Today’s India needs passionate entrepreneurs. They will provide the necessary impetus to our economic growth. Strengths such as a large pool of educated human resources, young people, abundant raw materials, and a vibrant, growing economy will become meaningful only if we have an eco-system that supports, encourages, and facilitates young minds who want to start their enterprise and experiment with new ideas. If we can provide a transparent and efficient system that institutionalises a seamless process for the incubation of ideas, and takes these to the logical conclusion, our young people have the potential to transform the nation. This will be the real catalyst to realize the vision and dream of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi to make India a five trillion dollar economy.
In a fast-moving world of today, value addition has become a necessity in all aspects of our economic life. Entrepreneurship, which essentially adds value to multiple and diverse resources, is not only a tool to fuel economic growth but also acts as a powerful medium of social change. We can, with the right policies and correct focus, turn our entrepreneurship programmes into instruments that empower the disadvantaged and vulnerable sections of society.
Several initiatives launched by the central government like Skill India, Startup India, Standup India, and Make in India are doing this. These innovative programmes have set the ball rolling to make India a hub of entrepreneurs. We should not only be a consuming economy but a producing and manufacturing economy. These programmes have the power to end the unemployment problem.
As per the industry estimates, there are 53 unicorns currently in India, with a tentative valuation of Rs 1.4 lakh crore. The Indian startup ecosystem is widely recognized as the third-largest startup system. As of July 14, 2021, a total of 52,391 entities are recognized as startups by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), while more than 5.7 lakh jobs have been reported by over 50,000 startups.
Indeed these are commendable achievements but we need to broaden the skill base of our population and also focus on re-skilling and up-skilling initiatives. There is an urgent need to make our masses employable by arming them with skills, which are in tune with ever-changing industry and market dynamics at local, regional, national, and international levels.
A skilled workforce has a key role to play in our sustainable development. However, the truth is that we have only 3.8 per cent skilled population while the UK has 68 per cent skilled people, Germany 75 per cent, Japan 80 per cent and South Korea 96 per cent. We have a huge opportunity to impart skills to our people and reap the benefits of demographic dividends. With the world’s youngest population and our unorganized sector being the source of employment for 93 per cent people, skilling and semi-skilling becomes our top priority. This alone can help us achieve the goal of self-reliant India.
An integrated approach involving all stakeholders, ranging from private to public sectors, will do wonders. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) needs to be implemented in a mission mode. There is a target to train 40 crore youth under the PMKY by 2022. It is heartening to note that the new National Education Policy (NEP-2020) puts a significant emphasis on vocational education in schools right from Class VIII onwards. There is a pressing need to skill our children right from the school level so that when they complete their 10+2 education, they have jobs or skills to be self-dependent.
Every college and university department should have a career counseling centre so that students have both clarity and skills for the road ahead after they leave the campus. Otherwise, they grope in the dark. New job opportunities keep emerging, thanks to new avenues and technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), blockchain technology, e-marketing, e-commerce, the growing use of online platforms due to Covid-19, bookkeeping, ITR filing, record keeping and various other activities related to Goods and Services Tax (GST). We need to impart skill to our human resources to seek self-employment in these areas.
We will disagree only at our own peril if we don’t accept the need of the hour to innovate and align the entire gamut of the education system— professional, humanities, or pure sciences – to the dynamics of markets and our daily needs. It is so painful to see that we do not have trained and professional drivers, masons, carpenters, mechanics, and electricians. Generally, we get semi-skilled people in the market.
Our motto should be to skill our youth to compete with the best in the world. Once skilled as per the global standards, they can seek global opportunities for gainful engagements. No one can deny that skills not only enhance employability but create wider scope in terms of self-employment. For want of adequate skills, people are either unemployed or underemployed which ultimately costs our economy.
There are two more things which need to be done aggressively. Funding the unfunded (people from marginal sections of our society) to promote micro-entrepreneurship should be made a national movement. Our banks have done a great job on the front of financial inclusion. The government has also put in place various schemes like Jan Dhan Yojna, Standup India, and Startup India to link people to financial institutions and to promote entrepreneurship. The banks— both in private and public sectors—should get proactive in extending loans to our youths, in particular those from weaker sections of society like OBCs, SCs, STs, and minorities so that they become self-reliant job givers and not job seekers. Secondly, we should promote region-based expertise. For example, Haryana’s Panipat is a textile hub. It should be promoted. Similarly, the automobile sector has a good presence in the state of Haryana. So the related skills should be imparted to generate employment for locals. Every labour intensive sector like textile and leather should be provided with skilled manpower which will ensure the region’s holistic development.
Similarly, agro-based industries can do wonders for us. Every state has certain principal crops. Accordingly, food processing industries should be set up. The state of Haryana has formed many Farmer Produce Organizations (FPOs), which are marketing farm produce, thus enhancing farmer’s income. Agriculture and its allied sectors including fisheries and dairy have a colossal potential to empower our people and economy as well. Thanks to the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the culture of agripreneurs is gaining ground across the country. Almost every university should have an incubation centre where youths are imparted training into skills that are aligned to regional resources and opportunities.
I would like to reiterate the fact that a multi-faceted culture of entrepreneurship and skilling our people will also check the migration of people from rural to urban areas. If they have jobs in their neighbourhoods, people will not migrate to cities for wage employment. And even if they have to migrate for want of adequate opportunities locally, they will have skills so that they don’t have to scramble even for subsistence earning. Many of our people who went back to their native places during the lockdowns are doing their own businesses online, because they learnt certain skills while being in jobs in towns and cities. Our institutions should be the place where our youths learn skills, and not in the factories where they join as daily wagers and pick up necessary skills in due course of time!
To sum up, entrepreneurship is a catalyst that disrupts the stationary flow of the economy and sustains the process of multifarious development. Social entrepreneurship is the need of the hour for India due to the high demand for trained professionals to solve social problems. Rural entrepreneurship is undergoing a rapid change fostering fast industrialization and hence a paradigm shift! The long drawn transformation in the condition of women with the help of policies of the government, NGOs, family support, etc., has opened up new gateways for the expansion of entrepreneurship by women where they are in the driver’s seat. Seeing India’s vast young population and worldwide famous IT potential, technological entrepreneurship is our need. Let our entrepreneurs and skilled workforce be the main driver of an inclusive, self-reliant and resilient Indian economy!
The writer is the Governor of Haryana. The views expressed are personal.
Every college and university department should have a career counseling centre so that students have both clarity and skills for the road ahead after they leave the campus. Otherwise, they grope in the dark. New job opportunities keep emerging, thanks to new avenues and technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), internet of things (IoT), blockchain technology, e-marketing, e-commerce, the growing use of online platforms due to Covid-19, bookkeeping, ITR filing, record keeping and various other activities related to Goods and Services Tax (GST).