CHENNAI: Calling India’s 160-page startup definition a symbol of everything that still holds back enterprise, Silicon Valley’s first Indian American entrepreneur Kanwal Rekhi on Tuesday argued that the country’s biggest policy mistake is trying to control entrepreneurship rather than enabling it.

“Why do we need a 160-page definition of a startup?” Rekhi asked. “Don’t define startups at all. Any person who creates a job is a startup.”

The octogenarian, a venture capitalist, technologist and one of the earliest Indian-origin leaders of Silicon Valley was speaking less as an investor and more as a chronicler of India’s unfinished economic freedom. That perspective is central to his book ‘The Groundbreaker,’ a memoir-cum-blueprint, where he draws parallels between India’s freedom movement and the rise of entrepreneurship.

In The Groundbreaker, the free market proponent traces how India went from being the world’s richest and most entrepreneurial nation in the 1800s to just 1 per cent of global GDP by 1991. “By independence, we were 22 per cent of the world’s GDP. By 1991, we were down to 1 per cent,” he lamented.

“That was not colonialism anymore but it was selfinflicted.”

Liberalisation changed the trajectory, he said, crediting the reforms of the early 1990s for restoring entrepreneurial confidence. “Entrepreneurship in India truly began after 1991,” Rekhi said, recalling how he brought Silicon Valley–style discussions on wealth creation to India in the late 1990s. “That was the first time anyone openly talked about entrepreneurship and wealth creation in this country.”

Rekhi believes India’s global brand has already undergone a quiet transformation. “Earlier, India was known as the land of snake charmers. Today, it’s seen as a technology and entrepreneurial nation,” he said. “We’re not a powerhouse yet, but we are on that path.”

Still, he argues that incremental reforms are not enough. His proposal is radical in scale but simple in idea: create 10 million entrepreneurs, which means just 1 per cent of India’s population. “If each employs 20 people, that’s 200 million jobs,” Rekhi said. “They don’t need to sit in metros. They will go back to villages, tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Micro-entrepreneurship can transform India faster than any government programme.”

On success, Rekhi takes a long view. “Success is achieving your potential,” he said. “We are number four today. In 1991, we were number 110. You cannot be impatient. Becoming number one will take time...maybe by 2100.”

As detailed in The Groundbreaker, Rekhi’s investing philosophy has remained unchanged over decades. “I don’t invest in technology or markets. I invest in people,” he said. “Skills can be taught. What matters is entrepreneurial instinct, intellectual honesty, and fire in the belly.”

He also urged India to see its diaspora as more than a source of capital. “The Indian diaspora should be treated as a brain trust,” Rekhi said. “They bring global perspective, experience and the ability to see both India’s strengths and its blind spots.”

Dwelling on the difficulties of investing, Rekhi expresses surprise as he points out “in India, there’s a shortage of capital. We shut down the Mauritius route. We don’t allow foreigners to invest in India easily. I don’t know why. Why NRIs? Why not anybody else? I am American. I’ve been there 60 years. Why am I different than any other American? See that’s where the problem starts.”

Rekhi’s final advice to young entrepreneurs echoed the spirit of his book: “Ignore everything and go for it. Entrepreneurs reject established rules and make their own. You have to be a little foolish...because if you don’t know something can’t be done, you go ahead and do it.”

Earlier, India was known as the land of snake charmers. Today, it’s seen as a technology and entrepreneurial nation. We’re not a powerhouse yet, but we are on that path

We don’t allow foreigners to invest in India easily. I don’t know why. Why NRIs? Why not anybody else? I am American. I’ve been there 60 years. Why am I different than any other American?