Rural enterpreneurship - bidging gaps - new models for the new economy

Abstract

Entrepreneurship is considered a central force of economic development, as it generates growth and serves as a vehicle for innovation and change. India growth story has been unfolding excellently so far, but the rural section of India is yet to join the bandwagon. For a sustained overall growth it is imperative that the rural sector be included in the country’s economic growth and this can be fuelled by encouraging and helping foster rural entrepreneurship. The quantum of business and opportunities for socio-economic opportunities in the Indian rural sector are enormous. Appropriate institutional framework promotes entrepreneurial development, practical mechanisms for risk taking and risk sharing in the early and most uncertain stages of entrepreneurial ventures and an organizational system conducive to growing new and existing businesses. The role of public policy is therefore to continually find ways to implement critical success factors for entrepreneurial development. “Rural innovations” not only improve the productivity and efficiency of local farmers or artisans, but also have significant environmental and social impact by developing eco friendly “appropriate” solutions to local problems. Rural innovations and appropriate technologies are being created for viable and sustainable micro ventures. The following study aims to study the new models of rural entrepreneurship which are based on the changing economy of the country. There has been a strong impetus on the infrastructure growth in Indian and the results have started showing with ambitious national highway projects like the Golden quadrilateral and the North South East West corridors making a strong impact on the national economy. Better roads have paved way to increased traveling on the highways leading to new business opportunities. There are thousands of villages that fall on the path of these national highways and there is an opportunity to come with commercial initiatives to tap this high traffic of customers. This study tries to study and analyze the various opportunities and the pros and the cons of the approaches along with the regulatory frameworks and the involvement of t he public and the private sector. The study looks into detail, the aspect of tourism and how entrepreneurial models can be built around it along with other avenues of business on the national highways.