Driving down trying to find a parking space in one of the crowded bazaars in Mumbai, Ravi found several houses with garages lying vacant. Having suffered the same problem of finding a spot to park his car every time he visited that market, he wondered if there was a way of connecting with the residents of these houses and using their spaces for parking. This led to the start of Ravi?s venture that allowed visitors going to crowded parts of the city to park at the residents? garages, helping them earn a living as well. Soon his online business was the buzzword of the city with capitalists wanting to invest, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Ravi is a perfect example of the new generation of millennials who are bursting with new ideas, just waiting to happen. They want to be their own masters and earn their living by doing what they enjoy. Do not think that this is restricted to the urban Indian population alone; the youth in rural and semi-urban areas also want to be self-employed and pursue their own interests all the same. Perhaps the only difference is that they may not have the same amount of formal education or economic resources to help them start their own business or, even if they do, are not exposed enough to understand how to go about it.
Indians, by nature, have been entrepreneurial in spirit. And new technology, including social networking sites and mobile devices, is enabling traditional practices such as swapping, trading, renting, bartering, sharing and lending?to be reinvented in ways relevant to the Facebook age. This emerging culture and economy is starting to reinvent not just what we consume but also how we consume it.
At the heart of this economy is what we call the micro-entrepreneurs. They are the drivers of every economy with their innovative ideas and leadership skills. The growth of this class is increasing with people discovering that there are idle assets all around them that hold untapped economic, social and sustainable value. This kind of shift in behaviour may serve to ensure that Narendra Modi?s ?Skill India? agenda has traction on the ground. It exemplifies a change to a culture in which people don?t always turn to officials or government for answers to the problems they face, but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities. This is especially true for a country such as India which is huge in terms of geography and population. With a huge demographic dividend, micro-entrepreneurship is the best way of providing income and upliftment at the grass-root level.
The other potential advantage is that by bringing people and assets together in new ways, it enables one benefit to feed into another across a network, making the cumulative impact more widespread.
With mobile technology and 24/7 connectivity, it is easy to match ?haves? with ?wants? online, reducing geographical boundaries. At a rural level, micro-entrepreneurs can help create an opportunity for efficient exchanges and act as a social glue to build trust between strangers, eliminating the need for middlemen and bureaucratic barriers.
Also, this trend can thrive across sectors as diverse as finance and travel, agriculture and technology, education and retail. Let?s not forget the huge potential of handicrafts that our country possesses. Every village and community in our country has crafts and arts that can be the source of livelihood for them. Though it does work in those lines already, craftsmen are often not aware of its worth and are mislead by corrupt middlemen. This is where the government needs to step in and educate them about the possibilities. NGOs can be roped in to provide vocational training and guidance that can help them build their careers out of their talent or ideas.
The government has realised the potential that micro-entrepreneurship holds and is focusing on skilling its population through leadership and vocational training programmes. Several organisations such as Achievers Zone and its NGO Global Success Foundation are tying up with the government to encourage micro-entrepreneurship by providing relevant trainings and even connecting them with micro-financers. The organisation recently successfully trained and provided employment to 200 villagers in Dholka?a municipality in the Ahmedabad district of Gujarat. Besides, they partner with organisations funding micro-businesses to support individuals start their own ventures.
Micro-entrepreneurship represents a fundamental change in the relationship between producers and consumers which is fuelled by the rise of online social networks, which enable people to communicate and act together for a purpose and renew a belief in the importance of community or pressing environmental concerns. Together, these factors are moving us away from the top-heavy, command-and-control forms of consumerism and towards decentralised ideas. At the heart of micro-entrepreneurship is a move to transform people from passive consumers to active citizens who feel empowered to shape the world around them and it is amazing to witness how millions of small contributions can accumulate to create a new kind of wealth, based on openness, sharing and peer-to-peer collaboration, a platform where commerce and community meet.
The young India is ready to move towards a new direction, where we are not defined by what we consume but by what we contribute. In an economy plagued with several social issues and diversities, this shift will take time, but the rapid pace of technological advancements, combined with a change in people?s values, presents an opportunity to give the power of creating an economy literally back to its people through the tool of micro-entrepreneurship.
The author is chief mentor, Achievers Zone
