Emphasis should be on promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas so that talented youth can start their own businesses, says Ravi Gururaj of Harvard Angels, a venture capitalist firm.
Speaking on ‘Unleashing Entrepreneurship: The Role of Policy Makers’ in creating a bridge between entrepreneurs and political leaders, Gururaj said, “The government should provide training and involve the private sector in mentoring young entrepreneurs.”
He suggested that the government should encourage the use of more products which are locally designed and manufactured, so that small business can grow.
B.G. Mahesh of Oneindia.com called for easy access to loans, grants and tax incentives to channel more investments in start-up enterprises.
The meet was attended by 120 entrepreneurs as well as a few visitors from the US and took part in the discussion on how to nurture entrepreneurship in Karnataka.
Ashish Sinha of NextBigWhat and Amit Singh of Headstart shared their experiences. They said entrepreneurs in the rural and primary sectors need encouragement and called for creation of an investor-friendly environment without regulatory barriers that prevent angel investors from other countries from investing in India.
Rajeev Gowda of the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore said, “When our youth learn to think and act like entrepreneurs, we will be able to unleash their talent and turn them into innovative job creators. Governments need to create entrepreneurial training programmes to help youth in rural areas also part of the entrepreneurial revolution.”
K. Jayprakash Hegde, Member of Parliament, said, “Entrepreneurs face many bureaucratic challenges in setting up an enterprise. The government should become more investor friendly and speed up the process of setting up the enterprises, which will help create jobs.”
R.V. Venkatesh, Opposition Chief Whip in the Legislative Council, urged participants to make concrete proposals that can be included in the budget and policymakers can act on their demands.