Kedar Kulkarni_DCSE

Young Entrepreneurs in India:
A Way of Wealth Creation and
Economic Development
Kedar Kulkarni
Jyoti Hegde
Master of Social Entrepreneurship
Deshpande Center for Social Entrepreneurship
Thursday, November 6, 2014

Young Entrepreneurs in India: Kedar Kulkarni
A Way of Wealth Creation and Economic Development Jyoti Hegde
Deshpande Center For Social Entrepreneurship
Young Entrepreneurs of India: A Way of Wealth Creation and
Economic Development
Abstract
With evolving population and evolving needs India is in need of highly competitive market
where competition can be best used for production of goods and services. To serve the BoP
market in India, there is need of innovative ideas and practices along with dedication and
surrounding support. Current scenario of India is perfectly suitable to foster entrepreneurship
which can offer India involvement of young energetic youth to work in the field of interest and
give the society productive output.
Key Words: Entrepreneurship, economic development, young entrepreneurs, wealth creation,
culture, entrepreneurial mindset
Introduction
A global study by Ernst & Young in 2011 says that Indian culture is strongest amongst the G-20
nations in entrepreneurship and has flourished small scale start ups in past few years. During the
study 98% entrepreneurs have agreed that Indian culture encourages entrepreneurship. Though
there has been improved access to funding including bank loans, there is a need to simplify the
process of stating up an enterprise. Enterprises are one of the ways to enhance employment
generation, making positive impact on the economy of the country. With current predictions of
World Bank India is the youngest country representing 55% of the country as youth. This paper
discusses about the factors of how young entrepreneurs in India can lead towards economic
development and wealth creation.
Study Objective
Study objects to find the socio-economic factors in India which are liable for growing young
entrepreneurship in India and in turn create wealth and economic development.

Literature Review
National Knowledge Council of India published a study report in the year 2008 depicting the
factors that have assisted entrepreneurial growth in India and its significant impact on Indian
Economy. The study also explores rational for involvement of youth in booming enterprises and
its potential consequences. Study stated that key entrepreneurial triggers are: Individual
Motivations, Socio-cultural Factors, Access to Early Stage Finance Education and Business
Environment. In the concluding statement the study talks about entrepreneurial ecosystem
formed at different levels of society including government, family and markets.
A discussion panel in United Nations Industrial Development Organization presented a review
about ‘Creative industries for youth: unleashing potential and growth’. This study reveals the
opportunities of involving youth in the entrepreneurial activity in order to grow the enterprises
and entrepreneurial activities through the potential that the youth holds. It identifies
entrepreneurial activities as creative activities and explains how youth entrepreneurship is best
suitable for creative sector. At the end study concludes saying that youth entrepreneurs in
creative sector can bring a global transformation.
Professor Zoltan Acs in his research paper ‘How is Entrepreneurship Good for Economic
Activity’ describes different types of entrepreneurial activities that different countries are
involved in. He dwells on Global Entrepreneurship Monitoring (GEM) model that relates
National framework and Entrepreneurial framework of any country with the economic
development.

Economic Development and wealth creation
Everyone in the world is looking at Indian population as the youngest population for couple of
upcoming decades. For the evolving country like India, this scenario creates a huge opportunities
to nurture and strengthen the economy with national wealth. This is easily possible by
involvement of this evolving young generation in serving the present population. Wealth creation
and economic development are normalizing factors to each other. Economic growth of any
country is measured by national per capita income as at present there is no other significant
factor indicating economic growth. Economy bases the function of demand and supply, whereas
wealth can be measured by the goods and services produced in the nation. Capacity of a country
to produce goods and services is rendered by availability of raw material and most important is
human capital. Significant human capital can be leveraged for production of goods as well as
services which in turn can generate wealth. Based on 5th
principle of economics, trade off can
make everyone better off, improved transaction will ultimately event into economic development
of the country.
Young Entrepreneurship
As defined by Knowledge Commission of India, ‘Entrepreneurship is the professional application
of knowledge, skills and competencies and/or of monetizing a new idea, by an individual or a set
of people by launching an enterprise de novo or diversifying from an existing one (distinct from
seeking self employment as in a profession or trade), thus to pursue growth while generating
wealth, employment and social good.’ Here they significantly emphasize on applying knowledge
to pursue economic growth through wealth creation. Present scenario of India is very much
suitable that demands innovation which can serve people living in all three levels of the pyramid.
Young population of India, predicted to lead the nation as youngest nation, holds the potential to
turn the opportunities into improved services and goods to serve the huge population. Several
issues such as unemployment, slow growth in public sector, increase in demand due to
population and inflation create ample rational for the youth to step in the field of
entrepreneurship. This generous population is best suitable to justice the requisites of
entrepreneurship such as risk taking, breaking of disciplinary boundaries, taking initiative and
offering the new ways to serve the demands of the population. Private sector of India also bears

