Entrepreneurs

INTRODUCTION
Economic growth and development of the country is determined by human, physical and   financial resources. An economy can move on to higher levels of growth either by acquiring a larger   quantum of the factors of production or through technical progress. The objective of any planned   development is to develop human resources to their brimming utilization. Therefore, industrialization is one of the ways of bringing about socio-economic development in any country. The economic development of a nation is sparked largely by its enterprising spirit. The   characteristic of enterprising emerges from the interplay of behavior and activity of a special segment of   the population known as entrepreneurs. India’s economy is today poised for a flourishing   entrepreneurial activity. It is also known that a healthy business environment is an essential   requirement of entrepreneurial growth. Since a high quality entrepreneurial skill tends to attain   industrial growth, talent must come from within the environment for rapid and sustained growth of the   economy.     
A country may be rich in material resources and capital. But if entrepreneurship is lacking, the   utilization of resources would not be as expected. The entrepreneurs are a part of industrial society and   as such, he/she should be considered as an asset. The entrepreneur is responsible for not only earning   his/her own livelihood but also for creating avenues of employment for others and contributing to the   gross national product.
The entrepreneur is an economic man who tries to   maximize his profits by innovation. Innovation involves problem solving and entrepreneur gets satisfaction from using capabilities in attacking problems. Women entrepreneurs may be defined as a women or a   group of women who initiate, organize and run a business enterprise. Women owned business are highly increasing.  “You can tell condition of a nation by looking at the   status of its women.”- By- Jawaharlal Nehru   Men & women both are two wheels of society and contribution of both is very essential for building healthy   nation. There are around seven lakh villages in India and more   than 70% of our population lives in villages. In rural sector   56% of the male and 33% of the female was in the labour   force. About 66% of the female population in the rural sector   is idle & unutilized. Even after 66 years of the independence   women in India are struggling for entrepreneurial freedom.   They have to face various socio-economic problems. But now the Scenario is changing fast with modernisation, urbanisation and development of education and business.   Thus the opportunities of employment for women have   increased drastically.     Entrepreneurs create economic growth in their communities by forming new firms. that added new jobs Because entrepreneurs are such a wellspring of growth in the economy, many rural policymakers have shifted their long-time focus of recruiting existing firms, such as branch plants, to developing new entrepreneurs. Most policymakers recognize that entrepreneurs usually start out with limited financing as small or medium-sized firms operating in a variety of industries and places. As a result, policies generally support a wide range of entrepreneurs. However, policies often fail to recognize that the benefits of entrepreneurs can vary dramatically, depending on the entrepreneur’s desire to build a high-growth business. And rural areas often lack these high-growth entrepreneurs

VALUE OF ENTREPRENEURS TO THE COMMUNITY
Entrepreneurs add great value to local economies. This conclusion is widely evident in the number of communities that have initiated entrepreneurial development strategies over the past two decades. To be sure, less than half of all new firms survive the first few years of operation, and far fewer become high-growth businesses (Malecki 1988; “Entrepreneurs” 2002). Still, entrepreneurs are now recognized as vital sources of economic growth to local communities, and that has spawned the new entrepreneurship program. The value of entrepreneurs is evident at both the national and local levels. At the national level, nations with more entrepreneurial activity have stronger GDP growth. Entrepreneurship accounts for one-third of the difference in the economic growth rates between countries (Reynolds, Hay, and Camp). The relationship between entrepreneurship and growth is stronger in countries dependent on international trade (Reynolds and others). Throughout the world, small and medium-sized firms operating high-growth businesses provide the majority of new jobs. At the community level, entrepreneurs create new jobs, increase local incomes and wealth, and connect the community to the larger, global economy. But these benefits vary substantially across different types of entrepreneurs. Some entrepreneurs start firms to help them capture a certain quality of life. Other entrepreneurs start firms that will become high-growth businesses. While many new firms fail, those that succeed often add jobs, lift incomes, and generate new wealth in a community.

 

ENTREPRENEURS BENEFIT TO COMMUNITIES
Over the past 200 years, the definition of entrepreneurship has evolved into a complex set of ideas Put simply, entrepreneurship is the creation of a new firm. Ultimately, entrepreneurship is “the process of uncovering or developing an opportunity to create value through innovation…”
(Kauffman Center).A common thread runs through most definitions of entrepreneurship:
Innovation, Innovation creates something new or unusual that initiates change in the competitiveness of the market, mainly through new firm formations. These new firms are an expression of the creativity of the entrepreneur, allowing new products and new ways of doing business to add value to an economy and improve the quality of life in communities. New technologies, products, and services are brought to market every year by small entrepreneurial firms.
Today, many state and local governments recognize the value of innovative entrepreneurs and are shifting their focus from recruiting firms from other places to growing their own. Unlike manufacturing recruitment strategies, which typically lure existing businesses to a community, entrepreneurship leads to new firm formations that create jobs. (Leicht and Jenkins). Over the past decade more than 500,000 new firms were established each year that provided job opportunities for Americans (SBA). And, small entrepreneurial firms created roughly three-fourths of these new jobs. Firms like Wal-mart and Microsoft were started by entrepreneurs. In addition to creating jobs, entrepreneurs often raise local incomes and add to local wealth. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the earnings of self-employed entrepreneurs are almost one third higher than the earnings of wage and salaried workers—and the earnings of entrepreneurs with incorporated businesses are much higher In addition, unlike branch plants that often send their corporate wealth back to metro areas, local entrepreneurs are more likely to reinvest their wealth locally (“A conversation”). Entrepreneurs are also taking leading roles in connecting their communities to the global economy. In the United States, small entrepreneurial firms are the fastest growing segment of exporting firms (NCOE, Embracing Innovation). From 1987 to 1997, both the number of small business exporters and the value of small business exports tripled. Growth in both the number of exporters and value of exports was strongest in the smallest businesses, those with less than 20 employees.

MEANING AND DEFINITION OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
The origin of the basic word ―Entrepreneurship is from a French word ―Entrepreneurship, where it cradled and originally meant to designate an organizer of certain musical or other entertainments. The Oxford English Dictionary (of 1897) defines the term ―Entrepreneur in similar way as the director or a manager of a public musical institution, one who gets-up entertainment arranged , especially musical performance. Initially in the early 16th century, it was applied to those who were engaged in military expeditions. In 17th century. It was extended to cover civil engineering activities such as construction and fortification. Entrepreneurship refers to the act of setting up a new business or reviving an existing business so as to take advantages from new opportunities. Thus, entrepreneurs shape the economy by creating new wealth and new jobs and by inventing new products and services. However, an insight study reveals that it is not about making money, having the greatest ideas, knowing the best sales pitch, applying the best marketing strategy. It is in reality an attitude to create something new and an activity which creates value in the entire social eco-system. It is the psyche makeup of a person. It is a state of mind, which develops naturally, based on his/ her surrounding and experiences, which makes him/ her think about life and career in a given way. The women have achieved immense development in their state of mind. With increase in dependency on service sector, many entrepreneurial opportunities especially for women have been created where they can excel their skills with maintaining balance in their life. Accordingly, during the last two decades, increasing numbers of Indian women have entered the field of entrepreneurship and also they are gradually changing the face of business of today, both literally and figuratively. But still they have not capitalized their potential in India the way it should be.   
Entrepreneurship has been defined in the for-profit literature as the catalytic agent who sets into motion new enterprises with new combinations of production and exchange (Carter and Cannon, 1992; Collins and Moore, 1970). In their findings, Handy et al. (2003), Glaeser and Shleifer (2001), and Bilodeau and Slivinski (1996) highlighted that nonprofit entrepreneurs are driven by their beliefs, personal experiences, perceptions of community needs, and desire to provide services to others. Given that they must incur similar constraints and challenges as their for-profit counterparts, they are likely to be equally willing to take risks, self-directed, and innovative. However their focus is on what they can do for others while for-profit entrepreneurs are interested in financial independence and are driven by profit maximization (Crowell, 2003; Everingham, 2002). In broader sense, entrepreneurs organize the economic ventures for producing goods and services at lower cost with objects of maximization of new employment and setting up new business (Nazar, 2005). Also, women entrepreneurs have become an important part of national development planning and strategies (Tuladhar, 1996).   

DEFINITIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR
Stems: from the French word ‘entrependre’ meaning one who undertakes or one who is a ‘go-between’.
1725: Richard Cantillon: An entrepreneur is a person who pays a certain price for a product to resell it at an uncertain price, thereby making decisions about obtaining and using the resources while consequently admitting the risk of enterprise.
1803: J.B. Say: An entrepreneur is an economic agent who unites all means of production- land of one, the labour of another and the capital of yet another and thus produces a product. By selling the product in the market he pays rent of land, wages to labour, interest on capital and what remains is his profit. He shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield.
1934: Schumpeter: According to him entrepreneurs are innovators who use a process of shattering the status quo of the existing products and services, to set up new products, new services An entrepreneur is a person with a high need for achievement [N-Ach]. He is energetic and a moderate risk taker.
1964: Peter Drucker: An entrepreneur searches for change, responds to it and exploits opportunities. Innovation is a specific tool of an entrepreneur hence an effective entrepreneur converts a source into a resource.
1971: Kilby: Emphasizes the role of an imitator entrepreneur who does not innovate but imitates technologies innovated by others. Are very important in developing economies.
1975: Albert Shapero: Entrepreneurs take initiative, accept risk of failure and have an internal locus of control.
1983: G. Pinchot: Intrapreneur is an entrepreneur within an already established organization.

