By Pratham Karkare:
History has shown that there is hardly a nation which has escaped the consequences of a change. What bring about this change are the thought process and the intellectual ability of the majority of the educated population of the time. In India, the past few decades have seen a major rise in the area of Entrepreneurship. In the early nineties, with India opening up to foreign investments through the much needed policies of liberalization, the Indian market saw multitudes of foreign companies willing to invest in the India market.
Thus, a majority of the educated Indian population got access to the opportunities they deserved and it is interesting to note that, due to the international exposure that this segment of the population got, they contributed heavily to the phenomenon of brain drain. However, this trend is gradually declining and the recent years have seen a cultivated inclination towards the field of entrepreneurship. In almost any new industry that has grown to prominence in the last decade, the king on the block is not from the established business houses but a rank newcomer.
Cogwheels are turning, sparks are being ignited and new concepts are being created every day. Studies by the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) have shown that around fifty-one percent of the entrepreneurs are under graduates while 45% percent of entrepreneurs are post graduate. But now the question that arises is: why the shift? One must observe that India has always been the budding grounds for young minds which have then gone forward to create empires that have put India into the power play position. The many existing industrialists and businessmen are acting as role models for the Indian youth and budding Indian entrepreneurs. The most extraordinary stories of meteoric rise when we talk of empowering India through technology, are definitely that of Narayana Murthy, and Azim Premji . Among the electronic media enterprisers Prannoy Roy and Raghav Behl are India’s news kings. So what’s there for the leaders of tomorrow?
Today, India has become fertile ground for breeding new entrepreneurs. Her markets are liquid, vibrant and as the recent economic recession has shown, much more stable as compared to markets of other countries. It is well established that education is a prime factor which contributes to the development of entrepreneurship. Access to technology, increase in foreign direct investments and other de-regulation policies are throwing up new opportunities everyday. Capital can be organized. Organizations like National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN), National Social Entrepreneurship Forum (NSEF) are helping new ventures in obtaining capital and angel funding. Thus we can say that there is a potential for entrepreneurship in India.
An important aspect of entrepreneurship in India is social entrepreneurship. In India , where high levels of poverty and unemployment still exist, many people have decide to take matters into their own hands, with or without the help of government , to work for a better tomorrow. Concepts like Teach for India, Tata Jagriti Yatra etc. not only help in promotion of entrepreneurship among the youth, but also provide them with hands-on experience. There is a greater recognition that social enterprises could have a role in solving social issues. What we need to do is to create an environment where entrepreneurs feel confident that they will not face any obstacles if they develop business models for the benefit of the poor.
One must realize that establishing a business in India is not a walk in the park. Yes, it is true that nowadays Indian entrepreneurs do not have to leave the country to pursue their interests , however, building empires requires much more than mere opportunities, what it requires is an outlook and individual motivations, traits which are not hard to find in the Indian society. Surely, one feels India, in a few years, will become a leader in world business.