India’s next chapter will be written by its smallest enterprises. Abhijit Sharma’s work is to make sure they have the institutions, the finance and the markets to write it.
Abhijit Sharma is the Founder and Chairman of the Global Association of MSMEs (GAMSME), an apex platform built to strengthen micro, small and medium enterprises across manufacturing, services, craft and technology, in both urban and rural India. His grounding is unusual for the sector: more than three decades that began in senior roles at major corporations, including Unilever, Satyam and Lanco, and carried him across Indian and international markets before he moved into full-time enterprise and impact work. That blend of corporate scale and hands-on enterprise-building lets him do the hard part of small business, turning an idea into a financed, formal, market-ready enterprise and connecting it to buyers at home and abroad. Around GAMSME he leads a connected group of organisations working across enterprise development, finance and sustainability, guided by his idea of kartavya, that enterprise, community prosperity and responsible growth should advance together.
An apex platform for small enterprise
GAMSME exists to do for small enterprises what they cannot easily do alone: build institutions, open access to finance, and connect them to markets. Under Abhijit’s leadership it works across the full MSME spectrum, from manufacturing and services to craft, agri-enterprise and technology, and in both urban and rural economies. Its agenda spans financial inclusion, enterprise formalisation, cluster development, skilling, digital adoption and market linkage at home and abroad, guided by national councils led by senior figures from industry, technology, tourism and enterprise. Its Craft Enterprise Bridge, for example, pairs design-trained entrepreneurs from institutions such as NIFT and NID with craft clusters, turning traditional skill into market-ready enterprise.
A group built to create enterprises
Abhijit’s corporate years left him rigorous on economics, finance and delivery, comfortable with scale and with the demands of national and global markets, yet close to the realities of the first-time entrepreneur. It is a rare pairing, and it lets him carry a business from idea, through financing, into operation and on to market. He applies it through a connected group of organisations, each addressing a different part of the enterprise journey. The School of Livelihood and Rural Development (SLRD), which he founded in 2003, builds institutions and community capacity. Vistaar Agrotech drives enterprise creation and value addition. YesEarth Eco Consulting provides advisory, project design and sustainability expertise. Together they take an enterprise from a first idea to a running, financed, market-connected business.
Finance, markets and the enterprise playbook
What entrepreneurs value most is his command of the two things they most often lack, finance and market access. He knows how to structure a proposal a bank will back, how to navigate the mix of government schemes, credit and development finance open to small enterprises, and how to bring that support together so a first-time business can get off the ground. On the other side he opens routes to market, connecting enterprises to buyers, distribution and demand across India and, increasingly, in international markets. Carrying a business from plan to sanction to a running, selling enterprise is, in practical terms, the heart of what GAMSME offers its members.
Kartavya, and beyond the work
Underneath it all sits the idea of kartavya, duty, which for Abhijit is a design rule: build enterprises in which economic value and responsibility to community and environment advance together, so that neither is sacrificed for the other. His work reaches across India, urban and rural alike, and connects to markets and partners well beyond it, drawing on a network that runs from government and industry to banks, development finance and buyers. He is based in Bhopal, with a regional presence in Guwahati. Away from work he is a keen photographer with an interest in cinematic visual technique, active on LinkedIn, where he shares his work and the philosophy that runs through all of it.