Technology for MSMEs: In the narrow lanes of Unnao, perched on the parapet with her tiny gully-gang, sits Suneeta. With her smartphone in hand, she can now browse, share, and location orders on-line for trendy clothing for her pals to be delivered to their houses – all this just by a click of a button! There are millions like Suneeta who have discovered digital technologies empowering their entrepreneurial dreams.
COVID-19 has proved to be a black swan moment for India. Like any other crisis, the present a single has exposed the vulnerabilities of current structures and practices, forced the adjust in status-quo, and, at the identical time, opened a new window of possibilities. The nation has usually been observed as a service-primarily based economy, thanks to the IT boom and the push towards STEM education in the nation in the 1990s and 2000s. But with the new era in complete swing, 21st century India is currently seeing ‘micro-entrepreneurship’ as an region of expansion and development. The journey has begun, and it has been an inspiring a single, particularly with the rise of girls in micro-entrepreneurship. Today the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) sector is the most vibrant and critical industrial sector for the Indian economy. The sector supplies employment to more than 130 million people today and contributes to almost 30 per cent of GDP.
Tech disruption in current years and the digital push from the government have presented the required fillip for the germination of entrepreneurial culture in the nation, thereby tapping the vast human sources. Access to the online, low information/broadband charges, and an uptick in smartphone sales have permitted people today to experiment with new enterprise models, particularly in digital formats, and present distinctive solutions and services. Budding micro-entrepreneurs today are emerging from towns and cities in the hinterlands of India. Some of them are the initial generations to kickstart their entrepreneurial journeys whilst other folks, particularly girls of the households see this as a second supply of revenue. It will undoubtedly be fascinating to see how this as a trend picks up in the new normal and be a contributor to the economy.
Why micro-entrepreneurship?
The enterprise model and functioning of micro-enterprises have enabled the effective use of capital and labor and initiated the indigenous enterprise. These enterprises enable in bringing a regional balance major to an enhanced distribution of revenue. Several organizations and NGOs have come collectively to enable girls and minority groups produce micro-enterprises and grow to be financially independent, steady, and lead lives of dignity. Overall, such models enable in decentralizing energy and finance in the structure.
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Building an ecosystem to enhance micro-entrepreneurship
India has usually been identified for its hustle or ‘jugaad’, nonetheless, no organizational help has been offered to help these smaller sized ambitions. It’s time India invests in the micro-entrepreneurship sector. Various governmental and non-governmental bodies are repurposing their policies and sources to produce neighborhood hubs for ability improvement and capacity developing of micro-entrepreneurs whilst simultaneously hand-holding them to enable them flesh out their ventures till they start out capitalizing on it. The Ministry of Rural Development is operating the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) beneath the National Rural Livelihoods Mission which is becoming implemented with help from State Rural Livelihoods Missions. The trainee micro-entrepreneurs, in the wake of COVID, are contributing their bit by creating face masks and supplying them to the neighborhood authorities, wholesalers, and retailers.
It is with this productive implementation of applications to scale up education in a cohesive and inclusive manner that we can channelize our human sources to alter the course of financial improvement of the nation and creating India ‘Atmanirbhar’ in the correct sense. The pandemic instances have re-emphasized the require for hyperlocal connectivity, it is this neighborhood network that a micro-entrepreneur makes use of to produce a niche.
To make the greatest of the possibilities arising from the largest challenge of this century, the Indian economy desires a thriving MSME sector. The substantial contribution that the sector has produced to the economy has got it to be acknowledged as the “backbone”. However, the coordinated efforts from sector associations, policymakers, startups, and corporates will play a very important part in strengthening this backbone.
Vidit Aatrey is the Founder of Meesho. Views expressed are the author’s personal.