Indian Entrepreneurship In Times of War

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A war needs warriors. Will the MSMEs of today's Bharat rise to the occasion?
India has got habituated to a hard wiring of its intellectual capabilities, after six decades of losing a substantial number of its engineers and technically qualified personnel to the US or to stultifying employment in Indian megacities where they burn out in a couple of decades. Even today, the sons and daughters of well-heeled businessmen do not wish to augment the value that only they can bring to their family company but rather prefer to sell their talent at a CTC that is a fraction of their intrinsic value to their lucky employer.
It is understood at top levels that foundational change is required across all institutions that have acted subservient to prolonged colonial interests to the extent that our young minds feel more aligned to external interests rather than feeling that they need to be a part of the economic revival of Bharat.
What is entrepreneurship? It is the transition of an activity that starts with an individual and goes on to become an organisation with a financial outcome. For a nation with ambitions suppressed for decades, and the largest young population, we have dreams waiting to be realised. Entrepreneurship steers one away from seeking set patterns of talent for sale that employment represents towards an expanding ecosystem where an entire supply chain of individuals steers towards disproportionate financial rewards.
What is war? Taking a disinterested view of things, humankind is living in one of the apparently most 'peaceful' eras it has ever known. Armed strife remains localised, and transcontinental devastation wrought by the ravages of war have been relegated to faint memories. Yet, is peace defined merely by the absence of mobilised militaries engaging in pitched battles? Or can the supposed converse of peace, namely war, be taken as any adversarial interaction in which rivals compete using any and all methods whatsoever, be they military or otherwise? Wars today are economic, social, cultural and ideological, and may even be waged using food and yes, even water as weapons.
War is everywhere. It is a system of rewards and consequences for winners and losers. It is not very different from the jungle world of predators and prey. Corporate wars that eat local businesses and pharma wars that threaten millions with manipulating health diagnostics are today's wars. Like all wars they are unacceptable because in one way or the other they threaten the harmony of daily life.
International relations today have become fraught, fickle, transactional and transient as the world discards the so-called rules-based-order and moves towards a no-rules-whatsoever-disorder. The global situation today is truly dynamic. This generalised anarchy has immense consequences for India's economy—especially its entrepreneurial class and the way in which MSMEs need to be restructured in our country.
What are the entrepreneurial changes specifically needed in India in times of war? MSMEs in times of peace are engineered to be in a condition of equilibrium. In times of war, they enter a phase of metastable equilibrium and at the worst, violent disequilibrium leading to their quick collapse. This basic fact needs to be considered by young entrepreneurs and venture capital financiers. Here, we highlight two specific aspects that connect MSMEs in a war-like condition that affects the world in general, and India in particular.
The first point we mention is how an MSME should adapt itself to a new way of thinking, whatever be the commodity or service with which it is connected. The second point is how an MSME can connect itself with an activity related to the actual physical and mental war we are engaged in with our two and a half enemies.
Firstly, there is the matter of timing. There are no war whistles. Escalations are quick and unannounced; in a matter of minutes, a drone swarm can appear carrying an arsenal. Preparedness for war in a highly technological environment is being in a state of round the clock readiness. One cannot lapse into complacency at any time. For any sort of MSME, an ability to react quickly to any adverse condition is a must. For this, back up plans are essential and continuous vigilance.
Our current war with Pakistan and with nations dictating new tariffs and sanctions at the drop of a hat we must eschew the compartmentalised approach of industry with its great dependence on foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). Just recently with China stopping its export of high flux permanent magnets to India (and also the USA) we seem to have woken up to the fact that China has a virtual monopoly of neodymium supply chains; for neodymium is a rare earth element (REE) that is essential to fabricate these magnets. Why were we sleeping all these days? What we needed was an MSME that might have been geared to finding neodymium deposits in India. Things like this needed to be looked into; instead we encouraged MSMEs that were looking at ice cream that doesn't melt or kirana shops on two wheelers.
An empowered, regional MSME working in closer collaboration with a technological institute (IIT) is a more dependable ally in today's time, as we move to modular engineering. Dual Use Technologies to Interdisciplinary excellence have led to a newer array of mechanisms capable of weaponizing our industrial production on the one hand, and to jeopardising essential services and command centres of the enemy on the other hand. Drones can carry payloads without risking human lives in critical missions at a fraction of the cost of more conventional technologies and without the use of expensive satellites (for surveillance). We need to gear many more MSMEs to drone technology so that we compete effectively with Turkey, Iran and China in this domain. Other technologies like 3D printing, Digital Twins and AI should also find their place in the Indian MSME ecosystem.
What about adaptability? Why should Indian VCs invest in Defence Tech? India's defence budget has been amongst its top three spends running into several hundred thousand crores of rupees. The total addressable market for defence startups is therefore a lucrative investment that must be leveraged effectively to protect India's IP.
In general, however, and in any domain, not necessarily even connected with the defence and military establishment, a war mindset is a must; we need to come out of our sluggish approach that has slowed the MSME sector for many decades. This is the need of the hour. With brilliant minds from every region migrating to limited Tech hubs or indeed, out of the country itself, it is imperative that the industrial ecosystems need to reorganise themselves to new opportunities. Talent needs to identify opportunity, and in return, opportunity must ignite talent. This must be prioritised over all else. Basically, this amounts to a cultural reset for our MSME, industrial, academic and investor institutions.
Finally, we address the matter of self-realisation as it relates to entrepreneurship. This is relevant because at the core of entrepreneurship is a confidence that can only come from a certain degree of self-awareness. In times of war, this self-realisation can and must only become more robust. Even with the highest potential and capability, Arjuna did not have integrity of purpose on the eve of the war. Only this could lead to clarity and coherent action on his part. For him to acquire this and carry out his dharma, it needed The Creator Himself to remove the shadows of doubt that had come upon the highest warrior on the planet at the time. As for integrity, it is immanent in an individual and war is a mere test of its manifestation. It matters not if one is in a classroom, a boardroom or a war room.
What a war needs is warriors. Will the MSMEs and VCs of today's Bharat rise to the occasion?
Gautam Desiraju is in the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and in UPES, Dehradun. Duke Vashisht is founder of Orbitonormics Research, and is based out of Gurugram. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views.
tags :
entrepreneurship MSMEs in India
Location :
New Delhi, India, India
First Published:
June 11, 2025, 14:46 IST
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