“The idea is noble, and it certainly requires us to step out of our comfort zone,” expresses Vidhi Rawat, an MBA student in her second semester, currently based in Mumbai. Currently, I am pursuing exhaustive research and curating a curriculum on ‘street entrepreneurship’ for Atlas SkillTech University in Mumbai. In my 11 years of teaching and research experience, I have realised that the internships done by MBA students during their summer vacations are obsessed with formal business channels, but we rarely ‘break the ice’ with informal enterprises. Maybe we are unquestionably inured by the elitist consciousness of class and status, due to which our colleges offering MBAs do not include the oppressed formats of the markets, like street vendors, in our period of academic tenure?
When I went to Sikkim, a north-eastern state of India, known for its aesthetic snowy mountains, momos, tea, pure climate, and religious pilgrimage for Hindus and Buddhists, I was amazed at this tier-3 town, NathuLa Pass. This pass holds supreme value since it has been the ancestral route for the silk trade between India and China till date. Located 14,300feet above sea-level, this route, since 2005–06, has been revived as the border trade route between India and China. India exports 36 items and imports 20 items as per the MOU with China in 2005–06.
To my surprise, the traders from both sides trade informally too because the following items are not formally listed: dalda (hydrogenated oil), biscuits (Parle G brand), dalay (local chilies), sugar, and incense sticks. The major informal imported items traded in this route (especially since 2015) are electronic items, such as watches, electric water flasks, mixers, cookery (e.g., glassware), and footwear. To add, instead of using US$ as a medium of exchange, without any scope of conflict, the traders use their national currencies and, in some cases, resort to barter exchange with the Chinese traders as well.
The experience at NathuLa Pass has made me realize one thing: “We cannot stop the spirit of entrepreneurship embedded in human nature, irrespective of the regulations and taxes!”
While doing my studies in International Political Economy in 2011, I came across this underrated economic angle, “dead capital theory,” by Hernando de Soto Polar, an economist from Peru. Sadly, it is not taught in IIMs and IITs either. This theory, in my academic experience, can bridge the knowledge and pragmatic gap between entrepreneurship students and street vendors. Hernando de Soto Polar argues that those living in poverty should be provided titles to the land, homes, and businesses they live in, recognized as dead capital without being legally registered, which would bring vitality to the assets and grant poor individuals the opportunity to build wealth and generate income. He still believes that instability surrounding property rights was a leading reason for conflict internationally.
Equating this basic foundation, street entrepreneurship represents the pie of the informal economy. When an MBA student interns with a street vendor for a span of 15–25 days, surely the student will not get a certificate acknowledging the performance, but the experiential learning derived from collaborating with a street vendor will furnish a memory and entrepreneurial skill, for life! Subconsciously, learns the maxim of inclusivity and not just equity to enhance its own work culture.
The street vendors, who’re often without an MBA degree, have a lot to immediately offer the MBA internees, in the atomistic form of learnings and experiences, and they’re: a) selling skills; b) dodging the regulators; c) bargaining skills; d) local communication skills; and e) other managerial skills necessary to sustain their ‘informal’ business on the streets.
A vada-pav seller with a background of ‘Grade 10th pass’, next door to my residence, on the condition of anonymity, tells me, “Subtracting the bribe to be given to the police and municipality officials, my daily turnover is between Rs. 3500 and Rs. 5000.” He sells delicious vada-pav at the rate of Rs 18 each. All thanks to his recipe and curiosity to serve the consumers ‘hot’ vada-pav, the sales of vada-pav at his ‘thela’ (cart) are surely higher than the ‘average package’ offered during the placements at the MBA colleges.
