Inato Aye opted for Commerce stream after Class 10. Unlike the majority in Nagaland that opt for Arts stream, he went on to pursue a Bachelors in Business Administration. As a commerce and management student, he shares his thoughts on the fear psychosis created in our society that prevents students from taking up commerce and emphasizes on the importance of entrepreneurship for both the individual and the State.
Entrepreneurship: The Future of Modern Society
The study and the activity of entrepreneurship which begins from the early stage of taking up commerce after the completion of high school, and management after the completion of higher secondary has often been ignored, and has seen a lower number of students in comparison to other streams in our present society, resulting in a lack of financial education at an early age.
If you ask any high school class 10 students or for that matter their parents regarding their children taking up the study of commerce, the first answer from the majority would be, “I’m not good in math how can I take up commerce”? or, “My son/daughter is weak in maths how can he/she take up commerce.” And this often proves to be the root cause of why there are less commerce and management students and thereby lack of emphasis on entrepreneurship. Commerce and management is much more than math and the thought that students who are good in math should take up commerce have often been a misleading reality which parallels our mentality of allowing the 1st division students to study Science, 2nd division students to study commerce and 3rd division students are left with no option but to study Arts alone. As individuals, we all love to have high ranking jobs which bring good amount of salary, a high status in the society and which offers job security or pension income even after our retirement. Nagaland has over 70,000 unemployed youths but unemployment has never been a problem here given the fact that we don’t work for social recognition and reputation. The question lies in how many of us willing to start entrepreneurship are determined to do odd jobs like being a grocer, vendor, cloth salesman or others to get a first-hand experience of the business world. For the road to become a successful entrepreneur is all about starting from the bottom and making it big. We are often ashamed of carrying a low profile job with the thought of what people might think about us or we think that we might not gain respect which often proves to be the reason why people strive for government jobs and disregard entrepreneurship which is often risky and uncertain.
It has often been said that “Opportunity is all around us, we just have to knock the door and it’s ours.” Nagaland has a rich vast un- exploited natural resources which include mineral resources like coal, nickel, cobalt, magnetite, marble, petroleum, stones, natural gas, and limestone. Majority of them are owned by private individuals or landlords and not by the government and these are the big opportunities that lies within Nagaland. Sectors such as transportation are likely to improve in the coming few years. Especially now since the Indian railway as of May 2018 is enacting a rail project costing 90,000 crores to Improve connectivity in the northeast by 2020, entrepreneurship will certainly have a huge advantage in exporting and importing of goods.
Finance is one of the big factors that comes to light when we talk of entrepreneurship with majority of the people opting not to take the risk of availing bank loans, or from other local organization or body, involving a return of interest. But if one looks deeper, other options such as shareholding, debentures, bonds and securities are available too. They involve lesser risk-taking since in terms of loss, it is not the sole individual that incurs the damage but all the other partners who have purchased their share of the company who are often known as the owners of the company. These are the basic finance education which are being taught to us as a student on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurship has become much more important particularly now that the world is moving at a fast pace of globalization, with vast opportunities being given to the local entrepreneurs around the world. Recently we went for an industrial visit to Guwahati as a preparation for our internal project, the industrial site which we visited covered more than 8000 sqm with more than 70 small industries operating within it and were all being managed by the Assam industrial infrastructure development cooperation. During the course of visiting the site, we saw how the local entrepreneurs were being encouraged by the government to venture into the business world by allowing them to set up their industry in that particular location by paying the amount of the land as a rent being owned by them.
Entrepreneurship gives hope that the future seems to be bright. It is the backbone of the society in strengthening the State’s economy, development and overall quality of life.
Degree of Thought is a weekly community column initiated by Tetso College in partnership with The Morung Express. Degree of Thought will delve into the social, cultural, political and educational issues around us. The views expressed here do not reflect the opinion of the institution. Tetso College is a NAAC Accredited UGC recognised Commerce and Arts College. The editors are Dr Hewasa Lorin, Dr. Aniruddha Babar, Noyingbeni T. Erui, Meren and Kvulo Lorin.
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