Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India invites comments from public on the Regulations notified under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) is a modern economic legislation. Section 240 of the Code empowers the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) to make regulations subject to the conditions that the regulations: (a) carry out the provisions of the Code, (b) are consistent with the Code and the rules made thereunder; (c)are made by a notification published in the official gazette; and (d) are laid, as soon as possible, before each House of Parliament for 30 days.

The IBBI has evolved a transparent and consultative process to make regulations. It has been endeavor of the IBBI to effectively engage stakeholders in the regulation making process. The process generally starts with a working group making draft regulations. The IBBI puts these draft regulations out in public domian seeking comments threon. It holds a few round tables to discuss draft regulations with the stakeholders. It takes advice of its Advisory Committee.The process culminates with the Governing Board of the IBBI finalising regulations and the IBBI notifies them. This process endevours to factor in ground reality, secures ownership of regulations and makes regulations robust and precise, relevant to the time and for the purpose.

Public consultation enables collective choice and hence plays an important role in evolution of regulatory framework. The participation of the public, particularly the stakeholders and the regulated, in the regulatory process ensures that the regulations are informed by the legitimate needs of those interested in and affected by regulations.

Usually, a regulator prepares draft regulations and presents these to the stakeholders to revalidate its understanding of the issue the said regulations seek to address, and the appropriateness of such regulations to address the issue. Based on the inputs from the stakeholders, the regulator finalizes the regulations with modifications, as may be warranted. The IBBI has been essentially following this approach and will continue to do so.

Despite the best of efforts and intentions, a regulator may not always have the understanding of the ground realities, as much and as early as the stakeholders and the regulated may have, particularly in a dynamic environment.The stakeholders could, therefore, play a more active role in making regulations. They may contemplate, at leisure, the important issues in the extant regulatory framework that hinder transactions and offer alternate solutions to address them, in addition to responding urgently to draft regulations proposed by the regulator. This is akin to crowdsourcing of ideas. This would enable every idea to reach the regulator. Consequently, the universe of ideas available with the regulator would be much larger and the possibility of a more conducive regulatory framework much higher.

Keeping in view the above, the IBBI invites comments from public, including the stakeholders and the regulated, on the regulations already notified under the Code. The comments received between 4^th July, 2017 and 31^stDecember, 2017 shall be processed together and following the due process, regulations will be modified to the extent considered necessary. It will be the endeavor of the IBBI to notify modified regulations by 31^st March, 2018 and bring them into force on 1^st April, 2018. 

It is clarified that this is in addition to the extant approach of inviting public comments on draft regulations before notifying them.

For providing comments, please follow the process as under:

(i)                 Visit IBBI website, www.ibbi.gov.in;

(ii)               Select ‘Public Comments’;

(iii)             Provide your Name, and Email ID;

(iv)             Select the stakeholder category, namely,

a.       Corporate Debtor;

b.      Creditor to a Corporate Debtor;

c.       Insolvency Professional;

d.      Insolvency Professional Agency;

e.       Insolvency Professional Entity;

f.       Academics;

g.      Investor; or

h.      Others.

(v)               Select the regulations, you wish to make a comment upon, from the dropdown menu, as under:

a.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Model Bye-Laws and Governing Board of Insolvency Professional Agencies) Regulations, 2016;

b.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Professional Agencies) Regulations, 2016;

c.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Professionals) Regulations, 2016;  

d.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Resolution Process for Corporate Persons) Regulations, 2016;

e.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2016; 

f.       Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Information Utilities) Regulations, 2017;  

g.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017;

h.      Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Fast Track Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process) Regulations, 2017; or

i.        Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Inspections and Investigations) Regulations, 2017.

Kindly note that the selected regulations can be found by clicking the pdf icon right next to the ‘select regulations’ option. 

(vi)             Select the kind of comments you wish to make, namely,

a.       General Comments; or

b.      Specific Comments.

