Effectiveness of Entrepreneurship Development Programmes in J&KState:An Empirical Analysis

Abstract

The economic greatness of nations is not a result of mere natural resource base but also of the quality entrepreneurial talent with which endowed. The fact of the matter is that the natural resource base provides a comparative advantage to the nations concerned for industrialization but it is ultimately the reservoir of rich entrepreneurial talent which matters most. However, there arises a question ‘Are Entrepreneurs Born or Made?’ The experiences gained over the years have demolished the erstwhile belief that entrepreneurs are born and not made. It is in view of this fact that Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) were on the economic agenda of economies all over the world including India. So far a large number of EDPs were conducted in India in which thousands of persons were trained. But regardless of the significance of EDPs in fostering healthy entrepreneurship, the number of studies conducted on different aspects of EDPs in the country are limited and in J&K State which is one of the important states of the Indian union, no worthwhile study has been conducted so far. To fill in this research gap, the present study has been undertaken with the objective to assess the effectiveness of EDPs conducted in J&K State. To draw the meaningful inferences about the subject matter, the data collected both from primary and secondary sources has been analyzed by making use of multiple statistical tools/ techniques mainly parametric tests. The study has revealed that the EDPs conducted in the state during the reference period have not been as effective as the EDPs conducted elsewhere in the country in terms of start-up rate. Further revealed that EDP trained entrepreneurs were not found better off in withstanding the pressures of competitive environment compared to their counterparts belonging to the matched group. The other important finding of the study is that although the enterprises created by trained entrepreneurs have shown better financial performance yet, the difference in their performance has not been found statistically significant when compared with the enterprises belonging to the matched group.