ENTREPRENURSHIP

Entrepreneurship is exploring new ideas and starting ventures around these ideas. These ventures are called startup companies. For any economy startups are very important because they provide employment and contribute to the economy by paying taxes. According to a study, more than 50% jobs in private sector in USA come from one year old startups.

Success of the United States of America is the testimonial of importance of startups in any economy. Companies such as Intel, Microsoft and Apple are the outcome of the spirit of entrepreneurship. These companies employees lakhs of people in the USA and many more by outsourcing.  Silicon valley is the hub of the startups and many more billion dollar companies emerge out of this area every year. Google, Facebook, twitter, dropbox etc. are new players in the game but not small. It is interesting fact that Google is only 15 years old company and it is hard to imagine internet without Google.

In 1970s when India’s private sector was not that large many Indians migrated to the USA and established their businesses there which are very successful. However, unlike cricket which is very successful at home turf, Indian entrepreneurs are not that successful at their home ground. What could be the reasons behind this?

Looking closely- we found that not one factor is responsible for this. There are problems in our administration; there is problem of funding; there is problem in our education system; there is problem in our society.

If we talk about the administration problems- it takes months to register a company in India and many more to get VAT number and completing other formalities. While the same can be done in just few hours to at max few days in other developed countries. Funding is another major issue. Here in India most of the capital is accumulated by the business houses which do not want to encourage other companies. Usually they want to acquire the companies which they believe can succeed. Getting funding for technical startup is even more difficult. Further, our education system is very rigid and emphasizes more on theory than experimental knowledge. Students can leave the college in between their graduation for startups and if it does not succeed they can join back in  the USA. But this kind of flexible system does not exist in India. Apart from the above reasons, our society does not promote out of the box thinking. Parents force their children to opt for lucrative jobs and discourage any attempt of starting their own venture because it involves risk.

However, situation after liberalization has improved a lot in India. Startup trend is catching up. Flipkart, Indiabulls, Snapdeal, Just Dial, Red Bus, etc are a few examples which encourages the new generation. Besides this, Ministry of Commerce is taking many steps to promote entrepreneurship in India and many elite educational institutes provide incubation centers to their students to start their companies. Hope India will see many more successful startups in the future.