International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR) ISSN: 2319-7064 ResearchGate Impact Factor (2018): 0.28 | SJIF (2018): 7.426 Volume 8 Issue 11, November 2019 www.ijsr.net Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution CC BY Rural Entrepreneurship: The Current Scenario in India Saud Ilahi Assistant Professor, College of Business Administration, Jazan University, India Abstract: Rural entrepreneurship engages the masses in manufacturing output, by providing employment opportunities, assists in industrialization of rural & backward areas, thereby, assures regional balanced development and reduces migration of youth to urban areas. It plays a pivotal role in distribution of income & wealth at grassroots level in the developing countries like India. The present work provides an integrated view of rural entrepreneurship in India based on the analysis of the findings of the NSS 73rd Round of NSSO, related to rural sector. It contemplates the status of rural entrepreneurship, schemes for the development of rural entrepreneurship, government efforts to revive traditional industries after demonetization and problems of rural entrepreneurship. Keywords: Rural Entrepreneurship, National Sample Survey (NSS) 73rd Round, Schemes for the Development of Rural Entrepreneurship 1. Introduction After over seven decades of independence and industrialization in our country, still a large population lives in rural areas. Rural regions face major issues in comparison to other regions (Brown & Schafft, 2011), which are more serious in the peripheral regions. According to OECD report 2005, rural areas are affected by major challenges like unemployment or underemployment in primary industries, lack of infrastructure, market, financial access, migration of young population to urban areas in search of employment opportunities. The solution of these problems lies in the development of rural areas with entrepreneurial development. Entrepreneurial activities contributes to economic development with increased rural income, exercising multiplier effect by raising the demand for products and services resulting in growth of employment opportunities. Demonetization has led to closure of many micro and small enterprises, leaving millions of people unemployed. It has severe effects on the poor section of the society especially small scale entrepreneurs& employees, agriculturists, daily wage workers. This caused to migration of people back to rural areas, creating additional burden on already unemployed rural sector. To overcome these problems and support rural entrepreneurship development the government has initiated new schemes besides the old ones. On July 5, 2019, the Finance Minister presented Budget in Parliament focusing on reviving traditional industries such as khadi bamboo etcetera through a cluster-based approach. A hundred new clusters for traditional industries will be created in 2019-20.This will be done under the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), which targets to organize such industries and artisans into clusters, making them competitive, bolster up their long- term sustainability leading to increased employment and marketability of products. Definition of Rural Entrepreneurship In simple words, we can say that rural entrepreneurship is any endeavor to organize any business activity in rural area. It is defined as entrepreneurship emerging in rural areas, which has capability to drive various attempts in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors and acts as a potent factor for economic development.‟ Rural entrepreneurship is that entrepreneurship that initiates in rural areas brings value addition to rural resources engaging largely human resources of that particular area. Thus, it is concluded that rural entrepreneurship must emerge in rural area, by any person whether from rural or urban area, employing most of the material and people from rural area, providing the benefits and development to that particular area, ultimately leading to economic development of the country. 2. Methodology This study is based on extensive review of different reports, research articles, policy papers and comparative analysis of statistical data from government databases. The data is mainly collected from published and unpublished works on the related topic. The major source for secondary information were the annual reports of MSMEs and KVIC, reports of NSS 73rd Round of NSSO, economic surveys, journals, and websites. 3. Literature Review There are various studies and surveys, which indicate, continuous engagements in the area of rural entrepreneurship. The brief discussion of some of them is as follows: Mali D.D., (1988) and Kondaiah C., (1990) studied the cultural and psychological factors affecting the entrepreneurship in rural areas. It was found that most people in rural areas were engaged in the traditional occupations, they had developed a possessiveness with land and whatever it can produce. Therefore, gradual steps are required to diversify them to occupations in the non- traditional areas like cottage, household and small-scale industries, etc. Khanka, S.S.,(1999) and Sarwade et al., (2000) conducted study on different villages and propounded that in small villages the rural entrepreneurs Paper ID: ART20202945 10.21275/ART20202945 1428