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Entrepreneurship for jobs

Suman Saha
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chief of India's Biocon Ltd, suggests Bangladesh government support women's education, social entrepreneurship
The youth, especially women, should focus on social entrepreneurship as it will enable them to show their creativity and help the country generate more jobs, says a leading woman entrepreneur from India.
"We have to nurture job-creating activities by establishing small companies rather than only focusing on starting big companies,” says Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director of Bangalore-based biotech giant Biocon Ltd.
Big companies have some limitations, such as when they grow big, they focus on automation, hence squeezing new job opportunities, she adds.
“A new entrepreneur can create at least 10 jobs. So, don’t be a jobseeker, rather be a job-creator,” urges the leading Indian industrialist while talking to The Daily Star in an interview in Dhaka on Thursday.
She came to Bangladesh to attend a meeting of the board of trustees of Asian University for Women (AUW).
Located in Chittagong in Bangladesh, AUW provides world-class education to promising young women from diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds from across South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East
Kiran says the power of an entrepreneur is huge as it can have a great impact on socioeconomic development by creating new jobs and urging young people to set up small enterprises.
The world is passing through a difficult time as some countries are facing religious conflicts, some economic challenges, and some are faced with jobless growth, while the Asian counties are now focusing on inclusive growth, says Kiran.
So the youth should come forward to handle these challenges, she says. “Each challenge brings an opportunity for you.”
"I call myself an accidental entrepreneur as I would never have thought
about being an entrepreneur. I always looked for a job.”
"I suddenly found that my gender came against me. People kept acknowledging the fact that I had very good technological capabilities but they weren't willing to risk having a woman in their management cadre."
There were a lot of prejudices about women, says Kiran, who has been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma Bhusan by the Indian government.
“The question of whether women could play a certain role, could be a good manager and carry out job responsibilities kept bothering me a lot," says Kiran.
"But I have proved that women can run businesses successfully as my company has now turned into the largest biotech company in Asia,” she adds.
She was 25 in 1978 when she started Biocon by investing only Rs 10,000, the market capitalisation of which now hovers around $2 billion. The company has operations in 75 countries and has global sales worth over $1 billion.
“If I can do it, then all women can do it,” says Kiran.
She says there is no short-cut technique to becoming an entrepreneur; one needs to have passion, determination, commitment and self-confidence to be a successfill entrepreneur.
"Only a good idea can help a person step into the entrepreneurial world,” she adds.
She says an entrepreneur’s life is not always smooth as they have to face a lot of challenges; some unforeseeable challenges also force an entrepreneur to bear losses.
“But don’t give up hope. You should know that failure is part of entrepreneurship.”
"Today my big challenge for the company is to make healthcare facilities more affordable for the poor people all over the world,” says Kiran.
Today, healthcare facilities are available for the affluent people only as healthcare costs are still too high, and therefore, the poor are yet to enjoy essential facilities, she adds.
One of the biggest healthcare problems in India and Bangladesh is infectious diseases. It can be prevented to a considerable extent only if we can provide better hygiene and clean water, she reiterates.
"Half of the infectious diseases can be prevented if we can ensure two things -- good sanitation and clean water.”
In India, around 50 percent people defecate in the open as they do not have toilets, which causes many health hazards and infection, she deplores.
"We always think healthcare infrastructure means only building hospitals. Actually, it includes other issues such as installing good sewerage systems, building toilets and providing clean water."
Biocon has a number of partners, such as with Incepta Pharmaceuticals, Square Pharmaceuticals and Renata, to sell its insulin, anti-cancer and cardiovascular products in the country, she says.
Kiran, who is also a trustee board member of AUW, had a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with the other board members to get support from the government to help women's education and social entrepreneurship flourish.
suman.saha@thedailystar.net