(vii)           If you have selected ‘General Comments’, please select one of the following options:

a.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions within the regulations (intra-regulations);  

b.      Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in different regulations (inter-regulations); 

c.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in the rules; 

d.      Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in the Code;

e.       Inconsistency, if any, between the provisions in the regulations with those in any other law; 

f.       Any difficulty in implementation of any of the provisions in the regulations; and

g.      Any provision that should have been provided in the regulations, but has not been provided; or

h.      Any provision that has been provided in the regulations, but should not have been provided.

And then write comments under the selected option.

(viii)         If you have selected ‘Specific Comments’, please select regulation number and then sub-regulation number, and write comments under the selected regulation / sub-regulation number.

(ix)             You can make comments on more than one regulations, or more than one regulation / sub-regulation number, by clicking on more comments and repeating the process outlined above from point 8(v) onwards.

(x)               Click ‘Submit’, if you have no more comments to make.

Illustration

9. If you are a creditor to a corporate debtor and wish to make a specific comment on the sub-regulation 1 of regulation6 relating to Eligibility for appointment of Liquidator as specified in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India(Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017. The steps that you need to follow are:

        i.            Visit IBBI website, www.ibbi.gov.in;

      ii.            Select “Public Comments”;

    iii.            Provide your Name and Email ID.

    iv.            Select the stakeholder category, which in this case is “Creditor to a Corporate Debtor”

      v.            Select the regulations, which in this case is “Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Voluntary Liquidation Process) Regulations, 2017;

    vi.            Select ‘Specific Comments’;

  vii.            Select the regulation / sub-regulation number, which in this case is “Regulation 6” and “Sub Regulation (1)”;

viii.            Write comment in the box “Comments”;

    ix.            If you wish to make comment on another regulations, or another regulation number of the same regulations,repeat the process from ‘v.’ onwards by clicking the icon ‘More Comments’;

      x.            Click ‘Submit’, after you have made all comments.

India declares itself free from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (H5N1 and H5N8)

India had reported outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian influenza at various epicenters in Delhi, Gwalior (MP), Rajpura (Punjab), Hissar (Haryana), Bellary (Karnataka), Allappuzha and Kottayam (Kerala), Ahmedabad (Gujarat), Daman (Daman) and Khordha and Angul (Odisha during October, 2016 to February, 2017.

All the outbreaks of Avian Influenza (HPAI) mentioned above were notified to OIE and the control and containment operations were carried out as per the Action Plan on Preparedness, Control and Containment of Avian Influenza. 

            Surveillance was carried out throughout the country and around the areas of the outbreaks since completion of the operation (including culling, disinfection and clean-up) and surveillance in the states showed no evidence of presence of Avian Influenza Virus.

  

            In view of the above, India has declared itself free from Avian Influenza (H5N8 and H5N1) from 6^th June, 2017 and notified the same to OIE.

Shri Achal Kumar Joti takes over as new Chief Election Commissioner of India

Shri Achal Kumar Joti has assumed charge as the 21^st Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India, succeeding Dr.Nasim Zaidi here today. Dr. Zaidi demitted office yesterday after completing his tenure.

After the assumption of charge, Shri Joti spoke about the priorities of the Commission and said that the Commission shall pursue vigorously its commitment to hold free, fair, inclusive and credible elections throughout the country. Secondly, the Commission will also pursue its mission to ensure that “No Voter to be Left Behind”. Thirdly, the Commission shall actively promote e-Governance for holding of elections to the State Assemblies and Parliamentary Elections in the country, Shri Joti added. 

Shri Joti has served as Election Commissioner since 13^th May, 2015. During his tenure as Election Commissioner, State Assembly elections in the States of Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakand, Manipur and Goa were successfully conducted. Some of the initiatives undertaken during these elections are IT initiatives including the one for service voters through Electronically Transmitted Postal Ballot System(ETPBS), along with National Voter Service Portal (NVSP) –an e-portal for easy registration of eligible voters, voter awareness and educational initiatives and stringent expenditure monitoring mechanism etc.

