FUTURE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA

THE FUTURE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA

In India, business was traditionally considered to be the domain of scholarly challenged individuals or the result of natural inheritance within business communities. Gradually, the appetite for risk and the acceptance of failure increased, but only recently have alternate professions and the idea of "following one’s dream" gained approval. In particular, entrepreneurship caught the fancy of the Indian middle class after the economy was liberalized. The economic reforms introduced in 1991 reduced the bureaucratic controls, promoted private enterprise, and lowered the barriers to creating new businesses. Coupled with the emergence of knowledge economy, the demand for skilled employees greatly increased and a trend emerged toward technology entrepreneurship in the services sector, which is less capital-intensive than traditional industries.

Indeed, the future of entrepreneurship in India lies in the services sector, and the Government of India is providing support to encourage this trend. However, there are as many challenges as there are opportunities, as will be discussed below.

Government Support

Traditionally, government programs, and support from the banking and finance industry, were largely focused and aligned to the manufacturing sector with its strong product focus. Industry associations such as the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) have existed since the pre-independence era and lobby the government for policy initiatives that favour traditional businesses and industries. With the information technology sector emerging as a rapidly growing segment of Indian industry the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) was formed in 1988 as the industry association for information technology industry.

In 2000, the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) – under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) – launched the Technology Business Incubation (TBI) program, which is geared towards supporting entrepreneurship in emerging technology areas such as information and communications technology, manufacturing, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and agricultural technology. This program was an extension of the Science & Technology Entrepreneurs' Park program, which was initiated in 1985 by the NSTEDB in academic institutions and research labs of excellence with an objective of promoting self employment for young science and technology graduates. The NSTEDB identified 120 technology business incubators in different technology areas within India (NSTEDB, 2009). Of these, 53 were promoted by the NSTEDB, 40 were software technology parks promoted by the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, and the remaining 30 were promoted by other government departments, banks, financial institutions, or private companies. The numbers are small for a country as large as India and the geographical distribution is also not uniform: 56% of incubators are located in southern India, 21% are in northern India, 17% are in western India, and only 6% are located in eastern regions (NSTEDB, 2014).

The Government of India promoted and supported small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in India by establishing clusters across the country. District Industry Centres were established in all major cities and towns of India. Cottage industries were established and promoted through various support programs under the Khadi and Village Industries Commission. In 2006, the Government of India established the Ministry of Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (Ministry of MSME), which provides support in the form of infrastructure resources, funds, training, and tax benefits.

Besides government initiatives, many private organizations are helping build the entrepreneurial ecosystem and related support services. A number of private incubators and accelerators have entered the field in the past few years, though most of these are located in the main technology hubs of the country (i.e., Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata) leaving a lot of scope for penetration to less prominent cities and towns.

Challenges and Opportunities

Data from the NASSCOM resource centre paints a clear picture of the emerging startup ecosystem in India (NASSCOM, 2014):

• The number of technology startups has tripled in last six years, from about 1000 to 3000 startups.
• Two-thirds of entrepreneurs are less than 30 years of age.
• Health care, retail, and SMAC (social, mobility, analytics, and cloud) are the hot beds of technology entrepreneurship.
• The number of angel investors has grown from 7 to 32 from 2006 to 2012 while the number of venture capitalists has grown from 43 to 48 in the same period.

Thus, the entrepreneurial journey of an independent India has only just begun and the road ahead is full of promise, provided that a favourable ecosystem continues to develop and give wings to this fledgling trend. There is much to desire in terms of policy reforms and support system available to entrepreneurs. However, numerous challenges and related opportunities remain and can be summarized as follows:

1. Culture shift: India has experienced nearly two centuries of colonial influence followed by a half century of socialistic policy leanings, and neither of these contexts favour free private enterprise. The shift to an entrepreneurial culture is a recent phenomenon, which is yet to transform the traditional middle-class mindset of business being "the refuge of the incompetent and the unscrupulous" and of salaried jobs being a secure option in an uncertain world. This culture is gradually changing with social acceptance of new alternatives and growing appetites for risk. The shift to nuclear families and high mobility has also reduced social pressures to conform. In most areas, the gaps are many and competition is limited, hence a large opportunity exists for entrepreneurial initiatives.
    
