Golden Opportunity for Entrepreneurs

Budget 2021 has spelt out a golden opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs, in an effort to reduce public sector enterprise and go private. That will help make the country economically stronger and self-reliant. It could indeed be the Deng Xiaoping moment for India to take a leaf from China and grow manifold

"Budget 2021 has spelt out the intention of the government for mass privatisation in the coming years, with some earmarked privatisation starting from FY 2021-22 itself. This announcement of the government opens up big opportunities for our entrepreneurs and also for the country as a whole to make our country rich and powerful"

Sometimes when we are discouraged, we may feel that only a few lucky people get opportunities to succeed and that we are failing because we are not lucky enough to get real good opportunities. However, the fact remains that everyone gets opportunities, whether we use them or let them go. Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work and so most people fail to recognise them.

Entrepreneurs are simply those who recognise the opportunities and go-ahead to turn them to their advantage. As Peter Drucker says, “The entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it and exploits it as an opportunity.” A visionary entrepreneur is far-sighted and he does not stop at a short-term gain. Such a person with a vision plans for the good of the society and of the country, even if it takes time for the dividends to come. It reminds me of the saying by Warren Buffett who said, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago”.

BIG OPPORTUNITY

Budget 2021 has spelt out the intention of the government for mass privatisation in the coming years, with some earmarked privatisation starting from FY 2021-22 itself. The government has even said that only a few public sector companies will be ultimately left in the four strategic sectors. This announcement of the government opens up big opportunities for our entrepreneurs and also for the country as a whole to act as a catalyst to make our country rich and powerful. Our Prime Minister has been speaking of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ i.e. Self-Reliant India. He also says be vocal about local. The space created by the leaving-off of the public sector has to be filled by the private sector and here the wisdom of entrepreneurs is needed to go for the roadmap of a Self Reliant India. Both short-term and long-term goals have to be kept in mind while launching these entrepreneurial activities.

Our biggest capital is our young and intelligent human resource and we have to use it for the maximum advantage. We have to create more startups and more technology-based companies, wherein initially big investments are not needed. But we also have to go for big manufacturing companies, keeping the needs of the future in mind, to produce quality products at cost-effective pricing and be part of the global supply chain.

"Budget 2021 has spelt out the intention of the government for mass privatisation in the coming years, with some earmarked privatisation starting from FY 2021-22 itself. The government has even said that only a few public sector companies will be ultimately left in the four strategic sectors. This announcement of the government opens up big opportunities for our entrepreneurs"

DENG XIAOPING

GO THE DENG WAY…

The opportunity has come now, and it has to be used. The country will have a serious problem if the transition from the public sector to the private sector or from a mixed economy to a privately owned economy does not do well. This is like the Deng Xiaoping moment of China, when he became the supreme leader of his communist country, ravaged by Maoism and cultural revolutions. His tenure from 1978 to 1989 brought China on the path of modernism and opened China to the world. He worked for the economic development of China more on the lines of a capitalist economy while in theory, it remained a communist country. China was equally poor like India but today due to the fuelling of the economy by Deng, it is now five times the economy of India.

However, there will be one difference between the Deng moment of China and the Indian situation. China being a communist country, resources and undertakings mainly remained with the state, though there was modernisation and change in the style of functioning as brought in by Deng. In the Indian situation, with privatisation, the state will not do business and entrepreneurs will own the resources and undertakings. In this context, there will be responsibility mainly on entrepreneurs to give the boost to our economy and create wealth for the country. The role of the central government and state governments will be that of facilitators by laying out appropriate policies and laws.

How should entrepreneurs begin with the big opportunities coming to them? I believe that three attributes will be needed primarily: confidence, capability and capital.

FIRST ‘C’, CONFIDENCE

Entrepreneurs have to believe in themselves and their workforce that they can achieve the high targets set up while opening new industries or enlarging existing undertakings. They should draw confidence, remembering that India was the richest country in ancient times, and that we remained significantly prosperous until medieval times. We had international trade and we had our own flourishing economic activities.

