A Study of Demographic Dimensions of Entrepreneurship in India

This paper is an attempt to shed light on ownership pattern of micro, small and medium enterprises in various states and union territories of India. Since introduction of liberalization, privatization and globalization, Indian economy has witnessed a rapid growth. On one side private capital and investment got expansion and on other side the government decided to withdraw its capital through disinvestment. In recent years, the job opportunities are shrinking in public sector. Gradually, the relevance of reservation in jobs for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and other backward class people, has been losing the ground. In order to encourage and support participation of underprivileged groups in business sector, the special financial and promotional institutions have been implementing various schemes of assistance. The present study is based on secondary data. The study analyses the ownership of micro, small and medium enterprises on the basis of gender, religion, caste and other important bases such as, organizations, nature of activity and its size. The study found that there is considerable under representation by women, marginalized groups and religious groups in Indian business and industry. The study suggested that conducive environment should be created to encourage youngsters from marginalized groups and women to accept entrepreneurship as career and support them with required infrastructure, finance and marketing assistance. The time has come to be job givers and not job seekers.