Entrepreneurship development training programmes in India

Gupta

It has been argued by David McClelland that the levels of growth which a country attains are explained by the presence or absence of a 'need for achievement' ('n Ach') in the population. Since this need for achievement can be developed and reinforced, growth can be accelerated by influencing
the behaviour and supply of a country's entrepreneurs. One can debate the issue raised by van Arkady that 'theories that emphasize deep-seated psychological or cultural characteristics do not seem particularly relevant for policy, as these variables are unlikely to be subject to policy influence
over any useful time horizon.' Indian entrepreneurship development training programmes (EDTPs), being the first and most widely replicated, have the potential to exemplify McClelland's theory and to demonstrate effective ways of enhancing entrepreneurship through policy intervention.The
objective of this paper is to present a synoptic view of EDTPs in India. It focuses on training processes and procedures as they currently exist and offers some suggestions for their improvement. The first section discusses the evolution and scope of the Indian EDTPs, and the specialized agencies
which conduct them. The second section describes the Indian EDTP package, followed by an evaluation. A limitation of this paper is that it does not address the debate on the comparative efficiency of the 'training-alone approach' vis-à-vis the 'training-plus approach'. Another limitation
is that it is based on the author's observations rather than rigorous scientific evaluation. Unfortunately, the vast literature on Indian EDTPs does not include any scientific evaluation.