India Land of a Billion Entrepreneurs 1st Edition

8

The Survivors

“If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things. The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want. They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up!”

—Pete Seeger

The ‘survivors’ are the micro and mini entrepreneurs like the vegetable vendors, the paanwallahs and the like. These constitute nearly 29 million enterprises. Most of these are in the form of micro (tiny) enterprises. Over 94 per cent of these units are in the unorganized sector and employ less than four people. They provide employment to ...