4th Asia Pacific Business Conference
Gopal Srinivasan (centre), Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capital Fund Ltd., Chennai, at a conference in Coimbatore on Thursday. India is an entrepreneurial nation. It is known for its traditional entrepreneurship. The caste system, with all its disadvantages, has enabled groups of people to take up business, thereby taking the spirit of entrepreneurship forward, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Capital Fund Limited, Chennai, said here on Thursday.He was inaugurating the 4th Asia Pacific conference on Business Incubation on “Global Recession – An Opportunity for Business Incubation” organised jointly by the Asia Pacific Incubation Network (APIN), PSG-Science and Technology Entrepreneurial Park (STEP), and PSG College of Technology. Citing examples of the many caste and family groups that have made their mark in Indian business and industry, Mr. Srinivasan said 60 per cent of India’s entrepreneurship was promoter or family-led.
“Entrepreneurship is characterised by four factors – need, eco-system of incubation, risk capital and risk factor. Even though we pride ourselves on being entrepreneurial and business-oriented, we are lacking in the last two factors. The absence of risk capital in business as well as in incubation is very poor. Also, the willingness to take risks is to a large extent absent among us,” Mr. Srinivasan said.
He elaborated that 60 per cent of those who wanted to become entrepreneurs could not become so because of the fear of taking risks. H.K. Mittal, Advisor and Head, National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board, Government of India, Julian Webb, infoDev Asia Facilitator, Australia, Annur Mohammed Saffar, President, Asian Association of Business Incubation, Malaysia, and S.K. Joshi, Chairman, National Advisory Committee for STEP, New Delhi, were among those who spoke.
