ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

ABSTRACT: In India, entrepreneurship can prove as one stop solution for addressing the major problems like unemployment and poverty. Considering these benefits, various initiatives have been taken by the government from time to time for entrepreneurship development in the country such as Industrial Policies and Five-Year Plans specifically focusing on the growth of small scale sector, setting up of Special Economic Zones (SEZs), setting up of Entrepreneurship Institutions, organizing Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) and various Government Programmes and Schemes for the promotion of entrepreneurship. Every country, whether developed or developing, needs entrepreneurs. Whereas, a developing country needs entrepreneurs to initiate the process of development, the developed one needs entrepreneurship to sustain it. In the present Indian context, where on the one hand, employment opportunities in public sector and large-scale sector are shrinking, and on the other, vast opportunities arising from globalisation are waiting to be exploited; entrepreneurship can really take India to the heights of becoming a super economic power. This paper presents an entrepreneurship development and its challenges and opportunities in India.