IIT graduates giving life to their dreams abroad

Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have triggered a trend by calling on global Indians to “come and make in India.” But, belying his expectations, the cream of domestic talent prefers the favourable environment of countries such as Singapore to nurture their start-ups and sustain business growth.

Sudhanshu Ahuja, an IIT-Delhi graduate, was clear even a couple of years ago that he would leave the iconic institution to chase his start-up dream in Singapore. The reason is the discouraging financial, business, industrial and regulatory environment in India. “My Nanyang Technological University (NTU) scholarship was confirmed during my initial days in the IIT. It was not the bounty of the scholarship but the environment that could germinate my start-up in the conceptual stage. I moved to Singapore without an iota of doubt. The country did not disappoint me,” Mr. Ahuja said adding that he could start and incubate his talent search firm, Ideatory Pte Ltd, along expected lines in Singapore.

Mr. Ahuja was the beneficiary of a venture capital fund of the Singapore International Foundation (SIF), an annual grant given after stringent scrutiny of contestants from across the world. Innovative ideas and efforts are not reduced to trash in the corporate world in Singapore, he said.

Today, Mr. Ahuja’s client list includes global corporates, including the banking giant DBS. He belongs to the crop of top talent in India which is looking at Singapore to pursue their dreams and the number of such innovative talent is growing day by day, says a top human resource firm in Singapore.

Singapore has a bunch of IITians like Aparna Mittal who left India and took to social entrepreneurship.

SIF, on Saturday, awarded seed fund to four winning teams of social entrepreneurs, who could find innovative ways to do business.

Among them was “Jugnu,”the Indian team that worked on a mobile application to enhance language skills for school students in non-urban areas. Team members — Ankita Gupta, Priya A. and Pramodh Rai — from Delhi completed their graduate education from NTU to chase the social entrepreneurshipdream.

While addressing the award ceremony before disseminating the seed fund grant, the Chairman of SIF, Euleen Goh, said the winners focussed on environment and mobile apps and thought of reaching the unreachable was commendable.