TYPES OF AN ENTREPRENEURS
Entrepreneurs are a unique group of people. They are owner-managers who assume risk, manage the business’s operations, reap the rewards of their success, and bear the consequences of their failure. As managers, they decide when to be innovative, what innovations to adopt, and how to acquire and bundle resources to initiate change and build competitive advantages in the marketplace. Still, there are important differences among entrepreneurs. Different types of entrepreneurs yield different benefits to their community. According to the Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership, there are basically two kinds of entrepreneurs—lifestyle and high growth.  
Lifestyle entrepreneurs start new firms to provide a family income or support a desired lifestyle. These entrepreneurs typically seek independence and control over their own schedule. In some cases, lifestyle entrepreneurs sacrifice growth for lifestyle choices. These entrepreneurs generally hire few people. Classic examples are “mom and pop” stores, such as the family owned grocery store, the local hardware store, or the home-based consultant. Because of their lifestyle focus, the benefits of these entrepreneurs relate primarily to the quality of life in local communities. Lifestyle entrepreneurs provide many of the services needed by local residents, and, perhaps most important, they add to the personality and charm that characterize Main Street economies. This charm attracts many people to shop and live in rural communities. Distinct from lifestyle entrepreneurs.
High-growth entrepreneurs are typically motivated to start and develop larger, highly visible, and more valuable firms. These entrepreneurs commonly focus on obtaining the resources necessary to fuel growth. Many seek to take the business public after obtaining some degree of success. The presence of a significant innovation that has dramatically changed the competitive climate of the market characterizes many high-growth entrepreneurial firms. In the minds of many community leaders, high-growth entrepreneurs provide the biggest economic benefit to their communities (“A conversation”). In addition to creating more jobs, more income, more wealth, and a larger tax base for their communities, high-growth entrepreneurial companies often invest in their communities through schools, community service, and philanthropy. When benefits like these outweigh the costs of supporting high-growth entrepreneurs, fostering more high-growth entrepreneurs is viewed as a sound strategy for adding economic value to communities.
Starting and growing one’s own business requires many skills to be successful. One could be a visionary like Bill Gates or a superstar like Peter Sematimba. The entrepreneur personality types are the traits and characteristics that blend with the needs of the business. Understanding the types of entrepreneur personality type helps in enjoying business as well as providing with what it needs to grow in best.
Each entrepreneur personality type can succeed in the business environment if it is true to character. Identifying strong traits is essential and can act as a compass for the business.

FUNCTIONS OF AN ENTREPRENEUR 
 An entrepreneur frequently has to wear many hats. He has to perceive opportunity, plan, organize resources, and oversee production, marketing, and liaison with officials. Most importantly he has to innovate and bear risk. The main functions of an entrepreneur are as follows.
INNOVATION: Innovation is one of the most important functions of an entrepreneur according to Schumpeter. An entrepreneur uses information, knowledge and intuition to come up with new products, new methods of reducing costs of a product, improvement in design or function of a product, discovering new markets or new ways of organization of industry. Through innovation, an entrepreneur converts a material into a resource or combines existing resources into new and more productive configurations. It is the creativity of an entrepreneur that results in invention [creation of new knowledge] and innovation [application of knowledge to create new products,
services or processes.]
Systematic innovation means monitoring the following for innovative opportunity.  The unexpected success or failure or any unexpected outside event, (e.g. when the IT bubble burst the ITES sector started growing.)
ii. Innovation based on process need [e.g. plate based cameras, film based cameras, digital cameras]
iii. Changes in industry and market structure [e.g. video cassette VCD, DVD, Blue ray disc]
iv. Demographics changes (e.g. increasing number of working women and nuclear families in most metropolitan cities)
v. New knowledge (e.g. Pentium chip)

RISK AND UNCERTAINTY BEARING: According to Hozelist an entrepreneur performs the function of risk and uncertainty bearing. Every decision pertaining to development of new products, adapting new technologies, opening up new markets involves risk. Decision-making in an environment of uncertainty requires anticipation of risk. Profit is said to be the reward for anticipating and taking such risks. However it is pertinent to mention that the entrepreneur is not a gambler, he only takes calculated risks. An entrepreneur develops the art of decision-making under conditions of uncertainty as a matter of survival.
ORGANIZATION BUILDING: An entrepreneur has to organize men, material and other resources. He has to perform the functions of planning, co-ordination and control. He has to use his leadership qualities to build a team, generate resources and solve problems. With his organizational skills an entrepreneur builds an enterprise from scratch, nurtures it and makes it grow. His vision sows the seeds for a sound and vibrant organization and synergies are built in the enterprise. According to Kilby in a developing country even the imitator entrepreneurs are very important and the entrepreneurial role encompasses the following:
i. Perception of market opportunities
ii. Gaining command over scarce resources
iii. Purchasing inputs
iv. Marketing the products
v. Dealing with bureaucrats
vi. Managing human relations within the firm
vii. Managing customer and supplier relations
viii. Managing finance
ix. Managing production
x. Acquiring and overseeing assembly of the factory
xi. Industrial engineering
xii. Upgrading process and product
xiii. Introducing new production techniques and products.
Successful en­trepreneurs come in various ages, income levels, gender, and race. They differ in education and experience. But research indicates that most successful entrepreneurs share certain personal attributes, includ­ing: creativity, dedication, determination, flexibility, leadership, passion, self-confidence, and “smarts.” Creativity is the spark that drives the development  of new products or services or ways to do business. It is the push for innovation and improvement. It is continuous learning, questioning, and thinking outside of prescribed formulas. Dedication is what motivates the entrepreneur to  work hard, 12 hours a day or more, even seven days a week, especially in the beginning, to get the en­deavor off the ground. Planning and ideas must be joined by hard work to succeed. Dedication makes it happen. Determination is the extremely strong desire to  achieve success. It includes persistence and the ability to bounce back after rough times. It per­suades the entrepreneur to make the 10th phone call, after nine have yielded nothing. For the true entrepreneur, money is not the motivation. Success is the motivator; money is the reward. Flexibility is the ability to move quickly in response to changing market needs. It is being true to a dream while also being mindful of market realities. A story is told about an entrepreneur who started a fancy shop selling only French pastries. But customers wanted to buy muffins as well. Rather than risking the loss of these customers, the entrepreneur mod­ified her vision to accommodate these needs. Leadership is the ability to create rules and to set  goals. It is the capacity to follow through to see that rules are followed and goals are accomplished. Passion is what gets entrepreneurs started and  keeps them there. It gives entrepreneurs the ability to convince others to believe in their vision. It can’t substitute for planning, but it will help them to stay focused and to get others to look at their plans. Self-confidence comes from thorough planning, which reduces uncertainty and the level of risk. It also comes from expertise. Self-confidence gives the entrepreneur the ability to listen without being easily swayed or intimidated. “Smarts” consists of common sense joined with  knowledge or experience in a related business or endeavor. The former gives a person good instincts, the latter, expertise. Many people have smarts they don’t recognize. A person who successfully keeps a household on a budget has organizational and fi­nancial skills. Employment, education ex­periences all contribute to smarts.

WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
 Women were the first humans to taste bondage. She was a slave before slavery existed. Inferiority can largely be attributed to her sexual peculiarities. “Man has always played the role of a lord; as a result, his physical and mental development took place at a good pace befitting his occupation and field of interest. On the contrary, the overall growth of women remained stunted”. By sheer custom even the most ignorant and worthless man has been enjoying superiority over women, which he does not deserve. Women were denied the benefit of education. They had no opportunities to develop their natural capacities and became helpless, illiterate, narrow-minded and peevish. Of the world’s onebillion illiterate adults, two-third is women. Economically women became completely dependent upon men. Since time immemorial, women have been discussed, and written about mainly as a decorative object. But when she has stepped out of this niche, by and large, response has been one of cynicism and derision.
Economic compulsions have let more and more young girls to take up employment. It is out of work experience, exposure to education and ubanisation that the potential source of women
entrepreneurs has emerged. Women entrepreneurs in India have to cope with various socio-economic problems. Society’s attitude and support are the major determinants of women’s entrepreneurial success. The social and cultural roles played by women may place an additional burden on them. As a part of their social binding, women have to perform household duties with simultaneously operating as business owners. A woman entrepreneur is expected to perform the roles of wife, mother, daughter, daughter-in-law and businesswoman.
Women become entrepreneurs due to several factors which may be grouped under “Pull factors” and “Push factors”. Pull factors refer to the urge in women to under take ventures with an inclination to start a business. Women entering business, driven by financial need due to family circumstances are said to be influenced by push factors.
In the advanced countries of the world, there is a phenomenal increase in the number of self employed women after the Second World War. In the Indian context, participation of women as entrepreneurs commenced from 1970s onwards. Earlier, women were associated with 3 K’s – Kitchen, Kids and Knitting. Then came 3 P’s – Powder, Papad and Pickles. In urban India, women, entrepreneurs are found in 4 Es- Electricity, Electronics, Energy and Engineering. However, women in rural India have confined themselves to petty business and tiny cottage industries. Majorities of rural women entrepreneurs are concentrated in low-paid, low-skilled, low-technology and low-productivity jobs. They have basic indigenous knowledge, skill and potential to establish and mange enterprise Entrepreneur is a person who starts a business or an enterprise or a firm. An entrepreneur is the individual who initiates organize, manage and control the affairs of a business unit. While Say (1) and Marshall (2) put him as an organizer and speculator of a business enterprise, whereas Schumpeter referred him as an innovator (3).It means, an entrepreneur starts the enterprise, organizes it, supervises it and engineers long run plan of the enterprise. He / She is especially motivated and a talented person, who implements new ideas, visualizes opportunities for introducing new products, techniques and new source of supply of required goods to consumers.. Government of India (1984) has defined woman entrepreneur as “an enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of 51 percent of the capital and giving at least 51 percent of employment generated in the enterprise to women”. This definition does not suit to rural women entrepreneurs in India. Any rural woman or a group of rural women which innovates, imitates or adapts an economic activity may be referred as a rural woman entrepreneur. Secondly, rural woman entrepreneur could be defined as `an adult rural woman who creates, owns, and runs an enterprise in rural area.
Rural women entrepreneurship can be viewed as rural women indivisible process which flourishes when the inter-linked dimensions of individual psychological – entrepreneurial traits, social encouragement and business opportunities coverage towards the common goal of opportunity creation and exploitation. From this point of view, rural women entrepreneurship is a frame of mind and a continuous forward societal process. This state in which one does not become entrepreneur or does not act as an entrepreneurship by the mere act of starting or owning an enterprise.
More important is the nature, degree and extent of innovations and involvement that the entrepreneur introduces, establishes, organizes and controls on continuous basis, Rural woman entrepreneur can be described as a dynamic agent of rural economy change, who may be instrumental in transforming rural physical, natural and human resources into production possibilities. Therefore, further it can be stated that rural women entrepreneur and entrepreneurship is not born but can be made as it is neither art nor science but practice. In another words, it can be said that rural women entrepreneur means one who organizes, owns, manage and assumes the risks of business at rural level. The rural women, who innovate, imitate or adopt an economic and commercial activity in rural India can be called rural entrepreneur or entrepreneurship.
It can be said that rural woman entrepreneur is the one who creates something new, organizes production and undertakes risks and handles economic uncertainties, to adjust her personal needs, family life, social life and economic independence. On the other hand, it can also be referred rural as an enterprising rural woman individual with an eye for opportunities and on uncanny vision, gifted with commercial acumen and tremendous perseverance. She is a person who will like to take risks because of the adventurous spirit she possesses. Thus, as the rural women or a group of rural women, who initiate, organize, manage, operate and control a business enterprise in rural India.  A woman entrepreneur is an adult who owns and runs an enterprise, especially a commercial one, often at personal financial risk. The ILO defined the women‘s enterprise as a small unit where one or more women entrepreneurs have not less than 50 per cent financial holdings.    The concept of women entrepreneurship is becoming a global phenomenon playing a vital role in the business community. In India, women have made a comparatively late entry into business scenario mainly due to the orthodox and traditional socio-cultural environment. Although women face various problems in the process of establishing, developing and running their enterprises, nevertheless, their scope of development is very high in India, especially in rural areas with more women making development oriented programme viz. Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) which was launched in 1982-83. In what follows, an attempt is made to analyse the success of such a scheme in terms of its survival, growth and development of women entrepreneurs and identify the problems faced by the women entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship has gained currency across the sphere and female- entrepreneurship has   become an important module. India is one of the fastest emerging economies and the importance of   entrepreneurship is realized across the gamut.   “Women Entrepreneurship” means an act of business ownership and business creation that   empowers women economically increases their economic strength as well as position in society.   Women-entrepreneurs have been making a considerable impact in all most all the segments of the   economy.   “Women Entrepreneur” is a person who denies the role of their personal needs to participate   and be accepted economically independent. Strong desire to do something positive is a high-quality   women entrepreneur who contributes to the position values of family and social life.   “An enterprise owned and controlled by a women having a minimum financial interest of   51% of capital and giving at least 51% of the employment generated by the enterprise to women.” -According to Kamala Singh," A women entrepreneur is a confident, innovative and creative   woman capable of achieving economic independence individually or in collaboration generates   employment opportunities for others through initiating establishing and running an enterprise by   keeping pace with her personal, family and social life.   According to Medha Dubhanshi Vinze,” a women entrepreneur is a person who is an   enterprising individual with an eye for opportunities and an uncanny vision, Commercial acumen,   with tremendous perseverance and above all a person who is willing to take risk with the unknown   because of the adventures spirit she possesses.”   In the words of Former President APJ Abdul Kalam "empowering women is a prerequisite   for creating a good nation, when women are empowered, society with stability is assured Empowerment of women is essential as their thoughts and their value systems lead to the   development of a good family, good society and ultimately a good nation."   Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru has remarked “When women move forward, the family   moves, the village moves and the Nation moves.”   Women Entrepreneurs have been making a significant impact in all segments of economy of   the world. Their willingness for the future is apparent in their growing confidence, in their strengths   and in their desire to seek different forms of work in order to achieve a new balance between work   and home.   tactfully takes all the risks, accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become   economically.  Thus a women entrepreneur is one who starts business and manages it independently and   independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of   entrepreneurial women, who is capable contributing values in both family and social life and is one   who faces the challenges boldly with an iron, will to succeed.      
The concept of women entrepreneurship is becoming a global phenomenon playing a vital role in the business community Women entrepreneurs also contribute to India’s economic prosperity. But, some of the major problems faced by women entrepreneurs in the country are attributed to lack of education, lack of proper management, financial support etc. Low education restricts women from acquiring even functional levels of literacy required to learn skills. In terms of skill development, women are impeded by their lack of mobility, low literacy levels and prejudiced attitudes towards women. When women negotiate with banks and government officials, others often ostracize them in their community for being ‘too forward’. Government and bank officials have preconceived ideas and stereotypes of what is considered women’s work and what women are capable of (Kumari et al., 2010). With rapid population growth of rural and small scale sector, women entrepreneurs are also facing the problems of technological stagnation, under utilization of capacity, lack of vertical mobility, sickness and high mortality rates, followed by shortage of finance, inadequate facilities of storage, inadequate marketing, stiff competition, low mobility, family responsibilities and, social attributes (Mohamed, 2001). The finding of recent research on developed economies has identified a potential problem of women’s entrepreneurship: highly educated women seem to choose other career options than self-employment and entrepreneurship. And hence, entrepreneurship is relatively more dominated by unskilled women or very skilled and already wealthy women. Skilled women must therefore become more attracted to entrepreneurship. If women are relatively less skilled than their male counterparts, then the firms will have a lower probability of survival and growth than firms created by men.    Woman constitutes the family, which leads to society and Nation. Social and economic development of women is necessary for overall economic development of any society or a country. Entrepreneurship is the state of mind which every woman has in her but has not been capitalized in India in way in which it should be. Due to change in environment, now people are more comfortable to accept leading role of women in our society, though there are some exceptions. Our increasing dependency on service sector has created many entrepreneurial opportunities especially for women where they can excel their skills with maintaining balance in their life. Propose of this empirical study is intended to find out various motivating and de-motivating internal and external factors of women entrepreneurship. The position of women and their status in any society is an index of its civilization.    Social and economic development of women is necessary for overall economic development of any society or a country. In a recent survey it is revealed that the female entrepreneurs from India are generating more wealth than the women in any part of the world. The basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women, reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be recognized, brought out and exposed for utilization in productive and service sectors for the development of the nation. Ability to learn quickly from her abilities, her persuasiveness, open style of problem solving, willingness to take risks and chances, ability to motivate people, knowing how to win and lose gracefully are the strengths of the Indian women entrepreneurs.     Women Entrepreneurs may be defined as the women or a group of women who initiate, organize and operate a business enterprise. The Government of India has defined women entrepreneurs as “an enterprise owned and controlled by women having a minimum financial interest of 51 per cent of the capital and giving at least 51 per cent of the employment generated in the enterprise to women. According to Suresh Reddy women entrepreneurship is a composite skill, the resultant of a mix of many qualities and traits – these include tangible factors as imagination, readiness to take risks, ability to bring together and put to use other factors of production, capital, labour, land, as also intangible factors such as the ability to mobilize scientific and technological advances. Samwel (2003) viewed women entrepreneurship as a function which seeks investment and production process by raising capital, arranging labour and raw materials, finding site, introducing new techniques and commodities and discovering new sources for the enterprises. When we speak about the term “Women Entrepreneurship” we mean, an act of business ownership and business creation that empowers women economically, increases their economic strength as well as position in society.  
Women are to be considered as equal partners in the process of development. But, because of centuries of exploitation and subjugation, Indian women have remained at the receiving end. Women in India have been the neglected lot. They have not been actively involved in the mainstream of development even though they represent equal proportion of the population and labour force. Primarily women are the means of survival of their families, but are generally unrecognized and undervalued, being placed at the bottom of the pile.   Women Entrepreneur" is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. This is great news. But, a part of women in some parts of the country still do not know their power. They don't know that they can break the domination over men and move on, walk on and fight for their freedom.
Women contribute significantly to the running of family businesses mostly in the form of unpaid effort and skills. The value of this effort is underestimated both by the families that take it for granted and in academic studies. On the other hand, many of the enterprises defined as being run by women (that is, enterprises in which women hold the controlling share) are in fact run in their names by men who control operations and decision making. Programs meant to reach women entrepreneurs can succeed only if they take note of this paradox as well as of the familial and social conditioning that reduces the confidence, independence and mobility of women.
Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs(FIWE), which is a National-level organization, founded in 1993, is today, one of India’s Premier Institution for Women thoroughly devoted towards entrepreneurship Development, having a large membership base of 15,000 individual members / professionals and more than 28 Member Associations spread throughout the country. The objective of the organization is to foster the Economic Empowerment of Women. FIWE endeavors to provide: Networking platform for women, Technical know-how, Industry research & expertise, Skill development & training and brings the businesswomen on a Common Forum. Federation of Indian Women Entrepreneurs(FIWE), which is a National-level organization, founded in 1993, is today, one of India’s Premier Institution for Women thoroughly devoted towards entrepreneurship Development, having a large membership base of 15,000 individual members / professionals and more than 28 Member Associations spread throughout the country. The objective of the organization is to foster the Economic Empowerment of Women. FIWE endeavors to provide: Networking platform for women, Technical know-how, Industry research & expertise, Skill development & training and brings the businesswomen on a Common Forum.

