EDP Notes

The history of entrepreneurship is important worldwide, even in India. In the pre colonial times the Indian trade and business was at its peak. Indians were experts in smelting of metals such as brass and tin. Kanishka Empire in the 1st century started nurturing Indian entrepreneurs and traders.
Following that period, in around 1600 A.D., India established its trade relationship with Roman Empire. Gold was pouring from all sides. Then came the Portuguese and the English. They captured the Indian sea waters and slowly entered the Indian business. They forced the entrepreneurs to become traders and they themselves took the role of entrepreneurs. This was the main reason for the downfall of Indian business in the colonial times which had its impact in the post-colonial times too. The colonial era make the Indian ideas and principles rigid.
A region of historic trade routes and vast empires, the Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Gradually annexed by the British East India Company from the early eighteenth century and colonized by the United Kingdom from the mid-nineteenth century, India became an independent nation in 1947 after a struggle for independence that was marked by widespread nonviolent resistance. It has the world's twelfth largest economy at market exchange rates and the fourth largest in purchasing power. Economic reforms since 1991 have transformed it into one of the fastest growing economies however, it still suffers from high levels of poverty, illiteracy, and malnutrition. For an entire generation from the 1950s until the 1980s, India followed socialist-inspired policies. The economy was shackled by extensive regulation, protectionism, and public ownership, leading to pervasive corruption and slow growth. Since 1991, the nation has moved towards a market-based system.15 Entrepreneurship is the result of three dimensions working together: conducive framework conditions, well-designed government programmes and supportive cultural attitudes. Across these three perspectives of entrepreneurship, two major conclusions are apparent. Firstly, the economic, psychological and sociological academic fields accept that entrepreneurship is a process. Secondly, despite the separate fields of analysis, entrepreneurship is clearly more than just an economic function.