India got
political freedom from the British in 1947 – the British government was
replaced by an Indian government, elected democratically. Every Indian citizen
got an equal right and freedom to vote. While Indian citizens have been free to
vote in India since then, have they been equally free to do business, to become
entrepreneurs?
There are a lot
of challenges which entrepreneurs face. Some
of these are genuine challenges inherent in the process of setting up and
running a successful business - entrepreneurs all over the world face these
challenges. However, some challenges are artificial – imposed by the government
and/or the society.
Socialist
mindset after independence meant that the government took the task of building
the country upon itself including in terms of science and technology, setting
up large industries etc. Citizens looked up to the government to own, set up
and run industries and looked upon themselves as workers – the ‘service class’.
The service class paid a lot of attention to educating their children, so they
could get good jobs eventually. Small business was an option available to those
who could not do very well in studies. Service class families looked at
business class families as less refined – money minded, typically less
educated. Government policy and licence
raj required entrepreneurs to bend rules to make progress in their
business. Doing business became synonymous with breaking rules, evading taxes
and colluding with corrupt bureaucrats and politicians (ref: Reliance story as
depicted in the movie Guru). Thus
social and government mindset became anti business and anti-entrepreneurs. As a
nation, we respected great scientists, great teachers but not great businessmen
(unless they were also great philanthropists).
This started
changing in late 80s with some progressive thinking in the government, and the
realisation that socialist mixed model economy was not working. 1991
liberalisation allowed businesses to participate in sectors like telecom, GDP
started growing fast, poverty started reducing faster and IT revolution made
heroes out of entrepreneurs like Narayan Murthy unleashing a wave of new age entrepreneurship.
India became a centre of innovation and a global power to reckon with. But a
lot still remains to be done.
As we celebrate
the Independence Day this year, let us be conscious that while Indians have won
political freedom our economic freedom remains restricted. Economic
liberalisation has stagnated after the era of 1991 reforms, and crucial sectors
like education, farming remain severely controlled and distorted vis-a-vis what
an ideal nationwide free market should look like. Globally, India ranks quite
low in terms of ‘ease of setting up and doing business’ and indicators like
‘number of days it takes to start a business’.
While the license-quota raj weakened after 1991,
it still remains strong in large pockets of the economy which therefore
continue to stagger at low rates of growth. Let us liberalise these sectors and
the economy further overall, so young entrepreneurs could come forward and
drive the country ahead with their enterprise and initiative.
--
Ref: Edited Hindi Article in Hindistan (Aug 17). युवा उद्यमियों के लिए चुनौतियां कम नहीं http://www.livehindustan.com/news/tayaarinews/tayaarinews/article1-story-67-67-252460.html
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