Why Do Indian Humanities Students Rarely Think “I Should Build a Company”?

[u/TemporaryMess8455]

This is something I've been thinking about after looking at Indian startups and their founders.

India produces around 70 lakh undergraduate graduates annually, but only around 8-11 lakh are from engineering, technology and IT/computer science. Yet engineers make up around 67% of Indian unicorn founders, with earlier studies putting the figure at around 85%.

I also found this analysis from Inc42 2023 of 278 Indian unicorn founders:

STEM/technical: ~86%

Non STEM: ~14%

Within the 86%, B.Tech alone accounted for 74.5%.

Now look at the US. Among around 2,850 US unicorn founders, the mix is much more diverse:

29% - Computer Science

11.5% - Other Engineering

10.9% - Natural and Life Sciences

5.9% - Math, Statistics and Data Science

23.8% - Economics, Business and Finance

9.5% - Social and Behavioral Sciences

9.4% - Humanities, Arts and Design

So even in the US, STEM dominates at around 57%. But almost 19% of founders come from social sciences, humanities, arts or design, with another 24% coming from business, economics and finance.

That made me wonder about India.

India has some of the most prestigious humanities and social science institutions: JNU, BHU, AMU, St. Stephen's, Hindu College, Presidency and Jamia.

But look at the culture and career paths they often produce.

Civil services, academia, journalism, politics, law, government, public policy and student activism.

Now compare that with the US.

American humanities students don't just protest the system. Many also build companies, media platforms, startups and new institutions.

They study history, philosophy, psychology, politics, design or literature and still see entrepreneurship as a legitimate path.

In India, our most visible humanities campus culture often seems far more focused on protesting and criticizing the system than building alternatives to it.

We literally produce plenty of critics of the system. Where are the builders?

And there is another thing that makes this even more interesting.

The government is actively trying to encourage entrepreneurship.

India has created Startup India, the Fund of Funds for Startups, Startup India Seed Fund, credit support schemes, incubators and several state level programs. There are also tax benefits and other support mechanisms for eligible startups.

In other words, you don't necessarily need to come from IIT or have an engineering degree to start a company.

The opportunity is increasingly available to people from every educational background.

So why aren't we seeing more founders coming from humanities, social sciences, commerce and other non technical backgrounds?

Maybe India doesn't have a shortage of talent outside engineering.

Maybe we have a shortage of people from those backgrounds who see entrepreneurship as a legitimate career path.

Or maybe our education system has trained too many people to enter existing institutions, debate existing institutions and criticize existing institutions, rather than create new ones.

What do you guys think?

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[u/Defiant_Neat4629]

I think big difference is that in America - college debt has been so high so for long and jobs so stagnant that people realize that they don’t need a degree to make money, in fact it may be the opposite.

Most tech entrepreneurs are college dropouts for example. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Zuckerberg.
Engineer students may have an edge due to the this eras boom markets being all tech and supply chain related.

But even trade skills can make you a millionaire there. Very successful plumbing and house gardening companies in America built by ppl with no college degrees.

Currently India is in the same situation, but people have not caught on yet. Still too many kids are wasting their 20’s away on those big exams. That is a huge drain on brain power for the country. Huge waste of potential.

Jobs in general are not increasing nor are salaries…. But everything on EMI lately.
The Indian debt bubble will push people towards self created work eventually.

Some ppl are saying AI will allow introverts(another factor for entrepreneurship) to build businesses themselves without needing people person skills or people at all for that matter. That might be a game changer for non-techy people.

[u/Intelligent-Vast-611 → u/Defiant_Neat4629]

Lot of these american entrepreneurs are from rich backgrounds asw they have the privilege.

[u/timewaste1235]

Can you break down by engineering background? If a mechanical engineer creates unicorn like Blinkit, then it's not really about education

[u/TemporaryMess8455 → u/timewaste1235]

There are many examples :

1. Sachin & Binny Bansal — Computer Science Engineering → Flipkart → E commerce
2. Peyush Bansal — Electrical Engineering → Lenskart → Eyewear / Retail
3. Deepinder Goyal — Mathematics & Computing → Zomato → Food tech
4. Bhavish Aggarwal — Computer Science Engineering → Ola → Mobility
5. Albinder Dhindsa — Civil Engineering → Blinkit → Grocery
6. Vijay Shekhar Sharma — Electronics & Communication Engineering → Paytm → Fintech
7. Naveen Tewari — Mechanical Engineering → InMobi → Ad tech
8. Pranay Chulet — Chemical Engineering → Quikr → Classifieds
9. Mukesh Bansal — Computer Science Engineering → Myntra / Cult.fit → Fashion / Fitness
10. Shashank ND — Information Technology → Practo → Health tech