the equity to these requisites with investors willing to promote experiments. This creates a
perfect plot for India to nurture the economy and create wealth through evolution of young
entrepreneurs. Attributes of economic growth through entrepreneurship and focus of young
entrepreneurs can be discussed with different factors mutually associated with economic growth,
entrepreneurs and major role of young entrepreneurs.
Indian youth
Based on recent census of India, 27.5% of India’s population stands within age group of 15-29.
This sets a prospectus that median age of India will be of 29 by 2020, which is considerably
lesser than China and Japan. This makes India as the youngest country clenching a dynamic
transformation in demographic size distribution. Statistics also predict that India is likely to hold
64% of total population in working age opening up opportunities to turn the most of the
generation into productive. Such a compelling math shows that India moves ahead in its strength
of human capital presenting the potential to start new activities and substantially bring the
change in the present condition. However at recent an average Indian youth is occupied by
academic activities till age of 21, after which they contribute in the economic activities creating
wealth. The major inference for emphasis on youth is that, it is crucial for any country to scale up
the potential of people workforce. Enhanced workforce can yield into improved economy
through better goods and services. Hence this population creates a major demographic dividend
in India reasoning into improved economy. Existing situation in India are showing major hurdles
such as unemployment, major population living at the bottom of pyramid experiencing lower
quality of services, continuously increasing population and scarcity of available resources. Such
a colossal population holds lot of challenges which also open up wide opportunities. Hence there
is need to engage this young population in a versatile ways where they can effectively commit as
a productive human capital for the nation.
Entrepreneurship for Indian Youth
Core of entrepreneurship, ‘innovation’, can be defined as viable new offering. One of the crucial
parts of innovation is need. There are many rational which drive this youth to take up
entrepreneurship. One of the major reasons is unemployment due to ruts of employment profiles
in the dominant private sectors. The bandwagon in skill development institutes caused masses of

employees where as companies adopted shrinking strategy in order to achieve cost cutting.
Entrepreneurship can generate divergent needs of skills which can occupy the varied interests of
young generation for wealth creation. Fostering enterprises can create abundant ways of
embodying this dominant population to work in their area of interest. At present there are
significant cases where young people have opted for entrepreneurship because of unavailability
of jobs for them, and they have resulted making significant impact on economy of India.
Entrepreneurship also helps develop and nurture new skills and experiences amongst the
participants which can encourage them to take initiative in unexplored ways. Another most
important factor of entrepreneurship is risk taking ability. Youth bear the enthusiasm and
potential which makes them take the risk, which is very crucial part of fostering enterprises.
Apart from risk, this young population bears their personal attitude, preferences and objectives
with their own needs and strengths. This strong will of following the intuition states to be the
factor for these people to jump into the field of entrepreneurship.
Current situation of Indian economy
India interestingly holds one of the most dynamic economies in the world with 11th
rank in
economies in the world. With gradually increasing GDP of 5.67% it is attracting outside
investors who are willing to penetrate Indian market which can be served with tremendous
opportunities. Notably the inflation rate in India is not stabilizing. There is still a huge gap in the
goods and services that serve the niche and unserved population in the market. Though India is
developing country, its growth is lesser than developing countries. Competitive global economy
has affected on aspiration of common man increasing their demands. Available resources in
India are quite lacking in fulfilling the needs and requirements of local population. Hence there is
a need to optimize the resources by efficient and effective use. 40% population at the bottom of
the pyramid is still seeking a way which can offer them cost effective products. Such an
economics of India calls for subtle ways to deliver the service that can fulfill demands as well as
latent needs of the population. In India still 40% of population is living at the bottom of the
pyramid and in remaining, 30% population is subsisting in the middle of the pyramid. Even these
people in the middle of pyramid are experiencing the stretch due to increasing inflation. Taking
into account all these aspects ie. Scarcity of resources, increasing population and increasing

