Media’s responsibility towards entrepreneurship – V Balasubramanian, VP Corporate Communication, The India Cements Ltd

At an event organised by the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, along with Exim Bank, I had the opportunity to meet V Balasubramanian, Vice President Corporate Communication of The India Cements Ltd, known more popularly, in his previous avatar, as Balu Balasubramanian of the Economic Times.

‘Are we doing enough, as media, for entrepreneurs?’ I asked Balu. We are not focusing on small and tiny industries, he rued, speaking in Tamil.

Manufacturing sector

India has grown in the IT and telecom sectors; we have made the world see us. But we have not made anything remarkable in the manufacturing sector. We have a lot of people in Tirupur and Sivakasi, and we have to encourage new ideas and support them with funds. Funds are available now.

First generation

They used to say in Tamil Nadu that there are not many entrepreneurs, not many innovations. But, the first generation entrepreneurs are trying very hard. The media has to find such people and encourage them. And it has to bring to the world’s notice what they are doing, both in the national and international markets.

Export deficit

The reason for India’s current account deficit is that we have not increased exports. Of course, a lot of people have done many things, but it is not enough. Small entrepreneurs are the people who are going to create employment. Only SMEs will decide our future, whether it is direct jobs or contract jobs.

Beyond Tier-2

"If you look at the automobile industry, many vendors do not rise up as direct suppliers to OEMs, going into Tier-1 or even Tier-2 level. You can see only large organisations are there; rest of the people are unorganised. We have to help the smaller vendors develop, and adopt the newer concepts.