Final Thesis
Class thesis: "The Indian government has hampered entrepreneurial activity in the past, but is making efforts to become more helpful."
Conclusion: True.
Discussion:
We have a few disparate responses to the thesis. NIESBUD and IIM tell us that the government has cleared the way for business to grow, but still has a laundry list of things to accomplish. Other organizations tell us that the government should step aside and allow private enterprise to take its course while enforcing laws to preserve the certainty of the business environment of which business is so fond. The third response we have comes from an entirely different perspective. Our scavenger hunt deep entrepreneur tells us that anyone who claims government hindrance prevents business startup and growth is only making excuses, and that any imposition by the government can be confronted and resolved.
To elaborate on an earlier point, several entrepreneurs we talked to feel that the best thing government can do is to stay out of the way. We learned that the growth and success of the IT and software sectors is due in part to the lack of government involvement. Where entrepreneurs must rely on the government, the experience is usually unpleasant. Bribes, complicated procedures, red-tape, power-outages, lack of service, and long waits characterized most interactions.
There are, however, many signs that government is becoming more helpful. From pitching India as a brand, changing inefficient laws, and building new infrastructure, to providing loans and capital, enforcing anti-dumping policies, and making conditions more attractive for FDI, on the whole, the government was certainly being more helpful, especially to some of India’s biggest companies. Almost every person we spoke with in India has stated that the government and their policies are definitely improving. The government may not be anywhere near ideal status, but they are definitely working very hard to get there.
The entrepreneurs themselves had a lot to do with this. Whether it was refusing to pay bribes, taking the government on in court, or persuading politicians to pass more business friendly legislation, we heard several stories of entrepreneurs catalyzing change. This hearkens back to the philosophy of personal responsibility and rabid resourcefulness of a serious entrepreneur. The democratic government is advantageous, but in a bit of irony it also makes it very difficult to fast track some major legislation or infrastructure improvements. Nevertheless, the free flow of ideas and knowledge has been key to India’s new economy.
In regards to the secondary question of why India scores high on the GEM index despite having low scores on the various entrepreneurial indicators, the answer is relatively simple. There is a high amount of need-based entrepreneurship in India and it accounts for a vast majority of the entrepreneurship in this country. Need-based entrepreneurship, however, contributes almost nothing to the growth of the country’s GDP. It is opportunity-based entrepreneurship that drives growth and creates employment opportunities in the economy. This type of entrepreneurship has prevailed in successful sectors such as BPO, IT, and software.
Unlike China, India has an expansive population of highly educated and motivated people. China is limited to manufacturing and production, which is the sector that accounts for most of its economic growth in the world market over the past ten years. India is not bound by this limited discipline, and has excelled in many voice and non-voice based B.P.O. services. This is largely due to the high numbers of English speaking Indians. It is our belief that in the next ten years, India’s GDP will surpass that of China as an emerging hub for the ever-expanding world of IT.
|
To our readers:
We appreciate your comments, so please leave substantive comments related to entrepreneurship or the blog entry to which you are commenting. We love to receive personal comments by email!
For many entries we have provided our geographical coordinates. Cut and paste these into the Google Earth search field and hit enter to see exactly where we are!
External Links:
|