Before joining the Election Commission of India, Shri Joti has served the Nation as a longtime Civil Servant of Indian Administrative Service (1975 Batch). He brings with him a rich experience of Public Administration of 42 years. During his distinguished career, he served as DM and Collector of Districts Surendranagar, Godhra and Kheda. He held various significant assignments as Secretary (Water Supply), Secretary (Industries), Principal Secretary (Finance), along with serving as the Chairman of the Kandla Port Trust, on Central Government deputation with Ministry of Shipping, Government of India, between 1999 and 2004, as the Managing Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd(SSNNL) and Additional Chief Secretary (General Administration Department). Shri Joti superannuated as Chief Secretary to the Government of Gujarat in January 2013 after completing a three-year tenure.

Government of India in consultation with RBI decides to issue Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme 2017-18– Series II; Applications for the bond will be accepted from July 10, 2017 to July 14, 2017; The Bonds will be issued on July 28, 2017.

Government of India, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds 2017-18 – Series II. Applications for the bond will be accepted from July 10, 2017 to July 14, 2017. The Bonds will be issued on July 28, 2017. The Bonds will be sold through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices and recognised stock exchanges viz., National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay Stock Exchange. The features of the Bond are given below:

Sl. No.	Item	Details
1	Product name	Sovereign Gold Bond 2017-18 – Series II
2	Issuance	To be issued by Reserve Bank India on behalf of the Government of India.
3	Eligibility	The Bonds will be restricted for sale to resident Indian entities including individuals, HUFs, Trusts, Universities and Charitable Institutions.
4	Denomination	The Bonds will be denominated in multiples of gram(s) of gold with a basic unit of 1 gram.
5	Tenor	The tenor of the Bond will be for a period of 8 years with exit option from 5th year to be exercised on the interest payment dates.
6	Minimum size	Minimum permissible investment will be 1 gram of gold.
7	Maximum limit	The maximum amount subscribed by an entity will not be more than 500 grams per person per fiscal year (April-March). A self-declaration to this effect will be obtained.
8	Joint holder	In case of joint holding, the investment limit of 500 grams will be applied to the first applicant only.
9	Issue price	Price of Bond will be fixed in Indian Rupees on the basis of simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity published by the India Bullion and Jewellers Association Limited for the week (Monday to Friday) preceding the subscription period. The issue price of the Gold Bonds will be ` 50 per gram less than the nominal value.
10	Payment option	Payment for the Bonds will be through cash payment (upto a maximum of Rs. 20,000) or demand draft or cheque or electronic banking.
11	Issuance form	The Gold Bonds will be issued as Government of India Stocks under GS Act, 2006. The investors will be issued a Holding Certificate for the same. The Bonds are eligible for conversion into demat form.
12	Redemption price	The redemption price will be in Indian Rupees based on previous week’s (Monday-Friday) simple average of closing price of gold of 999 purity published by IBJA.
13	Sales channel	Bonds will be sold through banks, Stock Holding Corporation of India Limited (SHCIL), designated post offices as may be notified and recognised stock exchanges viz., National Stock Exchange of India Limited and Bombay Stock Exchange, either directly or through agents.
14	Interest rate	The investors will be compensated at a fixed rate of 2.50 per cent per annum payable semi-annually on the nominal value.
15	Collateral	Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. The loan-to-value (LTV) ratio is to be set equal to ordinary gold loan mandated by the Reserve Bank from time to time.
16	KYC Documentation	Know-your-customer (KYC) norms will be the same as that for purchase of physical gold. KYC documents such as Voter ID, Aadhaar card/PAN or TAN /Passport will be required.
17	Tax treatment	The interest on Gold Bonds shall be taxable as per the provision of Income Tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961). The capital gains tax arising on redemption of SGB to an individual has been exempted. The indexation benefits will be provided to long term capital gains arising to any person on transfer of bond
18	Tradability	Bonds will be tradable on stock exchanges within a fortnight of the issuance on a date as notified by the RBI.
19	SLR eligibility	The Bonds will be eligible for Statutory Liquidity Ratio purposes.
20	Commission	Commission for distribution of the bond shall be paid at the rate of 1% of the total subscription received  by  the  receiving offices and receiving offices shall share at least 50% of the commission so received with the agents or sub agents for the business procured through them.