TRAITS OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA
WOMEN ARE AMBITIOUS
A successful woman entrepreneur is dreadfully strong-minded one, has an inner urge or drives to change contemplation into realism. Knowledge from her previous occupancy as an employee, relying on educational qualifications or lessons learnt from inborn business, she is ready to grab opportunities, sets goal, possess clear vision, steps confidently forward and is ambitious to be successful. Every successful woman entrepreneur is truly determined to achieve goals and make her business prosper. Thorough knowledge of the field is indispensable to success. She comes with new innovative solutions to old problems to tide over issues.
WOMEN ARE CONFIDENT
A successful woman entrepreneur is confident in her ability. She is ready to learn from others, search for help from experts if it means adding value to her goals. She is positive in nature and is keener to take risks. A winning woman entrepreneur uses common intelligence to make sound judgments when encountering everyday situations. This is gleaned from past experience and information acquired over the years. It is essential not to get aggravated and give up when you face obstacles and trials. The aptitude to explore uncharted territories and take bold decisions is the hallmark of a successful woman entrepreneur. A successful woman usually loves what she does. She is extremely fervent about her tasks and activities. Her high energy levels motivate her to contribute immensely towards building, establishing and maintaining a prosperous business.
WOMEN IS OPEN AND WILLING TO LEARN
A successful woman entrepreneur keeps side by side of changes, as she is fully conscious of the importance of evolving changes. She is ahead of her competitors and thrives on changes. She adapts her business to changes in technology or service prospect of her patrons. She is inquisitive, concerned to learn and accommodative to innovations.
WOMEN ARE COST CONSCIOUS
A successful woman entrepreneur prepares pragmatic budget estimates. She provides cost effective quality services to her clients. With minimized cost of operations, she is able to force her team to capitalize on profits and gather its benefits.

WOMEN VALUES COOPERATION AND ALLEGIANCE
A woman has the ability to work with all levels of populace. She is keen on maintaining associations and communicates evidently and efficiently. This helps her to negotiate even responsive issues without difficulty. She is sympathetic to people around her and have good networking skills that help her to get better contacts and utilize opportunities.
WOMEN CAN BALANCE HOME AND WORK
A successful woman entrepreneur is good at balancing varied aspects of life. Her multitasking aptitude combined with support from spouse and relatives enables her to bring together business priorities with domestic responsibilities competently and efficiently.
WOMEN ARE AWARE OF HER LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE SOCIAL ORDER
A successful woman entrepreneur is eager to share her achievement with the society. She is dedicated to assist others and enjoys her liability.
WOMEN FOCUS ON THEIR PLANS
Women Entrepreneur’s plan their work and work with plan. Set long-term and short-term goals and take consistent action in moving toward them.
WOMEN ARE RESOURCEFUL
Women entrepreneurs take advantage effectively coordinating the available factors and resources such as mentoring, training and coaching and build a strong base of education, training and experience which can help lead to success

AN EFFECTUAL WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR REQUIRES CERTAIN ADDITIONAL ESSENTIAL QUALITIES-

Many women have these traits but they never got a platform to showcase their talents and for this reason they don't know their real abilities. Matching the basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be documented, brought out and exposed for utilization in productive and service sectors for the progress of the nation.

QUALITIES REQUIRED FOR WOMEN ENTREPRENEUR
An effective entrepreneur requires certain basic qualities, which can be listed as follows:

Many women have these qualities but they never got a platform to showcase their talents and hence they don’t know their real abilities. Matching the basic qualities required for entrepreneurs and the basic characters of Indian women reveal that, much potential is available among the Indian women on their entrepreneurial ability. This potential is to be recognized, brought out and exposed for utilization in productive and service sectors for the development of the nation.
The vast majority of the world’s poor are women. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterates are female. Of the millions of school age children not in school, the majority are girls. The current world food price crisis is having a severe impact on women. Around the world, millions of people eat two or three times a day, but a significant percentage of women eat only once. And, now, many women are denying themselves even that one meal to ensure that their children are fed.  Women and small business management.
For many reasons, not enough people running a small business as sufficiently more attractive than working as an employee of a firm, large or small, or in a public organization. These reasons apply as much to women as to men, but there are certain additional factors which make entrepreneurship an even less attractive or viable option for women.
Although there has been an encouraging upturn in women running businesses in the past decade or so, much more needs to be done to overcome the specific factors which discourage them from starting /taking over small firms. And even more importantly, we have to create an environment in which those women who do run a small business can more easily grow their firm.
In overcoming these obstacles, the work of the Businesswomen Associations is crucial, since they act as platforms for empowering and encouraging women entrepreneurs.  Many entrepreneurial opportunities are emerging in various fields such as computers, electronics, medicine, agriculture, food technology, fashion designing etc. Women Entrepreneurship is recognized as a vehicle for economic growth.

REASONS FOR EMERGENCE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS
The glass ceilings are shattered and women are found indulged in every line of business. The entry of women into business in India is traced out as an extension of their kitchen activities, mainly 3P‘s, Pickle, Powder and Pappad. But with the spread of education and passage of time women started shifting from 3P‘s to modern 3E‘s i.e., Energy, Electronics and Engineering. Skill, knowledge and adaptability in business are the main reasons for women to emerge into   business ventures. Women Entrepreneur‘ is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. A strong desire to do something positive is an inbuilt quality of entrepreneurial women, who is capable of contributing values in both family and social life. With the advent of media, women are aware of their own traits, rights and also the work situations. The challenges and opportunities provided to the women of digital era are growing rapidly that the job seekers are turning into job creators. Many women start a business due to some traumatic event, such as divorce, discrimination due to pregnancy or the corporate glass ceiling, the health of a family member, or economic reasons such as a layoff. But a new talent pool of women entrepreneurs is forming today, as more women opt to leave corporate world to chart their own destinies. They are flourishing as designers, interior decorators, exporters, publishers, garment manufacturers and still exploring new avenues of economic participation. The following flow chart shows the reasons for women becoming entrepreneurs. Innovative thinking New challenges and opportunities for self fulfillment Employment generation Freedom to take own decision and be independent Government policies and procedures Family occupation Need for additional income Bright future of their wards Success stories of friends and relatives Role model to others support of family members Education and qualification self identity and social status.   
In recent years there has been a lot of debate in the print and electronic media, parliament and other forums about the development of entrepreneurship amongst women. Due to various cultural and social reasons, women in different parts of India have different motives, aspirations, social status, needs and urges.
Varied motivation needs and interests plunge in women entrepreneurs for establishing an enterprise. The most dominant motives are fulfillment of ambition and pursuits of own interests is evident in almost all women entrepreneurs.
Factors that normally make women to be entrepreneurs include:
1.    Economic needs (To earn money);
2.    As a challenge to satisfy some of their personality needs (Power, Achievement and Novel experience);
3.    Educated women utilizing their knowledge gained;
4.    Family occupation (Second generation entrepreneurs); and
5.    As a leisure time activity.
The assessment of business management skill is essential for every women entrepreneur before she starts her business as it provides the knowledge of one’s strengths and weaknesses. Management skills required for women entrepreneurs:
1.    Finance-securing capital;
2. Dealing with people (especially with trade unions), Management development and training;
3.    Marketing/Sales – Marketing research, Product promotion and selling;
4.    Idea generating, Product innovation;
5.    Business Operations, Inventory, Production, Day-to-Day operations;
6.    Organizing and planning Business strategy, Organization structure policies, etc.
A woman of challenging attitude and firm determination, high in her goals, will certainly manage her enterprise successfully. Women are dreamers with make high hopes and ambitions have a positive competition and are confident of her ability to deal with problems, have belief that hard work is a sure ingredient to success in entrepreneurial ventures. Profile of successful women entrepreneurs:
1. High need for achievement;
2. Commitment of conviction;
3. Capacity to analyze;
4. Risk taking;
5. Initiative and independence;
6. Hopeful about future and search for environment; and
7. High personnel efficiency.
Success depends on one’s ability to prove the best by putting more efforts to succeed. Though women have the traits of being an entrepreneur such as achievement-oriented, responsible, moderate risk factor, success-oriented, energetic, forward looking, organized, still the number of women entering the entrepreneurship is very low. The turnout of women entrepreneurs is minimum is because a women is given lower status in the society. Though women are considered as weaker gender physically, mentally they are more capable and alert in managing things. Through age’s women have been managing hoses and small finances in their best possible way. Women are easily accessible to management techniques and they adopt them quickly with utmost sincerity and honesty. The Governments is also utmost importance to the enhancement of women status in all sectors and walks of life. Effective strategies, policies are being  Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting a new organization or a business. One who begins it needs to have confidence and competence in order to meet unforeseen and adverse conditions. In the words of Schumpeter, “an entrepreneur is a person who is willing and able to convert a new idea and invention into a successful innovation”. The Government of India has introduced the concept of women entrepreneurs on the basis of their equal participation and employment of a business enterprise. Entrepreneurial activities are substantially different depending on the type of organization that is being started. It forces “creative destruction” across markets and industries, largely responsible for dynamism of industries as well as the economic growth. As entrepreneurs there are certain functions, which are required by women entrepreneurs to perform. Frederick Harbison has talked about five functions of women entrepreneurs:

Women in India enter into business mainly for two types of factors i.e. pull and push factor. Pull factor refers to the process in which women are encouraged to start an occupation or venture with an urge of doing something independently. Whereas push factors refers to the process in which women are compelled to take up their own business in order to tackle-up their economic difficulties as well as responsibilities. In India, Most of the women are now showing there preferences towards the entrepreneurship rather than going into the fields of professional as well as various service. Women are choosing both the traditional (toy making, pickle making, candle making, etc.) as well as the non-traditional (garment shop, beauty-parlour, computer-training, school management, etc.) activities and are performing well. Unfortunately, there has been found a difficulty to eradicate completely the evil conception of male dominated society at that time when India has reached on the moon. The women entrepreneur development is influenced by many complicated factors including social, economical, cultural and physiological prevailing everywhere in the society. Generally, women opt for micro-enterprises than major enterprises because of certain unavoidable factors and issues like, limited capacity, low level of confidence, little access to technical information, poor local market conditions, less access to capital, etc. Indian women are now proving themselves by excelling in every field and surpassing men far behind.

