India has a very large rural population and an agriculture based economy. Even though we are witnessing large scale urbanisation and a big number of population is migrating towards urban geographies in search of employment and livelihood. Many educated youths are focusing on getting settled in metropolitan cities, those who missed the overseas, leaving behind families in small towns and villages.

These have created new opportunities to many and big enterprises have emerged post-independence in the last 70 years. Liberalisation was a boon to Indian society which has completely transformed Indian psyche. There is a new dream in everyone’s eyes. So much of aspirations and opportunities are available for the present generation. Various jobs have emerged. A simple look at LinkedIn will show ‘designations’ that were unheard of a decade back.

Though the rate of growth of Indian society is praiseworthy, there do exist challenges in terms of quality of life for worlds second-largest populated country. Many miles are yet to be covered and many promises of all the political parties are yet to be fulfilled. The social vices, education, health infrastructure, fundamental rights, law and justice are challenges that India will need to walk the talk (Constitutionally binding) to achieve a balance.

The way we see our growth, we also need to give attention to ‘small businesses’ that exist as the backbone of Indian employment scenario. The small businesses had been providing jobs to people who spent their life working for the entity. The small businesses need attention and encouragement. Even though it is not able to generate large scale employment but it does create employment and livelihood for many Indian rural populations. If we observe the role of ancillary units near a big industry or a small ‘kirana’ shop adjacent to an institution, we can find out that even in an urban region, it is the small businesses that sustain many families.

Time has come for local administration of the Government to take the ‘onus’ of developing grassroots economy, generate employment at the last mile and align government policies to the smallest business unit. These will help stop a level of migration to urban region, increase income level and cost of labour thereby decreasing exploitation of manpower.

We as a society also need to acknowledge the role of a small business; encourage our youths to aspire and dream more in entrepreneurial journeys even it could be a small half a room entity.