Start-up & Entrepreneurship pre Reading zero session by Dr.

Raj K
Mishra

India’s demographic dividend:

• India has a large working population of young people, which shows that the demographic dividend
is in India's favour.

• Presently, in our country, the working people in the age group of 15 to 59 years are more than the
dependent population. The Economic Survey 2018-19 also points out that India's demographic
dividend will be at its peak around the year 2041 when the share of working people in the age group
of 20 to 59 is expected to reach 59 percent of the total population.

• If the demographic dividend favours a country, then the country's economy gets a boost, the
growth rate picks up, and per capita income also increases.

• Several measures are needed to reap the benefits of demographic dividend. The focus of these
measures would be on the skill development of the country's working population along with
ensuring good education and health of this population.

• There is a need to meet the nation’s need for entrepreneurship and skill development.

Significance of skilling and entrepreneurship:

• Skill and knowledge are the driving force of socio-economic development for any nation. If skilled
youth are available in the country, there will be no shortage of human labour resources for
industries, and they will boost productivity. Skilling will help bridge the gap between demand and
supply of skilled workers.

• Skilled individuals become self-reliant, provide employment to others and contribute more and
more to open up avenues of opportunities for the nation’s prosperity with their skills and
entrepreneurship endeavours.

Measures taken by the government: For promoting skilling:

• The government has set up the National Skill Development Corporation to provide skill-related
training to 500 million individuals by 2022.

• The government is promoting the private sector in skill training programs besides providing funds
for them.
 • Under the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), youth are provided with short-term
training in industry-relevant skills.

• According to the local market’s requirement, vocational training is also imparted to the illiterate,
neoliterates and school dropout youths through 233 public education institutes operating in the
country.

• Similarly, under the Recognition of Prior Learning program, the skills of 33.20 lakh youth have been
certified.

• Under the Deendayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY), in the last six years, 10.51
lakh youth have received training in the country from DDU-GKY while 6.65 lakh trained youth have
got employment.

• The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Rural Development, and
its Rural Self-Employment and Training Institutes (RSETI) conduct a wide range of skill
development training programmes in the villages. Under this, there is also a provision for
providing bank loans to trainees acquiring skills to set up their enterprises.
• The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has also launched an Aatma-Nirbhar
Skilled Employee-Employer Mapping (ASEEM) portal under the ‘self-reliant India Campaign’
(Aatma-Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan). This portal provides real-time data of skilled workforce
based on demand and supply.
• In the time of Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing, the National Skill Development
Institute is also offering all-round training of digital skills. In the field of entrepreneurship and
skills, Indian genre like yoga has also been added.
• National Education Policy (NEP 2020) is also a welcome step to integrate vocational
education and skill-based learning in the school and college curriculum.

For promoting entrepreneurship

National skill Development and Entrepreneurship Policy was launched in 2015.

• The government launched the ‘Startup India Campaign’ in 2016 to promote start-ups in the
country. The campaign envisages India’s youth as job creators rather than job seekers.

• To promote start-ups, the government, in 2019, has changed the definition of a start-up. Now a
start-up will be treated as a start-up even ten years after its establishment and continue to get
benefits.

• To provide financial assistance to start-ups, the government has created a ‘Fund of Fund for Start-
Ups’ with a corpus of Rs 10,000-crore in the Small Industries Development Bank of India.

• The Pradhan Mantri Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan (PMYUA) is under implementation by the
Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to promote young entrepreneurs. Through this
training, mentoring and other support for setting up enterprises is provided to young entrepreneurs.
• The National Entrepreneurship Award (NEA) has been instituted in 2016 to promote
entrepreneurship and inspire the youth.

• The government has also taken several measures to encourage women entrepreneurs to begin
start-ups. Together with GIZ, a German institution, the government has launched a pilot project for
the economic empowerment of women entrepreneurs and women start-ups.

• The government has been providing loan facilities to entrepreneurs for setting up and promoting
business through various schemes. It includes the Stand Up India scheme along with the Mudra
scheme.

• Agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry have immense potentials of entrepreneurship and
start-ups and the government is promoting them.

o Under 'AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan,' the Prime Minister has made the provision of an
agricultural infrastructure fund with a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore, which aims to transform the
condition and direction of this field. Infrastructure facilities such as warehouses, cold storages, and
food processing units will be set up in rural areas with this fund. It has created a huge opportunity for
entrepreneurship development in the agriculture sector.

o In the area of organic agriculture, there is immense potential for start-ups and entrepreneurship.
The National Medicinal Plants Board (NMPB) has assisted in the cultivation of medicinal plants in an
area of 2.25 lakh hectares to promote herbal and medicinal plant cultivation under the
‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’.

o Three laws related to agricultural reforms paved the way for setting up new start-ups and
enterprises in the field of agriculture. The e-platforms for agricultural marketing will provide
opportunities to young entrepreneurs to thrive in the agriculture sector. The warehousing, cold
storage, and processing units are set to expand in the private sector due to the abolishing of the
storage limit of produce like cereals, potatoes, and onions through the Essential Commodities
Amendment Act. It will open up new dimensions of entrepreneurship and development in this field.