HURDLES IN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN INDIA 
Major barriers for women entrepreneurs in India are choice between family and career Illiteracy or low level of Education. Dearth of financial assistance Socio-cultural barriers. In developing countries like India women work long hours daily, carrying out family chores such as cleaning, cooking, bringing up children along with concentrating on their income generating activities. Such family responsibilities prevent them from becoming successful entrepreneurs. As regards illiteracy among women, available statistics reveal that two-third of the world‘s 876 million illiterates are women In India of the 59.5 per cent of total population that is illiterate, women comprise 48.3 per cent (Estimated in 2003).    
As regards finance, women in developing nations have little access to finance due to the fact that they are concentrated in poor rural communities with few opportunities to borrow money. The Times of India, March 18, 2004 reports that compared to states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the states of Haryana, Punjab and Chandigarh have not done well in distributing loans to female entrepreneurs. Such lack of access to credit is still worsened by a lack of information on where credit can be sought and requirements for loans. According to a 1995 report by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), despite evidence that women‘s loan repayment rates are higher than men‘s, women still face more difficulties in obtaining credit‖ often due to the discriminatory attitudes of banks and informal lending groups.    In many parts of India, women belonging to certain communities are found to be very conservative due to their upbringing in orthodox families. Insecurity for women is a common phenomenon in many areas of the country and there is a requirement to educate the community about the need for transformation and to increase women‘s mobility beyond the home through long-term strategies. The conventional social roles assigned to women often proved to be a handicap for their free mobility and freedom to work. It is thus evident that women entrepreneurs have to confront more challenges from their culture, family and society than their male counterparts.    Indian women are in no way inferior to men in all walks of life and they can be as good entrepreneurs as men in the country. Therefore, it is essential to exploit the potentials of Indian women. Women‘s participation in trade, industry and commerce, requiring entrepreneurship, is still poor mainly because of the problems associated with their gender roles. Therefore, promotion of entrepreneurship and economic empowerment of women poses a challenge to the government, funding agencies and non-government organizations. It is important for these people to focus on the limitations faced by women and to plan supporting system.

AGRIBUSINESS
The word agriculture indicates plowing a field, planting seed, harvesting a crop, milking cows, or feeding livestock. Until recently, this was a fairly accurate picture. But to days’ agriculture is radically different.    Agriculture has evolved in to agribusiness and has become a vast and complex system that reaches for beyond the farm to include all those who are involved in bringing food and fiber to consumers. Agribusiness include not only those that farm the land but also the people and firms that provide the inputs (for ex. Seed, chemicals, credit etc.), process the output (for ex. Milk, grain, meat etc.), manufacture the food products (for ex. Ice-cream, bread, breakfast cereals etc.), and transport and sell the food products to consumers (for ex. restaurants, supermarkets).   
Agribusiness system has undergone a rapid transformation as new industries have evolved and traditional farming operations have grown larger and more specialized. The transformation did not happen over night, but came slowly as a response to a variety of forces. Knowing something about how agribusiness came about makes it easier to understand how this system operates today and how it is likely to change in the future.    Initially agriculture being the major venture it was easy to become a farmer, but productivity was low. Average farmer produced enough food to feed just four people. As a consequence most farmers were nearly totally self-sufficient. They produced most of the inputs they needed for production, such as seed, draft animals, feed and simple farm equipment. Farm families processed the commodities they grew to make their own food and clothing. They consumed or used just about everything they produced. The small amount of output not consumed on the farm was sold for cash. These items were used to feed and cloth the minor portion of the country’s population that lived in villages and cities. A few agricultural products made their way into the export market and were sold to buyers is other countries.   
Farmers found it increasingly profitable to concentrate on production and began to purchase inputs they formerly made themselves. This trend enabled others to build business that focused on meeting the need for inputs used in production agriculture such as seed, fencing, and machinery and so on. These farms involved into the industries that make up the “agricultural inputs sector”. Input farms are major part of agribusiness and produce variety of technologically based products that account for approximately 75 per cent of all the inputs used in production agriculture.   
At the same time the agriculture input sector was evolving, a similar evaluation was taking place a commodity processing and food manufacturing moved off the farm. The form of most commodities (wheat, rice, milk, livestock and so on) must be changed to make them more useful and convenient for consumers. For ex. consumers would rather buy flour than grind the wheat themselves before backing a cake. They are willing to pay extra for the convenience of buying the processed commodity (flour) instead of the raw agriculture commodity (wheat).   
During the same period technological advance were being made in food preservation method. Up until this time the perishable nature of most agriculture commodities meant that they were available only at harvest. Advance in food processing have made it possible to get those commodities all throughout the year. Today even most farm families’ use purchased food and fiber products rather than doing the processing themselves. The farms that meet the consumers demand for greater processing and convenience also constitute a major part of agribusiness and are referred to as the processing manufacturing sector. It is apparent that the definition of agriculture had to be expanded to include more than production. Farmers rely on the input industries to provide the products and service they need to produce agricultural commodities. They also rely on commodity processors, food manufactures, and ultimately food distributors and retailers to purchase their raw agricultural commodities and to process and deliver them to the consumer for final sale. The result is the food and fiber system.   
The food and fiber system is increasingly being referred to as “agribusiness”. The term agribusiness was first introduced by Davis and Goldberg in 1957. It represents three part system made up of
(1) The agricultural input sector
(2) The production sector and
(3) The processing-manufacturing sector.
The capture the full meaning of the term “agribusiness” it is important to visualizes these there sectors as interrelated parts of a system in which the success of each part depends heavily on the proper functioning of the other two.

AGRI-PROCESSING INDUSTRIES
Agri-processing industries refer to those activities that transform agricultural commodities into different forms that add value to the product. "Agri-based industries are those industries which have either direct or indirect links with
agriculture (Bhattacharya 1980). agri-processing industries, especially food manufacturing, tobacco and textile processing dominate the commercial industrial sector. In this sense the agri- processing could be defined as set of techno economic activities carried out for conservation and handling of agricultural produce and to make it usable as food, feed, fiber, fuel or industrial raw material. Hence, the scope of the agri-processing industry encompasses all operations from the stage of harvest till the material reaches the end users in the desired form, packaging, quantity, quality and price. Ancient Indian scriptures contain vivid account of the post harvest and processing practices for preservation and processing of agricultural produce for food and medicinal uses. But, inadequate attention to the agri-processing sector in the past put both the producer and the consumer at a disadvantage and it also hurt the economy of the Country. (Kachru 2008) Over the years, the agricultural transformation through creation of forward and backward linkages with industry has been emerging as an important option to overcome the increasing challenges of creating employment opportunities for increasing labourforce and sustaining the livelihood of households in rural areas. Most important point in the agri-processing is that a sizeable portion of raw material processed in them being rural based it has a very high employment potential with significantly lower investment. Further the agri-industry generates new demand on the farm sector for more and different agricultural outputs, which are more suitable for processing ( Srivastava, 1989). On the other hand, development of these industries would relax wage goods constraints to economic growth by enhancing the supply of their products (Desai and Naboodiri, 1992) In this context there is a need for improving the capacity of the agri-industries to harness backward linkages with agriculture and allied activities in order to efficiently convert part of the output to value added products acceptable to the domestic and international markets.
This would generate employment opportunities for different types of skills through food processing, packaging, grading and distribution. At the same time this will transfer a size margin to farmers through market linkages.
Similarly, there is a need to establish and strengthened the vertical and horizontal, backward and forward linkages among the farmers, processors and R&D organizations to improve economic efficiency and realize the economies of scale.
Since the week integration of the farmers and processors keeps the farmers oblivious of the quality and quantity of the processors and hence the farmer’s emphasis remains concentrated on quantity of production. It is expected that the promotion of vertical and horizontal integration among marketing co-operatives, farmer’s organizations, SHGs and food chain stores would be vital to improve value addition chain.
In the process of reaping advantages of establishing agri-based industries for achieving increasingly creation of employment and livelihood opportunities it would be necessary to adopt a comprehensive long term approach towards the development of various food processing activities. Such planning exercise should be aimed firstly to examine the overall situation and pattern of existing industrial enterprises and then attempt should made to identify most niche based product groups of enterprises which possess certain location specific advantages in its sustainable development. This would not only provide a strong base and alternative option for creation of additional employment opportunities and avenues of income for rural households owning very small size of cultivated land and landless labourers within the rural areas itself but it would help in reduction in the rate of rural-urban migration of population.
India is the second largest producer of food in the world. Whether it is canned food, processed food, food grains, dairy products, frozen food, fish, meat, poultry, the Indian agri industry has a huge potential, the significance and growth of which will never cease. It ranked second position in the production of fruits and vegetables in the world. In 2008-09, India’s export of fresh fruits and vegetables was estimated at US $ 0.79 billion and processed fruits and vegetables it stood at US $ 0.68 billion. Also India has been recognized as the land of spices contributing to about 25 percent of the world production. Likewise India is number one milk producing country in the world with an estimated production of 105 million tones in comparison to world production of 693 million tones during 2007-08.About 35 percent milk produced in India is processed. In 2008-09, export of dairy products was estimated at US $ 0.21 billion. In terms of the grain processing, in the country accounted for 8.73 percent of the world oilseed production during the year 2007-08,. On the export front, export of oil meals, oilseeds, minor oils and castor oil during the financial year 2007-08 was reported at 62.3 lakh tones

NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT OF AGRI-PROCESSING INDUSTRY:
The agri-processing industry in India plays a vital role in the national economic development and has potential to meet the local needs and export requirements. The supporting infrastructure for this industry in terms of electricity supply, through the government funded rural electrification programme, and road and telecommunication network, is well established. There are also well established skills training programmes in manufacturing (tool making, welding), for rural artisans and users. However, the sector currently faces many challenges emanating from the poor performance of the national economy, uncertainties that exist over access to both local and foreign finances, limited research, limited technical advice, limited marketing information and lack of reliable markets.
The agri industry helps in processing agricultural products such as field crops, tree crops, livestock and fisheries and converting them to edible and other usable forms.
The private sector is yet to actualize the full potential of the agri industry. The global market is mammoth for sugar, coffee, tea and processed foods such as sauce, jelly, honey, etc. The market for processed meat, spices and fruits is equally gigantic. Only with mass production coupled with modern technology and intensive marketing can the domestic market as well as the export market be exploited to the fullest extent. It is therefore imperative that food manufacturers understand changing consumer preferences, technology, with modernization, innovation and incorporation of latest trends and technology in the entire food chain as well as agri-production, the total production capacity of agri products in India and the world is likely to double by the next decade. Also the Fruit Processing Ministry has set up a vision, strategy and action plan in 2005 to giving boost to growth of food processing sector. The objective target is to increase the level of processing of perishable food from 6 percent to 20 percent, value addition from 20 percent to 35 percent and share in global food trade from 1.6 percent to 3 percent. The level of processing of fruits and vegetables is envisaged to increase to 15 percent by 2015.
The agri industry is regarded as an extended arm of agriculture. The development of the agri industry can help stabilize and make agriculture more lucrative and create employment opportunities both at the production and marketing stages. The broad based development of the agri-products industry will improve both the social and physical infrastructure of India. Since it would cause diversification and commercialization of agriculture, it will thus enhance the incomes of farmers and create food surpluses.
The agri-industry mainly comprises of the post-harvest activities of processing and preserving agricultural products for intermediate or final consumption. It is a wellrecognized fact across the world, particularly in the context of industrial development that the importance of agri-industries is relative to agriculture increases as economies develop. It should be emphasized that ‘food’ is not just produce. Food also encompasses a wide variety of processed products. It is in this sense that the agriindustry is an important and vital part of the manufacturing sector in developing countries and the means for building industrial capacities.
However, a bulk of agri- processing industries falls in the category of tiny and small scale units operating largely in un-organized sector with low science and technology input and heavily weighted in favor of low value-added products though the contribution of such household based food processing activities have been playing a dominating role in the rural economic system in almost all the regions of the country since long. The study by (Chadha and Sahu, 2003) reveal that the small scale and unorganized sectors, having only local presence without much access to technology network, accounts for 99.4 percent of the units, 86.8 percent of employment and 36.4 percent of output of the industry. However, little information is available in matters related to the mode of establishing and growth structure, potential and sustainability aspects, nature and extent of participation of different communities, possibilities of expansion of certain enterprises which possess location specific comparative advantage and opportunities for their development, kinds of factors influencing the efficiency and growth pattern of different rural industrial activities. Moreover, information is not readily available regarding the extent and level of contribution of various rural industries in the total income of rural households and its expected contribution to be derived in future in the perspectives of regional development.
On the other, the small-scale farming in India rarely provides sufficient means of survival in many rural areas. It is therefore imperative to explore alternative income generating opportunities to support poor families who can no longer fend for themselves from the land-based activities alone. Recent research demonstrates that rural households depend on a diverse portfolio of activities and income sources. Some households are looking towards activities such as food processing as a means to enhance the livelihood they can achieve from a limited area of land (Simalenga, 1996). In this context the small-scale food processing activities represent a potential source of livelihood for rural poor. The overall potential of agri-processing is huge as it can: Increase the value of crops of poor farmers and thus yield higher returns; Expand marketing opportunities; Improve livelihoods of people; Extend shelf-life of commodities;
Improve palatability of commodities; Enhance food security; Overcome seasonality and perish ability constraints; and Empower women who are often involved in agri-processing. Similarly, agri processing offers great scope for conversion of farm produce to  consumer commodities and in the process reduces wastage, increase shelf- life resulting in value addition and higher income transfer to the farmers from different classes of consumers, as the processed commodities has wider market (Chengappa 2004 ).Agri-industries have also been viewed as a safety valve that needs to be built within rural areas to absorb surplus labour and provide relief to the problem of large scale disguised unemployment. At the same time Srivastava (1989) points out that the agri-industry provides the crucial farm industry linkages which helps accelerate agricultural development by creating backward linkages ( supply of credit, inputs and other production enhancement services 0 and forward linkages ( processing and marketing ), adding value to the farmers produce, generating employment opportunities, and increasing the net income of farmers. This in turn motives the farmers for better productivity and further opens up possibilities of industrial development. Also, the agri- industry generates new demand on the farm sector for more and different agricultural outputs which are more suitable for processing. At the same time it can open up new crop and livestock opportunities to the farmers and thus increase the farm income and employment (Austin ,1981). However the unique characteristics of agri-processing industry are that industry displays a characteristics of seasonality, perish ability and variability. Therefore, agri industries have to procure raw materials only in the season while the processing operations continue for a longer period and the demand for the products is round the year. ( Srivastawa 1981).

CONSTRAINTS IN DEVELOPMENT
However, in spite of various initiatives carried out for achieving increasing expansion of agri-processing industries in the country and at state level as well there are certain problems which limiting the growth of this sector. These problems emerge starting from the initiation of establishment of the unit. If these are established the problems existed in its operation, mainly in matters of from the systems framework right from the input supply to the farmers and production of raw material to output processing and marketing ( Kulkarni and and Srivastava 1985). However in our country as a whole and in particular to a majority of the regions of the country a major problems in development of agri-processing has been related with the inadequacy and suitability of required raw material on one hand and the seasonal nature of the operations of this sector in unorganized manner. The wastage in the handling during post harvest and in marketing has also been noted another problem associated to the growth of this sector.
A study by Srivastava (1989) points out that 30 percent of our fruits and vegetables lost in the process of handling and marketing. Similarly, the findings of Chadha (1989) are that the non- availability or paucity of processing varieties of fruits and vegetables on one hand and short period of raw material availability and excessive costs of raw material are the important constraints for development of agri-processing industries. In addition to this, the country is in a situation to utilize only 1.5 percent of the fruits and vegetable in processing of its products. Similar situation has been noted in bringing under processing of other agri-based non-food commodities (Srivastava 1989). Similarly, it indicated by Chengappa (2004) that India is the second largest producers of fruits and vegetables, but only two percent of the produce is processed.
Even, the overall value addition to food is only 7 percent as compared with 23 percent in China, 45 percent in the Philippines and 88 percent in UK. The special report of Food Processing Ministry (2010) itself indicted that the food processing sector is facing several challenges. Despite the fact that India ranks first in the production of milk, pulses and tea and second in production of fruits and vegetables in the world and it being a major food producer, India’s share in world food trade is less than 2 percent. The level of processing in India is also quite low at around 6 percent compared to 60-80 percent in developed countries.
By and large, a major problem is that the Agri- processing industry has been concentrated in the un-organized sector with low science and technology and little or no standardization and grading. A substantial portion of production takes place in the cottage and small sector and technology is often absolute (Srivastava 1989)and gives sub- optimal yields, energy over- utilization, lack of scale economies in production, and increased marketing costs ( Govt. of India 1989). The problems related to Marketing of agri-products, and financial and fiscal requirement at different stages of the operation of units have been recognized some of the serious constraints in operating this sector. The cost of packaging is still very high and has been increasing consistently (APEDA 1989). Similarly, the processed/ packed food products have been considered luxury items, and therefore, they have been subjected to high tax incidence at various stages of processing. The incidence of taxes has been estimated in the range of 30 percent to 60 percent of ex factory costs (Govt. of India 1989) Even, as far as the Uttar Pradesh is concerned, it has certain advantages and opportunities which positively favor the expansion of various agri-processing industries in its different regions. However, despite several initiatives undertaken at policy level to transform the given advantages in achieving the expansion of certain agri-processing industries the achievement level in this regard has been recognized far below the level of its expectations. Although, the share of UP in total countries output generated from agri-processing is quite significant and in fact, it is consistently increasing over the years. However, some of the main constraints arising in the growth of agri-processing industries in the state are as follows:
(i) A very low level of investment in agriculture sector itself is the most critical constraints in restricting the growth of agriculture sector and surplus food production to be used in food processing industries. It is distressing to note that the per capita Plan outlay in Uttar Pradesh is the lowest among all states. A more disturbing fact is also that the public investment in agriculture in different Five Year Plans has decreased in the State.
(ii) Unwanted heavy controls on levy, movement and stocking of sugar and molasses, stagnant recovery rates maintained in sugar production, the practices of growing traditional sugarcane crops and certain other factor might be adversely affecting the growth of sugar and khandsari industries.
(iii)Lacking initiatives to identify the area specific potential product group of agri-processing industries which possess certain backward and forward development and then to introduce industry specific development measures favoring its healthy and sustainable growth.
(iv) The agri-processing based on the products of potato, fruits and vegetables is usually undertaken in unorganized sector in rural areas where the facilities of transportation, marketing and cold storage are hardly available. So inaccessibility to these facilities and inadequacy of R&D facilities have been increasingly restricting the growth of this sector in rural areas.
(v) The important constraints have also been recognized in terms of lacking vertical and horizontal, backward and forward linkages among the farmers the processors and R&D organizations to tide over the impediments, to improve upon the economic efficiency and in better realizing the economies of scale in agri-processing sector.
(vi) Moreover, the factors hampering overall industrial growth, not in specific to  agri-processing industries in Uttar Pradesh include: low competitiveness due to unexploited economies of scale, poor incentives and law and order situation, inadequate infrastructure and choice of location

 

 

 

 

 

