Jason Marks

THE BASICS WORK IN INDIA Rohit is right about India. 1) First, the basic daily loop of a tech worker is now easy in India. Wake up, hit the gym, open laptop, get coffee, call an Uber, hang out with some friends, etc — that’s all there. Reliable power, internet, air conditioning, roads, airport…all the basics are present. Sounds trivial, but it’s not — a lot of infrastructure has to come together for that to be true. And it wasn’t as present a decade ago. 2) Second, the public goods are also there. Unlike SF or LA, the streets aren’t filled with people that NGOs have addicted to drugs. In fact, they’re cleaner every day, and the transit infrastructure is improving too. The crime rates are lower, the community spirit is stronger, people are more positive and optimistic. You don’t see all this in the numbers, but it matters. 3) India is fundamentally an ascending world country. It’s not perfect of course. I don’t think pollution in South India is actually that big a deal, but the paperwork in particular is still something that needs improvement. 4) Still, as a launchpad for the world? India is absolutely there now. The Indian engineer doesn’t 10X their standard of living by leaving, as they did 40-50 years ago. 5) Sure, the most ambitious may still go diasporic until GIFT City[1] becomes as business-friendly as Singapore or Cayman. But the baseline has *vastly* improved and that changes everything. [1]: inc42.com/features/can-gift-…