demands it can be easily incurred that these issues can be accommodated in a way that increasing
population can be efficiently used for economic activities and generate enough resources.
Young Entrepreneurs in India in Wealth Creation and Economic Development:
Wealth creation as explained above can be encompassed by the total amount of goods and
services produced in a country. On the other hand, economic development can be achieved
through rise in per capita income. Increased wealth can generate ample ways for the population
to generate income and hence ultimately resulting into economic development. Thus here the
focus is on production of goods and services which crucially three things; human capital, raw
material and technology. Human capital is the skill that is required for production of goods. India
holds significant Human capital with more maximum population representing youth along with
diversified skills availability. According to the definition of National Knowledge Commission of
India, entrepreneurship is a professional application of knowledge or skills. Hence
entrepreneurship is a way where diverse set of skills can be applied for generating economic
activity. Another factor of production is technology which is driven by the knowledge possessed
by an individual or a group. Young population of India, which is exploring new trends and
practices tend to abide new technologies. Availability of resources as raw material also is
directly related to these people since they are being brought up in the era of environment friendly
and conservative culture. This population is more likely to acknowledge the effective and
efficient use of available resources. Being an entrepreneur these people hold the capability to
best use the available resources in the conservative manner for production of goods and services.
Many entrepreneurs nowadays are found dealing with environmental friendly matters as core of
their businesses. This stands a strong argument that these people bear a strong potential to deal
with the wealth creation not only from the economic perspective but also from conservative
utilization of resources.
Culture for by Young entrepreneurs in India
Entrepreneurship followed by innovation has a major influence of creativity in building up the
entrepreneurship. Culture of entrepreneurship is driven by creation of wealth from the
knowledge application. The ‘G20 Young Entrepreneurs speak out’ held in France in 2011 has
revealed through a research that India bears the best culture to promote and nurture

entrepreneurship where family and surrounding have made a great impact in improving the
perception of entrepreneurship in the last five years. The well known ‘Jugaad’ concept of India
has been accepted across the globe as one of the effective ways proving entrepreneurship. India
has many businesses which can be categorized as into micro, small and medium size enterprises
that have added a significant contribution in the growth of Indian economy. The societal
environment in India also has open mindset to accept the new products and services in the
market. Though price has been always a key player in all these changes offered, this constraint
has put clarity in the success probability that any entrepreneurs can grasp. Young people of India
have always taken up transformative steps in the issues around. The culture of keen awareness
about socio-economical problems and urge of solving these problems makes a great impact on
young entrepreneurs driving them not only in the field of economical entrepreneurship but also
in the field of social entrepreneurship. Indian education system has played a huge role in
inculcating the entrepreneurial culture through skill development and vocational training. The
adequate numbers of skilled human resources in the respective fields show the impact of
education in flourishing innovation. However there is still a broad spectrum which can be
covered in educational focusing on relative involvement education in real life application.
Modern culture deals with the adoption of new attitudes and behaviors eliminating or changing
the earlier path. One more important culture that today’s youth is bearing is about gender
equality. Many female have taken initiative breaking the traditional rules and stigmas restricting
their boundaries to households. In India, women have made vast contribution in growing the
field of entrepreneurship. Gender equality has offered a wide pool of skilled human capital that
has made symbolic transformation on the economy rendering the goods and services in the
country. Gender equality culture has not only brought women in the economically productive
roles but has also offered better management skills in the businesses.
India is a rich country where 60% people live in villages. Village culture has made this
entrepreneurship highly interesting and challenging. Rural innovation has become one of the
important part of entrepreneurship in India. Mixture of traditional practices with modern
technologies has made astonishing products which have effectively contributed into increasing
productivity if the country. Thus rural culture is one more important aspect that young
entrepreneurs have opportunities to jump into and contribute in development of economy.