LITERATURE REVIEW
Bertraux and Crable (2007) comment how Indian women especially in rural area can become a successful entrepreneur with the help of technology and training. Sannikova (2007) mentioned in conference paper that training and mentoring is one of the key variables that support the creation of an enabling environment for women entrepreneurship. Carter agrees and suggests that the only way to encourage large number of omen into self employment is to recognize that there is a clear need to widen access to business startup and growth training and advice. Ladzani and Vurren (2002) states lack of training of entrepreneurs is the main reason for venture failure. Botha, Neiman and Vurren (2006) in their empirical paper write entrepreneurial training is important for both existing and potential entrepreneur. It helps in expansion of business for existing one and motivate potential one to start up. Udai and Manohar emphasize the need of training and write training is one of the key inputs for development and change entrepreneurship. The aim of the training is to achieve development and change through planned efforts. Rani (1996) comments on usefulness of training programs in the development if women entrepreneurship.
In the DFID 2001 report titled” The impact of training on women’s microenterprise development”, in which Indian entrepreneurs (engaged in silk rearing practices) are also surveyed and quite significant change can be seen in their traditional way of doing this activity.
According to Mill (1848), entrepreneurship to be direction, supervision, control and risk taking, with risk being the main distinguishing feature between the manager and the owner-manager. Later Schumpeter (1928, 1934) focused on the instability of capitalism and on entrepreneur’s function as an innovator, ‘The carrying out of new combinations we call “enterprise”; the individuals whose function is to carry them out we call “entrepreneurs” (Leo-Paul Dana, p.17). Rahman (1997) said that entrepreneurship is the function that is specific to entrepreneurs’ ability to take the factors of production – land, labor and capital and use them to produce new goods or services. Entrepreneurship is defined as a kind of behavior of a person that includes perceiving economic opportunities, initiative taking, creativity and innovation, organizing social economic mechanism to turn resources and situation to practical account and is the acceptance of risk to failure.
According to LFS (1996) : A woman entrepreneur is defined as a woman who has alone or with one or multiple partners, started, bought or inherited a business, is assuming the related financial, administrative and social risk and responsibilities, and is parting in the firms day to day management. Such women are also known as women business owners or women entrepreneurs or self employed women. According to Begum (1993), Entrepreneurship thus refers to general trend of setting up new enterprises in a society. Later Andrea E. Smith-Hunter (2006) said that hose women engaged in their self business, they are entrepreneur.  
Sextan and Kennt (1981) in their article, “Female Executives and Entrepreneurs: Preliminary
Comparison”, reported the results of a study comparing the characteristics of women entrepreneur sand executives. The results showed that women entrepreneurs were better educated. They tended to place a slightly higher emphasis on their job than on their family. The results further indicated that women entrepreneurs tended to be more similar than dissimilar.
Nayan Barua and Aparajeeta Burka Koty (2005) in their book, “Women Entrepreneurship”,
Analyzed the impact generated by entrepreneurship development programmes on women Entrepreneurs in the state of Assam.
According to Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Report 2002 on India, males are twice as likely as females to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Indian women generally have less access to formal education; consequently, they have less participation in the formal sector and hence many of them take up self-employment. It has been found that women entrepreneur in the service sector are more educated than those in the trading sector (Lalitha Rani, 1966).
Entrepreneur’s personal motivation is considered one of the key components for entrepreneurial success (Timmons and Spinelli, 2003).
Studies show women entrepreneur to be married, belonging to age group of 30-45, and first born in birth order (Watkins and Watkins, 1984; Hisrich and Brush, 1983, 1986; Malik and Rao, 2008; Lee, 1996) Hisrich and Brush (1985) also found the female entrepreneur to be: (1) the first born (2) from a middle or upper class family (3) the daughter of a self employed father (4) educated to degree level (5) married with children, among other characteristics. It appears women think of business idea in their thirties due to economic pressure/deemed and more leisure time as their children are growing.
Pooja Nayyar, Avinash Sharma, Jatinder Kishtwaria , Aruna Rana and Neena Vyas in their paper on the topic “Causes and Constraints Faced by Women Entrepreneurs in Entrepreneurial Process”, published in Journal of Social Science, 14(2): 99-102 (2007) have concluded that Women entrepreneur faced constraints in aspects of financial, marketing, production, work place facility and health problems. Financial problem faced were non-availability of long-term finance, regular and frequent need of working capital. Poor location of shop and lack of transport facility were major marketing problems. Production problems included the problem of non-availability of raw material. Entrepreneurs of zone-IV mainly faced health problems such as fatigue, tension, and headache. Women entrepreneurs also faced problems of improper water and space facility. Guidelines framed as a solution to these problems can help women entrepreneurs to deal with these problems effectively.
Susanne E. Jalbert, Ph.D. in her paper on the theme “Women Entrepreneurs in the Global Economy”, March 17, 2000, has concluded that Today’s world is changing at a startling pace. Political and economic transformations seems to be occurring everywhere – as countries convert from command to demand economies, dictatorships move towards democracy, and monarchies build new civil institutions. These changes have created economic opportunities for women who want to own and operate businesses. Today, women in advanced market economies own more than 25%of all businesses and women-owned businesses in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are growing rapidly.
Prof. Dileep Kumar M., Ex-Professor, Symbiosis (SCMHRD, SCDL), IIIT, SCMLD, SBS, Pune in his paper on the theme has analyzed that Independence brought promise of equality of opportunity in all sphere to the Indian women and laws guaranteeing for their equal rights of participation in political process and equal opportunities and rights in education and employment were enacted. But unfortunately, the government sponsored development activities have benefited only a small section of women. The large majority of them are still unaffected by change and development.
Maitland, Alison in his article on “From Female Upstarts to Star-Ups: Women Entrepreneurs.” Financial  Times. October 19, 2000 has mentioned that A number of resources now exist to support women entrepreneurs. In 1988, Congress authorized the Small Business Administration Office of Women’s Business Ownership, which created a “Low – Doc” loan program which makes it easier for women entrepreneur to obtain SBA financing. The SBA also has established a Women’s Network for Entrepreneurial Training (WNET) which links women mentors with protégées. Small Business Development Centers (SBDC) are also co-sponsored by the SBA and operate in every state. They offer free and confidential counseling to anyone interested in starting a small business. In addition, many states now have a Women’s Business Advocate to promote women entrepreneur within the state.  These advocates are represented by an organization, the National Association of Women Business Advocates.
Darrene, Harpel and Mayer, (2008) performed a study on finding the relationship between elements of human capital and self employment among women. The study showed that self employed women differ on most human capital variable as compared to the salary and wage earning women. The study also revealed the fact that the education attainment level is faster for self employed women than that for other working women. The percentage of occupancy of managerial job is found to be comparatively higher in case of self employed women as compared to other working women. This study also shed light on similarity and dissimilarity of situations for self employed men and self employed women. Self employed men and women differ little in education, experience and preparedness. However, the main difference lies in occupational and industry experience. The percentage of population holding management occupation is lower for self employed women as compared to self employed men. Also the participation levels of self employed women are found to be less than of self employed men in industries like communication, transportation, wholesale trade, manufacturing and construction. The analysis is based on data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) from 1994 to 2006.
Jalbert, 2000 performed a study to explore the role of women entrepreneurs in a global economy. It also examined how women’s business associations can strengthen women’s position in business and international trade. The analysis is performed on the basis of facts and data collected through field work (surveys, focus groups and interviews) and through examining the existing published research. The study has shown that the women business owners are making significant contributions to global economic health, national competitiveness and community commerce by bringing many assets to the global market. As per the analysis of the research study, women entrepreneurs have demonstrated the ability to build and maintain long-term relationships and networks to communicate effectively, to organize efficiently, to be fiscally conservative, and to be aware of the needs of their environment and to promote sensitivity to cultural differences. Researchers contend that women business owners posses certain specific characteristics that promote their creativity and generate new ideas and ways of doing things. These characteristics include focus, high energy level, personal motivations, self employed father, social adroitness, interpersonal skills etc. There is a worldwide pool of economically active persons, known as the Women’s Indicators and Statistical Data Base (WISTAT), from which one can extrapolate the general number of women entrepreneurs. WISTAT titles the category “employers and own-account workers,” but the category could be termed as well as self employed or business owners. The category describes those who are economically independent and who could be entrepreneurs. The number of women to 100 men in each region is represented for three decades spanning 1970 to 1990. The study revealed that the gap between men and women business owners has narrowed significantly. In 1970 women numbered 26 for each 100 men, but by 1990 women numbered 40 for each 100 men who were self employed Greene et.al., (2003), evaluate the research & publication contribution in the area of women entrepreneurship. The study categorized various journal & resources of research on the basis of certain parameters concerned with women entrepreneurship like gender discrimination, personal attributes, financing challenges, business unit, context and feminist perspectives. Damwad, (2007), describes the experiences, initiatives & obstacles faced at five Nordic countries like Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway & Sweden towards women entrepreneurship. It broadly identifies few obstacles like financing, lack of knowledge & skills in business life, markets & entrepreneurial activity, work life balance including lack of growth & wishes to grow and most importantly women as other groups are heterogeneous. The study compares early stage entrepreneurial male & female activity among Nordic countries with the same of USA. It also compares various programme & schemes developed by Nordic countries & agencies that provide support to them. OECD & European Commission are focusing on methodologies in analyzing quantitative & qualitative women entrepreneurship. The Nordic countries need a framework for policy learning develop a proper policy mix towards promoting women entrepreneurship  
Ms. R. Thamaraiselvi in her article on the theme “ Women as Entrepreneurs in India” has researched that empowering women entrepreneurs is essential for achieving the goals of sustainable development and the bottlenecks hindering their growth must be eradicated to entitle full participation in the business. Apart from training programs, Newsletters, mentoring, trade fairs and exhibitions also can be a source for entrepreneurial development. As a result, the desired outcomes of the business are quickly achieved and more of remunerative business opportunities are found. Henceforth, promoting entrepreneurship among women is certainly a short-cut to rapid economic growth and development. Let us try to eliminate all forms of gender discrimination and thus allow ‘women’ to be an entrepreneur at par with men.
A study conducted by Ernst & Young titled ‘Groundbreakers’, observes: “At a time when our global economy is facing its greatest challenge in decades, we have to capitalize on the contributions women can make. While many corporations and governments have for years been making efforts to tap the hidden potential of women and many have launched laudable initiatives to do so – now is the time to accelerate those efforts.  “It’s time to place renewed emphasis on women as a resource to move businesses and economies ahead.”
TSS is a forum for women entrepreneurs to create trust-based partnerships through active networks. Additionally, the forum founders recognize the immense contribution of women entrepreneurs to self, family and society. According to TSS:

