Page 98 - Abhivruddhi

businesses and strengthening existing businesses, the most important
learnings were on how the entrepreneurs and their business’ function,
their reactions to the changing environment and measures they employed.
This experience of working at the grassroots, and the learnings of the
initiatives in the unorganised sector form the basis of this article.
2. Ecosystem of the unorganised sector
According to Mason and Brown (2014), “The Entrepreneurial
Ecosystem is a set of different individuals who can be potential or
existing Entrepreneurs, organisations that support Entrepreneurship
that can be businesses, venture capitalist, business angels, and banks,
as well as institutions like universities, public sector agencies, and the
entrepreneurial processes that occur inside the ecosystem such as the
business birth rate, the number of high potential growth firms, the serial
entrepreneurs and their Entrepreneurial ambition.”
In the context of the unorganised sector, the Entrepreneurial
Ecosystem may be seen in two spheres: Economic Environment and
Social Environment. Whether the experiences of unorganised urban
women workers or those of young workers or small-scale businesses, the
basic issues were similar. Two broad spheres are identified, primarily
based on the author’s experience of the measures that were effective in
the interventions she was involved in. These experience-based measures
for the unorganised sector may contribute significantly to the Indian
economy.
2.1 Typical business problems of the unorganised sector
Normally economies thrive when entrepreneurs create jobs, develop
new solutions and create technologies that improve efficiency. They
develop markets and find ways of improving profitability. New ideas then
spread locally and globally. For the unorganised sector, however, neither
of these are challenges as their businesses serve mostly neighbourhood
markets and normally remain within. Businesses often get affected by
family emergencies and not just by the markets they cater to. Normally,
they are forced into capital withdrawal or diversion of these funds from
the business to cater to family needs and emergencies.
2.1.1 Typical running of Businesses
Let us look at a typical case. Ram, a local vegetable and fruit vendor
parks his vegetable-tempo near a ground in a highly populated residential
area with over 100+ regular customers; a majority of them are early
morning walkers who live in the vicinity. His day begins at 5am at a
wholesale market to buy vegetables and fruits worth Rs. 10,000. He sets

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