Need of Intrapreneurial Inclination in Food Manufacturing Industry in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in Uttar Pradesh: A Critical Review in Pandemic Era

Abstract

Food Industry in India is one of the prime sectors which is responsible to satisfy community basic needs. The Government initiative during Lockdown 1.0 to completely shut the restaurants has significantly affect the food industry. The food processing industry of India accounts for 32 % of the country's total food market leading to one of the largest industries in India. The food industry is ranked 5th in terms of consumption, production, export and is one of the fastest growing Industry. The manufacturers in this industry need to focus on adapting with the variability and the changing needs of the consumers. As food products are perishable, seasonal and bulky in nature therefore it requires lot of care to manage it properly. Sudden lockdown leads to huge losses to this sector. As per the statistics Uttar Pradesh alone constitutes (20%) in the production of the total food grains, sugar cane (36%), potato (34%), livestock excluding cow (11%) and milk (17%), wheat (33%), lentil (45%), vegetables (30%) in the country. There are approx. 2570 food manufacturing units in Uttar Pradesh and therefore there is an utmost need to highlight the importance of Intrapreneurs. As Intrapreneurs are the only people who can suggest and devise strategies to survive in this Pandemic and post pandemic era. The concept of intrapreneurship has its origin from North American business lexicon and later this term is coined as fast-growing in the organizational development. The intrapreneurship in an organization is important as it enables an unique competitive advantage to the small and medium scale manufacturing enterprises. Risk Taking, strategic renewal Innovation, and ventures are the main fields of the intrapreneurship orientation which fosters organizational growth. It is however important to understand the concept through employee’s perspective by understanding their strategies to deal with this crisis and bring back the things to normal. This research will highlight the need of intrapreneurs in SME’s and how they will help the food manufacturing industries to cope up the incurred losses especially Post COVID-19 era.