Indian students show highest entrepreneurial intent globally: IIT-Mandi report

The data has been released in the "GUESSS India 2023" report, a survey on student entrepreneurship brought out by the India chapter of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey, a global research project involving a comprehensive survey on student entrepreneurs in 57 countries worldwide.

New Delhi: As many as 32.5 per cent of college students in India are already nascent entrepreneurs actively engaged in starting their businesses - a figure impressively higher than the global average of 25.7 per cent, according to a report prepared by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Mandi.

The data has been released in the "GUESSS India 2023" report, a survey on student entrepreneurship brought out by the India chapter of the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students' Survey (GUESSS), a global research project involving a comprehensive survey on student entrepreneurs in 57 countries worldwide.

"Fourteen per cent of Indian students plan to become founders immediately after graduation, closely aligning with the global average of 15.7 per cent. Notably, the aspirations shift over time with 31.4 per cent of students intending to pursue entrepreneurship five years after graduating, compared to a global average of 30 per cent," the report said.

"As many as 32.5 per cent of Indian college students are already nascent entrepreneurs actively engaged in starting their businesses. This figure is higher than the global average of 25.7 per cent," it added.

A first of its kind in India, the GUESSS India 2023 survey conducted between November 2023 and February 2024 received responses from 13,896 students enrolled in hundreds of higher educational institutions across the country.

"We are already the third-largest startup ecosystem worldwide. We also have the largest youth population in the world. Harnessing youth’s entrepreneurial potentials will be pivotal to our country's growth.

"But do our students have entrepreneurship in their minds? Do they want to take it up as a career? We have never had any data to understand our students’ entrepreneurial mindset," Puran Singh, lead author of the report and associate professor at the School of Management, IIT Mandi, said.

While 69.7 per cent of the students initially aim for employment after graduation, this figure drops to 52.2 per cent over five years, with 31 per cent aspiring to become entrepreneurs during that period, up from 14 per cent at graduation.

"Indian students show the highest entrepreneurial intent globally, with an average score of 4.6 on a 7-point scale, significantly higher than the global average of 3.7. At least 38 per cent of students are involved in venture creation, with 33 per cent in the nascent stage, the highest among global peers. However, only 4.8 per cent have reached revenue-generating stage, highlighting the potential for growth," the report said.

"A total of 63 per cent of student entrepreneurs currently access university support, with 26 per cent of student ventures being incubated," the report said.