Entrepreneurship Motivation among Students in India

The Indian economy was previously highly depended on agriculture; however, the current development in the industrial and service sectors requires entrepreneurship to also parallely progress, so, entrepreneurship in India requires ample motivation. Many aspects play a role in developing entrepreneurship:

  1. Educational institutions help develop requisite qualities like leadership and team spirit, help in the development of business plans, and the gaining of financial support, besides setting up TBIs and EDCs.
  2. Established businesses can help with internship, apprenticeship, and collaborations.
  3. Small scale industrial associations can also act as facilitators in prototype labs, and expositions.

Entrepreneurship Motivation among Students

It is the view of a number of first generation entrepreneurs that entering into entrepreneurship demands a lot of drive and passion. Not only is the entrepreneur expected to be inspired by the idea behind the business, but business man must also have ample leadership potential in order to be able to take the responsibility in case of failure.

Role of Educational Institutions

What students’ posses? What is needed in an entrepreneur? Qualitative transformation required to be an entrepreneur.  Educational institutions must for this reason create leaders who are simultaneously both good team players, while at the same time being capable of exercising absolute control over their employees. With this view in mind educational institutions take active efforts to boost leadership skills through development of business plans, and conducting of best manager competitions. Various team-building games are also conducted.

The concept of developing competitive business plans adds to the soundness of the plans, as each student would want to better upon the plans of the others. Students come from various backgrounds, and so those students from business families could assist students from non-business families in the development of their business plan. In this way even students who may not originally have been interested in business may be drawn into business as a result of their involvement with their business plan.

Self-motivation is a slow process among Indian students, as compare to the youth in Western countries, where people begin work in their teens. Being conventionally risk-taking, western societies do not look to secured jobs, and are willing to experiment with different business enterprises. In India however, entrepreneurship is considered the preserve of a few hereditary business families, who posses the requisite business acumen.

Educational institutions also lack behind in encouraging students to step into entrepreneurship as placement cells are often formed with the sole idea of only getting students into stable jobs, and a comparatively lesser emphasis is laid on the setting up of entrepreneurship development cells. Colleges should also take other steps such as the setting up of Entrepreneurship Development cells (EDCs), where people are called in the raise the awareness of students as regards the marked situation financial and other resolve available. College libraries must also be well stocked in books by renowned entrepreneurs, which thorough light on the process through which the entrepreneurs have risen to the top.

The lack of sufficient financial resources is another major hurdle faced by first generation entrepreneurs. Colleges step in this regard by sponsoring good business enterprises upto a stage when they are able to stand on their own feel and are well grounded. Initiative on the part of financial institutions, in giving business loans can give a further impetus to this endeavor. Educational institutions can play a role in connecting those students who have good business ideas, but lack financial resources with sponsers willing to finance them.

Role of Extant Enterprises

The concept of internship is the crux of widespread entrepreneurship in foreign countries, and must be propagated in India also. Internship must be avidly encouraged among students at the college level itself, as students will be able to go through stints in various organizations, and form a clear picture of their interest and aptitudes. In this way, the business acumen possessed by the said business families can also be absorbed by those who do not belong to such families. Thus, the lack of confidence found in students, as result of dearth of industrial exposure can also be mitigated.

The effectiveness of internship can be further enhanced by combining it with industrial visits to a varied variety of industries, in order to widen the scope of the students’ exposure. Interactive sessions, where students get to meet a large number of industry leaders can also be encouraged. Successful businessmen must also come forward to take up students and apprentices who can be groomed to succeed them.

Role of Business Associations

Organizations like TiEcon play an active role in the propagation of sound business plans and there by setting up the business. Educational institutions will profit by getting actively involved with such organizations in order to foster the growth of their students. Students can also be given a safe atmosphere in which to experiment with the implementation of their ideas if expositions are setup by small-scale industries associations where students can setup stalls, and market their prototypes to the people who come to visit the stalls.

Awareness among educational institutions has also increased, and many colleges now have vibrant Technology Business Incubators (TBIs), which are connected to important industries. These industries carry out the ideas innovated upon by the students. Students are also allowed to directly interact with the industries where their ideas are implemented and can be principal part of the implementation process affording the students better clarity about the viability of their ideas, and awareness as to what and how changes are to be enacted to the idea.

Other Factors to Enhance Entrepreneurship

Another point to be kept in mind is that a business need not start big. An entrepreneur can always begin with a little organization based on a small idea and then diversify into numerous fields as new and innovative ideas come to him. Collaborations are also a good idea. Start-up entrepreneurs can begin with the small enterprise, in collaboration with a lager firm, so that they can receive financial support, and mergers are possible in the case of worst case scenario. In this regard, parental support plays a vital part as parents should encourage their children to follow their heart and go after their dreams, however big or small.

The government can do its part by encouraging ancillary support to entrepreneurs from such sources as suppliers, retailers and distributors. Co-operatives can be formed among groups of suppliers, retailers, distributors, and businessmen, so that they can all work towards their common profit. The government has also nowadays become more liberal in its economic policies, providing more space to entrepreneurs.

Risk-taking is a problem area for most first generation entrepreneurs. Many fist generation entrepreneurs do not have ample financial resources in order to be able to bare the brunt of heavy losses. This situation may be eased by setting up business on the basis of partnerships. This, not only distributes risk, but also leads to the sharing of ideas, and the best ideas can be selected after detail deliberation. E-commerce is now affording new entrepreneurs fresh pastures, as the investment on tangible assets in a web-based business is very limited, hence reducing the risk of huge financial losses.

Education is a great benefit to students as it makes them more articulate, and so it helps the new-age entrepreneurs build a better rapport with customers, who are they life-blood of the organizations. Industrial training institutes formed the ideal atmosphere for motivating students to enter into entrepreneurship, as the scope of education at ITIs naturally gives the students the require technical know-how, which will help them fine-tune details at the grassroots level in the enterprise which they setup.

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