2. Disparity: The entrepreneurial ecosystem is evolving every day with the birth of new support agencies (both government and private initiatives) to meet the growing needs of entrepreneurs; yet, it has a long way to go to address the needs of a country as large as India. The rapid growth of a support system is concentrated in certain pockets of urban development centres, mainly in the technology hubs limited to metropolitan areas and some state capitals. The distribution of facilities though uneven is fast spreading, and the benefits of the developing economy are gradually percolating to the remote geographies and to the demography at "the bottom of the pyramid" thanks to increased social entrepreneurship. The equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth and development has caught the attention of many socially inclined entrepreneurs. Hopefully, the glaring disparity in wealth distribution can be made less stark by providing an even playing field.
    
3. Foreign influence: The growth of the Indian economy is service oriented with a heavy dependence on export. The domestic demand is low due to stagnant primary and secondary sectors of the economy. A huge spate of economic reforms are the need of the hour to boost domestic agriculture and the industrial sector to create indigenous demand for services and to develop the domestic markets. A heavy dependence on foreign economies makes growth unstable and vulnerable to external uncertainties. That the need for this balance is being recognized at different levels and that policy reforms for promoting the neglected sectors of the economy are being initiated are good signs. A heavy investment in infrastructure development and business-friendly regulations being planned to improve the country's ratings in terms of the ease of doing business and to attract foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investment, if successfully implemented, can open doors to new possibilities for entrepreneurs.
    
4. Lack of success stories: The success of predecessors opens doors for those who follow. India needs more entrepreneurial success stories to feed on and motivate the next generation to embrace the difficult but rewarding entrepreneurial journey. Rags to riches success stories of early Indian entrepreneurs associated with Infosys, Flipkart, Naukri, Makemytrip, Biocon, Dr. Reddy's, Red Bus, and the like are giving rise to new hopes and aspirations in the masses. The blooming SME sector reflects the strength of a country's economic ecosystem. India needs to recognize and reward its risk takers and promote entrepreneurs of all hues as the growth engines of the economy. Having tunnel vision about what success consists of and what is considered an achievement for an entrepreneur may restrict the diversity of initiatives. The ecosystem needs to support all segments of entrepreneurial effort without discrimination or bias for set categories.
    
5. Social entrepreneurship: India suffers from inequitable distribution of wealth, with 42% of its large population living below the international poverty line of $1.25 USD per day (UNICEF, 2008). Many are still deprived of the benefits of economic growth and the technology revolution. To achieve inclusive growth for all economic sections of the society, another trend is social entrepreneurship, which aims to create enterprises that will impact the lives at the bottom of demographic pyramid. For example, the penetration of mobile technology to the remotest geographies and the lowest economic strata is proving to be the most helpful tool in reaching out to this segment, and social entrepreneurship funds and incubators are now available with exclusive focus on this sector. Incubators such as Villgro, the Rural Technology and Business Incubator (RTBI), Periyar Technology Business Incubator are exclusively focused in this area while others such as the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and the Deshpande Foundation are increasing efforts to identify scalable models in social enterprises. Funds such as Ennovent, Dasra, and UnLtd India are trying to systematically invest in scalable social enterprises. Because there are large gaps in this sector, the potential and scope for innovation is also high.
    
6. Funding: Although the traditional banking and financial industry has rules and regulations that favour the industrial sector, which is more oriented towards secured debt, new equity-investing arms are coming up in most public and private financial institutions to support the service sector. Private seed and angel funding besides private equity and venture capital funding are fast growing, primarily in funding technology ideas that have a shorter life cycle and rapid scalability potential.

Conclusion

The Indian experience has established that, when the right environment is created by the policy makers, the entrepreneurial spirit of the people finds expression and the economic activity booms. The government and the citizens alike have realized the potential of private initiatives ever since the Indian economy was liberalized in the 1990s. The trend of private enterprise is picking up pace in India and is likely to be supported by all executive and legislative functions of the country irrespective of political ideologies. 

