Page 9 - E- Connect 2021

Governments across the world aspire to create local resources, have ecological integrity, involve
opportunities equally for all the citizens and connectedness and partnerships, and promote
ensure that the benefits of development percolate widespread understanding of how things get done.
down to the most deprived. In India, efforts in this
direction have been incorporated in public policy, The peculiarity of India, in this context, firstly, is the
addressed as Inclusive Development. Based on scale of opportunities for entrepreneurship at the
UNDP’s principles of human rights – participation, grassroots level which is very wide. It is possible to
non-discrimination and accountability, the policy start a business in a street corner, in a kiosk, with
lays down a myriad ways of pursuing these end minimum possible resources and gradually expand
goals. One such way is creation of productive and the scale of activities. Secondly, there are number

gainful employment opportunities at micro-level. of social problems like population, unemployment,
This requires a planned and well-executed effort poverty, malnutrition etc, all of which open doors
to develop a skill base to enable an absorption in for innovative and enduring entrepreneurial
existing businesses in the public and the private solutions. Lastly, the role of the state machinery
sector, or, alternatively, encourage entrepreneurial in this context remains limited, further requiring
ventures. strategic approaches to encourage entrepreneurial
initiatives.
Employment opportunities in the formal public
and private sector remain limited in face of the ‘Bottom of the Pyramid’ is an ill-fated term. It almost
colossal work force supply and requisite-skill gaps. advocates that economically poor people are at
This is why promotion of entrepreneurial effort the bottom of all pyramids, that is knowledge,
seems to be a logical and viable option. Business ethics, institutions, or innovation pyramids. It does
enterprises, particularly at the micro-level, not only not direct our attention to the resources, in which
enable self-employment; they also channelize the economically poor people are perhaps really rich. It
local human, technical and physical resources. is well-known that for overall development agenda
Efforts at localizing development or promoting reliance cannot be placed only on the formal sector.
entrepreneurship at grassroots’ level also allow us If such was the case, farmers, artisans, laborers,
to look at the bottom of the pyramid not merely local communities etc., would not need to evolve
as deprived consumers but as a source of ideas local solutions for so many problems which have
and innovation, whose economic exploitation and been neglected in the past and are still not being
commercialization, in turn, can have extended addressed adequately by the formal system. We
benefits towards local community development. need to support innovations at the grassroots so
that several opportunities can be created that may
Besides, inventive thinking has always been have remained unexplored for the socio-economic
fundamental for improving societal well-being. development of poor people.
Inventions and innovation over the years have
been largely responsible for supporting a
population which has shown exponential growth.
In the same vein, contemporary innovations could
very well prove that an economic development
which is sustainable is viable. Successful
sustainable development efforts, in turn are
rooted in communities, involve efficient use of
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