WOMEN ENTREPRENURSHIP PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF INDIAN ECONOMY

Abstract

Women entrepreneurship development is an essential part of human resource development. The development of women entrepreneurship is very low in India, especially in the rural areas. Entrepreneurship amongst women has been a recent concern. Women have become aware of their existence their rights and their work situation. However, women of middle class are not too eager to alter their role in fear of social backlash. The progress is more visible among upper class families in urban cities.

This paper focuses on women entrepreneur. Any understanding of Indian women, of their identity, and especially of their role taking and breaking new paths, will be incomplete without a walk down the corridors of Indian history where women have lived and internalized various role models. The paper talks about the status of women entrepreneurs and the problems faced by them when they ventured out to carve their own niche in the competitive world of business environment.

1. Introduction

Women constitute around half of the total world population. So is in India also. They are therefore regarded as the better half of the society. In traditional societies, they were confined to the four walls of houses performing household activities. In modern societies they have come out of the four walls to participate in all sorts of activities. The global evidences prove  that women have been performing exceedingly well in different spheres of activities like academics, politics, administration, social work and so on. Now they have started plunging into industry also and running their enterprises successfully. Therefore while discussing on entrepreneurial development of women entrepreneurs in the country.

        Al through small businesses owned by women have traditionally focused on fashion , fond and other services sector, but recently women entrepreneurs have been moving rapidly into manufacturing, construction and other industrial filed. Women owned business are lightly increasing in the economics of almost all countries. The hidden entrepreneurial potential of women have gradually been changing with the growing sensivity to the role and economic status in the society. It means women have the potentials, skill, knowledge and adaptability to run a business successfully.

2.Meaning and definitions

Women entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal need and become economically independent. There are economical, social, religious, cultural and other factors existing in the society which responsible for the emergency of the entrepreneurs.

“Women entrepreneur refers equally to someone who has started a one women business to someone who is a principal in family business or partnership or to someone who is shareholder in a public company which she runs”.

       The Government of India has defined  a women entrepreneur is “ an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51% of the capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated in the enterprise to women “.

3.Objectives of the Study

1. To study the present position of Women Entrepreneurship in Indian Economy.

2. To study the Problems of Women Entrepreneurship in Indian Economy

3. To suggest certain remedial measures to solve the problems of Women Entrepreneurship in Indian Economy.

4.Methodology of Study

The study is mainly based on secondary data taken from the reputed Published Sources like Economic Survey , various books and websites on Internet.

5.Problems of Women Entrepreneurs

Women Entrepreneurs encounter two sets of problems i.e. general problems entrepreneurs and problems specific to women entrepreneurs. These are discussed follows.

1. Problem of Finance

Finance is regarded as life blood for any enterprise be in big or small. However women entrepreneurs suffer from shortage of finance on two counts. Firstly women do not generally have property on their names to use them as collateral for obtaining funds from external sources. So that access to the external sources funds is limited. Secondly the banks also consider women less credit-worthy and discourage women barrowers on belief that they can at any time leave their business.    

2. Scarcity of Raw Materials

  Most of the women enterprises are plagued by the scarcity of raw materials and necessary inputs. Added to this are high prices of raw materials, on the one hand and getting raw material at the minimum of discount on the other. The failure of many co-operatives in 1971 engaged in based making is example how the scarcity of raw material sounds the death knell of enterprises run by women.

3. Male dominated Society.

The constitution of India speaks of equality between sexes. But in practice women are looked upon as abla i.e.  Weak in all respects. In male dominated Indian society, women are not treated equal to men. This turn serves as a barrier to women entry into business.

4. Lack of Education

In India around 60% of women are still illiterate. Illiteracy is the root cause of socio- economic problem. Due to the lack of education women are not aware of business, technology and market knowledge. Also lack of education causes low achievement motivation among women. 

5. Market Oriented Risk

A number of women have to face the challenges of market because of stiff competition. Many business women find it difficult to capture the market and compete with their product. They are not fully aware of the changing market conditions.

