Convocation Speech by Shri Shashi Ruia, Chairman, Essar Group; Chief Guest for the 9^th Convocation of EDI's Post Graduate Programmes held on 09^th June 2007.

Here, I would like to introduce another concept to you – that of a serial entrepreneur.

When some success comes your way and every cocktail napkin becomes a sketch pad or that big idea gets you up at 3.00 am in the morning, the meaning of “Attempting something ambitious� takes a new form. It has to be ambitious not by itself, but also relative to what you have already accomplished. It has to make you just that bit uncomfortable.

In that sense, with so many businesses and such a large asset base, we at Essar could be called serial entrepreneurs.

Today’s generation of entrepreneurs is in many ways fortunate. You have a liberalized environment, access to global technology and markets and a growing world economy. Of course that brings in cutting edge competitiveness and ‘die-if-you-don’t-do’ risks of a significant nature.

And you still have the same inhibitors that have come in the way of entrepreneurial enterprise if I may use the phrase.

Our archaic laws and the plethora of taxes do not augur well for the growth of the economy and our international competitiveness. So called single windows of clearance do not work well except in one or two states.

The irony is that we are a nation of natural entrepreneurs and many of us have made it really big in the West. Some have moved out of necessity but largely a lot of entrepreneurs have moved because of our complicated laws and education system. Despite a 400 year history of foreign invasion and colonial rule, we have demonstrated the ability to create enterprise by understanding and working within the system. Our children go to foreign shores for higher education and opportunity and their entrepreneurial spirit grab them. Some good examples are software, technology, medicine, education – only recently have our youngsters realized the potential of being in India.

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