A wave of entrepreneurship is sweeping across the country, but public discourse does not focus on it and the media is not adequately capturing this, according to Hindol Sengupta, Editor-at-Large, Fortune India. He was addressing a session organised by CII Young Indians, Visakhapatnam Chapter, on his new book ‘Recasting India: How Entrepreneurship is Revolutionizing the World’s Largest Democracy’ here on Wednesday. Sengupta’s latest book ‘Recasting India’ traces the grassroots entrepreneurial story in India that has never been told.
“The new India is being created through entrepreneurship, which is challenging the political order and even the caste system. As we see this change happening, we also need to look at our own history. For 4,000 years we were an entrepreneurial country. For instance, before the British Raj, India was one of the largest ship building countries in the world,” he said.
Sengupta’s book profiles entrepreneurs and progressive government leaders in several states and communities in India. Referring to one his researches in Nekpur Village in Ghaziabad, Sengupta spoke about the prevalence of manual scavenging in the region till about three years ago. “This happened till the women, who had been working as manual scavengers, were involved in a project called ‘Azmat’ that provides training in making and selling detergent powder. After that, none of them returned to manual scavenging. Such entrepreneurial initiatives bring viable alternatives to those who are stuck in a task of manual scavenging,” he added. Referring to the initiative to create a Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (Mudra) Bank in this year’s Union Budget, Sengupta said that the Mudra Bank should provide much needed financial assistance to millions of micro, small and medium enterprises who, at this point in time, get little or no assistance to access finance.
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