JC Pandey at his office. Picture by Hardeep Singh

J.C. Pandey, the director of Small Industries Services Institute (SISI), Ranchi, believes in working at the grassroots level. Armed with a bachelor?s degree in engineering from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and an MBA in marketing from BIT Mesra, he set aside high profile offers from multinational companies to work for Small Industries Services Institute (SISI) way back in 1978. And he has remained with the institution ever since.

The institute, which has branches all across the country, is devoted to promoting entrepreneurship qualities among the youth. It offers guidance on how small beginnings can be transformed into successful business ventures besides providing specialised guidance on the venture in its advanced stages.

Pandey also played an active role in the mini tool room project of the department of industries. He has, in the past, held similar responsibilities in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala. In an interview with S. Shekhar, he spoke on the role that SISI can play in boosting the industrialisation process in the state.

The institute has been operating in Ranchi for the past 30 years. Do you think it has been successful in achieving what it set out as its goal?

I believe that we could have played an even more positive role. We carry out a variety of courses on entrepreneurship skills for the youth. We even provide them expert consultancy services later on.

But ultimately, I personally am not satisfied with the results. It?s actually depressing to know that just 5 per cent of the students, who enroll with us, actually go ahead and set up a private venture. Most of them enter into service in either the public or the private sector. We have tried to analyse the problem and have come to the conclusion that mostly it is the fear of ending up as failures in private ventures that keeps them away from taking the plunge.

Does that mean that the young people of the state rank low as far as their entrepreneurship skill is concerned?

In a way I think yes. The situation is certainly better in other states.

At any time of the year we have close to a hundred students enrolled in different courses. We have professors with specialisations in various fields of engineering, who have a long experience of guiding youngsters in the field. In addition to it, we provide expert guidance on how the required finance be managed. But still most of the students opt out.

Is fear the only deterrent in these youngsters becoming entrepreneurs or are there other factors involved as well?

Fear is definitely there but there are several other factors that prevent a student from setting up his private venture. There have been cases where something as simple as an application for an electricity connection has taken more than a year to be processed.

Then, there have been other cases as well when a clearance certificate from the state pollution board took more than two years to be issued. A first-generation entrepreneur with no financial backing from his family opts out the moment he finds the road ahead tough and hostile.

Do you think cooperation from the state government can help improve the situation?

It can play a very prominent role as far building up a proper infrastructure for businesses is concerned. After all, why do states that have a better infrastructure have the most daring entrepreneurs? Construct proper roads, maintain proper supply and ensure that the system works properly in government offices. And wait and see the difference.

The state government can play a good role in sectors like lac, silk and granite in particular. We can have completely export-dedicated units throughout the state.

There are already some examples here. There is one lac unit in Khunti that exports all its products and is doing great business. There are 15 machine-manufacturing units in Jamshedpur, which are dedicated just to exports.

What kind of projects do you actually support?

We provide consultancy services to small budding projects where the cost of machinery adds up to Rs 1 crore. The entire project cost should not be more than Rs 5 crore, however.

What about the tribal people? How do they respond to the programmes carried out by the institute?

Close to 60 per cent of the students that we have are tribal people. And we also have a good number of tribal girls. A very bright MBA, who joined our institute for specialised training, is a tribal. But I would be very happy if I can churn out some prominent tribal entrepreneurs from the institute.

Are there any special plans for the future?

We are renovating our entire campus. And we will keep adding special innovative courses from time to time. We also plan some special courses, which will meet the requirements of entrepreneurs who plan to set up units in the Software Technology Park in Namkum.