A Study Of Entrepreneurial Competencies Among Handloom Weavers Of Telangana

Abstract

Rural India provides entrepreneurial opportunities for micro enterprises, thus augmenting employment and income generation. In rural India after agriculture the Handloom is the major employment provider. It directly and indirectly generates about 4.3 million employment opportunities. India provides about 95% of handloom fabric to the world. Despite this, the handloom sector has the challenges of low productivity, unorganized system of establishment, working capital and branding. Entrepreneurs are the growth engine for economy to prosper. Utilization of rural citizens coupled with entrepreneurial alignment, enhances the development of micro-enterprises in handloom segment and economy of India. The industry derives continuous demand and keeps the traditional and contemporary handloom entrepreneurial hopes alive. This research article studies the assessment of entrepreneurial competency of the handloom weavers in state of Telangana. A questionnaire was set and an interview was conducted on the handloom weavers of Telangana using a convenient sampling.  The results shows that the Entrepreneurial competence in growth aspirations, customer orientation, new product development etc. is critical for successful operations of micro-enterprises in handloom industry. The study also unveils that the entrepreneurial competence is high for experience & skills and moderate- low for new product development, personal abilities and business abilities.