[buyx]

I don't know much about India, but what has always me from making the leap to entrepreneurship in South Africa is that there is no safety net if things go wrong. I wonder if a similar dynamic exists in India.

Yes, we have a public health service with free care in South Africa, but the state hospitals are in a shocking state. Private healthcare and health insurance is very expensive, and there is no in-between state provided insurance option (like US Medicaid). If you get sick without health insurance, you will end up in a shocking state hospital to be neglected and abused.

Yes, we have free public education, but the public schools are in a poor state. You don't want your kids going to a public school (some good government schools exist but they are difficult to get into if you don't live in the expensive feeder areas, and they charge substantial fees).

From what I've read about India, the state is fairly incompetent (more so than even South Africa), and I wonder if people choose to work for BigCo, rather than risk total catastrophe if things go wrong.

The level of risk in SV (or any first-world country) if things go wrong is probably an order of magnitude smaller than it would be in a third-world country.