Day 3 Mentor on Road, USA

"All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything."

- Swami Vivekanand

Day 3 of #mentoronroadusa started with the daily morning errands. We left early for New York since we had to attend a meeting with 1776 - the start up co-working space based in Brooklyn. 1776 as an international start-ups incubator was started in 2013 in partnership with several established organizations including Comcast, Microsoft and the District of Columbia which serve as 'Founding Partners'. In 2015, 1776 closed its first seed fund at $12.5 million.

Since its founding, more than 700 companies have gone through 17776’s incubator program which includes startups across the fields of healthcare, transportation, energy, education, and smart cities.

MoR USA’s session with the startups of 1776 was fairly interactive. I presented on a few topics such as product and service validation, valuation, innovative ways to source funds, start up team building, pricing strategies and market strategies for both the US and Indian markets. After a brief discussion followed by Q&A session, I could identify two start ups – a smart transportation solutions firm and a waste to energy solutions firm that seemed to have good potential. Further, we decided to connect both these companies to India to help them meet market and investment opportunities.

Then we headed to the Queens Chamber of Commerce where members from 30 companies were waiting for us. I presented on India 3.0 and opportunities which could prove to be beneficial for American companies in Digital India, Skill India, Smart Cities and Villages, Stand up India, Start up India and Clean India. I described structured parameters based on India's ease of doing business, which are eventually improving every year.

I also presented reasons behind reduction in corruption levels across India as monitored frequently by Transparency International India (TII) which is a leading non political, independent, non-governmental anti-corruption. TII has extensive expertise and understanding of issues of corruption in India.

TII is part of Transparency International, an international non-governmental organization which is based in Berlin, Germany, and was founded in 1993. Its nonprofit purpose is to take action to combat corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from corruption. Transparency International annually publishes the Global Corruption Barometer and the Corruption Perceptions Index.

More and more standard regulations are being implemented in India. IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) protection, Bankruptcy Act etc. are opening the doors for foreign investment in India, because of which last year India rose in its ranking among the best FDI locations in the world.

Most of the participating companies were amazed with the changes taking place in India and none of them were aware about this. I felt that my mission was achieved. Had an active Q&A session which lasted about one hour and many one to one meetings were followed up. I am going to connect many of these companies who came from a diverse background such as smart city technology firms, cosmetics, apparels, telecom technology, edutech, fintech, insurance companies, accounting firms, life coaching, IT consulting, real estate brokering, designer jewellery firms  to Indian businesses. 

I was surprised to meet one of my old friends, Mr. Ali Hirji from Citibank, New York. He hosted me last year at Citibank and boosted my confidence by complimenting me for my efforts with the 18 member trade and investment delegation from U.S.- India Importer's Council (USIIC) to promote US-India trade and relationships. 

U.S.- India Importer's Council (USIIC) is a not-for-profit initiative started by a group of Indian SME (Small & Medium Enterprises) importers, who are collectively responsible for imports of over US $1 billion from the USA.

USIIC works in India and the US to promote technology transfer, joint ventures, investment, franchising and trade between the two countries. Headquartered in Mumbai, it has chapters in New Jersey, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.

For more details, check this link http://www.usiic.in/

Finally we drove down to Iselin where we are currently staying. I would be sharing my presentation with all the participants as I have promised them. I will also prepare for tomorrow’s meeting with women owned businesses and accordingly plan my schedule ahead.

Jai Ho! (Let victory be yours)