6. Motivational Factors.

Successful businessmen can be self motivated through setting up a mind and taking up risk and accepting social responsibilities on shoulder. The other factors such as family support government policies financial assistance etc. are also important to set up business.

7. Lack of Confidence

Women lack confidence in their strength and competence. The family members and the society and reluctant to stand beside their entrepreneurial growth.

8. Training Programs

Training programs are essential to new rural and young entrepreneurs who wish to set up a small and medium scale unit. The programs enrich the skill and potential of women entrepreneur.

 6. Present Position of Women Entrepreneurs

Out of the total 940-48 million people in India in the 1990’s of the female comprise of 465% of the total population. There are 126.48 million women work force (representing 28.9% of the female population) but as per the 1991 census only 185900 women accounting for only 4.5% of total self employed persons  in the country were recorded. Majority of them are engaged in the un organized in the unorganized sectors like agriculture, agro based industries, handicrafts, handloom and cottage based industries. As per the 2001census report, there are of women workers of the total working population including formal as well as informal sector. In the era of L.P.G (Liberalization, Privatization, Globalization) the   Indian women entrepreneurs are very fast entering the non –traditional sectors. Which indeed is in response to their greater awareness.

7. How to Develop Women Entrepreneurs?

   Right efforts on from all areas are required in the development of women entrepreneurs and their greater participation in the entrepreneurial activities. Following efforts can be taken into account for effective development of women entrepreneurs.

1.   Consider women as specific target group for all developmental programmers.

2.   Better educational facilities and schemes should be extended to women folk from government part.

3.   Adequate training programmed on management skills to be provided to women  community.

4.   Encourage women's participation in decision-making.

5. Vocational training to be extended to women community that enables them to understand the production process and production management.

6. Skill development to be done in women's polytechnics and industrial training institutes. Skills are put to work in training-cum-production workshops.

7. Training on professional competence and leadership skill to be extended to women entrepreneurs.

8. Training and counseling on a large scale of existing women entrepreneurs to remove psychological causes like lack of self-confidence and fear of success.

9. Counseling through the aid of committed NGOs, psychologists, managerial experts and technical personnel should be provided to existing and emerging women entrepreneurs.

10. Continuous monitoring and improvement of training programmers.

11. Activities in which women are trained should focus on their marketability and profitability.
12. Making provision of marketing and sales assistance from government part.

13. To encourage more passive women entrepreneurs the Women training programmed should be organized that taught to recognize her own psychological needs and express them.

  8. Leading Business women in India

Sr.Noo:p>	Name	Position	Company
1	Chanda Kapoor	Executive Director	ICICI Bank.
2	Ekta  Kapoor	Creative Director	Balaji Telefilms
3	Jyoti Naik	President	Lijjat Papad
4	Lalita .D. Gupte	Jt.Managing          Director (MD)	ICICI Bank.
5	Preeta Reddy	Managing Director        (MD)	Apollo Hospital
6	Rashree Pathy	Chairman	Rashree Sugar and Chemicals Ltd.
7	Ravina Raj Kohli	Media Personality and Ex- President	Star News
8	Renuka Ramanath	CEO	ICICI Ventures
9	Tarajani Vakil	Former Chairman and MD	EXIM Bank.
10	Ritu Nanda	CEO	Escolife

9. Schemes for Women Entrepreneurs

1. Seed Capital Scheme

2. National Equity Fund

3. Prime Minister’s Employment Guarantee Scheme

4. Single Window Scheme.

5. Bank Schemes for Women Entrepreneur

6. Mahila Artik Vikas Mahamandal

10.Women Entrepreneurship in India-2008-09

States	No of Units Registered	No. of Women Entrepreneurs	Percentage %
Tamil Nadu	9618	2930	30.36
Uttar Pradesh	7980	3180	39.84
Kerala	5487	2135	38.91
Punjab	4791	1618	33.77
Maharastra	4339	1394	32.12
Gujrat	3872	1538	39.72
Karnatka	3822	1026	26.84
Madhya Pradesh	2967	842	28.38
Other States & UTS	14576	4185	28.71

