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India has a huge untapped market so there's definitely a place for Indian knockoffs of ebay/amazon/groupon etc. Nothing wrong in it.

Almost all Chinese web startups which are making huge IPO exits these days are direct ripoffs of successful American web companies.

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I agree that there is nothing wrong in it. However the Indian market and Chinese market are different in this regard. For example there is no need for an Indian language based search(since most people use English), there is no need for an Indian facebook(since people are allowed to use facebook). My point is that in a lot of cases, the US based product just works out of the box for the Indian market, whereas that's not the case in the Chinese market(due to language, culture etc.), so there is much less upside in an Indian knockoff than a Chinese one.

Actually it's true with entire subcontinent. In Pakistan we have been facing similar problems where people feel good in typical 9-5 Job yet few startups are trying to make efforts. For instance http://idress.pk is a new startup which helps women to design their stuff by using a simple wizard. I think each country should focus its local market as well because when you live there, you know the mindset of the people. Something you can't claim for entire world.

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