In Conversation with India’s World Team
Some of us remember the long queues outside foreign embassies in New Delhi, where Indians and citizens from other neighbouring countries stood for long hours to obtain a visa for travelling abroad. The experience was fraught with long waits, complaints and chaos —all while enduring the heat of summer, the chill of winter, or relentless monsoons.
Zubin Karkaria has changed that for good.
Today, you can book an appointment online, visit a VFS Global centre, hand your documents in an air-conditioned lounge, and will be told when and how to collect your visa. That’s it.
How a devout Parsi priest from a middle-class family in Mumbai went from a travel industry professional to being the founder of VFS Global is a compelling story – of how a bold idea coupled with technological innovation built a global company born in India.
In early February, India’s World team met with Zubin Karkaria, founder and CEO of VFS Global, at a hotel lounge in New Delhi to discuss the company’s transformative impact on global mobility.
From Frustration to Innovation: The Genesis of an Idea
Karkaria’s entrepreneurial spirit was born in the vibrant yet often frustrating world of Indian travel in the 1990s. In the decade that India liberalised its economy, the country was becoming better off, and middle-class Indians started exploring the world in greater numbers. But obtaining a foreign visa in India was often a daunting experience. The challenges significantly hampered outbound tourism and created logistical nightmares for tour operators. “The biggest issue was getting the visas on time,” Karkaria recalls, explaining how significant delays routinely derailed planned trips and impacted business.