Source: Economic Survey 2008-09

11.Women Corporate In Industrial Sectors - 2008-09

Sr. No	Industry	Percentage of Women Corporate
1	Transportation and Warehousing	15.1%
2	Agriculture Forestry Fishing and Hunting	14.6%
3	Whole Sale Trade	14.0%
4	Mining and Oil and Gas Extraction	13.5%
5	Manufacturing	13.3%
6	Management of Companies	12.4%
7	Real Estate and Rental and Leasing	11.8%
8	Administrative Support and Waste Management Remediation Service	10.0%

Source : Economic Survey 2008-09

12. Conclusion –

 Entrepreneurship among women, no doubt improves the wealth of the nation in general and of the family in particular. Women today are more willing to take up activities that were once considered the preserve of men, and have proved that they are second to no one with respect to contribution to the growth of the economy. Women entrepreneurship must be moulded properly with entrepreneurial traits and skills to meet the changes in trends, challenges global markets and also be competent enough to sustain and strive for excellence in the entrepreneurial arena.

13. References

1. Website

www.google.co.in

www. Wikipedia.com

2. Rajendran N (2003) , "Problems and prospects of women Entrepreneurs"       SEDME”.

3.Sharma Sheetal (2006)  " Educated  Women , powered, women" Yojana Vol.50, No.12

4. Dhameja S K (2002) , Women Entrepreneurs : Opportunities, performance,     problems.

Author : Mr.Sandeep Krishnat Raval [ N.D.Patil Night College, Sangli  
Mr.Suresh Shankar Shejal [ Ganpatrao Arwade Commerce college sangli 

Source: http://www.isrj.net/june/2011/Economic_WOMEN_ENTREPRENURSHIP_PROBLEMS_AND_PROSPECTS_OF_INDIAN_ECONOMY.html

Four Advantages To Being A Female Entrepreneur

Being a woman has its advantages and its disadvantages, but when it comes to female entrepreneurship, I think women are moving into their own. The statistics are promising as there are 8.3 million women-owned businesses in the US currently, and in the next five years, over half of all small business jobs will be created from women-owned businesses. The world is turning to women to be the new thought leaders – and we are definitely up for the challenge. As female entrepreneurs, we have significant advantages simply because we’re built differently.

(Photo credit: NEXT Berlin)

The first advantage I see is collaboration and collabatition -

 Collabation is a word I heard not too long ago – it’s collaboration with your competition in an effort to move both companies forward. Women love to work together. We naturally gravitate towards creating relationships and partnerships. We like to do things in groups, we like to involve people in what we’re doing.

We want companies that make it easy for us to have a family, to live the lifestyle we want and support our values. I believe you’ll see a lot more flex time, work share, co-working and home offices. It’s exciting for young women now to “grow up” in a corporate culture that will have them in mind. We can have business our way. It can reflect the women we are and the lifestyles we want.

The third advantage is intuition. Men definitely follow their gut, but women have a much more sensitive sense of intuition. I was fortunate enough to interview Barbara Corcoran a few weeks ago. Barbara is the only woman among 4 men during the pitches. So I said to her, ”You really have an instinct for this. You seem to invest more in the people than in the company. What do you look for?” She told me she has a few ways to decide. First, she watches them when they come into the room. They walk up and stand in the room while the cameras are swirling around and they aren’t allowed to talk to the sharks. She watches how they handle this really uncomfortable situation. Do their eyes dart around the room? Are the sweating like crazy? Are they looking down or biting their nails? Or are the calm and ready to pitch? She watches carefully so she can assess what they are like under pressure. Then after a few minutes listening to their pitch, she asks herself if she would trust them with her kids. She said, “If I went to war and came back 3 years later, would I leave my two kids with this person?” If she has an overwhelming gut feeling of NO, she won’t go into business with them. If you watch the show, you’ve probably seen her size people up. You might notice that the men are very interested in valuations, sales, ROI, etc., but Barbara really pays attention to her intuition in addition to the numbers and you can see it’s mad her very successful.

