Essay on Young India - From job search to job creation : A manifold growth of awareness and India's recognition as a country of talented youth with extra ordinary intellect has opened platform with plethora of opportunities for Indian young minds. Some of the big Indian names doing extremely well on global platform are Google CEO Sunder Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Sanjay Kumar Jha CEO- Global Foundries, Nikesh Arora CEO- SoftBank Internet and Media Inc. These leaders are idealized models for many young Indians. Their success motivates Indian youth to aim for such positions in corporate sectors.
Essay on Young India - From job search to job creation
A manifold growth of awareness and India's recognition as a country of talented youth with extra ordinary intellect has opened platform with plethora of opportunities for Indian young minds. Some of the big Indian names doing extremely well on global platform are Google CEO Sunder Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Sanjay Kumar Jha CEO- Global Foundries, Nikesh Arora CEO- SoftBank Internet and Media Inc. These leaders are idealized models for many young Indians. Their success motivates Indian youth to aim for such positions in corporate sectors. On the other hand, there is another segment of leaders. They are founders of startups like Rahul Bahl and Rohit Bansal (Snapdeal), Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal (Flipkart founders), Nitin Saluja and Raghav Verma (Chaayos founders), and Ritesh Aggarwal, (OYO rooms founder). These names belong to different league altogether. They once decided to work on their entrepreneurship idea and that resulted in huge success for them. These leaders are doing wonders in entrepreneurship and driving young minds to choose job creation over job search. Apart from inspiration factor, there are many other things contributing to flaring the passion for entrepreneurship among young Indians.
In order to explore the possible reasons behind the mentioned preference, it is important to understand that India has a gigantesque youth population of around 300 million with very limited job options. The million dollar question in such situation is that which industry has the potential to absorb the employees of such humongous scale? The only rational answer to this problem is entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs and startups play significant role in driving economic growth and job creation. According to 2014 report for the G20 Young Entrepreneurs' Alliance, it was estimated that digital entrepreneurs could create 10 million jobs in span of next five years. In 2011, IIM Ahmadabad graduates, Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G, launched Taxiforsure as an online platform through which consumers can rent taxis. BITS Pilani batchmates, Phanindra Sama, Charan Padmaraiu and Sudhakar Pasupunuri founded the pioneering venture RedBus together. In June 2013, they sold RedBus to the Ibibo Group for an estimated Rs. 600-700 crore, the biggest overseas strategic acquisition of an Indian internet asset. Another example of successful ventures is that of Travel Triangle, an online travel services company launched by IITians Sankalp Agrawal and Sanchit Garg that is clocking revenues in crores.
In India, problems like agriculture failure lead to draught conditions in many parts of the country. In such circumstances; employability looks like a distant dream to many. Issues like snail paced industrial growth and global slowdown have a knock on effect on employment opportunities. An overview of mentioned problems is further escalated by tough competition to first find admission in reputed colleges than in desirable companies .Due to neck to neck competition, desirable jobs unlatch window for very few candidates, leaving others to work with alternate options of employability, just for the sake of it. In such cases, element of passion goes missing and halfhearted efforts result in low performance. Above all, mechanization of labor in industries shrinks job opportunities for labor based workforce.
Apart from the reasoned factors affecting the workforce, youth suffers from dissatisfaction in jobs too. Lack of good quality environment and contributing issues like underutilization of caliber, lack of appreciation, unexplored skills, knowledge, and presence of quirky boss takes away zeal to work in a company. They feel it is more important to make efforts towards the goal associated to their passion. They are motivated to bring life to their own professional ideas rather than working for others. Other contributing factors like insecurity in jobs, working under dull and mundane job profile, conflicting attitudes at work place contribute to the decision of choosing entrepreneurship as a career choice.
In a much different world of globalization, with option of outsourcing and contracting, job security looks like a thing of past to many. Many studies have concluded that pertaining to job insecurity, young Indians go through stress which is a stronger predictor of poor health. Many youngsters stray away from insecurity a workplace and prefer to be captain of their own ship where they take their decisions. They prefer to work on their ideas to materialize its benefits and hence contribute to economic growth of their country at large. Government of India is also playing a motivating factor to encourage this preference among youth. At the launch of 'Startup India', Prime minister encouraged the young minds saying, "Youth of India must turn from job-seekers to job-creators.” ‘Start up India' is a government policy that comes with an action plan entirely focused on promoting bank financing for start-up ventures. Ultimate aim lies in encouraging job creation through Startup. Policy comes with benefit to the young Indians with advantages like: Start up fund of Rs. 10,000 crore for funding of Start-ups, Start-ups to be exempted from paying income tax on their profit for the first 3 years, fast-tracking of Start-up patent applications.
Most of the young B- school degree holders in corporate companies complain of structured, mundane and monotonous tasks whereas, people who start up own business have a different mental makeup who go ahead to create something of their own. Entrepreneurs identify a problem and come up with an innovative and practical way of solving it. Because of this ideology, entrepreneurs are perceived as best people to learn from. This approach motivates B - school degree holder to step into the world of Entrepreneurship.
A small seed is tomorrow's big tree: Start ups are progressive to the interest of nation. Even big companies like Infosys, Oberoi Hotels, Reliance, etc. were small in the beginning. It is a well accepted fact that SME (Small and medium enterprises) play a vital role in growth and development of country. The estimated contribution of SMEs to the country's GDP was 37.54 per cent during 2012-13 and the share of SMEs in India's total export was 44.70 per cent for the year 2014-15. Considering the credibility of Start ups in India, institutes like IIMs and IITs have introduced the concept of incubation where new companies are promoted in their campus. Such initiatives speak loud of the importance that start ups concept hold for every segment of -Indians. It taps the creative utilities of their minds. Young people who possess the qualities like crystal clear vision, risk taking abilities, thrust to market their ideas and reach to masses despite obstacles, have the ability to make it big tomorrow. In April 2015, Olacabs, Quikr, Freshdesk and Policy Bazaar received major funding. Companies like Delhivery ($85 million), Fintellix ($15 million) and Swiggy ($15 million) received funding in May. In June 2015, companies like Ecomm Express ($137 million), Flipkart ($50 million), Applied Solar Technologies ($40 million), and Saama ($35 million) received funding.
Entrepreneurship goes beyond self employment: In India, many ventures which started from home shelves ended up providing employment to hundreds. The startup concept clicks well with the youth. They only need to have a brilliant workable idea that coincides well with the need of the hour. Youth in India are considered to be dreamers, makers, visionaries and leaders who have the potential to march their own drums to bring life to their ideas.
The never ending demand for jobs can only be met by promoting entrepreneurial activities. This can be made possible by providing right platform to young entrepreneurs. It is evident that Indians have launched ventures in the past and they still possess the passion. Opportunities are in abundance and the country is plush with resources. The challenge for young India lies in optimizing resources and overcoming the barriers to enter the league of developed nations and inspire every other developing nation. Entrepreneurship is past, present and promising future of India and every young Indian holds right to stand up and add value to any action that materializes dream of our country.
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