2 Indian-Americans to be honoured with Great Immigrants award

Two Indian-Americans, Adobe Chief Shantanu Narayen (54) and former US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (39) have been chosen for prestigious Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award 2017. They are among 38 distinguished US immigrants representing more than 30 countries of origin around the world honoured with this year’s award for their role in advancing US’s economy, society, and culture. Some the honourees include Canadian-origin social entrepreneur Jeff Skoll, PayPal cofounder of Ukrainian origin Max Levchin, Iranian-origin philanthropist and entrepreneur Hushang Ansary. Vivek Murthy Murthy was born in the UK. He is alumnus of Harvard and Yale. He was appointed as Surgeon General by former President Barack Obama in 2014, making the first-ever Indian-American and also the youngest to occupy the post. He was dismissed this in April 2017 by the Trump administration. Shantanu Narayen Narayen is a native of Hyderabad. He holds an undergraduate degree in electronics engineering, a master’s degree in computer science, and an MBA from UC Berkeley. He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council. At present, he is CEO of Adobe Systems. About Great Immigrants: The Pride of America Award The award is given annually on the occasion of Independence Day of United States i.e. 4th July to naturalised citizens of US for their contribution in advancing US’s economy, society, and culture. The award has been instituted by New York-based Carnegie Corporation in 2006. The honourees are recognised with a full-page public service announcement in The New York Times and an online public awareness initiative. The Carnegie Corporation was established in 1911 by Scottish immigrant Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. Carnegie Corporation’s founder Andrew Carnegie was one of pioneer American capitalist who had shaped the modern American industry and philanthropy. He was the son of impoverished immigrants who had settled in US.

India -China Border Disputes :-

Indian and Chinese troops are facing off once again in Sikkim at Doko-La (or Donglong, as the Chinese call it), which lies at the tri-junction of India, China and Bhutan. There have been growing tensions between India and China. The current confrontation, however, shows signs of escalating. Both countries have upped the ante and deployed around 3,000 troops each in the tri-junction. The Doklam area has huge strategic significance for both India and China. It close to proximity of sensitive Chicken’s Neck, or the Siliguri Corridor, which is an extremely narrow stretch of land that connects the north-eastern region to the rest of India.  Here is background of India-China Border dispute

India shares total boundary of around 3,488 km with China (second largest after Bangladesh). The Sino-Indian border is generally divided into three sectors namely: Western sector, Middle sector, and Eastern sector. 5 states viz. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh share border with China.

In the western sector, India shares about 2152 km long border with China. It is between Jammu and Kashmir and Xinjiang Province of China. In this sector, there is territorial dispute over Aksai Chin. Both countries went to war in 1962 over disputed territory of Aksai Chin. India claims it as part of Kashmir, while China claims it is part of Xinjiang. The dispute over Aksai Chin can be traced back to the failure of the British Empire to clearly demarcate a legal border between China and its Indian colony. During the time of British rule in India, two borders between India and China were proposed Johnson’s Line and McDonald Line. The Johnson’s line (proposed in 1865) shows Aksai Chin in Jammu and Kashmir i.e. under India’s control whereas McDonald Line (proposed in 1893) places it under China’s control. India considers Johnson Line as correct, rightful national border with China, while on the other hand, China considers the McDonald Line as the correct border with India. At present, Line of Actual Control (LAC) is the line separating Indian areas of Jammu and Kashmir from Aksai Chin. It is concurrent with the Chinese Aksai Chin claim line. Middle sector In this sector, India shares about 625 km long boundary with China which runs along the watershed from Ladakh to Nepal. The states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand touch this border with Tibet (China) in this sector. Both sides do not have much disagreement over border in this area. Eastern Sector In this sector, India shares 1,140 km long boundary with China. It runs from the eastern limit of Bhutan to a point near the Talu Pass at the trijunction of Tibet, India and Myanmar. This boundary line is called McMahon Line. The boundary was established along the Himalayan crest of the northern watershed of the Brahmaputra, except where the Kemang, Subansiri, Dihang and Lohit rivers break through that watershed. China considers the McMahon Line illegal and unacceptable claiming that Tibetans representatives who had sign the 1914 Convention held in Shimla which delineated the Mc Mahon line on the map were not having rights to do so. Present mechanism to resolve border issue India and China in 2003 had appointed Special Representatives to discuss the boundary question. In 2005, both sides had agreed on political parameters and guiding principles for a boundary settlement, will form the basis of the final settlement. So far 19 rounds of Special Representative Talks on the border have taken place (the latest was in April 2016).

