India is steadily making a mark on the global stage and is going great guns in entrepreneurial endeavors while giving a great competition to another Asian giant, China. Both India and China have been witnessing spectacular economic growth and the bulk of its credit goes to the entrepreneurial culture of both countries. There has been an ongoing debate about the steady growth of the two biggest developing nations of Asia - India and China and both have been displaying some outstanding GDP growth rate over the years. India has been a late starter though and was lagging behind China by almost a decade whereas by then China was already in the race to become a global economic superpower. Although India’s growth has been delayed but India remained upbeat about its economic transformation and it was not long that India positioned itself strongly in the race to becoming one of the global superpowers competing shoulder to shoulder with China.
There are several contributing factors which play vital roles when it comes to entrepreneurial activities in India and China.
China might seem to be in the forefront with certain advantages working favorable for them ranging from a big homogenous market, massive infrastructure and huge funding both from domestic as well as foreign investors. All these factors have led to the spectacular success of entrepreneurial ventures in China. The Chinese government has always been instrumental in helping the new entrepreneurs with limited resources by making funding available to them from banks and social equity to drive economic growth with a quick listing on local stock market and has been consistently successful in its effort.
Although having an effective entrepreneurial community in China the country boasts of a highly competitive domestic environment which sometimes repels entrepreneurial activities. Apart from this an ageing workforce- the average age of a Chinese worker is more than 35 years is adding to the disadvantages for the Chinese businesses to thrive. India is emerging as a flourishing economy with a young and dynamic workforce and has made tremendous progress in the field of software and IT services industry although it is lacking behind in physical infrastructure. India has been riding on private entrepreneurship which is often discouraged in China and this been an important contributing factor of the rapid growth of the entrepreneurial ventures in India.
Business is not really politicized in India as it is often found in China. Moreover, the younger bunch of future entrepreneurs is yet to get a foothold in China as the country has not been very keen on innovation and hardly shown any interest to the nation’s entrepreneurs whether in terms of encouragement and funding. India seems to be in a stronger position with 90 percent of Indian companies are owned and run by Indian entrepreneurs. The government, with an exception of specific industries, just does not intervene much in commerce and encourages its citizens instead to take the lead. The banking system is also willing to lend to small businesses and start-ups.
Although India has been behind China in terms of infrastructure but when it comes to innovation and soft infrastructure or businesses like software, biotechnology, media etc India seems to be striding ahead and is in the process of creating a dynamic entrepreneurial class who are globally savvy and ready to take on the global markets. With a younger workforce, innovation brains and a good grasp of English language Indians seem to be making excellent progression in carving a niche in the global business markets.