Despite many challenges, the entrepreneurial opportunities in India are substantial. A new-found entrepreneurial culture is creating a favourable ecosystem of service and resource providers. Besides government programs and agencies, a number of private funds, mentors, and service providers are entering the arena to further accelerate the trend. There is a long way to go to reach a mature entrepreneurial landscape in India, but the opportunities are sufficiently large and numerous that the future of India will likely be shaped by its entrepreneurs. 

​

---

References

NASSCOM. 2014. Start-up Ecosystem: Innovative, Daring, Futuristic. National Association of Software and Services Companies. August 1, 2014:
http://www.nasscom.in/india-startup-ecosystem

NSTEDB. 2009. Developing Ecosystem for Knowledge to Wealth Creation: Technology Business Incubators. New Delhi: Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB).

NSTEDB. 2014. Fuelling Entrepreneurship: The Story of Technology Business Incubation in India. New Delhi: Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB).

UNICEF. 2008. The State of the World's Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health. New York: United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Dubey, R. 2014. Q&A. What is the Future of Entrepreneurship in India?. Technology Innovation Management Review, 4(8): 46-49. http://timreview.ca/article/822

The Paradigm of Rural entrepreneurship development

The Paradigm of Rural entrepreneurship development

A traditional paradigm in entrepreneurship development assumes that the process of entrepreneurship development is associated with entrepreneurship development programs (EDPs) conducted mainly for the purpose of identifying and developing potential entrepreneurs. These EDPs are devised for grooming entrepreneurs through entrepreneurial training to develop and strengthen the entrepreneurial quality (Kroon, J. et al., 2006) and competencies of the potential entrepreneurs willing and ready to build their own business or enterprise creation. The process of entrepreneurial development focuses on training, education, reorientation and creation of conductive and healthy environment for the growth of enterprises.

With a shift in the traditional paradigm, rural entrepreneurship development as an alternative paradigm involves developing capacity of rural people or communities to be entrepreneurial in their own rural context and providing start-up support (through an Eco-system of policy, facilities, finance, Technical, managerial and strategic support framework). The strategy for RED is three pronged. RED is mainly concerned with the development of three constituent aspects of the concept of rural entrepreneurship namely development of rural entrepreneurs, development of rural enterprises and development of rural entrepreneurial Eco-system. These aspects may also be defined as the developmental needs with respect to RED. The basic objective of rural entrepreneurship development demarcated by policy makers in our country envisaged the commitment to create socio-economic parity in the rural areas as against its counterparts. Rural Entrepreneurship Development aims at bringing about the dispersal of micro and small village industries (MSVEs) in rural areas with the advantage of optimum mobilization of local resources. Rural Entrepreneurship Development (Kirve and Kanitkar, 1993) has been viewed as a vital program for socio-economic development of rural areas. The objectives are to trigger economic development and generate employment by providing necessary factor inputs and infrastructure for productive uses in agriculture and rural industries, and improving the quality of life of the rural people by entrepreneurial Empowerment. This also focuses on to help upgrade the skill, creativity & productivity of rural artisans and encourage value-addition and quality of their products.

The rationale for the Rural Entrepreneurship Development is rooted in a clear opportunity for building more prosperous, dynamic and sustainable economies in rural India through entrepreneurship development enabling the rural people to build micro and small industries on their own. Energizing rural entrepreneurs is one important place of this strategy for rapid rural industrialization and creating Rural Entrepreneurship Development Eco-system that focus on supporting rural entrepreneurs and building entrepreneurial communities is another part of this strategy. Rural industrialization driven rural entrepreneurship development for promoting Micro and Small Village Enterprises (MSVEs) is considered basically a question of properly linking the rich, but idle natural resources in the rural areas. It is a process of the involvement of industries in the development of an area and also participation by area factors and agents in the growth of industries best suited to that specific area. It implies a fusion among the resources of the rural area and people’s aspirations and the industrial activities.

