[Slashed]

Yesterday, I came back from Russia. Though this wasn't my first time there. The first thing you notice there, is that there's plenty of illegal competition. In one of the biggest shopping centers in Moscow, there is a shop just a side of an authorized Apple reseller that tries to sell you an iPhone (which is actually a chinese TVPhone).

Apart from this, I really do think that Russia needs its own Silicon Valley with VCs and Incubators from U.S. There are many talented people with innovative ideas and products.

Speaking of corruption level and unsafe environment, I don't think that India is better, but nevertheless they have their own SV with well-established VCs from the States.

[rjurney]

India is perfectly safe. There is also a vibrant technology economy already in place in many cities - albeit service based. This is a very different circumstance than Russia.

[Slashed]

Is this really true? I may be wrong, but from what I've heard - India is perfectly safe in a few cities.

Perhaps, I didn't get into any trouble in Russia(and I was not only in Moscow, but in small 200km away from Moscow cities) because I'm white and speak fluent Russian. Anyway, as the saying goes "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step". Once, everything was built from just an idea.

[plinkplonk]

India's cities are by and large safe (unless you are doing something really weird/ in the sleazy parts - every city has its dangerous parts just like every American city I know of). You do have the very occasional sensational attack on foreigners which grabs the headlins.

I have friends from the USA, Sweden etc who have been living here for years without getting into any trouble. The best way to decide such things is to talk to someone you know who has already lived here.

And we don't quite have our "Silicon Valley" yet, though Bangalore has many outsourcing companies and offshore development centres where large companies in the USA or Europe offload work no one there wants to do. But yes, (as rjurney points out) there are cities with very large populations of programmers, Bangalore being the prototypical example.

[rjurney]

I lived both places. The average block in Moscow is like some shady alley in Old Delhi at night ;)

[rjurney]

It really is true. You can travel by train across India as a foreigner, everyone staring at you, and not have any problems. That doesn't mean common sense does not apply, but overall India is very safe - crime wise. You'd better look out for cars, though ;) There is corruption, but there is also a strong culture imposing limits. Its complicated, but I rarely feared for my safety in India. I frequently did so in Moscow - nazis, militsia, thugs, etc. etc.

As to everything being built from an idea - thats true. But its a question of whether that is the right idea for that place. No one can doubt that there is an abundance of brilliant hackers coming out of Moscow. But the 'silicon valley' model requires an abundance of social capital - and Moscow is incredibly impoverished in this area, despite being relatively wealthy, it has very, very little social capital.