Amazing India

[fire_india]

India has become a hell-hole for people who don't have lot of money.
Temperatures are soaring, roads are a mess, even for good private healthcare- you need contacts of top doctors.

All this is fine for people who have decent money.
- Private driver and decent car.
- top doctors and personal contacts to top doctors.
- fine dining in 5 star hotels (half price of usual dinner in a developed country).

But for middle class, it is a mess.
and poor class- it is literally hell.

[r2somewhere]

India has become a hell-hole for people who don't have lot of money.
Temperatures are soaring, roads are a mess, even for good private healthcare- you need contacts of top doctors.

All this is fine for people who have decent money.
- Private driver and decent car.
- top doctors and personal contacts to top doctors.
- fine dining in 5 star hotels (half price of usual dinner in a developed country).

But for middle class, it is a mess.
and poor class- it is literally hell.

None of that gives clean air even to the richest Indians. Billionaire Nikhil Kamath had longetivity obsessed deca millionaire Brian Johnson for a podcast. It was indoors with AC, in Mumbai (not even Delhi) and had 4 air purifiers around them and their meter still registered 150 AQI.

[fire_india]

clean air- yes, big issue in Delhi, and now in Mumbai too.

Many rich Delhi guys are moving out. (know a couple of them).

Bangalore, Kerala, Chennai, Hyderabad- pretty good air quality. Quite decent.

[Returning_Indian]

We recently got wood work done in our flat. Guy who did it was around 25. Very little education but presents himself like Harvard educated. He came with 2d designs and costing in excel sheets, everything broken down to last little thing. Sort of like what high end interior designer or livspace would do. His time commitment was solid. If he gave an appointment of 2:15, he would be there at 2:15. His work was absolute perfection and he took so much pride in his craft and delivery. Using all the latest gadgets in carpentry. Clean up every night after work, thoroughly. Would sit down with us and discuss all the ideas and those ideas came to fruition even better. Costing is probably half that of Livspace. He just started his own work in December and already has many contracts. He wants our help in designing website etc. He feels people do not take him seriously as he is too young. Gem of a person to whom honesty and self respect is more important than money. He does have a mentor from our society (senior citizen) who has teaches him all the soft skills, tech etc.

There is no dearth of work in India for those who are willing to work hard and deliver quality. Infact semiskilled labor is in shortage.

I think NRIs can and should contribute in training citizens of India after retirement.

[fire_india]

please DM me his number.
I am planning home renovation within an years time.
Thanks

[Returning_Indian]

When I returned back in 2013, most of the new age apps were just getting started. Zomato used to be an app which only showed menus. Biggest challenge for living was always finding the right person for the job. There used to be some articles on how Google may solve that problem with its reviews etc. Well that didn't solve anything. Then came some apps for sending people for cleaning homes, pronto. It worked amazingly well. I could book appointment in app and people would show up. Very professional and clean the house thoroughly.
Eventually Urbanclap came to scene and simply changed the landscape. They started with plumber, carpenter, electrician as that was the toughest pain point. Now they have expanded to every service possible. All being done from their app and very reasonably priced. Since coming back from UK I have used their service for haircut at home. It works very well as I don't really like going to salon. They provide so many services to your convenience. It's amazing what Indian startups have achieved in last 10yrs.

In conversation with the guy today, I found that he makes more than 1lakh a month cutting hair, facials, massages etc. He also said that girls make around 2-2.5lakhs a month as women spend a lot more on these parlor services. These girls would be paid 20-40k in a salon. Their husbands have now left jobs and focus on managing household activities, providing transport to their wives etc. Talk about female empowerment.
His cousin works with Urbanclap to do AC related work and pulls in around 15-16lakhs in a single season (6-8months).
I am amazed the potential these new age apps have now provided to the youth of India.

In terms of service, urbanclap really provides good customer service. As these guys working for urbanclap make really good money, they also focus on providing very good service. Low ranking means they lose good amount of business. I dont have to haggle for anything, they are not trying to oversell me anything, I get exactly what I pay for. Head/shoulder massage for 30mins for 300Rs was just awesome. Got rid of my headache in a ziffy.

We need something similar in healthcare but big hospitals and doctors have such a big hold that it's very difficult. Some startups have started to aggregate elective surgeries, day procedures etc but it's just not there yet. Hopefully soon I should be able to order stent for heart as easily as butter chicken. Hopefully not at the same time.