Scope of Rural entrepreneurship development

The scope of RED revolves around building a system of support for entrepreneurs – through a focus on entrepreneurship education, technical assistance, and financial capital – and to create a culture of entrepreneurship and supportive policy that would sustain these efforts into the future. Rural Entrepreneurship Development (RED) Policies, efforts, programs and schemes focus on:-

• Identification and cultivation of potential entrepreneurs among different target groups such as Rural Poor, Women, Minorities, SCs, STs, OBCs etc and promotion of rural unemployed people (men & women) into gainful economic activities.

• Recognize and developing a climate conducive to the development of rural enterprises and entrepreneurs and Creating and fostering a support environment such that any resident with the motivation and capacity to become an entrepreneur can do so, regardless of location in rural hinterland.

• Identification of area-specific viable manufacturing and service activities, developing the potential of setting up all types of industries in the rural areas and Promoting and Supporting Micro and Small Village Enterprises (MSVEs) for rural         people to utilize their potential for self-employment and innovation.

• Providing, developing and augmenting both production-oriented and welfare-oriented rural infrastructure, and physical facilities to facilitate setting up of new enterprises.

• Identifying the educational and training & Development needs of the rural people, designing suitable program of entrepreneurial education and providing them with the skills, knowledge and tools needed to start their own venture, and establishing and sustaining a comprehensive and supportive institutional framework for providing Gainful economic and employment opportunities to utilize rural resources.

• Fostering institutional network to provide necessary support and assistance pertaining to Credit and finance, Technical Know-how, input sources and procurement, information and Data need about govt. Policies, Market potential sand competition in the market, technological changes, opportunities and treats to their business etc.

Keeping in view the aforesaid contents of rural entrepreneurship development for expeditious rural industrialization and present socio-economic contents of the state, the process of rural entrepreneurship development demands the fulfillment of essential conditions in its perspectives like appropriate and up-to-date technology adoption by Micro and Small Village Enterprises (MSVEs) to enhance viability and competitive strength.

Govt. Role in Developing Rural Entrepreneurship

            In India, the Government's policy and programmes have laid emphasis on poverty alleviation, generation of employment and income opportunities and provision of infrastructure and basic facilities to meet the needs of rural poor. Governments at the Centre as well at the State designed a number of schemes and programs for the support of entrepreneurs in general and for rural men/women entrepreneurs in particular. Government has identified several sectors in the rural areas and has accordingly formed various schemes to improve and enhance the socio-economic well being and quality of life in villages. RED in India has received much attention during the last few years. The Department of Rural Employment and Poverty Alleviation under the Ministry of Rural Development have initiated several schemes in which 30 to 40 per cent of the benefits are reserved for rural women below the poverty line. The underlying philosophy of these schemes is to encourage entrepreneurship and self-help among rural women. Several policies, programs, schemes, procedures and institutions have been formulated and setup to support development of entrepreneurship among the rural people in India (N.C. Saxena, 2007). Such developmental and promotional measures can be categorized as follows-

1. Policy framework supporting rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.

2. Programs supporting rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.

3. Institutional support to rural entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs.

REDPs are envisioned as mechanism of socio-economic development of the rural India (Singh, S. K., 2002). Such Programs creates entrepreneurs who are able to establish small and micro enterprises which require lower investment of funds and a few employees only (Khatkar, R. K., 1989). These programs aims at mitigating poverty, elimination of unemployment and thus providing gainful self-employment and promotion of micro and small village enterprises (MSVEs), balanced regional development, Utilization of local resources, in the rural areas and to check lopsided economic development.

            The various government schemes offered which includes entrepreneurship development concept are Prime Minister’s Rojgar Yojna (PMRY), Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY), and rural employment generation Program (REGP). Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana Scheme (SGSY), the amended and merged version of the erstwhile Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA), Integrated Rural Development program (IRDP) and Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment (TRYSEM), was launched in April 1999. It is a holistic credit-cum-subsidy program, covering all aspects of self-employment (Sood, A.K., 2009) Keeping in view the documented objectives, a detailed study about Govt. policies, assistance and programs has been done in chapter five (5) entitled as “Review of Govt. Policies & programs” and the impact evaluation of such programs in chapter seven (7) entitled as Programs performance and Impact Analysis.

