India: a Hub For Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship is the process of designing, launching and running a new business .i.e a start-up company offering a product or service. It has been defined as “a capacity or willingness to develop, organise, and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in order to make a profit”. The 1991 economic liberalisation in India revolutionized business completely. It led to a growth trajectory that transformed India from a struggling economy to one of the best economies in the world. It has also spawned a host of entrepreneurs, big and small, who has created value and generated millions of jobs. An NSSO report says that 254 out of every 1000 Indians are self-employed, a respectable average globally. Looking at the future, the average Indian is expected to be 29 years old in 2020 as compared to 48 in USA and 37 in China. This provides a great opportunity for young Indians to take the entrepreneurship route. Further, as developed economies saturate, emerging markets will be place where the world will do most of their business. In addition to that, Indian government offers many schemes from tax holidays to loans, to support entrepreneurs. Various government departments also have their own programs that encourage start-ups.

OBJECTIVES-

1. To study the scope of entrepreneurship in India. 2. To provide suggestions for further development of entrepreneurship in India.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY-

The study is descriptive in nature. The data required for the study are mostly collected from secondary sources like magazines, newspaper, journals, books and various other relevant websites.

LITERATURE REVIEW-

Dr. Dilip Das (NOV 2014) in his paper “Prospects and challenges of rural entrepreneurship development in NER-A study” has focussed on challenges available in Indian market by enchasing the possibilities and prospects of entrepreneurship .There are some challenges and obstacles to overcome to be a successful entrepreneur. Dr. N. Santhi and S. Rajesh Kumar (DEC 2011) in their paper “Entrepreneurship challenges and opportunities in India” gives an insight into the meaning, quality required for an entrepreneur, opportunities and challenges faced by them and reasons for opting entrepreneurship as career. Dr. Anita Mehta and Dr. Mukund Chandra Mehta (dec 2011) in their paper “Rural Women Entrepreneurship in India” presents better prospects for rural women to be an entrepreneur which is the need of Indian society as rural women represents sizeable percentage of labour force in our country. Dr. T. Swetha and Dr. K. Venugopal Rao (july 2012) in their paper “Entrepreneurship in India” aims at presenting history of entrepreneurship, its in India. Wim Naude (JULY 2013) in his working paper “Entrepreneurship and economic development” provides an overview of the intersection of development of economies and entrepreneurship .It gives insight for entrepreneurship policy for development that emerges from recent advanced areas. Lakshmi Iyer, Tarun Khanna and Ashutosh Varshney (oct 2011) in their working paper “Caste and entrepreneurship in India” focuses on scheduled caste and scheduled tribes are significantly underrepresented in the ownership of enterprises and share of workforce employed by them. There are substantial caste differences in entrepreneurship across India. Abhishek Kumar Tripathi (2011) in his paper “An overview of entrepreneurship development in India” with reference to women entrepreneurship has tried to analyse and understand the roles that entrepreneurs play in innovation in developing countries like India.

Today‟s entrepreneurs are in lots of haste to start, grow and scale the top most peaks, all in a matter of few years. Therefore it is obvious that they are looking for the areas or ideas that are easy to enter or start, and do not require huge capital, instead of investing time and resources in doing a fruitful task they try to use short cuts. “An entrepreneur gets his business idea from his passion, pain and pleasure”. There is no dearth of ideas in our country. The Indian market is a growing market and not as developed as that of western countries. So, Entrepreneurs in India have an advantage of grabbing the opportunities and ideas of the western countries and try to imply it to the Indian markets.

In India lots of problems are being faced by entrepreneurs in order to establish a business.Some of the major problems are as follows:- 1. Lack of proper education for entrepreneurship in schools and colleges for students. 2. Lack of programmes for training and development of young entrepreneurs by the institutes. 4. Government is making efforts towards the development of entrepreneurship in India in ways of financial support , marketing support ,technical support but still it is not sufficient to help large number of entrepreneurs. 5. Most of the problems arise because of low risk bearing capacity, increased competition, legal formalities etc.