India witnessed an economic disaster during the British-dominated period when imports from Britain killed our native business. But, even during this dark period, our own Jamsetji Tata set up a big steel factory in 1907 when the Britishers could not do that. Even today, Tata Steel is a shining star and this proves the fact that our entrepreneurs can achieve if they decide to, having faith in themselves. Jamsetji Tata and today’s Dhirubhai Ambani can give confidence to our entrepreneurs.

SECOND ‘C’ CAPABILITY

The attribute of ‘capability’ is dependent on our skill, innovation and R&D. Both government and business houses should spend more on research. We should develop our own scientific know how instead of importing technology by paying huge royalty. Today, two of our undertakings are manufacturing covid vaccines and that makes us a proud country. For one, the vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech, the intricate formula is developed by our ICMR and that proves that if we try we can develop our own know how.

The absence of scientific know how in strategic sectors like defence makes us the biggest arms importer in the world. For a self-reliant country, we need to produce our own modern weapons based on our research. If a small country like Israel can do that, then why can we not?

To help the business, the government too has to transform our education system, giving more emphasis on skills. Today, even a large number of engineering graduates are not employable. They pass examinations but fail to be skilled.

It is very ironical that some of our engineers and management graduates are heading some of the best companies the world over but in our own country, we fail to create a scientific infrastructure. Hence, we cannot have companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple. Our scientists are helping NASA, we produce capable persons but many of them migrate for a higher salary and a better life. We have to work hard and work fast to retain our bright engineers and scientists in our own country and if that happens it will have a positive cascading effect.

THIRD ‘C’, CAPITAL

The third attribute of ‘capital’ is very important, as without money we cannot do anything. For this, we have to ensure a healthy banking system without money lost in wilful NPAs. The government needs to create an environment to attract more FDIs. Entrepreneurs should be free to borrow in foreign countries where the interest rate is low. The money will keep flowing in once we become component suppliers to big companies like job work contracts from Apple and such others.

"The absence of scientific know-how in strategic sectors like defence makes us the biggest arms importer in the world. For a self-reliant country, we need to produce our own modern weapons based on our research. If a small country like Israel can do that, then why can we not?"

MAKE FOR THE WORLD

To a certain extent, our economy can sustain itself by domestic consumption alone, ours being a big country with a large consumer base. But to become a big economy, we have to manufacture products that the world needs, and become a major player in the global supply chain. For example, we have to go for products like semiconductors, which are needed for the electronic industry the world over. The electronic industry is one sector which is on an upswing globally, and it will keep on going higher and higher. A small country like Taiwan is economically on a very strong footing due to its semiconductor industry. We, a big country, have failed to have such a sunshine industry.

Another product which has a big future is solar batteries, which we are today importing from China. Solar energy will become a major source of energy and so will the solar batteries. Our entrepreneurs should do a market study and select those scarce products which the world needs today and will need more tomorrow. We have to ensure that we become a big exporter like China.

GET LESS DEPENDANT

For a thriving economy and also for a self-reliant India, it is also very important that our entrepreneurs are not heavily dependent on other countries, particularly China. It has been noticed that our pharma sector works on the APIs (raw materials) from China. Earlier, we were manufacturing APIs ourselves, but with cheaper imports coming from China, we stopped manufacturing APIs and chose to squarely depend upon this country and thus making our pharma sector hostage to an enemy country. A - reliant India needs self-sustaining industrial sectors. We should depend on others only for the things which cannot be produced in the short-term and even for these items we should prepare ourselves for a long term solution.

Our Prime Minister is repeatedly saying that the government has no business to be in business. This means that in the coming years, it will be the private sector that will run the economy. It is hoped that our entrepreneurs do not let down the country. It is expected that they take quick professional decisions, not be harassed by red tape and thus help in creating wealth for the country, fast. Entrepreneurs will be required to keep their personal interest second to national interest and pay taxes honestly, as taxes will be needed for boosting welfare expenditure, development work and nation building by the government. Our entrepreneurs should remember the words of Henry Ford, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business.” Entrepreneurs should keep themselves away from greed, as greed is a bottomless pit, which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy his need, without ever reaching satisfaction.