Snapdeal - the flourishing company America passed on - offers a lesson about immigration reform
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By Vivek Wadhwa November 7 Follow @wadhwa
Now that Republicans have won the U.S. Senate, it’s time to end
immigration gridlock. (Cliff Owen/AP)
After graduating from Wharton in 2007, Kunal Bahl
wanted to become an entrepreneur. He couldn’t get a
visa, so he had to return home to India. He started
Snapdeal in February 2010 with the ambition of building
India’s Groupon. Then he saw an even greater
opportunity — to turn Snapdeal into India’s
Amazon.com. Snapdeal already has more than 25
1million
of 5 customers and sells goods from 50,000 11/10/14 10:27 AMSnapdeal — the flourishing company America passed on — offe...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/11/...
merchants. With the $625 million that Japan’s Softbank
has just invested in it, it is surely on its way.
The sad part for America is that instead of creating jobs
here — where he really wanted to be — Bahl created
thousands of jobs in India. Bahl is no longer looking to
U.S. companies as his model. His new goal is to build the
Indian version of Alibaba, the innovative Chinese
ecommerce marketplace, which enjoys market
capitalization of $275 billion. As Alibaba’s founder, Jack
Ma, is doing, Bahl is pondering which Silicon Valley
companies to acquire. Over drinks at the INK India
conference in Mumbai last weekend, Bahl and I
discussed the pros and cons of Snapdeal’s acquiring
Groupon, which has market capitalization of around $5
billion. We agreed that there were better Silicon Valley
companies to acquire — and that he should think bigger.
Gone are the days when the United States was the only
land of opportunity and when entrepreneurs dreamed of
being acquired by a Silicon Valley company. The bigger
opportunities now lie in countries such as India, China, The Most Popular All
and Brazil, and their entrepreneurs are becoming
Over
confident that they can take on Silicon Valley. The
world’s best and brightest students once came to study TAMPA BAY TIMES
in the United States with the expectation of starting their Noted photographer Chuck Close
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careers and settling here. Now, upon graduation, they
SLATE
buy one-way tickets home. Chat With Dear Prudence
The immigration gridlock has already hurt U.S. HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER
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competitiveness and will worsen the damage if our of Kaimuki newspaper...
2 of 5 11/10/14 10:27 AM
political leaders don’t soon reach a compromise. TheSnapdeal — the flourishing company America passed on — offe...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/11/...
good news is that with the Republican Senate victory,
immigration reform may finally have a chance.
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Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the Republicans who Play right from this page
have been the barrier to skilled immigration, it is the
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Democrats—because they demanded all or nothing, Genre(s): Card
without compromise. Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Spider Solitaire is known as
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chairman of the Immigration Task Force of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, confirmed this to me in 52 card pickup
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an online debate. He insisted that his party would not
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agree to increase the numbers of visas for skilled can!
workers unless the Republicans agreed to legalize the
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more than 10 million immigrants who are in the country Genre(s): Card
without documentation. To make matters worse, the Reveal cards as you clear
your way to the top!
Democrats insisted on a path to citizenship for the
undocumented, and this turned the legislation into a Carniball
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poison pill that the Republicans simply would not
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swallow. will bring back some joyous memories
What the president needs to do now is to end the
stalemate. He needs to support smaller pieces of
legislation on matters in which the parties are in
agreement. He shouldn’t poison the waters further with
tactical executive orders that put Band-Aids on the
immigration mess; he should carve immigration up into
pieces that are debated on their individual merits.
Agreement is possible.
Both sides realize the importance of having more
technology companies, so legislation such as the Startup
Visa Act should be a no-brainer. It will allow
3 of 5 11/10/14 10:27 AM
entrepreneurs such as Kunal Bahl to start theirSnapdeal — the flourishing company America passed on — offe... companies in the United States and create local jobs.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/11/... There is as well broad support for providing permanent- resident visas to science, technology, engineering and mathematics graduates. And then there is the issue of H1B visas for experienced engineers, doctors, and scientists. If abuse of the system can be curbed, there will be broad support for expanding the numbers of visas. The Startup Visa alone could create as many as 1.6 million jobs and boost the nation’s annual gross domestic product by 1.6 percent within 10 years, according to the Kauffman Foundation’s estimate. Providing permanent resident visas to the more than one million people who are stuck in immigration limbo will allow them to buy houses and invest in their communities. Increasing the numbers of H1Bs will help to alleviate the shortage of doctors in some parts of the United States and allow Silicon Valley to hire the talent it desperately needs. The most contentious debates are over the plight of the undocumented, low-skilled workers. The Republicans and Democrats have both, in the past, supported the DREAM Act—which provides basic human rights to the millions of undocumented children who live in the shadows of U.S. society. If presented with stand-alone legislation, the majority of our political leaders would surely support this. As well, both sides agree that it is impractical to deport 10 million undocumented immigrants. Compromises are possible, for example, with a new visa class that allows these people to stay in 4 of 5 11/10/14 10:27 AM the United States legally, pay taxes, and return home
Snapdeal — the flourishing company America passed on — offe...
when they need to. The issue of citizenship could be http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/innovations/wp/2014/11/...
deferred for a few years until the wounds of the
immigration battles have healed and Americans can
reach for consensus on what is right and what is wrong.
The immediate outcome for America and Americans in
general will be very beneficial.
It’s time for the political quagmire and stalemate to give
way to compromise and good governance. Immigration
reform surely cannot wait. President Obama should turn
his party’s Senate defeat into a victory for America.
Vivek Wadhwa is a fellow at Rock Center for
Corporate Governance at Stanford University,
director of research at Center for Entrepreneurship
and Research Commercialization at Duke, and
distinguished fellow at Singularity University. His
past appointments include Harvard Law School,
University of California Berkeley, and Emory
University.
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