[SAPPORO]

Haircut at home, I used to have that when I was growing up in Chennai and now it's back in fashion?!
India 'was' amazing because we had trusted doctors, plumber, barber, electrician etc.., in our neighborhoods and they became part of the family, remember there was a term 'family doctor"?
Sad to see it has become like America where I pick contractors solely based on price and fake reviews on thumbtack, taskrabbit, Angi and so on.

[teera]

Haircut at home, I used to have that when I was growing up in Chennai and now it's back in fashion?!
India 'was' amazing because we had trusted doctors, plumber, barber, electrician etc.., in our neighborhoods and they became part of the family, remember there was a term 'family doctor"?
Sad to see it has become like America where I pick contractors solely based on price and fake reviews on thumbtack, taskrabbit, Angi and so on.

All we need are professional, reliable people who can get the job done at pre-determined costs for the most part in a timely manner. Good technicians in India have turned to apps to offer their services since it pays well, and they can work around mutually convenient schedules. Urbanclap provides just that. We have used several of their services including barbers and mani/pedi for the elderly. It’s been convenient and quick. And once you are satisfied with the service, you can request the same person for future services. It’s a win-win proposition and India’s adoption of technology and app-based services is to be commended.

[Returning_Indian]

You don't pick contractor with Urbanclap. They assign you one. Next time you can choose the same contractor if he is available at the time slot you desire. Service provider is urbanclap not contractor. Setup between urbanclap and contractor is revenue sharing which helps them earn more and at their schedule, to some extent. Urbanclap also trains them for certain duration before deploying them in field which includes soft skills.

Picking contractor based on reviews failed in India. Simply because of problem of fake reviews. But more than that Google wasn't the service provider, it was simply trying to aggregate the providers in one place. That doesn't solve the problem. Urbanclap is taking ownership of the work, not the contractor. UC gives you warranty of their work for certain duration and fixing for free if problem recurs.

What you witnessed in your childhood as neighbourhood providers do still exist. But I do not like it. You are stuck with the same incompetent idiot. Plus demand is so huge that you are always at his mercy and thing never would get done in time. You would be calling them again and again. Our society has an app as well called mygate. You can raise complaints (for free/part of monthly maintenance) for basic stuff and they will send carpenter, electrician, plumber, civil work etc within few minutes to few hrs depending on urgency but that provides very limited choice and you get limited by their skillset. Mygate probably deserves another post as they have also solved lot of the problems of urban living.

In any case point was about how these new age apps are providing new opportunities for people that didn't exist before. I was simply blown away by the amount of money these guys are making. The guy who came today was able to buy 6000 sqyds of land and build a house in his hometown. With his previous wages of 40k/month it would not be possible.

[SAPPORO]

You don't pick contractor with Urbanclap. They assign you one. Next time you can choose the same contractor if he is available at the time slot you desire. Service provider is urbanclap not contractor. Setup between urbanclap and contractor is revenue sharing which helps them earn more and at their schedule, to some extent. Urbanclap also trains them for certain duration before deploying them in field which includes soft skills.

Picking contractor based on reviews failed in India. Simply because of problem of fake reviews. But more than that Google wasn't the service provider, it was simply trying to aggregate the providers in one place. That doesn't solve the problem. Urbanclap is taking ownership of the work, not the contractor. UC gives you warranty of their work for certain duration and fixing for free if problem recurs.

What you witnessed in your childhood as neighbourhood providers do still exist. But I do not like it. You are stuck with the same incompetent idiot. Plus demand is so huge that you are always at his mercy and thing never would get done in time. You would be calling them again and again. Our society has an app as well called mygate. You can raise complaints (for free/part of monthly maintenance) for basic stuff and they will send carpenter, electrician, plumber, civil work etc within few minutes to few hrs depending on urgency but that provides very limited choice and you get limited by their skillset. Mygate probably deserves another post as they have also solved lot of the problems of urban living.

In any case point was about how these new age apps are providing new opportunities for people that didn't exist before. I was simply blown away by the amount of money these guys are making. The guy who came today was able to buy 6000 sqyds of land and build a house in his hometown. With his previous wages of 40k/month it would not be possible.

It's nice that the app takes the ownership of the work done. I guess app assigning contractors to consumers is a tweak made for the Indian psyche! As a desi even in the US, I start working directly with the technician if I like them to save on the app's commissions.

Not sure where the sudden surge of money to the technicians notwithstanding the app commissions, is coming from. I guess obviously from the consumers that get hooked on to the app for convenience and those that don't need to or care about bargaining anymore.