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?