Articles by M H Bala Subrahmanya

Historically, an economy would undergo structural changes when growing: agriculture’s contribution to the gross domestic product would decline steadily, industry’s contribution would rise steadily and compensate, and later, the services sector would follow. Contrary to this historical pattern, the services sector has bypassed the industrial sector in India, and it dominates the economy. An empirical analysis of the nature and causes of structural change in the Indian economy shows that the industry and the economy are driven by the services sector, and the sector’s growth and dominance is influenced by external factors, such as foreign direct investment.

An increasing number of new generation start-ups in the technology/knowledge-intensive industries have created something of an "euphoria" in major cities of India. This paper discusses the salient features of the start-up ecosystem that has emerged in our country, its adequacy for start-up promotion, and the measures needed to strengthen this. As a prelude, the paper traces the origin and phases of start-up growth in India, and its employment contribution, relative to the organised sector. The paper concludes with an emphasis on the need for a steady increase in new generation start-ups as a means of productive employment generation, economic transformation and growth.

The Chinese small and medium enterprises have been able to capitalise on the growing demand for low quality and low priced goods in major markets. Multinational supermarket chains have set up product procurement branch offices in China, and shops catering to low and middle income consumers in developed countries are flooded with Chinese products. This competitiveness has been achieved through a mix of external and internal factors. Given the relatively small size of the Indian SME sector, which is largely confined to local and regional markets, India is unlikely to be able to challenge the Chinese export engine.  

Small and Medium Scale Industry in India and the Model of Japan edited by Konosuke Odaka and Yukihiko Kiyokawa;

The level of development of a region in terms of educational and technological infrastructure influences the internal and external factors contributing to technological innovations of enterprises. This paper reports a comparative study probing the nature and dimensions of technological innovations carried out by small engineering enterprises in north-east England and in the Bangalore urban district. The pattern of technological innovations in the two regions, the similarities and dissimilarities are analysed.