Entrepreneurship In Small Towns

The entrepreneurial spirit in India was displayed during pre-independence period by a few groups and sections of the society. Community-wise, Parsis and Marwaris have distinguished themselves and have set the pace for economic leadership. The history of growing entrepreneurship in India leaves many questions unanswered. Why people only from certai cimmunities were attracted to entrepreneurship? Why did not the spirit of enterprise permeate among other sections of the society? Again why did it concentrate in a few families even among other sections of the society? This book presents the story of the entrepreneurs in two small towns in coastal Andhra, who used their traditional culture and recently acquired skills to respond to new structures of economic opportunity in the process of improving their social status and initiating a process of economic change. First two chapters highlight the importance of entrepreneurship and historical accounts of the Indian entrepreneurial scene. Main springs of entrepreneurship are discussed in chapter III. Motivating and facilitating factors have been examined in chapter IV. The purpose of the fifth chapter is to quantity the occupational change of entrepreneurs belonging to different castes, through three generations, starting from their grand-fathers. The changing occupational structure and geographical mobility of the entrepreneurs and their predecessors are also analysed. Chapter VI measures the performance and throws light on the problems faced by the enterprises.