Seizing Entrepreneurship Opportunities in Rural Nonfarm Activities to Ensure the Country’s Economic and Political Stability

Abstract

At a critical stage of the country’s development, one exceptionally brave and wise but lesser known Prime Minister of the country had raised the slogan of ‘Jai Kishan, Jai Jawan’ to ensure economic and political stability alongside sustainable growth of this country. This symbolic slogan to promote the interests of farmers as well as their allies like unorganized laborers and artisanal and small entrepreneurs, including petty traders, whose children mostly guard and protect the vast borders of the country seems to have assumed special significance in the present era of globalized markets, when government seems to be placing more and more faith on large but largely non-competitive corporate business to boost up income and employment opportunities to the utter neglect of or at most by superficially serving the economic and political interests of the vast afore-mentioned rural segments. Against this backdrop, the authors use their experiences and knowledge of the concepts of ‘domain-centrality’ (representing the supply side) and ‘member-centrality’ (representing the demand side) of any geographic area to identify generic entrepreneurial opportunities to in specific rural non-farm activities, which can be promoted only through application of appropriate technological and institutional innovations in People’s University-like set up and under a suitable policy framework to serve the causes of the common people and thus save the country from imminent disaster.