Nearly 50% of Indians eyed entrepreneurship in 2015: Report

Nearly 50% of respondents considering to start their own business according to the India Entrepreneurship Report 2015. The report said that almost one in two respondents (47%), said that they had either thought about starting their own business or are actively pursuing one.

Overall, 19% of respondents said that they are "very open to starting a new business and in fact are actively pursuing one". Jharkhand has the highest number of respondents (60%) who say that they are actively pursuing a new business, followed by Uttarakhand (40%) and Uttar Pradesh (29%).

Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Rajiv Pratap Rudy released the India Entrepreneurship Report 2015 by Amway along with research partner Nielsen India. The reports aims to understand the latent enthusiasm for entrepreneurship in the country, as well as factors that motivate and obstruct the creation of new enterprises.

Research partner Nielsen India surveyed 250 households in each of the 21 states across 50 different cities. One male and one female member in the 21-65 age group were interviewed from each household taking the total no of respondents to 10,768 individuals (Male 5,402 and Female 5,366).

Unveiling the report, Rudy said, "The contribution of MSME sector (Micro, Small and medium enterprises) in India, is much less as compared to some of the developed nations. This needs to change. It is critical that there is entrepreneurship led boom at the grass root level so that India can leverage the demographic dividend to the maximum possible extent. The understanding of motivations, attitudes towards entrepreneurship, offers valuable insight to the policy makers."

Anshu Budhraja, CEO, Amway India, said, "We are aiming to engage different stakeholders on what drives entrepreneurship in India and contribute to the on-going discussions on the role of skill development and self-employment in improving employability of the youth.

Entrepreneurship is a way for people to realise a better life for themselves and their families. Entrepreneurs also create jobs and encourage competition. They spur economic growth and bring opportunities to communities. So, it's important that businesses like Amway know how entrepreneurs think and act in order to better support and encourage them."

According to the report, access to finance (41%) and family support (35%) emerged as the most important factors to start one's own business. 73% of the respondents believe that anyone can be trained/ educated to be an entrepreneur. 62% of all respondents thought that the education they had right now was sufficient to start their own business.

Nearly half of all respondents (45%) said the environment to begin a business in their state has improved over the past five years. 

The report said that the fear of failure emerges as a clear obstacle to starting a business with 63% of the overall respondents saying so. This included financial burdens up to bankruptcy as the most important cause for the fear.