A few days ago, India banned 54 Chinese for being a threat to national security. The banned apps included Sea Limited’s The Free Fire Game, which was the highest-grossing mobile game in India in the third quarter of 2021, according to industry tracker App Annie. The ban on Singapore-based Sea Limited (owned by China’s Tencent) delivered a 16 billion dollar blow to the company as the company has a very high number of users and significant revenue traction in India.
Not even a day passed from this loss, and the Singapore government started criticizing India. “Nehru’s India has become one where, according to media reports, almost half the MPs in the Lok Sabha have criminal charges pending against them, including charges of rape and murder. Though it is also said that many of these allegations are politically motivated,” said Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
A country like Singapore, which is thriving by poaching Indian startups by illegal means, and is taking the moral high ground on various issues after the Indian government delivered a blow to a company hailing from the tiny country. Singapore is worried that slowly the Indian government put an end to its poaching practices.
In the last few years, India built a thriving Startup ecosystem with support and encouragement from the government and many private companies and individuals. Very few countries have a thriving startup ecosystem such as India and in this aspect, the country is the envy of the world.
However, a new problem is emerging in the Startups ecosystem as a few parasitic nations and jurisdictions like Singapore and Dubai are luring the Indian startups through legal and illegal means. These countries offer negligible tax rates, instant citizenship, and many other perks to startups and their founders in order to encourage them to move out of India.
Many startups have already fallen for that and registered the parent company outside India. So, now that the company starts making a profit, the corporate tax will be paid in these countries, intellectual property (IP) will be owned by these countries, and all the wealth of the founders will spend and be taxed in those countries.