            A network of organizations is there in the state, which provides loan facilities as well as training, consultancy, and marketing services to the rural entrepreneurs. The government has created institutional network to provide the infrastructural support to entrepreneurs. A number of institutions and government agencies at different levels are involved in RED creating an entrepreneurial eco-system for removing various environmental and personal inhibiting factors or barriers to the growth of rural micro and small village enterprises (Vaish, K., 1993). 

The government of India and the respective governments in the states have created, developed and sustained the institutional network of organized developmental institutions in the country supporting the development and sustenance of micro and small village enterprises and alleviating rural poverty (Gupta, R. K., 1993). The various central and state sponsored institutions and autonomous agencies for support of SSI are SSI board, KVIC, SIDO, NSIC, NSTEDB, NPC, NISIET, IIE and EDI etc. The state government agencies are DI, DIC, SFC, SIDC, SIIC, SSIDC etc (Bhole, 2009).

Rural Entrepreneurship

Rural Entrepreneurship: An Introduction

            The concept of rural entrepreneurship does not dilute the definition of entrepreneurs in general. An entrepreneur is an individual who fails to conform to the traditional structured role given to him in society and finds an exit to venture on his own. In this context of his deviant pursuit, the societal frame of reference of a rural entrepreneur assumes operational significance. Like entrepreneurship, rural entrepreneurship also conjures different meanings to different people. Without going into semantics, rural entrepreneurship can simply be defined as entrepreneurship in rural areas. In other words, establishing industrial units in the rural areas refers to rural entrepreneurship.

Rural entrepreneurship is, fundamentally, about using a market-driven business model to address key socio-economic issues pertaining to the rural economy under consideration. It is an emerging field with diverse and shifting interpretations. Entrepreneurship emerging in rural areas is called rural entrepreneurship. Rural entrepreneurship symbolizes rural industrialization. Rural industrialization provides the best solution to tackle with the twin problems of unemployment and poverty stalking the rural areas in the country. That is why the government of India has been assigning increasing importance to the development of rural industrialization or entrepreneurship in her subsequent five year plans.  The focus of rural entrepreneurship is, therefore, very clear. Firstly, it can produce self employment opportunities, to the millions and thus, reduce unemployment; secondly, it can augment employment avenues for others in backward areas and bring in balanced regional development to alleviate poverty (Ahmad, R., et al., 2012). This perspective has viewed and elaborated rural entrepreneurship as rural industrialization consisting mainly of agro-based industries, Khadi and village industries and cottage industries. Rural Entrepreneurship attempts to cater the rural need for Employment generation (Awogben and Iwuamadi, 2010), Income generation, rural development, build up village republics and stopping rural-urban migration (Abraham and Kalamkar, 2011).

The Rural Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur is a person who assumes risk and control of commercial enterprise. Entrepreneurs have been described as people who have the ability to see and evaluate business opportunities, gather the necessary resources to take advantage of them and initiate appropriate action to ensure success. He is a risk- taker, a man, or woman who bears uncertainty, strikes out on his or her own, and through natural wit, devotion to duty and singleness of purpose, somehow creates a business and industrial activity where none existed before. Bird (1992) sees entrepreneurs as mercurial, that is, prone to insights, brainstorms, deceptions, ingeniousness and resourcefulness. They are cunning, opportunistic, creative, and unsentimental.

Rural entrepreneurship is the work of a rural entrepreneur. A Rural entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a business or self employment opportunity in the rural or village context and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture assuming risk and rewards. Successful entrepreneurship is hard work carried out in an unpredictable environment. A Rural entrepreneur is someone who is prepared to stay in the rural area and contribute to the creation of local wealth by recognizing a business opportunity and using a market-driven business model to address key socio-economic issues pertaining to the rural economy. The economic goals of a rural entrepreneur and the social goals of rural development are strongly inter-linked. Rural entrepreneurs are persons whose primary occupation and main source of livelihood is farming or agriculture related no-farm economic activities and take up an enterprise in the village based on their skills. Rural entrepreneur is a person with a drive and ability to bear risk assuming the rewards (Alasadi and Abdelrahim, 2007). He is the spark-plug who transforms the rural economic scene. Hence, it is said that an economy is an effect for which rural entrepreneurship is the cause. Rural entrepreneurship development has, therefore, become a matter of great concern in all developing countries all over the world. But the real problem is how to develop rural entrepreneurship. Broadly, rural entrepreneurs fall into the categories of Farm Entrepreneurs, Artisan Entrepreneurs, Merchant and Trading Entrepreneurs, Tribal Entrepreneurs, service entrepreneur and Micro & small village manufacturer.

