bolla said in his address to the World Hindu Economic Forum here.
"Of course, as long as you are willing to tackle the bureaucrats. If you are not willing to do so you can invest on use, because we are already doing it," said Bolla, who decided against staying in the US after completing his studies at MIT.
Describing his career as a big roller coaster, Bolla, in his mid-twenties, said the US has given him a big launch pad in life.
"When the educational system in India rejected because of my disability, MIT welcomed me with open arms. I will always remain grateful with them," he said, who went on to become the first international blind student to be admitted to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
Explaining the reasons for not settling down in the US, despite having gotten an opportunity, he said he wants to "change the world around" him in India.
"America is an incredible place to live in, but the problems are largely first world problems. If you see how politicians are trying to solve the problem here, they are busy debating what point a fetus becomes a human being. I am sure it must be nice to have the luxury to debate on such things, but back in India we are working figuring it out how to stop people from using roadside as a toilet," Bolla said.
"(In India, we are) trying to solve the problem of the poorest of the poor from their meagre subsidy money from being stolen by the politicians, trying to provide skills for the 90 per cent of the Indians who are self-employed and are in low-end jobs," Bolla said.
"We have big problems to solve and it is my generation that need to solve them. And this is why I went back to India," Bolla said, as he received standing ovation from the several hundred entrepreneurs who had come to attend the fifth annual edition of the World Hindu Economic Forum.
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