Successful entrepreneurship is the result of consistent and continuous hardwork, patience and efforts. Some may succeed and earn huge profits but same may sink along the way.So,in order to achieve your goal of being successful entrepreneur in India , we need to search the areas according to our interest, resources and need of the society. There are some very attractive and lucrative sectors for entrepreneurs in India. 1. Tourism Tourism in one of the booming industry in India. With the continuous rise in number of domestic and international tourists every year, this becomes a hot sector which needs the focus of upcoming entrepreneurs. India being a country with diverse and rich cultural heritage has ample to offer to foreign tourists. But in India this sector is not well organised and need a lot of development. India needs to have trained professionals in tourism and hospitality sector. Any business in this sector will definitely attract demand and has huge scope for entrepreneurs. In last year foreign tourist‟s arrival during was increased by 12.8% compared to previous years. So, this is a motivating factor for opting this sector. 2. Automobile India is now a hot spot for automobiles and auto components. It is a cost effective hub for auto components acting as a source for automakers globally, and has great potential for entrepreneurs. The automobile industry has recorded 26% growth in domestic sales last few years. The strong demand for automobiles has made India the second fastest growing market after China. India being one of the world‟s largest manufacturers of small cars with a strong engineering base and expertise. 3. Textiles India is famous for its textiles. As India is a land of diversity, it possesses a vast and unique style in apparels in each state. India has huge scope for growth in manufacturing textiles taking into account huge demand for garments. Places like Tripura and

choice and current trends. 4. Social Ventures Many entrepreneurs are taking up social entrepreneurship as it is something innovative for the youth of our country. Helping the less privileged get employment and make a viable business is a difficult task to be taken. There are many who have succeeded in setting up social ventures for the welfare of our society. With the increasing young population in rural areas who have driven and enthusiasm to work for betterment of our country. Entrepreneurs can focus on this segment. 5. Software India is known for its largest pool of software engineers. Entrepreneurs of India can search new ventures in field of hardware and software in order to set higher targets. This segment of IT enabled services is a boon foe economic growth. With the help of such technologies many companies outsourcing contracts to India, Business to business solutions and services would be easily available. Entrepreneurs can encash this great opportunity as the demand is on a rising trend especially for the services with innovation and cost effectiveness. 6. Engineering goods India continues to be one of the fastest growing exporter of engineering goods growing at the rate of 30.1%.Government of India has set targets of 120$ billion by 2016 for total engineering goods exports. Entrepreneurs should take advantage of this profitable opportunity as the demand of such products is rising consistently. 7. Management and consultancy The demand for outsourcing the affairs of the company is on the increasing trends and the need of an hour. With companies urging to recruit professionals to manage the business affairs in most well organised manner. Management consultants are involved in providing their guidance, advice, objectives, expertise and specialised skills with the aim of creating value, maximising the growth and improving the business performance of their clients. 8. Education and training There is a good demand for education and online tutorial services. With good facilities at competitive rates India can attract many students from abroad. Unique ways of teaching, educational portals, tools 9. Food Processing India is an agriculture based country and its large population is depended on agriculture for their livelihood. Entrepreneurs can explore a lot in the food grain cultivation and marketing segment of this sector. Huge losses of food grains and fresh produce of India are faced because of lack of infrastructure, proper storage facilities and inefficient management. Entrepreneurs have chances to improve its marketing services and processed food segments. The market of processed food is expanding because of the increasing demand for fast food, organic food and packed food. Entrepreneurs have great potential in this area of our economy as fresh fruits and vegetables have huge demand in abroad also. Good network of food processing units can help potential exporters to build a good business. 10. Corporate Demand There is a huge demand for good formal attire with more and more companies coming up with their openings in India. Entrepreneurs who can meet this growing demand in a cost effective way can make good business. With a corporate gifting getting very popular, this is also a unique business to explore. 11. Ayurveda and traditional Medicines India is well known for its ancient culture related to herbal and ayurvedic products. As the awareness of this is increasing day by day, the demand for allopathic medicines is being affected. People have become very conscious about the elements used in cosmetics and medicines, so most of the people prefer natural medicines and cosmetics. Due to the increase in its demand this sector is also gaining huge scope for entrepreneurs now. 12. Organic farming Organic farming in India has been in India since a long time. There are chances that the significance of organic farming will increase at a fast pace in future, especially because most of the foreigners prefer only organic products. Entrepreneurs can focus in this sector as it has many new opportunities. Many efforts are being made by small farmers to meet the growing demand of organic products but still it is unmet, offering new dimensions in this sector for those who can promote organic farming on a large scale. entrepreneurs. With the huge growth of this segment, any type of business in this field will help entrepreneurs to reap huge profits. Television, advertising, print and digital media have been a boom in today‟s business world.Digitisation,regionalisation,competition,innovation,process, marketing and distribution will drive the growth of India‟s media and entertainment sector, according to FICCI. 14. Packaging As China invading the markets with cost effective and convenient plastic goods and packaging materials, there is a good opportunity for entrepreneurs of India to develop good packaging materials to meet domestic as well as foreign demand. There is a huge demand which has been witnessed in sectors like agriculture, automotive, consumer goods, healthcare, infrastructure and packaging sectors for plastic goods. 15. Floriculture India‟s floriculture segment is small and unorganised. There is a lot to be improved in this attractive sector by the entrepreneurs. The global trade in floriculture products is worth 9.4$billion.But India‟s share in overall world trade is very less. This is a huge market to explore by the young entrepreneurs as there is a rising demand for fresh flowers. More awareness, better farming techniques, innovation and infrastructure can boost exports. 16. Toys Another industry with a great opportunity is toy manufacturing. India is capable of manufacturing cost effective and safe toys for other countries. With Chinese toys being pulled for toxins, so there are chances for Indian entrepreneurs to grab this opportunity by producing safe and good quality toys and get hold on the market. 17. Healthcare sector India is not in a good position regarding the health care sector, as the areas which need to be improved are being neglected by public sector units. The private sector plays a vital role in developing this sector. With medical tourism gaining momentum, the sector can attract foreigners who are looking for cost effective treatments in countries like India. 18. Biotechnology After the software sector, biotechnology opens a huge potential. Entrepreneurs can look at a plethora of interesting options in which biotechnology can be applied like agriculture, horticulture, sericulture, poultry, dairy, and production of fruits and vegetables. population in the world and shortage of power, there is a need to develop low cost and power saving devices. The government has already unveiled the solar mission which has set a target of 20,000MW of solar generating capacity by the end of 13th five year plan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged the industry to see the huge business opportunities and to setup „SOLAR VALLEYS‟ on the lines of silicon valleys. The Solar valleys can become hubs for solar sciences, solar engineering and solar research, fabrication and manufacturing. So; there is huge scope for entrepreneurs in this sector as well. 20. Recycling business E.Waste will rise to alarming proportions in developing world within a decade, with computer waste in India alone to grow by 500% from 2007 levels by 2020, according to UN study. This sector is an interesting area to be searched for business purpose by upcoming entrepreneurs in terms of e. waste management and disposal etc. 21. Franchising India is among those countries which are well connected with the world. Hence, franchising with leading brands who wants to spread across the country could also offer ample opportunities for young entrepreneurs. With many small cities and towns developing at a fast pace in India, the franchising model is bound to succeed rapidly. These are some of the best opportunities on the road towards being a successful entrepreneur.