“Women Entrepreneurship in India – A gender Perspective,” conducted by Balamurugan (2008) in L. Radhakrishnan (Ed.), Empowerment of Women through Entrepreneurship, published by Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi, urges that it is necessary to encourage and promote one’s talent, aptitude and ability irrespective of gender biasness in order to sustain and compete in the global market scenario. In their “Role of Women in the Self Help Groups: An Emerging Possibility to Cooperation at Grassroots.” Man in India, Vol. 82 (3 & 4), Karmakar and Bholanath (2002) compare the features of cooperatives and self help groups and brings out the similarities of both. The study covers 20 groups in one village of Midnapore district and it observes that Self Help Groups enhance the status of women as participants, decision makers and beneficiaries and bring out the supremacy of women in molding the community in right perspective and exploring women initiative in taking up entrepreneurial ventures. In his study, Small Business Opportunities for Women in Jamaica, Nelson (1991) revealed that women were concentrated in businesses which required the least capital outlay or an extension of household activities. The study also revealed that women entrepreneurs were dependent on their business to maintain their homes and support their families. Sikha Sahai (2005), has highlighted that presently women enterprise about 10 per cent of the total entrepreneurs in India. It is clear that this percentage is growing every year. If prevailing trends continue, it is not unlikely that in another five years, women will comprise 20 per cent of the entrepreneurial force in India.Lall & Sahai, (2008), conduct a comparative assessment of multi-dimensional issues & challenges of women entrepreneurship, & family business. The study identified Psychographic variables like, degree of commitment, entrepreneurial challenges & future plan for expansion, based on demographic variables. Through stratified random sampling & convenience sampling the data have been collected from women entrepreneurs working in urban area of Lucknow. The study identified business owner’s characteristics as self perception self esteem, Entrepreneurial intensity & operational problem for future plans for growth & expansion. The study suggested that though, there has been considerable growth in number of women opting to work in family owned..Tambunan, (2009), made a study on recent developments of women entrepreneurs in Asian developing countries. The study focused mainly on women entrepreneurs in small and medium enterprises based on data analysis and review of recent key literature. This study found that in Asian developing countries SMEs are gaining overwhelming importance; more than 95% of all firms in all sectors on average per country. The study also depicted the fact that representation of women entrepreneurs in this region is relatively low due to factors like low level of education, lack of capital and cultural or religious constraints. However, the study revealed that most of the women entrepreneurs in SMEs are from the category of forced entrepreneurs seeking for better family incomes. After green revolution era, India experienced growth in processing industries but still this sector is in its infancy.(Annual Report, MFPOI, 2005-06).Concerning the path of development, Lall (2001) says that the appropriate strategy for any country depends not only on its objective economic situation but also on its government policies and national views regarding the appropriate role of the state. India’s economic development strategy immediately after Independence was based primarily on the Mahalanobis model, which gave preference to the investment goods industries sector, with secondary importance accorded to the services and household goods sector (Nayar, 2001). Gupta (2001) suggests the establishment of a global support network of venture capitalists and other funding sources (also known as “angels”) who would be willing to support the new entrepreneurs. The importance of government assistance to small business success is reported in a number of studies. Sarder, et al. (1997) conducted a study of 161 small enterprises in Bangladesh and found that firms receiving support services, such as marketing, management education and training, technical, extension and consultancy, information, and common facilities from the public or private agencies experienced a significant increase in sales, employment and productivity. In India, where ‘ language, context, culture change in every few kilometers’ potential IT users belong to a very large and highly diverse groups of which many are illiterate, a close look at these populations to understand the social context of software technologies becomes imperative. (Nielsen 2006). The most sought-after professionals in the 21st centuryeconomy will be a new breed of corporate entrepreneur, orintrapreneur :individuals whose education and experience are both broad and deep and who have the requisite skills foridentifying and exploiting opportunities; fostering team-basedinnovation, or intercreativity; and managing change (Pinchot:1976).Kayne (1999) identifies additional actions that the Indian government can take to provide a solid foundation for ntrepreneurial efforts.He says that, in any country, the advocates of an ntrepreneurial economy must promote and communicate olicies that will provide a clear link between entrepreneurial fforts and overall economic prosperity. That is, voters and axpayers must understand the reasons why their government is investing in anything as new as entrepreneurship Wortman (1990) says, rural entrepreneurship is, “the creation of a new organization that introduces a new product, serves or creates a new product, or utilizes a new technology in a rural environment”. In their book on entrepreneurship Kuratka and Richard started that entrepreneurship is the dynamic process of creating incremental wealth. This wealth is created by individuals who take the major risks in terms of equity, time and career commitment of providing value to some products or services the product or service itself may or may not be new or unique but value must somehow be infused by the entrepreneur by securing and allocating the necessary skill and resources (Kuratka and Richard 2001). It is the state of feelings of selfempowered to take control of one’s own destiny. It includes both controls over resources (Physical, Human, Intellectual and Financial) and over ideology (Belief, values and attitudes) (Batliwala, 1994). According to a KPMG TIE survey conducted in 2009 “there is potential for a new corporate landscape, steered by the spirit of the Indian entrepreneur to emerge amidst the global meltdown. The entrepreneur and the state are working together to help drive and sustain the growth of the country. In India, the relationship between the State and the entrepreneur is an important factor in the success of a business ”Terms such as intrapreneuring (Pinchot, 1985), corporate entrepreneurship (Burgelman, 1983, Vesper, 1984; Guth and Ginsberg, 1990; Hornsby et al., 1993, Stopford and Baden-Fuller, 1994), corporate venturing (MacMillan, 1986; Vesper, 1990), and internal corporate entrepreneurship ( Schollhammer, 1981, 1982; Jones and Butler, 1992) have been used to describe the phenomenon of intrapreneurship (Antonic and Hisrich, 2001).Social Entrepreneurship is the art of simultaneously pursuing both a financial and a social return on investment (the"double bottom line"). Social entrepreneur: An individual whouses earned income strategies to pursue social objectives, simultaneously seeking both a financial and social return on investment National Commission on Entrepreneurship focuses on what they call entrepreneurial growth companies—small businesses that have the potential to grow rapidly, developing new technologies, products and services, creating jobs, and stimulating economicgrowth and investment (National Commission on Entrepreneurship 2001).A report published by Collaborative Economics (2005) defines an entrepreneur as “an individual engaged in the process of starting and growing one’s ownbusiness or idea”). Aldrich and Waldinger (1990) say,“Entrepreneurship, in the classic sense, is the combining of resources in novel ways so as to create something of value”.Henderson (2002) says, “Put simply, entrepreneurship is the creation of new firm. Ultimately, entrepreneurship is the process of uncovering or developing an opportunity to create value through innovation”. “Entrepreneurs often raise local incomesand add to local wealth” (Henderson 2002). Low, Hendersonand Weiler (2005) say, “Not only do entrepreneurs create newlocal jobs, but they also generate new wealth and new growth. Entrepreneurs are innovative users of other regional assets and resources”. Dabson (2001) defined, “individuals who blend innovation with sound business practices to commercialize new products and services that result in high-growth firms”. He says there is a spectrum of entrepreneurial activity, ranging from small businesses with the potential for high growth to micro enterprises with five or fewer employees. Dabson (2001) cites The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor as using one of the more straightforward definitions: “Any attempt to create a new business enterprise or to expand an existing business by an individual, a team of individuals, or an established business”.Kreft and Sobel (2005) identify the major characteristics of an entrepreneur as innovator, risk taker, and resource allocator. Lichtenstein et al. (2004) identify opportunity and innovation as elements of the entrepreneurial process Training approach is important for helping women in non-traditional, high skill, male dominated activities and also to build-up the confidence among women to meet their requirements (Kirve and Kanitkar, 1993).Training to develop good entrepreneurial skills isuseful and essential to women (Padmavati, 2002; Sathyasundaram, 2004). The Government should also provide them with financial, marketing and training assistance so that women can start-up their business. S.Mathivanan and M.Selvakumar (2008) in their article on “A study on Socio-Economic Background and Status of Women Entrepreneurs in Small Scale Industries”, conducted a survey among 200 women entrepreneurs in small scale industrial units in Virudhunagar district and they analysed various socio-economic background factors and status of women entrepreneurs in small scale industries in Virudhunagar district, and they concluded that, the women should be allowed freely to undertake the business and the women entrepreneurship must be recognized, if it is recognized well then the country’s economic growth will be flourished
Women Entrepreneur is a person who accepts challenging role to meet her personal needs and become economically independent. Many women have this quality but they never got a platform to showcase their talents and hence they don’t know their real abilities. Though the women in India are considered as Shakthi-meaning source of power, but they are also considered weaker sex and always depend on men folk. Even though our constitution speaks of equality between sexes, male chauvinism is still the order of the day. Women in India are taking more responsibilities in bringing up children and maintaining a better home with love and affection. At the family level, the task of coordinating various activities in a much effective manner the very objective of the research is to find clues to the problems and challenges faced by women entrepreneurs necessitated the use of both the secondary as well as primary data.