As President Donald Trump signals ‘America First’, Indian-Americans in the Silicon Valley begin to look beyond the bubble. More than H-1B visas, it is automation that threatens to alter the dynamics for all times to come

From his hilltop perch on the eastern side, across the San Fransisco Bay, Vinod Dham has a bird’s-eye view of the Silicon Valley. When the lights come on, the headquarters of Google, Facebook, Apple, Uber and Intel — where he once led the invention that revolutionised computing, the Pentium chip — are clearly visible.

The story of Dham’s journey, from chasing DTC buses in Delhi in the 1960s as an engineering student to the Fremont mansion where he lives now, is relegated to the background as software rock stars dominate the world’s digital imagination. But the mansion is testimony to his status in Silicon Valley — the higher up the hills that surround the Valley your house is, the higher up you are in the pecking order of its cut-throat social hierarchy. An eight-tonne stone Buddha sculpted in Mamallapuram near Chennai sits in the garden.

“It is exciting, and disconcerting,” Dham says of the emerging era of computing. “Disconcerting, because of the massive job losses and social displacement that is just round the corner. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not like anything that humanity has seen so far.”

The spectre of automation

The argument that AI will be just another in the series of technology revolutions — like machine looms, automobiles and computers — that have transformed the world to what it is today, he says, is invalid. “All machines that came before were static. They did not do anything by themselves. They only did what the humans manipulated them to do. When a machine begins to do things by itself, after it is taught how to learn, we are in a different age. I am not saying that the machines will take over and we all will be killed. But we are entering a different era.”

The immediate disruption will be human jobs, which will have a cascading effect on other aspects of society and economy, he says. And it is not only the low-end jobs that will be displaced; the existing middle class will lose their jobs as well. One could argue that new jobs in data science, algorithms, etc. will create new jobs. “But that will only be a tiny fraction of jobs that will become redundant.”

The current debates on outsourcing, offshoring, trade deficit, etc. are therefore already redundant, according to Dham. Each country wants to make its economy strong and create jobs. “But nobody seems to be talking about the elephant in the room.” Which is technology taking away jobs.

Vinod Dham believes that the Indian government should stop trying to incubate start-ups and divert whatever money is available to public funding of technology education.   | Photo Credit: Varghese K. George

The current H-1B debate is a case in point. Indian IT companies have responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric against immigrant IT workers by reducing the number of visa applications and hiring more people locally in America. Some companies have also laid off people in their back-end offices in India. A U.S.-based executive of an Indian IT company that does data processing in Pune for a major American bank explains: “In the last two years, the pace at which automation has progressed, we could easily let go of 30-40% workers. The only reason we are not doing it is the potential political backlash.”

“Software is eating the world,” argued technology entrepreneur Marc Andreessen in a provocative piece in The Wall Street Journal in 2011, “… the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.”

The United States of India

The software explosion in the preceding decade is what put Indian engineers at the centre of Silicon Valley, California. Around 40% start-ups in the Valley have an Indian CEO, CTO, CFO or COO. As they expand, they are even ‘renaming’ the towns — Sunnyvale is called Surya Nagari; Mountain View is Paharganj and Fremont is Azad Nagar as the Indian invasion expands to new frontiers. In conversation with then presidential candidate Trump, Steven Bannon, now his chief strategist and then the head of Breitbart News, lamented in November 2015 that “two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia”. The Indian-origin population is estimated to be 1% of the country’s total, and their representation in the U.S. Congress is also 1%. Silicon Valley is represented in the House of Representatives by Ro Khanna, the grandson of an Indian freedom fighter. The rising star among Democratic Senators, Kamala Harris from California is half-Indian, her mother Shyamala Gopalan hailing from Chennai.