SUGGESTIONS:-

1. Universities should improve the standard of entrepreneurship education through focusing more on the case studies. 2. Link the curricula of the students to real world business challenges. 3. Create opportunities for students to participate in social entrepreneurship contests. 4. Invite business executives to deliver lectures, share their experiences with the students. 5. Help students to launch their own business by conducting market research, obtaining finance and expand practical knowledge. 6. Emphasis should be given for technology based assignments and projects in curricula and teaching programme in order to improve their technical skills.

8. Ensure all Industry sectors are considered not just high-tech but encouraging growth across all industry sectors including small scale, medium and large scale industries. 9. Students should be given knowledge related to business ethics and values regarding environment and society. 10. Subsidies and other concessions should be offered to stimulate entrepreneurial and venture activities. 11. Understanding the need for an active encouragement of, strong interconnections with entrepreneurs and investors overseas, rather than solely focussing on domestic activities.

So, here we conclude that entrepreneurship is a very important area to be developed in the economies like India where there is huge scope for this discipline. The development of entrepreneurship will ultimately lead to development of the nation. It will reduce most of the economic problems such as illiteracy, poverty, unemployment, corruption, etc, and will contribute towards better future of our country.

REFERENCES-

1. Dr. Dilip Ch. Das (Nov 2014),”Prospects and challenges of Rural Entrepreneurship Development in NER-A study”, International Journal of Humanities and Social science studies, Vol-1, Issue-3. 2. Dr. N. Santhi and S. Rajesh Kumar (Dec 2011),” Entrepreneurship Challenges and opportunities in India”, Bonfring International Journal of Industrial Engineering and management science, Vol-1, Special Issue. 3. Dr.Anita Mehta & Dr.Mukund Chandra Mehta (Dec 2011),”Rural women Entrepreneurship in India”, International Conference on Humanities, Geography and Economics. 4. T. Swetha & Dr. K. Venugopal Rao (July 2013),”Entrepreneurship in India”, International Journal of Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Research, Vol-2(7). 5. Lakshmi Iyer, Tarun Khanna & Ashutosh Varshney (Oct 2011),”Caste and 6. Wim Naude (July 2013),”Entrepreneurship and Economic Development”, Working paper. 7. Abhishek Kumar Tripathi,” An overview of Entrepreneurship development in India with special reference to women entrepreneurship”. Websites www.onlinesbs.in www.f1gmat.com.