DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY RURAL ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES
DIFFICULTIES AND CHALLENGES FACED BY RURAL ENTREPRENEURS IN INDIA AND EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

Summary/Abstract: The role of entrepreneurship in employment, economic growth and innovation have been mainly debated and consistently acknowledged, both in literature and in policy making. The current economic crisis has increased attention on entrepreneurship and its essential role in all economies. The aim of this study is to analyse the challenges and opportunities in rural India and Europe that entrepreneurs might face in the current situation. The economic growth of a country mainly depends on the progress of rural areas and the standard of people living in this area. A rural entrepreneur is one of the great vital contributors in the economic development of a country.Within the situation of the current crisis, at a European level, entrepreneurship development is one of the key solutions for employment creation and sustainable economic growth. Therefore, there have been numerous actions and initiatives to make entrepreneurship as the growth engine of European economy and to put the principle of “think small first” at the core of national and European policies. Nearly 73 % of the total Indian population lives in rural areas where agriculture and agriculture associated activities are the main sources of their living on the contrary, many rural entrepreneurs are facing various problems and challenges due to non-availability of essential amenities in the rural part of developing country like India. The research methods are the analysis of different research articles, reports and policy papers and comparative analysis of statistical data from international databases also researchers implemented a descriptive research design using 130 randomly selected registered entrepreneurs from Maharashtra state, India.The main findings of this research show the differences in entrepreneurial activity, level and nature of entrepreneurship existing at European level during the crisis, and also point out the strengths and weaknesses of European countries and Data collected from India were analysed using descriptive statistics the data analysis indicated that lack of finance, insufficient infrastructures, lack of managerial skills were major challenges for rural entrepreneurs.

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