Kolkata, May 11: India's small farmers and street vendors are exhibiting far more entrepreneurship than the country's corporate sector, Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, said here on Friday.

"Entrepreneurship cannot be taught but skills can be taught... let me tell you a small farmer exhibits far more entrepreneurship than the Indian corporate sector does. Let me remind you that the poor vendors on the streets of India are exhibiting far more entrepreneurship than the Indian corporate sector does," he said while addressing the Sixth Convocation of IMI-Kolkata.

He said one cannot encourage entrepreneurship without encouraging failure.

"We all think of successes of entrepreneurship; 95 per cent of entrepreneurial attempts failed," Debroy said. 

Debroy, a member of NITI Aayog, also spoke of the need for the Indian education system
to facilitate or provide an enabling environment for entrepreneurship.

"...(there is a) huge question mark about whether Indian education system at all facilitates or provides enabling environment for entrepreneurship," the economist said.

When Prime Minister talks about Start Up India and Stand Up India, it is not about the corporate sector but is about entrepreneurship, he said.

Referring to an IMF report released after India opened up the economy in 1991, he said it had suggested it would take 153 years for a country like India to halve the gap in per capita income that exists with the developed countries. 

"The lesson of the last couple of decades has been that there is no need to wait for 153 years," he said.

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Kolkata, May 20: Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash, who retired as a judge of the Calcutta High Court on Monday, said he was a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS).

Speaking at his farewell at the high court in the presence of the judges and members of the bar, Justice Dash said he was "ready to go back to the organisation" if they call him for any assistance or for any work that he was capable of doing.

"To the distaste of some persons, I must admit here that I was and I am a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangha (RSS)," he said.

Demitting office after over 14 years as a judge, Justice Dash came to the Calcutta HC from the Orissa HC on transfer.

"I owe a lot to the organisation... I am there from my childhood and throughout my youth," he said.

"I have learnt to be courageous, upright and have an equal view for others and above the sense of patriotism and commitment to the work," he said.

Justice Dash said that he had distanced himself from the organisation for about 37 years because of his work.

"I have never used my membership of the organisation for any advancement of my career because it is against its principles," he said.

Justice Dash said he treated everybody at par, be he a rich person, be he a communist, or from the BJP, Congress or TMC.

"All are equal before me, I do not hold any bias for anyone or for any political philosophy or mechanism," he said, adding that he tried to dispense justice on the principles of empathy and that "law can be bent to do justice, but justice cannot be bent to suit the law".

He said that he is "ready to go back to the organisation" if they call him for any assistance or for any work they need which he is capable of doing.

"Because I have not done anything wrong in my life, I have the courage to say I belong to the organisation, because that is also not wrong," he said.