The fourth and last advantage is tenacity. Ladies, we don’t give up do we? We work our tails off. We work a full day, come home, take care of the family, the dog, clean the house, it never ends. No matter what is going on in our lives, we don’t stop until we get what we want. If we come across a roadblock, we find creative ways to get over it and around it – all in stilettos and Spanx. We’re not afraid.

Entrepreneurship isn’t for the faint of heart. You have to be tough. There is a reason why women carry and deliver babies. We are tough! We have to be! The beauty of it is, we can be tough and we can be tender. I truly believe there is a spot for tenderness and compassion in business. ”It’s not personal, it’s business.” Well not for women – it’s personal for us. We pour our hearts and souls into what we create. It’s incredibly personal. I believe we’ll begin to see even more personal touch and attention from women-led businesses.

What advantages or disadvantages do you see between men- and women-led businesses?

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chicceo/2012/10/22/four-advantages-to-being-a-female-entrepreneur/

Entrepreneurship Challenges and Opportunities: Indian Scenario

Risk taking ability, Self-confidence, Decision making ability, Knowledge of cumin growing to harvesting technology, Economic motivation, Market orientation, Risk factors, Soil and firm condition of experiences, Water resources, Water quality and volumes, need to cumin for all technical factors, Ability of co-ordination to cumin related activities, Achievement, Motivation, etc. indicators are behavior of entrepreneurial.

Entrepreneurship has gained greater significance at global level under changing economic scenario. Global economy in general and Indian economy in particular is poised for accelerated growth driven by entrepreneurship. Admits environment of super mall culture we find plenty of scope for entrepreneurship in trading and manufacturing.

An entrepreneur is a person who is able to look at the environment, identify opportunities to improve the environmental resources and implement action to maximize those opportunities (Robert E. Nelson) it is important to bear in mind the entrepreneurial skills that will be needed to improve the quality of life for individuals, families and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Taking this into consideration, we will find that each of the traditional definitions has its own weakness (Tyson, Petrin, Rogers, 1994, p. 4).

The first definition leaves little room for innovations that are not on the technological or organizational cutting edge, such as, adaptation of older technologies to a developing-country context, or entering into export markets already tapped by other firms. Defining entrepreneurship as risk-taking neglects other major elements of what we usually think of as entrepreneurship, such as a well-developed ability to recognize unexploited market opportunities.

Entrepreneurship as a stabilizing force limits entrepreneurship to reading markets disequilibria, while entrepreneurship defined as owning and operating a business, denies the possibility of entrepreneurial behavior by non-owners, employees and managers who have no equity stake in the business. Therefore, the most appropriate definition of entrepreneurship that would fit into the rural development context, argued here, is the broader one, the one which defines entrepreneurship as: "a force that mobilizes other resources to meet unmet market demand", "the ability to create and build something from practically nothing", "the process of creating value by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity".

It combines definitions of entrepreneurship by Jones and Sakong, 1980; Timmons, 1989; Stevenson, et al., 1985. Entrepreneurship so defined, pertains to any new organization of productive factors and not exclusively to innovations that are on the technological or organizational cutting edge, it pertains to entrepreneurial activities both within and outside the organization. Entrepreneurship need not involve anything new from a global or even national perspective, but rather the adoption of new forms of business organizations, new technologies and new enterprises producing goods not previously available at a location (Petrin, 1991).

This is why entrepreneurship is considered to be a prime mover in development and why nations, regions and communities that actively promote entrepreneurship development, demonstrate much higher growth rates and consequently higher levels of development than nations, regions and communities whose institutions, politics and culture hinder entrepreneurship. An entrepreneurial economy, whether on the national, regional or community level, differs significantly from a non-entrepreneurial economy in many respects, not only by its economic structure and its economic vigorousness, but also by the social vitality and quality of life which it offers with a consequent attractiveness to people.

Economic structure is very dynamic and extremely competitive due to the rapid creation of new firms and the exit of 'old' stagnant and declining firms Redefining entrepreneurship and innovation Succeeding as an entrepreneur and an innovator in today’s world is vastly different from what it was earlier. Organizations will face seven trends in the next decade as they flight to survive, grow and remain competitive.

