• India should be obsessed with finding Job Creators. Know journey of five entrepreneurs followed by qualities of an entrepreneur who are from diverse businesses and age groups. A seasoned Mentor shares skills of an entrepreneur. It ends with the StartUp India initiative and impact in brief.

DRAFT

A Management Professor friend says there are no jobs. It features in sections of the media and is the political narrative too. Few professionals publicly speak about the mismatch between talent available and skills required. If they do, the government is blamed for lack of skills development.

Few ask - Whether a graduate degree ensures one is gainfully employed? Can any government provide jobs to people where the population is over 140 crores?

Our home support’s husband just took up work as Delivery Boy for a leading e commerce site. Today, the gig workers number is over 1 crore It gives workers monthly income and flexible hours. Many ignore their contribution to enhancing consumption. When I placed these facts before a colleague, she said it is not a regular job – there was no provident fund and pension not to forget working hours/conditions of work. Her approach reminded me of friend’s driver who left his Rs 25,000/ per month job to work in an air-conditioned office as a peon at the same cost to company. 

Over time realized it is a futile discussion to have given India’s obsession for jobs, be it in Corporates or Government. The latter are more attractive because there is job security, less accountability, inflation indexed pension and non-taxable benefits. Earlier I wrote, Can India stop being obsessed with Salaried Jobs?

India needs Job Creators more than Job Seekers. Know journey of 5 entrepreneurs.

1. Rahul Punjabi, founder of Bang Bang! Noodle, started by working with Google India, studying and working in Australia for eight years. On returning to Mumbai, he worked with a restaurant chain for two years before starting Bang Bang Noodles. At the end of year one, has two outlets that supports 65 families.

Khar, Mumbai outlet of Bang Bang! Noodle. 

2. Close to Bhuj is Bhujodi village, known for its weaving products. I visited Shyamji Bhai Vankar's shop in 2018. He belongs to the Meghwal community, named Harijans by Gandhi and Scheduled Caste by our Colonial Constitution.

The shop sells shawls, saris, stoles, bedcovers, carpets, etc. During the two hours that I spent saw foreigners, a couple from Kolkata who sell Indian handcrafted wearable textiles and a Buyer from the Aditya Birla Group. The shop provides livelihood to about 225 people of whom app 35% are women.

Shyamji Bhai shop in village Bhujodi near Bhuj, Kutch in Gujarat

3. After working for over 40 years, Dr Subhash Vaidya 80 (PhD in Poultry Science) started Noble VetScience at the age of 60. The company employs 70 people today.

Why did Dr Vaidya become an entrepreneur at 60?

“Pursuit of a new science. It was an unfolding of knowledge and experimentation. I wanted to give something back to the fields of agriculture and livestock. These sectors had provided me a livelihood. This work was a way of expressing gratitude.”

Key Takeaway – A sense of purpose and expression of gratitude by way of making products that genuinely help.  

4. During the Kutch visit, I met Rajendra who left his Mumbai hotel job to return home and sell Poha in one of Bhuj's busy streets, from 7 am to 12.30 noon. On an average, sells 150 plates of poha daily, @ Rs 20/ a plate, and Idli/Wada too.  

Rajendra’s poha stall.

5. This article reached fruition because of chance connect with Harshit Kulal, founder of Vanaragni , Bharat’s First Spiritual Clothing brand. They sell Mahabharat inspired T-shirts and Yoga Tools/T-Shirts. He says-

“I am an entrepreneur who started VanarAgni in July 2023. My background is in Digital Marketing, mainly SEO. Since I was always interested in ecommerce, took an online course during COVID and unsuccessfully tried selling t-shirts to the US audience. After that, I got a job, first in a product-based company, then in a digital marketing agency.

In late 2022, turned spiritual. I was fascinated by the history of Mahabharat and Ramayana and became a devotee of Hanuman ji. Out of the blue, I thought, why not turn Indian history into art, either as t-shirt apparel or posters. That is where the idea of starting a clothing brand came from. For the brand name, I chose VanarAgni. Vanar means Hanuman, and Agni means fire, showing aggressiveness. The idea is to stay rooted in Bharat, and spread the stories of our Indian history.”

T shirts by Vanaragni. 

What are the Qualities of an Entrepreneur?

1. Rishabh Kothari of CKC Fragrances Ltd, a perfumery company in West Bengal, speaks about qualities, “Vision – Seeing opportunities and having a clear sense of where you want to go. Courage – The willingness to take calculated risks and make difficult decisions. Resilience – The ability to absorb setbacks, learn and keep moving forward. Adaptability – The ability to evolve with changing markets, technology and circumstances. Execution – Turning ideas into action and consistently getting things done. 

2. Pramod Khandelwal, Managing Director of Metal Coatings (India) Ltd (group turnover-over Rs 200 crore with 600 employees) says, “A good entrepreneur is restless in ambition and relentless in energy. The team looks up to him for inspiration. Balanced and Prudent approach to all facets of business. Good Managers plan for the next few quarters or at most a few years. The vision of a good entrepreneur sees the enterprise in perpetuity who keeps in mind long-term impact of decisions made today. Should be willing to learn.

