On the grapevine: Tech boss gets off plane, lands in a soup

The head of a non-Indian tech company was taken aside for questioning by Indian custom officials not too long ago. He got their antennae up when they found the gentleman had close to 15 mobile handsets in his possession. It was only after an hour of convincing that these were for R&D purposes and that all of them were India-made, that the officials let him go.

This particular honcho has been known to carry about seven handsets of other competitors at any given point in time to check the various features on offer. While traveling to the overseas head office though, he takes a clutch of brands to give higher-ups there a once-over of the design and tech elements introduced in the Indian market. That’s his way of keeping an eye on the competition. Next trip out though, he’ll need to watch for the folks at the red channel too.