• Speed and uncertainty will prevail.
• Technology will continue to disrupt and enable.
• Demographics will dictate much of what happens in business.
• Loyalty will erode.
• Work will be done anywhere, anytime.
• Employment as we know it will disappear.

Women Entrepreneur:

Women entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all segments of the economy in India, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Australia and the United States. The areas chosen by women are retail trade, restaurants, hotels, education, cultural, cleaning, insurance and manufacturing The New Thrust suggests following two factors pulling or pushing women in an entrepreneurship Factors leading women to be an entrepreneur:Women entrepreneurs choose a Women takes up business enterprises to Profession as a challenge and an get over financial difficulties and respond- adventure with an urge to do some - visibility is thrust on them due to family -thing new, liking for business and circumstances. to have an independent occupation. With the spread of education and new approaches/awareness, women entrepreneurs are achieving higher level of 3E’s, namely: (i) Engineering (ii) Electronics (iii) Energy. Though we should not forget certain Psycho-Social Barriers which hinders the growth of women entrepreneurs.

Opportunities :

• Free entry into world trade.
• Improved risk taking ability.
• Governments of nations withdrawn some restrictions
• Technology and inventions spread into the world.
• Encouragement to innovations and inventions.
• Promotion of healthy completions among nations
• Consideration increase in government assistance for international trade.
• Establishment of other national and international institutes to support business among nations of the world.
• Benefits of specialization.
• Social and cultural development

Challenges:

• Problems of raising equity capital
• Difficulty in borrowing fund.
• T hought-cut completions endangered existence of small companies.
• Problems of availing raw-materials.
• Problems of obsolescence of indigenous technology
• Increased pollutions Ecological imbalanced.
• Problems of TRIPS and TRIMS.
• Exploitation of small and poor countries, etc.

Suggestions

• Govt. should provide separate financial fund of women’s entrepreneur.
• We should provide her special infrastructure facilities what ever she deeds.
• Govt. should arrange special training programmes of women entrepreneurship
• Govt. should felicitated top ranker women’s entrepreneur.
• Women entrepreneur should more competitive and efficient in the local & international market.
• Use should invite successful women entrepreneurs from foreign countries.

Women Entrepreneurship in India

Out of total 940.98 million people in India, in the 1990s, females comprise 437.10 million representing 46.5 percent of the total population. There are 126.48 million women workforce but as per the 1991 census, only 1, 85,900 women accounting for only 4.5 per cent of the total self-employed persons in the country were recorded. As per a rough estimate the number of SSIs are expected to be2.5 billion having 9% women entrepreneurs in to it. Considering this trend, women participation in another five years was 20 % more, raising the number of women entrepreneurs to about 5, 00,000. Combined effect of motivational drive, preparation of information material, conducting training, creation of women industrial estates, and training of promoters and use of mass media all together is bound to accelerate the process of women entrepreneurship development. Some psycho-social factors impede the growth of women entrepreneurs are as follows:

• Poor self-image of women
• Inadequate motivation
• Discriminating treatment
• Faulty socialization
• Role conflict
• Cultural values
• Lack of courage and self-confidence
• Inadequate encouragement
• Lack of social acceptance
• Unjust social, economic and cultural system
• Lack of freedom of expression
• Afraid of failures and criticism
• Susceptible to negative attitude
• Low dignity of labour

What New Awareness has to say about it? The new Industrial Policy of the Government of India has specially highlighted the need for special entrepreneurship programmes for women entrepreneurs in the nature of product-process oriented courses – to enable them to start small-scale industries. A majority of women entrepreneurs are from the middle class families who have low technical education, less family responsibilities but desire to become entrepreneurs. This potential should be identified and tapped.