My advice to would-be young entrepreneurs is, “Be willing to start small – don't get tempted by the “big start” and fancy offices that you may get in a job. Then chart your own journey and destiny. The biggest satisfaction is when people recognise you for your achievements and what you are.”

3. Harshit Kulal of Vanaragini says, “I still haven't achieved the goal or am successful but can share my journey. When you start a business, don't start it just to earn money. Start a business with passion. When you start with passion, you will enjoy the process. You don't have to chase money in the beginning; instead, keep working on your business and learning along the way.

Even if you initially make a loss, keep going because you are on a journey toward achieving your goal. Until you keep putting in the effort, you will never know how far you can go. Keep learning from your mistakes and consume content about the failures and challenges other businesses have faced. You can learn a lot from their experiences.”

Key Take Away – do what you are passionate about, take failure in your stride and reinvent yourself.

4. 80 year old Dr Subhash Vaidya founder of Noble VetScience  says, “Always remember, the company comes first. Entrepreneurship rarely comes with support. Discipline, patience and resilience build businesses. Do not rush to earn quick money. Innovation must be balanced with wisdom. Learn to give credit to your team.” 

5. Pune based technology professional Ankush Tiwari, Founder and CEO of pi-labs.ai is a serial entrepreneur who prioritizes product excellence as a fundamental value in crafting innovative solutions says one who is a, “Loser first then winner mind set, losses motivates him. ⁠Original thinker and keen learner. ⁠Doesn’t follow the norm and ⁠is a Nation builder.”

6. Chef turned entrepreneur Rahul Punjabi, founder of Bang Bang! Noodle Mumbai says, “Lose your ego at the door: The best teacher is the market and customers. Treat their feedback as gospel. Your reputation is a make or break for your business: pay your staff and suppliers on time, then watch how quickly you become the pick of the job market and start to receive preferential rates/supply. Become an interesting person: you may be especially skilled at your craft/profession but build systems to coach & correct and start interacting with more people. The more interesting a person you become, the better customers you attract and the better perspective your business has. You are meant to grow the business, not work in it.”

One year celebration with employees. 

7. Indrajit Gupta, co-founder of Founding Fuel wrote, How enterpreneurs learn, “Effectual thinkers are more like explorers on a voyage into uncharted waters, like Columbus who discovered the new world.”

A Delhi based Mentor to start-ups says entrepreneurship is about five skills.

1. Intellectual Curiosity - see what others don't see & keep asking questions. Understand people, technology, markets, history, culture, supply chains. Have, I am a student approach. 

2. Connecting - joining dots and people. Very few people possess everything required to build something. Find complementary capabilities and connect them.

3. Trust-building - getting people to walk together. Capital helps, but trust is the first capital. Employees, customers, suppliers, investors, partners, communities—all have to take risks with you.

4. Negotiation and Jugaad - finding a pathway when none seems to exist. Entrepreneurship is rarely a straight road. Regulations, money, people, technology, markets - something is always missing. You negotiate, improvise, take the side lane and patiently find the impossible pathway.

5. Courage under uncertainty — acting without knowing the outcome. This is perhaps the defining entrepreneurial skill. Analysis can reduce uncertainty; it cannot eliminate it. Eventually somebody has to say: चलो, करते हैं। Read How Yoga helps you deal with uncertainty

The entrepreneur need not own every capability. His real skill is often to become the sutradhar—discover people with different strengths, build trust between them, create the coalition, get something moving and, ideally, make himself redundant eventually. That is why I use the term Coalition Entrepreneurship.”

Start Up India

The government of India, in 2016, launched an initiative to support entrepreneurs and build a strong innovation ecosystem. It is called Start Up India “The Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) aims to provide financial assistance to startups for proof of concept, prototype development, product trials, market entry and commercialization.”

According to a 2025 article in Orfonline.org Reflections on a decade of start up India, “Between the launch of the initiative and October 2024, DPIIT-recognised startups have created over 1.66 million direct jobs across various sectors. To build on the momentum of the past decade, India must tackle the obstacles by forging global partnerships, revolutionising skill development through industry-aligned training, and cultivating vibrant regional ecosystems in Tier 2 and 3 cities.” For a MINT article on evaluation on Start up India

During the 2026 BRICS summit in New Delhi, 37 deep-tech start ups attended a Bharat Innovates exposition, a program under the Education ministry i.e. designed as global accelerator or innovations rom the Indian higher education system. Some start up names are Tricog Health, QpiAI, Chara Technologies, EyeRov and Periwinkle Technologies. Hindustan Times 13/9/26

What India needs is more deregulation at the state level. The Centre must create an appropriate regulatory framework that brings certainty to business and encourage banks to evaluate and support new ventures.  

India needs more job creators, more entrepreneurs who can employ, if necessary reskill, the lakhs of resident Indians who wish to be employed. The effort is a journey, not the destination.

All the Best Entrepreneurs.