GAME launches India’s first unique resource decoding the Mass Entrepreneurship development landscape

Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) launches India’s first unique resource decoding the Mass Entrepreneurship development landscape
 The study, targeted at entrepreneurship development among Low Income Groups (LIGs), looks at the work done by organizations such as non-profits, social incubators and public institutions; highlights the gaps in the ecosystem and suggests the way-forward to address them.
The resource catalogues 500+ organizations, 350+ programs, 38K+ data-points, and offers insights from 70+ leadership interviews:

• Entrepreneurship development is a long intensive process and few organizations have end-end capabilities and resources. There is a need to consolidate efforts
• While project-based funding predominates, it is in fact unsuitable for entrepreneurship development which requires long-term funding
• Low aspirations and awareness are the key blockers to entrepreneurial intent amongst youth
• Right forms and sources of funding for entrepreneurs is a critical need
• There is an absence of sufficient value-chain actors
• Lack of property rights, low levels of financial literacy, over-dependence on male members and predominance of unpaid labor continue to inhibit women’s economic empowerment
• Mobiles and technology can boost entrepreneurship training and organization capacity-building

Bengaluru, Wednesday, April 17, 2019: Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) launched its flagship landscape resource today, titled “GAME Landscape Resource: Study of Entrepreneurship Development in India” – a comprehensive open-source resource on Mass Entrepreneurship development in India.
Presently, there is no consolidated information available on the Mass Entrepreneurship development space, and this is a first-of-its-kind study, initiated by GAME, to survey the existing landscape and make it publicly available to all stakeholders of the ecosystem to enable conversations, collaborations and catalyse further development.
Highlighting the importance of such a resource in India, Anjuly Chib Duggal, Former Secretary, Dept. of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance and Advisory Board Member, GAME said, “India has several public and private bodies that are doing meaningful work to develop entrepreneurship. To maximise the impact of their efforts, as also to optimally utilise community resources, the Government and these bodies must align their efforts in a concerted manner to build a cohesive, sustainable and effective ecosystem.
The GAME Landscape Resource provides information on work being done in various geographies and various focus areas. Access to such information is expected to facilitate collaboration. It is also expected to help all stakeholders to understand the gaps within the ecosystem, thus enabling the stakeholders to work in tandem to address them.”
The study covers key aspects of the Mass Entrepreneurship development landscape such as:

1. Overview of organizations (target focus, strategic focus, program areas, compliances, project geographical distribution, etc.)
2. Catalogue of programs by core organisations
3. Challenges, strengths and needs faced by organizations
4. Challenges faced by aspiring and existing entrepreneurs including women
5. Key ecosystem support requirements
6. Program success and sustainability parameters
7. Insights by organization leaders and ecosystem experts
8. Key takeaways and way forward to support future endeavors

Launching this resource, Mekin Maheshwari, Co-Founder, GAME, said, “The GAME Landscape Resource aims to build awareness and provide timely intervention through suggestive measures. Among several significant insights, the resource highlights key takeaways such as the need for a common platform to enable collaboration among stakeholders, harness the Government’s involvement for success at scale and most importantly – the need to nurture an entrepreneurial mindset at an early stage among our youth.
Such measures can certainly facilitate sustainable job-creation at a mass level – which is the mission of GAME – helping create 10M entrepreneurs, 50% women, who create 50M jobs by 2030.”
Some of the key points distilled from the study are:

• Karnataka and Maharashtra showed the most projects, while the north-east and J&K showed the least.
• Very few organisations reported a payment-based funding model
• Nano/micro-entrepreneurs prefer stability over scale
• Right types & sources of funding is the most reported systemic challenge
• Government collaborations, and funding for capacity-building are the most reported needs
• Very few organisations focus specifically on needs of urban areas
• More organisations reported an intent to ‘deepen’ their impact in current areas than to go ‘broader’
• Most entrepreneurship development programs focus on supply-side interventions such as technical skills; very few devoted to infrastructure, regulatory/compliance advocacy, etc.

To address the challenges and gaps in the ecosystem, the study highlights the need for continued innovation, collaboration, development and strengthening of local partnerships, exploring the role of technology to improve interventions, investing in research and advocacy and leveraging Government’s involvement for impact at scale.
The GAME Landscape Resource, and the accompanying report, is available at http://massentrepreneurship.org/summary/
GAME is India’s first national-level organization to pioneer the movement of Mass Entrepreneurship in the country. Through learning and advocacy, GAME aims to galvanize the ecosystem for youth-led mass entrepreneurship at the local level.