 "Congress president Sonia Gandhi (L), Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi (R), APCC president Anjan Dutta (2nd R) and Congress candidate from Amguri Assembly constituency Ankita Dutta wave at the crowd at an election rally in Amguri, Assam")
A survey on entrepreneurship in India found that the people of Assam were “substantially dissatisfied” with the performance of the government when it came to promote entrepreneurship in the state. More than half of the respondents said the government needed to do more on promoting entrepreneurship.
India Entrepreneurship Report 2015, prepared by direct selling American company Amway, in association with Nielsen India, has however found that there’s a “tangible enthusiasm” nationwide for entrepreneurship as being a good prospect to earn livelihood, with nearly two-thirds of the respondents viewing it favourably. At least 22% respondents in Assam said there have been “significant improvements” in the business environment in the state over the years.
Nationwide, nearly one in three (32%) respondents believe their state governments were not doing enough to promote entrepreneurship in their states. “Only 14% of the respondents feel that the government is doing the best it can under the given circumstances,” found the survey.
“We are aiming to engage different stakeholders on what drives entrepreneurship in India and contribute to the on-going discussions on the role of skill development and self-employment in improving employability of the youth,” said Anshu Budhraja, CEO of Amway India.
Union minister of state for skill development and entrepreneurship, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, released the report, which aimed at “understanding the latent enthusiasm for entrepreneurship” in the country, as well as factors that motivated and obstructed the creation of new enterprises.
The survey, which was undertaken across 50 different locations and included 250 households, found Assam ranked fourth with 72% respondents having positive attitude towards entrepreneurship, the top three being Kerala (78%), Punjab (77%), Uttarakhan (76%).
Nearly one in two respondents (47%) nationwide said that they had either thought about starting their own business or actively pursuing one. overall 19% of respondents said they are very open to starting a new business.
Jharkhand was found to be having the highest percentage of respondents (60%) who said they were actively pursuing a new business followed by Uttarakhand (40%) and UP (29%). At least 25% of respondents in Assam agreed that they had been introduced to entrepreneurship as part of their formal academic curriculum.
Nearly, 83% respondents voted banks as their main port of call for starting a business, pointing to the role of financial institutions in fostering and facilitating entrepreneurship. Friends and family came second on this index with 78%.
Across gender, income and age, the fear of failure emerged as the clear obstacle in starting a business with 63% of the overall respondents saying so. At least 31% of respondents found “financial burdens up to bankruptcy” as the “most important” cause for the fear. Non-conducive market conditions (24%) and fear of unemployment (23%) were the other key causes of the fear.
