The serial entrepreneur and founder of Shaadi.com, Anupam Mittal shared an interesting note about the reality show Shark Tank India.
Impressive facts. 18% were couple-preneurs. 48% had women co-founders. A third were from non-metros and non-Tier 1 towns. So on and so forth; you can read the post here: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/anupammittal007_sharktankindia-sharktankindia-nationalstartupday-activity-6888488437716930560-QjGd
The stats we’re seeing and hearing about the Indian startup scene are even more impressive. India has the third largest startup ecosystem in the world. The country’s young firms raised well over a billion dollars of investment in 2021. 44 unicorns last year, and three down in the first month of this year. (source: https://yourstory.com/2022/01/2022-outlook-unicorn-ipo-dry-powder-investors-indian-startups/ ) This augurs well for the country, I am sure, given that the prime minister would love to take credit for it. The atmosphere, at least on LinkedIn, is positive and euphoric.
In the same year, the economy struggled; unemployment is the highest in decades, retail inflation expected to rise and several million retreating to poverty.
You can’t help but be curious about what or who the seemingly upbeat startup scene really represents. Is it because we’re seeing unprecedented liquidity that resulted in funds flowing into India at a much higher rate than before? Or the prime minister’s penchant for grandiose statements amplified by his fan base? Or because of the reality show that’s showing in our bubbles because everyone we know is talking about it?
It will be worthwhile to figure out who is represented by the sizeable startup community. But there are over 60,000 DPIT-registered startups and we don’t really have a database with the kind of data we need.
For lack of a better sample, I checked the startups that have been featured in Shark Tank India till last week (Episode 20). What social denominations do these founders come from, especially caste?
It is not a secret that private business in India is dominated by a few mercantile castes. Check any list of the richest in India. You will not be surprised that a significant portion of them will be from the Brahmin-Bania caste. Why would it be different among well-funded startups, especially those that made the cut and appeared on Shark Tank India?
Of the 90 individuals who appeared on the show, the breakup is as follows:
| Unable to determine | 33% |
| Bania | 23% |
| Brahmin | 20% |
| Kshatriya | 16% |
| Muslim | 2% |
| Sikh | 2% |
| Nair | 1% |
| Dalit | 1% |
| Christian | 1% |
I used surnames as indicators of caste position. There are some surnames that were easy to identify. Where a surname was ambiguous, I did not assign a caste. I could not also determine the caste of the Sikh, Muslim, or Christian individuals.
As you can see, there are no surprises.
I am sure many of us will have questions. I commented on Anupam Mittal’s post and while attention on it was relatively modest, a couple of people did ask why I was looking at caste.
It isn’t my case that Shark Tank, the Sharks or the participants were biased or caste conscious. Neither are most of us here on LinkedIn. We wouldn’t be, because we don’t come across many castes, at least never as varied as the Indian population is. LinkedIn represents much less than the top 10% of professional India; our discourse probably much lesser, our advertising is geared towards the affluent; we never have had to struggle against discrimination in our lives; no one called us “quota” candidates. In fact, quite a few among us claim that we’re a victim of affirmative policies.
So why should we look at caste? I’m putting it here because we don’t even acknowledge the existence of caste discrimination in our economy, in our companies, and especially the startup scene. We should.
People are bound to ask questions. These are some I’ve got, and my responses:
Aren’t you perpetuating the “divide” by calling attention to caste?
If calling attention to an unequal society is perpetuating inequity, I don’t have an argument. Inequity doesn’t disappear if we ignore it. It diminishes only when we acknowledge it and work at righting the wrongs.
If you examine the diversity policies and programmes of many Indian companies, they seem to largely address gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnic diversities. In practice, we probably stop at gender. The lack of caste in our diversity policies and programmes need examination.
Are you sure you got the data right?
As I have said earlier, whatever I could place, I placed. If I had a doubt, I put it in the “unable to determine” category – that’s why it’s a large portion.
What is the source of the data?
It isn’t difficult to get the names of the sharks or the participants. There are dozens of blogs and news sites.
Isn’t this just a reality show for entertainment? Why look at caste here?
I don’t have a high opinion of the show either. I did watch quite a few episodes in the course of this “research”, but I found it closer to an Saas-Bahu show from the Balaji stable than the original US Shark Tank shows.
But here’s the thing: if this show is reaching millions of new audiences who are otherwise hooked on to reality, faux news and fiction-based shows, shouldn’t it be more representative? Could we get someone from the Dalit Chamber of Commerce here? Or representatives from caste such as weavers, artisans, single-person entrepreneurs – or at least social enterprises that target them? Or is the thought of such representation too revolting for us?
I know this will get me into some trouble or ridicule, but that’s fine.
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