Entrepreneurial Mindset of youths
Risk taking ability is all the time the key factor in the entrepreneurial mindset that is always
associated with the youth. Young people bear great potential and inspiration to always try new
things even after successive failures. This measures as important factor in cultivating
entrepreneurship in any context. Calculated risk taking and perseverance to solve the problem
can be seen as common trait in today’s youth denoting the increased probability o success.
Increased level of education and exposure to diverse issues because of improved information
technologies has resulted in increased confidence level of youth. Creativity also counts as one
more trait entrepreneurs as discussed before. Indian environment has always been a wide
platform to grow the creativity in daily lives that people subsist. Along with this the media
oriented strong interface has created a massive effect in growing creativity amongst the youth.
Entrepreneurial mindset includes the characteristic of leadership and taking initiative. Taking
initiative is not only in the context of taking actions against current issue but it also deals with
the mindset of taking initiative in the thoughts that can bring the transformative evolution.
Leadership being a crucial part of entrepreneurship holds the development of team as well as
development of self. To run any organization or a team leadership plays major role thus making
it a necessary characteristic in the entrepreneurship. Leadership has a wide spectrum of
characteristics such as decision making and situation handling. Adopting with the changing
environment and continuously keeping the sense of urgency to improve the present situation are
also important in entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship has made this population go beyond the
imaginations and expectations which have produced some of the exemplary things in the society.
Some of young entrepreneurs in India have broken even their physical and social constraints
uplifting the society to a betterment.

Success stories
Shrikant Bolla, CEO, Aasadeep Foundation
Shrikanth Bolla is a graduate from Massachusetts University. Even after being challenged
visually, he stood up with a vision to change the society. Being a physically disabled chap he
knew the problems faced by his fellow mates. He set up Aasadeep foundation to make
handicapped people in the society proud of themselves by providing them skills training which
would enable them to be a part of economy. Started with a skill development program he has
now entered into diversified field where he produces paper plates and other such consumable
items giving employment to significant population. He has created more opportunities for
physically challanged people to be a part of his organization and bring the change for not only
themselves but also for other people. Shrikanth is a best example of miraculous entrepreneur
who has transformed the society into better.
Anand Naik, CEO, BOREDBEES Companies Private Limited
3 years ago, Anand penetrated the market with his expertise of preparing mathematical
algorithm. Identifying the updating technologies and demand of the market he decided to step
into the field of android application making. Started with just a Dell laptop, now he owns his
own office giving employment to 35 people. He is proud to say that 95% of employees in his
office are female, making them able to be a part of productive economy. Even after facing lot of
back biting and bad mouth from competitors, he succeeded to get nominated in top 20 young
entrepreneurs of India from ‘CIOReview’ magazine. At the age of 27 now, he has plans to scale
his business with some new ideas where he can bring more youth into competitive age, making
them productive and serving the society with mod technology aid.
Shravani, Safe Hands 24x7, Hubli
Shravani is a MSW graduate who completed a skill building program on social entrepreneurship
from Deshpande Foundation. Her urge to work for women making them empowered in the
society initially took her to work in the sector of self help groups. Soon she realized that there
was another opportunity calling her to serve the purpose of empowering the women. 4 years
before she started security services where women were doing the service of safe guirds. Very

innovative and different idea stunted the society to accept the change in social roles. Even after
facing hard times she drove the purpose that she decided to meant for and at the end of 4 years
she has achieved a turnover of 2 Crore employing 150 employees where majority of them are
women. Her story of bringing women into economic role has changed lives of many ladies
making them pride and self sustainable.
Conclusion
Indian economics and increasing population has now come to an edge where transformation in
the society can be easily achieved by the youth with their power and intelligence. External
environments are also helping these youngsters to grow and nourish the society with innovative
ideas. Innovative ideas and profit models offering wide pool of product and services to the
society are not only going to help the economy but also are going to uplift the society. Patience is
the name of the game that these youngsters need to follow now. Developing country will be soon
transformed into developed country with their urge and passion to be the change in the society.
Bibliography
 Creative industries for youth: Unleashing potential and growth, UNIDO paper.
 Entrepreneurship in India, National Knowledge Commission, 2008.
 National youth policy India, 2014.
 How is entrepreneurship good for economic growth, Zoltan Acs.
 Entrepreneurship as a Wealth creation and value addition process, (2007) Wee Liang
TAN, Singapore Management University.
 http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-11-03/news/30354953_1_indian-
entrepreneurs-g-20-entrepreneurial-culture
 http://www.samanvai.org/srikanthbolla.html
 http://www.inc.com/shashank-mani/young-entrepreneurs-bring-hope-and-enterprise-to-
india.html

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