‘Blend entrepreneurship with tech for growth and to support local community’

An expert has stressed the need to focus on making best use of technologies developed at different institutions to boost entrepreneurship in the country.

Speaking at the ‘Nitte-KBL MSME Conclave’ in Mangaluru on Saturday, P Chandra Shekara, Director General of the Jaipur-based National Institute of Agricultural Marketing, said that ‘scientific social responsibility’, ‘individual social responsibility’, and ‘corporate social responsibility’ are essential to promote enterprises.

On ‘scientific social responsibility’, he said the country has thousands of institutions generating different technologies. “We have to blend entrepreneurship with these technologies and support people around us to adopt these technologies and transform into enterprises,” he said.

On ‘individual social responsibility’, he said an entrepreneur should make it a point to find and support an individual around him to supplement and complement the efforts of latter. It will be a win-win situation for both.

Referring to the condition in agriculture sector, Chandra Shekara said 2409 farmers quit agriculture every day. Many of the educated people are migrating to urban areas in search of jobs leaving the fertile land to their old parents. Apart from affecting the agriculture sector, this has made the villages ‘old-age homes’, he said.

Stating that there are many opportunities in agriculture sector, he said people are not making use of the opportunities as many treat agriculture as a ‘culture’ and not as a business.

Vision on MSMEs

Speaking on the occasion, Ullas Kamath, Joint Managing Director of Jyothi Laboratories, said that there is a need for MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) to understand how their businesses will going to be in the next 10 years, and to put the speed-breakers wherever required.

On the steps to be followed by the MSMEs in the current business environment, he said they should get the executive check-up of the health of the company done by experts such as academicians, practitioners, bankers, or mentors; and address the issues accordingly. He also urged them to focus on cost-cutting in their operations.

To a query by a participant, he said there is a need to focus on improving the bottom line of the organisation during tough times. Focus should be given on improving the top-line during the good times, he said.

The conclave was jointly organised by the Nitte-based Justice KS Hegde Institute of Management (JKSHIM) and Karnataka Bank Ltd.