Entrepreneurship potential in India

India is a vast country with rich cultural diversity. There are large number of languages spoken and different customs practiced all over the country. It is birth place of Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and Hinduism, religions which has spread over the globe many centuries ago. ‘Yoga’, ‘Ayurved’, ‘Basmati’, ‘Neem’ are India’s gift to the world. People all over the world have recognized the innovative elements we posses and readily accepted them. Indians have always believed in following its own customs and traditions and creating their own identity from very early times. Mahatma Gandhi gave us ‘Khadi’ & ‘Charkha’ and preached us to be ‘Swadeshi’.

At this juncture, many Indians have seen western culture closely after having worked for many years in US, Europe. In fact, these Indians were among few who contributed to Silicon Valley revolution in the west. There is a vast pool of professionals as engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants getting generated every year. Due to its huge population, there is no dearth of manpower. India having rich culture and enormous talent has potential to create new ideas. Difficult lives have hardened many Indians to take up new challenges and take more risks. Education awareness brought up by TV has brought new revolution in India. People from villages and small places are roaring to take up new challenges and drive new initiatives. ‘Amul’, a co-operative movement started from Anand talks volumes about changing India. India has already witnessed IT revolution with Bangalore donning title of India’s Silicon Valley. India has seen improvements in infrastructure with large government projects. ‘Delhi Metro’ is just one example of such endeavours. Mobile revolution has stitched the entire nation. It has already reached nook and corners of India. There has been lot of changes in government policies supporting local industries & SMEs. Indians are experimenting and tasting sweet success for past few decades. ‘Dabbawallas’ in Mumbai is one great example of Indianised distribution network very uniquely tailored for India. ‘Big Bazaar’, a truly Indian hypermarket chain has marked the birth on Indian organized retail story which was primiarily dominated by neighbourhood small stores for ages. Tightening of work norms in western countries and economic downturn has certainly forced many NRIs to return back to India. Institutions like TiE are sowing entrepreneurship seeds in minds of India. Initiatives like ‘Vibrant Gujarat’ are sparking new lights in the heart of many Indians.

India has stepped onto growth path with booming outsourcing services sector in last 3 decades. FII’s and MNCs have started chasing big Indian growth story. Indians have started venturing with fresh ideas. People have risen to the occasion to take a plunge in these changing times. Time has come for the BIG BANG.

The need of the hour is a complete rejig in government policies. Government has to promote and provide adequate support to setup and establish local small, medium and large enterprises and dislodge foreign establishments in the country. Few key sectors, like food, housing, health, and infrastructure have to be identified by the government. Enterprising & leadership skills should be taught at grassroots level by small camps all over the country. Special programs have to be launched to promote leadership and development of small and medium enterprises which could include easy funding, tax waiving, cheap electricity and special incentives. People have to be rewarded and recognized for their valuable contribution especially from rural areas. Government need to provide additional insurance to cover up risk arising out of such venture failures or any other tragedies. People should be encouraged to start co-operative movements and required support should be extended from the government. A separate ministry has to be set-up to focus on government promoted initiatives. A feeder system should be established to ensure ready and timely usage of agri-based products in industries and immediate consumption. Governement has to systematically develop infrastructure in several areas of the country.

Leading educational institutions, entrepreneurs & executives in the country should come forward and prepare next set of budding leaders. For this, there is a definite need of changing curriculum to include success stories of leaders and their ventures. Technical research should be made more attractive to graduates by providing excellent facilities and scholarships. Special sessions should be conducted to discuss ideas and mentoring should be provided freely. Open forum discussions should be encouraged and eminent personalities should be called in to join panel discussions. Special workshops and talks are definitely needed to change the mindsets of many risks fearing people. These should be very interactive and students should be encouraged to come forward and raise their concerns. Incubation cells should be setup at educational institutions and grass roots with focus on developing and honing small and cooperative enterprises. Educational tours should be conducted to give impetus to such drives. People should be encouraged (by securing their future) to come forward and train rural people about IT and upcoming technologies.

NGOs, social activists & media have their task cut to bring in new innovations and imparting leadership skills among Indians. Some slots in TV and radio channels need to be identified to just spread the message of leadership, workshops held all over country in this direction, programs launched by the government, incubation cells details and camps schedules. Social entrepreneurs & NGOs should highlight social message coming out of such initiatives. Our national days should be full of India’s growing might. There should be some really good movies made on subjects like this.

Enough has been said and talked about. We were window cleaners till very recently. People all over the globe can now trust Indians for their back office work. India is preferred over other outsourcing destinations is a testimony of large English speaking professionals in India. Few people have ventured out and met with reasonable success. It is time to act and move forward. Indians need to work more independently than ever. Our mindsets need a hard paint of determination and courage to take on new initiatives with ease. People should take pride in working for India and Indian products. We need to let our minds fly free for new ideas and experiments. We need to be proactive in handling and grabbing new opportunities opening in every walk of life. We need to mentor our young generation to lead new India. We need more Abdul Kalams to inspire many Indian lives. We need more of nationalistic songs and movies to unite our cadres and work together. An open atmosphere needs to be created where people can unleash their ideas and create new things on their own. We need to create enterprises getting fed from agri-based products in India. Instead of getting called to play for English Premier League, we should create more Indian Premier Leagues and attract talent from all over the world. Instead of vying for prestigious Milan film festivals and Oscars, we should promote more Goa’s International film festivals and lndian filmfare awards. Baba Ramdev and his preachings should be broadcasted over a wide network of channels. We need more technical research institutes on the lines of IISc, IITs and IIMs. Entreprenuers like Narayan Murthy and Vinod Khosla should owe bigger responsiblites in sharing their experiences. We need to open our Vedas and spread richness of our culture. We need to build more Bangalores & Mumbais all over the country. We are not very far away from restoring India’s glorious history.

(this essay was submitted to National Knowledge Commission’s essay competition)