            The different empirical studies and observations made researcher to conceptualize the prevailing trends of form and nature of rural entrepreneurs as Micro and Small Village Entrepreneurs (MSVEs). MSVEs are viewed as those people who start and set up Micro and Small Village enterprises which are classified into small, tiny, Cottage and Household Industries, Handloom and Textiles, Khadi and Village Industries, Handicrafts Development and Sericulture etc. MSVEs are found to be engaged in the production of goods, agro and related products, micro/Tiny/cottage level manufacturing enterprises, trading enterprise and service providing enterprise covering artisans, skilled craftsman and technicians in the areas identified as Villages, small towns which are socio-economically poor, areas rural in nature, industrially backward or less developed or areas purely having purely agricultural or farming pattern of occupation. MSVEs focus on cottage industry/household industry/Tiny industry/Rural Traders etc. An important component of micro and small village entrepreneurs is the unorganized sector of workers- Rural Artisans, especially in the rural population.  A noticeable aspect is the existence of artisans in this informal sector.  These artisans comprise blacksmiths, carpenters, weavers (carpets, durries, khesh, sarees, etc.), potters, mudha makers, hand tool makers, farm implement makers, metal wares (silver, brass, copper) makers, sculpturists (wood, metal clay, stone), handicraft makers, etc.  These artisans, on one hand, are regarded as custodians of the heritage of India, and on the other, play an important role in the village life through their repairs and maintenance services.

Rural Entrepreneurship in India

            Rural entrepreneurship is acknowledged as an important component that contributes to the economic development of a country. These days rural entrepreneurship in India is seen as the largest force in the development of the rural areas. In fact, many of the developing countries in the world have used the concept of rural entrepreneurship as a very successful method of deterring rural unrest. Abraham and Kalamkar (2011) stated that in India, initiatives like the IRDP and the SGSY were undertaken to reach the poor in the rural areas aimed at increasing income through self-employment. Many of these programs, gave thrust to promoting group entrepreneurship as group approach was considered to be more suitable and therefore to be promoted.

The states in India have taken a number of initiatives for developing industrial infrastructure to achieve consistent economic growth. The Directorate of Rural Development (DRD) plays a major role in the socio-economic growth of rural India by implementing various schemes for the upliftment of the rural people. The department has the responsibility to implement special centrally sponsored rural development schemes. At the district level, the schemes are coordinated and implemented by the district rural development agencies with the help of block agencies and other line departments. The Panchayati raj institutions are also fully involved in planning, execution, monitoring of schemes at the field level (Anjum, D., 2011).

To alleviate the poverty and for the generation of rural employment opportunities in the country, a good number of state govt. agencies, financial and development institutions are involved responsible for implementing various schemes both state and centrally sponsored rural development schemes regarding employment generation as Self Help Groups (SHG’s) National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme ,Prime Minister Rojgar Yojna, Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP),Prime Minister Employment Guarantee Programme ( PMEGP) etc. for generation of employment opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises in rural as well as urban areas. Besides, a good number of agencies like DRDAs, DICs, HKVIB, NABARD, and RRBs etc. have implemented various schemes like Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY), SHG-Bank linkage program, PMRY & REGP (now PMEGP), Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), and HSIIDC Udyog Kunj Scheme etc. Institute of Rural Research and Development in Haryana is currently targeting sustainable development in rural Haryana. The goal of the Foundation in India is to improve the overall well-being of villagers through grassroots activities and by promoting "self employment" to the youth of rural Haryana.