Entrepreneurs create wealth; it is time to celebrate their spirit

They put their wealth at risk and implement projects that produce goods and services, writes U R Bhat

In the licence-permit-quota era of yore, entrepreneurship in India involved lobbying hard-to-get exclusive licences to manufacture items that have a ready demand: whether in businesses involving natural resources like mining, land etc. or consumer products like cars, scooters, motor cycles, white goods, watches, telephone instruments etc. Most of the traditional entrepreneurial families managed to corner such licences and prevented competition by lobbying against giving out more licenses. Others turned lobbying into a fine art by getting government rules changed to suit them. Since capital was scarce, gold-plating projects and getting them financed with long-term debt to generate the required funds