ENTERPRENEURSHIP DURING POST- INDEPENDENCE
After taking a long sign of political relief in 1947, the Government of India tried to spell out the priorities to devise a scheme for achieving balanced growth. For this purpose, the Government came forward with the first Industrial Policy, 1948 which was revised from time to time." The Government in her various industrial policy statements identified the responsibility of the State to promote, assist and develop industries in the national interest. It also explicitly recognised the vital role of the private sector in accelerating industrial development and, for this, enough field was reserved for the private sector.
The Government took three important measures in her industrial resolutions:-
(i) to maintain a proper distribution of economic power between private and public sector;
(ii) to encourage the tempo of industrialisation by spreading entrepreneurship from the
existing centres to other cities, towns and villages, and
(iii) to disseminate the entrepreneurship acumen concentrated in a few dominant communities
to a large number of industrially potential people of varied social strata.
To achieve these adumberated objectives, the Government accorded emphasis on the development of small-scale industries in the country. Particularly since the Third Five Year Plan, the Government started to provide various incentives and concessions in the form of capital, technical know-how, markets and land to the potential entrepreneurs to establish
industries in the industrially potential areas to remove the regional imbalances in development. This was, indeed, a major step taken by the Government to initiate interested people of varied social strata to enter the small-scale manufacturing field.
Several institutions like Directorate of Industries, Financial Corporations, Small-Scale Industries Corporations and Small Industries Service Institute were also established by the Government to facilitate the new entrepreneurs in setting up their enterprises. Expectedly, the small-scale units emerged very rapidly in India witnessing a tremendous increase in their number from 121,619 in 1966 to 190,727 in 1970 registering an increase of 17,000 units per year during the period under reference.
The recapitulation of review of literature regarding entrepreneurial growth in India, thus, leads us to conclude that prior to 1850, the manufacturing entrepreneurship was negligible lying dormant in artisans. The artisan entrepreneurship could not develop mainly due to inadequate infrastructure and lukewarm attitude of the colonial political structure to the entrepreneurial function. The East India Company, the Managing Agency Houses and various socio-political movements like Swadeshi campaign provided, one way or the other, proper seedbed for the emergence of the manufacturing entrepreneurship from 1850 onwards.
The wave of entrepreneurial growth gained sufficient momentum after the Second World War. Since then the entrepreneurs have increased rapidly in numbers in the country. Particularly, since the Third Five Year Plan, small entrepreneurs have experienced tremendous increase in their numbers. But, they lacked entrepreneurial ability, however.
The fact remains that even the small entrepreneurship continued to be dominated by business communities though at some places new groups of entrepreneurs too emerged. Also, there are examples that some entrepreneurs grew from small to medium-scale and from medium to large-scale manufacturing units during the period. The family entrepreneurship units like Tata, Birla, Mafatlal, Dalmia, Kirloskar and others grew beyond the normally expected size and also established new frontiers in business in this period. Notwithstanding, all this happened without the diversification of the entrepreneurial base so far as its socio -economic ramification is concerned.
After taking a long sign of political relief in 1947, the Government of India tried to spell out the priorities to devise a scheme for achieving balanced growth. For this purpose, the Government came forward with the first Industrial Policy, 1948 which was revised from time to time." The Government in her various industrial policy statements identified the responsibility of the State to promote, assist and develop industries in the national interest. It also explicitly recognised the vital role of the private sector in accelerating industrial development and, for this, enough field was reserved for the private sector.
The Government took three important measures in her industrial resolutions:-
(i) to maintain a proper distribution of economic power between private and public sector;
(ii) to encourage the tempo of industrialisation by spreading entrepreneurship from the
existing centres to other cities, towns and villages, and
(iii) to disseminate the entrepreneurship acumen concentrated in a few dominant communities
to a large number of industrially potential people of varied social strata.
To achieve these adumberated objectives, the Government accorded emphasis on the development of small-scale industries in the country. Particularly since the Third Five Year Plan, the Government started to provide various incentives and concessions in the form of capital, technical know-how, markets and land to the potential entrepreneurs to establish
industries in the industrially potential areas to remove the regional imbalances in development. This was, indeed, a major step taken by the Government to initiate interested people of varied social strata to enter the small-scale manufacturing field.
Several institutions like Directorate of Industries, Financial Corporations, Small-Scale Industries Corporations and Small Industries Service Institute were also established by the Government to facilitate the new entrepreneurs in setting up their enterprises. Expectedly, the small-scale units emerged very rapidly in India witnessing a tremendous increase in their number from 121,619 in 1966 to 190,727 in 1970 registering an increase of 17,000 units per year during the period under reference.
The recapitulation of review of literature regarding entrepreneurial growth in India, thus, leads us to conclude that prior to 1850, the manufacturing entrepreneurship was negligible lying dormant in artisans. The artisan entrepreneurship could not develop mainly due to inadequate infrastructure and lukewarm attitude of the colonial political structure to the entrepreneurial function. The East India Company, the Managing Agency Houses and various socio-political movements like Swadeshi campaign provided, one way or the other, proper seedbed for the emergence of the manufacturing entrepreneurship from 1850 onwards.
The wave of entrepreneurial growth gained sufficient momentum after the Second World War. Since then the entrepreneurs have increased rapidly in numbers in the country. Particularly, since the Third Five Year Plan, small entrepreneurs have experienced tremendous increase in their numbers. But, they lacked entrepreneurial ability, however.
The fact remains that even the small entrepreneurship continued to be dominated by business communities though at some places new groups of entrepreneurs too emerged. Also, there are examples that some entrepreneurs grew from small to medium-scale and from medium to large-scale manufacturing units during the period. The family entrepreneurship units like Tata, Birla, Mafatlal, Dalmia, Kirloskar and others grew beyond the normally expected size and also established new frontiers in business in this period. Notwithstanding, all this happened without the diversification of the entrepreneurial base so far as its socio -economic ramification is concerned.