Indian Jute Industry: Its Crises - Need for Entrepreneurial Interventions

Abstract

India is the largest producer of raw jute in the world. But the past glory of the Indian jute industry has faded out and it is suffering from stagnancy in recent times. An attempt has been made in this paper to find out the reasons behind the present stagnancy through a detailed observation of the existing market trend and the production cum marketing chain of raw jute. The problems of this labour-intensive agro-based industry have been identified through a field work carried out all over the jute producing districts of West Bengal. We found that the industry is run entirely on indigenous and traditional technological knowhow. Further it is suffering from an utter imperfectness as far as the cumbersome production cum marketing chain is concerned. This ultimately shoots up the cost of raw jute, making the industry less competitive in the national and international market. We conclude that the industry is in a desperate need of entrepreneurial interventions for modern technological and marketing innovativeness at various levels to strategize a whole new alternative approach. This would streamline the raw jute production cum marketing based on cost and time effective measures. Finally a model of a 'Central Jute Hub' has been conceptualized which would possibly become the nerve center of future raw jute production in India.