Rural Entrepreneur Succeeding as an entrepreneur and an innovator in today’s world is vastly different from what it was earlier. Besides the existing generation of entrepreneurship also is passing through the transition period. They experience financial resource limitation to promote or to develop a venture and there is also look of research and innovation to meat with marketing challenges. Indian rural economy is also experiencing behavior of entrepreneurial. Aim of most farmers is to earn profits from farming as from any other business, if he determines the objectives. A farm business necessary requires deliberate decision and proper investment, after assessing risk and available resources to maximize profit. There for entrepreneurship is not simply adoption of new activity but it is transformation of a person from traditional of modern India is known as “Home spices” and is in fact the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices in the world. Though, cumin cultivation requires more inputs and production prices are high but last two years monetary output is uncertain. It is also sensitive crop to many disease, pest and also highly risky crop considering natural hazards, as well as the day to day fluctuating wholesale price index. Organizations will face seven trends in the next decade as they flight to survive, grow and remain competitive.

• Speed and uncertainty will prevail.
• Technology will continue to disrupt and enable.
• Demographics will dictate much of what happens in business.
• Loyalty will erode.
• Work will be done anywhere, anytime.
• Employment as we know it will disappear.

Opportunities For rural Entrepreneurs.

• Crashed Scheme for Rural Development
• Food for Work Programme
• National Rural Employment Programme
• Regional Rural Development Centers
• Entrepreneurship Development institute of India
• Bank of Technology
• Rural Innovation Funding
• Social Rural Entrepreneurship.

Challenges For Rural Entrepreneurs

• Growth of Mall Culture
• Poor Assistance
• Power Failure
• Lack of Technical know how
• Capacity Utilization
• Infrastructure Sickness

Present Entrepreneurial Scenario

Mr. Ratan Tata had clearly articulated to us his ‘vision’ for Tata Motors. The company has very successfully launched its passenger cars- ‘Indica’ and ‘Indigo’ and recently in January’ 2008 they have set a benchmark in the history of four-wheeler industry all around the globe by offering their masterpiece ‘NANO’ to be the world’s cheapest car worth 1 Lac rupees only. The company has also taken over the business of Corus, a giant in the steel industry.

Vijay Mallya and talk of innovation, to hit the Indian market. Vijay Mallya’s mission was to create brand Kingfisher as a generic brand for lifestyle. There happened to be some sort of compatibility between the way he lived his life and the brand image that he was thinking to create. One of the key ingredients of innovation is to simply be yourself. He did the restructuring process of United Breweries without any sense of embarrassment. We are all sometimes stymied, curbed and limited by ourselves. Philips, Sony, Honda, Ford provide the signposts of entrepreneurship today for all to emulate. Some of these have come up only in recent years and from small beginnings. In India, too, one sees glimpses of such entrepreneurship. ICICI’s experience tells a great deal about entrepreneurship – good as well as not so good.

Following Indian firms will keep on dominating the corporate world in the future too —

• Tata Steel & Motors
• Indian Oil Corporation
• Reliance industries
• Infosys Technologies
• Moser Baer
• Bharti Tele-ventures

Twaalfhoven and Indivers (1993, pp. 3-4), they are run by dynamic entrepreneurs, who manage and lead their companies not only to remain in the business but to expand it. Dynamic entrepreneurs look for growth, they do not have only a vision but are also capable of making it happen. They think and act globally, look for expansion, rely on external resources, seek professional advice or they work with professional teams. They challenge competitors instead of avoiding them and take and share risks in a way that leads to success. In this way economic vitality of a country largely depends on the overall level of entrepreneurial capacity, i.e., on its ability to create rapidly growing companies

Summary

The entrepreneurs provide a magical touch to an organization, whether in public or private or joint sector, in achieving speed, flexibility, innovativeness, and a strong sense of self-determination. They bring a new vision to the forefront of economic growth.

By

Dr. Vineet Chouhan,

Lecturer, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Udaipur

Dr. M. L. Vasita

Assistant Professor, Jai Narayan Vyas University, Jodhpur.

Mr. Dinesh Kumar Vyas

Research Scholar, University of Kota, Kota

Submitted to RB by Dr. Vineet Chouhan

Source: http://www.publishyourarticles.net/knowledge-hub/articles/entrepreneurship-challenges-and-opportunities-indian-scenario.html