American CEOs discovered India’s software prowess when they were struggling to fend off the Y2K catastrophe ahead of the turn of the millennium, and since then there has been no looking back for Indian engineers. But a new turn is here, says Dham. “AI is now eating software.” Dham had toyed with the idea of bringing hardware manufacturing to India, but gave up on it as the technology rapidly changed, making India an impossible destination. “But AI is a software opportunity that India must seize immediately,” he says. For one, Dham believes, the Indian government should stop trying to incubate start-ups and divert whatever money is available to public funding of technology education.

Dham worked closely with Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, whose prediction that the processing power of chips would double every 18 months has held true for at least 40 years. But that is now saturating. Transistor size has already reached subatomic proportions. “Next ten years it will muddle along,” says Dham. But AI will explode in the meantime. “People who can teach the computers to learn will be the most sought-after professionals.”

The political and social impact of this is reaching an inflection point and Donald Trump is a symptom of it. “He observed it, highlighted it and leveraged it to his benefit. He saw that this whole section of people has been disenfranchised and began talking about it. People living in Silicon Valley had no clue of what was happening in middle America. People have been hurting. Somebody should have been addressing that. Which I think is not being addressed even now. When AI comes, the problem will be more exacerbated. But at least he brought the spotlight on the issue,” says Dham.

Bunker beds and shared toilets

The journey to the hilltops in the Valley begins modestly. In earlier times, it typically began in a garage. Rents are so high that starters in the Valley often pay up to three quarters of their earnings in rents.

Negev, in downtown San Fransisco, is a community living facility for those who dream big but have little money. Named after the Israeli desert — the reclaiming of which is a national project — Negev itself is a start-up targeting millennials who prefer to avoid or delay marriage and are averse to buying fixed assets, explains Danny Haber, its co-founder. Newcomers and those starting out sleep on bunker beds and share kitchen, living area and toilets. The buildings are theme-based — introverts, social geeks, sporty-partying kinds, etc. In the evenings they share their experience of exploring opportunities in the Valley. Usually, the residents stay for about a year and then move out with friends they make at these communities.

Arjun Satish Fadnavis arrived here only a month ago from Bengaluru. A graduate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he is now a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He returned to India after graduation after missing out in the H-1B lottery in 2014. He tried again in 2015 from India to no avail. The third time, in 2016, he got lucky and is finally here, at a time companies have slowed down on applying for H-1B visas after Trump came to power.

Several Negev residents are working on their start-ups. Shaffi Mather, who arrived two years ago, has launched a pilot of his app in Punjab, aiming to do to health care what Uber has done to personal transportation. Mather’s MUrgency app aims to utilise idle ambulances and medical professionals to provide emergency medical care in less than 12 minutes. “Thousands of ambulances are available in cities but not used optimally, while emergency care is beyond reach for most people in India,” says the Keralite who counts Ratan Tata, Infosys co-founders Kris Gopalakrishnan and S.D. Shibulal, and the Azim Premji family among his investors. In the U.S., where emergency care is extremely efficient, the app seeks to make it affordable. For instance, in a recent incident, a small cut on a baby’s finger that required a band-aid left the family with a $600 bill. MUrgency will launch in the U.S next year.

Divey Gulati grew up in Delhi and reached Chicago in 2007 to study computer engineering. His break came in 2014 when his start-up idea made the cut at Y Combinator, an influential Silicon Valley start-up incubator. ShipBob, his start-up, offers a hybrid of software and logistics solutions to e-commerce start-ups for online deliveries. While it operates in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and San Fransisco, ShipBob is aiming to go global in the near future.

The journey to the top is arduous. But Indian-Americans are at it. “The emphasis on education is what makes the Indian community so successful in the Valley,” says Dham. “The difference between having and not having a college education has been huge in India, unlike America.”