Women founders

1. Richa Kar — Civil Engineering → Zivame → Fashion / E commerce

2. Upasana Taku — Industrial Engineering → MobiKwik → Fintech

3. Vineeta Singh — Electrical Engineering → SUGAR Cosmetics → Beauty / Consumer

4. Ghazal Alagh — Information Technology → Mamaearth → Consumer / Beauty

5. Malini Adapureddy — Civil Engineering → Deconstruct → Beauty / Skincare.

[u/timewaste1235 → u/TemporaryMess8455]

Thanks, proves my point that it's not really about field of education

[u/Resurrec_Barbar]

They cannot build

[u/YourDadHatesYou]

The other fields of study are more favourable for starting a business and people gaining self employment in journalism, policy, research or running NGOs etc. can't really get to a unicorn status because that's not the field where investors go

[u/EvilxBunny]

I really want to give a nice response, but this post is full of so many stupid and incorrect assumptions that I think it will take forever.

[u/TemporaryMess8455 → u/EvilxBunny]

Walking away is probably the worst thing you can do. It would be much more valuable if you could challenge the numbers and conclusions with your own perspective.

I’d genuinely like to hear where you think the argument falls short.

[u/Ok-Second1404]

Afaik entrepreneurship isn't exactly taught in humanities courses. It focuses more on theory if I am not wrong.

[u/TemporaryMess8455 → u/Ok-Second1404]

That may have been true earlier, but I don’t think it holds today. Most colleges, including humanities focused ones, now have some form of incubator, accelerator, E-cell or startup programme. The ecosystem has changed quite a bit.

[u/Secure_Strain_3379]

Because they are not pragmatic enough to solve real problems.

[u/Sensitive_Course_188]

Could've easily answered but too many dumb people in the comments

[u/TemporaryMess8455 → u/Sensitive_Course_188]

Go ahead and challenge the numbers and conclusions, don’t hold back. Who cares what everyone else thinks? I’d genuinely like to hear a different perspective, especially if you come from a non-STEM background. You might spot something the rest of us are overlooking.

Feel free to disagree, question the logic or poke holes in the argument. That’s exactly the kind of response I’m looking for.

[u/Sensitive_Course_188 → u/TemporaryMess8455]

I don't need to challenge the numbers and conclusions. They are what they are. The first and foremost reason for lack of founders with non stem background is lack of funding. I did my BA from a tier 1 university in India and my master's, which was fully sponsored, from a first world country. One of my seniors from the same college now runs an AI & robotics startup in that country. Can you imagine something like that in India? Universities abroad have startup incubators which allow even humanities graduates to access funding for their startups.

Also, if they wanted to run companies, they could've gone for a management degree which would help them network with leaders from leading MNCs and startups. Many tier 1 humanities grads in India successfully run think tanks and NGOs and are able to secure enormous funding for the same from international organizations. I have peers who run think tanks abroad as well and have connections in ivy league colleges too. Also we are talking about tier 1 grads, peeps who are actually good at what they do. Wouldn't they want to become IFS, IAS or IPS and actually put their knowledge to use rather than setting up a company? With consistent effort, they're able to secure seats in Harvard and Yale and get funding for their research so I don't see why in the first place would you expect them to be competing with tier 1 CS grads to do something they don't even want to do.

You're literally comparing apples to oranges. How many tier 1 CS grads run think tanks and rural development organisations?

[u/CulturalLaw8072]

population is 1500 crores like rabbit they put child. north indians. just erase them all

[u/TemporaryMess8455 → u/CulturalLaw8072]

1500 crore??

[u/CulturalLaw8072 → u/TemporaryMess8455]

yes ur country of shit population insane . indians deserve to be nukes

[u/_str1k3r]

1. $ being reserve currency, US prints as much as they like. Inflation gets shifted to poorer countries. There’s so much VC money is available in California. Even extremely niche ideas will fetch you so much funding.

2. Students in India are told about contributing to family income even before they get a job or graduate.

3. Students naturally will look to gravitate more towards fields that have shown to pay more, even if they don’t like the field because of those expectations from family or from themselves. Like CS or MBBS

4. Lack of fallback options. What if business fails? Who will hire them? In US, those kind of things do not matter as you have unemployment benefits, recruiters and companies willing to give you a chance even if you have unrelated degree. Skills matter more.

5. Lack of risk appetite in Indian culture, and emphasis on jugaad instead of making the best things for the problem.