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Gallup Poll: India Worst Country in Asia for Entrepreneurs

By HARI KUMAR

Mahesh Kumar/Associated PressA cashier counts money paid by a customer at an electronics shop in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, July 28, 2011.

Indians’ unwillingness to risk failure has hobbled the creation of small businesses and led the nation to be ranked last in Asia in promoting entrepreneurship, according to a Gallup poll.

Government corruption, a lack of capital and credit, and poor technology and training have also impeded the creation of small businesses, Gallup found. Its survey, of 5,000 adults in India from January to March of this year, found that 16 percent of Indian adults own a business and half of those owners are solo operators.

The survey was not all bad news. It found that business thinking, optimism and persistence – all important for entrepreneurs — are common traits among Indians.  Small and medium-sized businesses contribute 8 percent of India’s gross domestic product and employ 60 million people in 26 million enterprises, according to a January 2010 government report.

Nearly half of those surveyed by Gallup said that the government is a significant stumbling block to starting a business. Seven out of 10 Indians said that corruption is widespread in government and 60 percent said that corruption is common in business. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus 1.7 percentage points, Gallup said. A recent report by the World Bank ranked India 166th among 183 countries in terms of the ease of starting a business.

Training and mentorship are also crucial for startups, but only 37 percent of current business owners and 28 percent of those seeking to start a business said that they know someone who can offer advice about business management, the Gallup poll found.

The survey results were released just as India experienced the two worst blackouts in human history and as foreign investment in India has slowed in part because of concerns about changes in India’s tax policies.