When I meet Rehan Kumar (name changed), a 19-year-old university student whose parents came to the Silicon Valley 32 years ago, at an Indian restaurant in San Carlos, his mother by his side, he has a different story to tell about the emphasis on education, that is taking a severe toll on Indian-American kids. As his mother related how their pre-Y2K generation started with a one-bedroom apparent, then moved up to two before finally acquiring a house, Rehan interjects: “They made a load of money, and are now looking for ways to spend it. So they are recreating a new Renaissance era here. They want differentiators, they buy art, read about esoteric topics and flaunt their knowledge at parties, and go on exotic vacations.”

Rehan studied in a school in Palo Alto, where an overwhelming majority of his schoolmates were Indian-Americans. By eighth grade, many of his classmates were training in Unix and Java. “They all look the same, talk the same, wear the same thick glasses and march to Vishu and Pongal celebrations. On weekends, they go to study Hindu culture and philosophy,” he says. But that is still not enough, as Princeton, Harvard and Yale look for ‘well-rounded’ candidates during admission screening, which is the topmost subject of discussion for Indian parents. And these kids are not the ones who plan to stay in Negev — the mansion is very much on their mind, always.

Classical dance, classic music, and theatre cohabit with Unix and Java in their universe. When they go on vacation to India, it is a Dangal-style regimen for them. “Getting up at 4 a.m. to study dance or music. And crash courses run throughout the vacation. They come back to the Valley exhausted after the vacation,” says his mother. Adds Rehan, “Every kid is under a lot of pressure. From peers, from parents. To make it to an Ivy League [institution], then to land an internship at Google or Apple, then to find a job, then to have a start-up of your own… and join the race.”

It’s a pressure cooker

Rehan likens Indian performance in the Silicon Valley to the performance of a pressure cooker. “You throw it all in, shut it and wait for a quick result.” It can blast too. After seeing it all, including three suicides of Indian-American kids in the school, and overcoming a depression, Rehan has decided that he wants to dance only for the sake of dancing. And grow up in the slower lane.

However, for the Y2K generation, and those with uncertain immigration status, questions are different. Rishi Bhilawadikar came to study in the U.S. in 2005 and is on an H-1B visa to date. “For here or to go?,” the question that anyone is asked while ordering fast food in American restaurants, has a profound existential meaning for people like Bhilawadikar. Exploring the questions that confront Indian-Americans with temporary work visas, Bhilawadikar wrote a feature filmFor here or to go? with Rajit Kapur and Omi Vaidya among its cast. “The Indian-Americans community’s contribution is barely appreciated here. Moreover, the uncertainly surrounding our immigration status makes our personal lives so uncertain and stops us from realising our full potential here,” he says. Bhilawadikar continues to work in a technology company through weekdays and promotes his film on weekends.

Silicon Valley was outraged when Trump pressed ahead with restrictions on travel from several Muslim countries to America, and many, including Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook protested. Few months down, the Valley is taking a closer look.

Bruce Fram, a 30-year Silicon Valley veteran who has been the CEO of six venture capitalist-backed companies, says the victory of Trump has broken the bubble that techies lived in. They are now getting to hear more about the America that they hardly knew existed. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg said while addressing students on May 25 at Harvard, the university that he dropped out of a decade ago, “Let’s face it. There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here [Harvard] and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can’t afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business.”

In the Silicon Valley, CEOs and Uber drivers always talk about diversity. At evening dinners, CEOs are asked to raise their hands if they increased renewables in their energy mix since they last met. But the rise of Trump has been the moment of political baptism for the Valley as they begin to look beyond the bubble. But the distance between them and the rest of the world is not easy to bridge. Here, men can love men or women and women can love men or women. But most of them love machines the most. Machines that solve the problems of the world. When Silicon Valley solves the problem of road accidents in the U.S. caused by human error by automating driving, three million truck drivers will be rendered jobless. Every solution has a problem. Trump is only a symptom.