• New opportunities are also being created in the food processing industry. o A provision of Rs.10
thousand crores has been made under the 'Aatma-Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan' to formalize micro food
enterprises. Through this, two lakh micro-food enterprises are being

Supported for global reach with a commitment to the resolution of 'Vocal for Local.' This fund will
benefit entrepreneurs who want to make their enterprises conform to the standards of the Food
Safety and Standards Authority of India or if they wish to establish their own brands. Along with the
existing food entrepreneurs, farmer producer organizations, self-help groups and cooperative
societies have also been assisted in this scheme. The strategy is to establish cluster based
enterprises.

• Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) was launched in 2016 by the Ministry of
Rural Development under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAYN-
RLM).
o The people living in rural areas are not financially strong. Initial protection and guidance are not
available to such rural start-ups and they also lack appropriate resources and environment for
developing skills. The SVEP aims to resolve these problems.

o This scheme has also yielded excellent results in social inclusion as 82 percent of this scheme’s
entrepreneurs belong to scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes.

Under this program, 75 percent of the enterprises are owned and managed by women.

• The recent announcements of private sector participation of innovations in the space and defence
sectors opened up a flood of new opportunities for the MSME industry.

Introduction :

• With over 1.4 million schools, approximately 10500 engineering and related institutions,
approximately 39000 colleges, a demographic dividend that is the envy of many a country
and a fast-growing economy: the imperative in India is, therefore, to ensure that an
estimated 150 million youth of India entering the workforce over the next few years can
realise their true potential through access to world-class innovation and entrepreneurial
ecosystem, leveraging rapidly advancing, accessible, affordable technologies transforming
the world we live in and enabling an incredible set of opportunities for innovation and new
job creation.

• India is a country of a billion people with thousands of challenges, which are also thousands
of opportunities for innovative entrepreneurial start-ups to succeed with possible global
impact.
• What India has been lacking is a holistic innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem that
stimulates, enables and supports inspiration, imagination and innovation in our schools,
universities, industries across the length and breadth of the nation.

Innovation and entrepreneurship in India:

• The following five pillars need to be understood with respect to innovation and entrepreneurship.

Demographic dividend:
• With over 65 percent of our country under 35 years of age, more than 1.4 million schools and
10,500 engineering and related institutions, a whopping 39,000 colleges and universities, India
enjoys a demographic dividend like no other in the world.

• It is imperative that we enable the channelization of this youthful energy towards nation-building
activities by focusing on developing vocational, technical and managerial skills, while fostering a
culture of innovation and entrepreneurship at the school, university and industry levels.

Infrastructure:
• Innovation and entrepreneurship will be key to ensuring the development of both physical as well
as digital infrastructure across all regions in the country.

• Smart water management, transportation, energy management, and housing present tremendous
opportunities for innovations and start-ups.

Demand:

• India has the perfect environment. It has over 1.3 billion people, a youthful population, a growing
middle class, one of the fastest-growing economies of the world, and affordable, available advanced
technology to reimagine new solutions to existing and emerging consumer needs.

• The pillar of demand presents an unprecedented opportunity for Make in India in every industry.

Technology:

• The remarkable growth of the fast-growing 180 billion USD IT/ITES and biotech industry in India
over the past decade has shown the world India's scientific, engineering and technological prowess
and capabilities with one of the fastest-growing start-up ecosystems—over 30,000 start-ups and 250
incubators—India can surely position itself as one of the leading innovative nations of the world.

Socio-economic growth:

• With 22 percent of its population still below the poverty line, 44 percent of its economy still agri-
based, many districts still combating unacceptable percentages of infant mortality and maternal
mortality, and only a mere 13 percent of women entrepreneurs, India needs to ensure that rapid
economic progress encompasses societal progress.

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM):

• Through the government of India's flagship initiative, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog is
leading from the front to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country.

• It is working towards the creation of a problem-solving innovative mindset in schools and creating
an ecosystem of entrepreneurship in universities, research institutions, private and MSME sector.

• Atal Innovation Mission aims to power the AatmaNirbhar Bharat vision through Innovation and
Entrepreneurship.

• The following are the main initiatives under the Atal Innovation Mission