Entrepreneurs play an important role in socio-economic development by increasing production, providing career opportunities, and decentralizing economic power. They introduce innovation, create jobs, and harness youth potential. Balanced regional development through entrepreneurship can help reduce income disparities between regions and provide equitable employment while optimizing resource use.

1. ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURS
IN SOCIO-ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT
BY: MS. DIVYA RASTOGI
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
BBA FACULTY

2. IMPORTANCE OF ENTREPRENEURS IN SOCIO-
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• Entrepreneurs have always been partners in economic progress. All that the society
is presently enjoying as gift of civilization-related to food, fashion cloth, shelter,
transport, entertainment etc., are the contribution made by some entrepreneurs,
at some point of time, in some part of the world. In our ancient literature, an
entrepreneur is referred to as “Udyami” & considered as the “starting point” or
“spark” for human civilization.The golden era of Indian History was actually the era
of entrepreneurial excellence in very field-be it art, culture, science or wealth.
• Entrepreneurship is an essential requirement for the speedy-economic growth of
any economy as stated below:

3. POINTS:
1.) Increasing Production: It results in exploitation of economy’s resources such as labour, capital & technology
to the fullest extent for increasing national production. Entrepreneurs take up production of goods & services
for:
• Meeting the demand of customers
• Import substitution exports to other countries
2.) Challenging career option: A person can seek a job with some organization or engage in self-employment
activities.Wage employment has a limited scope, but entrepreneurship offers huge career opportunities.A
young person who is innovative & creative can start on a small scale & later expand it to create a large
enterprise.This will ensure personal growth of the entrepreneur. For ex: “DHIRUBHAIAMBANI” who started
on a small scale succeeded in building a huge industrial empire. Besides pursuing entrepreneurship as a career,
Ambani created job opportunities for thousands of people.

4. Continue :
• Decentralisation of Economic Power: Most of the entrepreneurs start business enterprises
on a small scale & then seek their growth through reinvestment of profits. By doing so, they
break the monopoly of existing large enterprises which might be resorting to exploitation
of consumers. Rise of small units leads of decentralisation of economic power & thus
creating a balance in the control of economic resources in the economy.
• IncreasingCompetition in the market: Entrepreneurs are innovators as they introduce new
products & substitutes & new techniques of production.Availability of new products &
improved substitutes increases the level of competition in the market resulting in lower
prices & the better quality for the consumers. In India, small entrepreneurs also contribute
to the foreign exchange earnings of the country.They produce goods for exports & thus
increase India’s international competitiveness.

5. Continue:
• Innovation: Entrepreneurship results in innovation in a society.The entrepreneurs create
new technologies & products that displace older technologies & products resulting in
higher income & wealth than what is currently available to them.There is evidence to prove
that new ventures produce a disproportionately large share of product & process
innovations compared with larger & more established firms.
• Employment Generation: Entrepreneurship results in creation of new jobs in the economy.
Small business units create more jobs than large ones. During economic recession, when
large companies are on their way to retrenchment of their workforce, individuals whose
jobs’ are eliminated find employment find employment with small business units. It has
been found that small, young high-technology business units created new jobs at a much
faster than did larger, older business firms.

6. Continue:
• HarnessingYouth Power:Youth power is available is abundance in India. But
avenues of wage/salary employment are limited. Due to lack of
entrepreneurial opportunities in the society, the available youth vigour is
often channelled to self-destruction & non-productive areas.The nation,
thus, loses its most valuable resource-the youth vigour.

7. BALANCED REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
• In our country, natural resources which are essential for economic
development are not evenly distributed in different regions. Since industries
are usually attracted towards the centres of supply of raw materials, lop-
sided development takes place.The other causes of concentration of
industries at particular places are availability of transport, availability of
labour, existence of other industries & proximity of market. In order to
rectify the mischief created by concentration of industries & to achieve even
development of the country, regional planning is necessary.

8. Balanced regional development leads to the
achievement of the following objectives:
• Reduction of regional disparities in the distribution of income & wealth.
• Removal of poverty in backward areas & increase in the standard of living of
the people.
• Provision of employment opportunities on an equitable basis.
• Optimum utilisation of national resources.
• Control over the problems of slums, overcrowding, congestion of traffic,
etc.