Welcome to the eighth issue of the ICFAI Journal of Entrepreneurship Development. It is heartening to see more and more Indian authors contributing to the study of the field of entrepreneurship. Also, keeping in with the international best practice, this journal now has a panel of blind reviewers to review original articles. Your suggestions to further improve the quality of this journal are always welcome.

The first article, Studying Entrepreneurial Seriousness amid Small Businesses of Orissa, is an attempt to investigate the correlation of entrepreneurial seriousness to entrepreneurial performance as against the more conventional model of considering entrepreneurial motivation as being the precursor to entrepreneurial performance. The authors identify seven parameters to define entrepreneurial seriousness: Willingness to Acquire Knowledge, Willingness to Perform, Willingness to Adopt Difficult Skills, Willingness to Take Mental Stress, Need to Achieve, Willingness to have Positive Relationship with Others, Desire to Innovate and Love Ideas. The research was conducted on entrepreneurs in Orissa, a center-eastern state of India.

The second article, Augmenting Entrepreneurship among the Privileged Class, discusses policy initiatives and requirements in the management and financial institutions to create an enabling environment for entrepreneurship among management graduates of premier MBA schools. Traditionally this is a class that has been getting attractive job opportunities and as such makes entrepreneurship look that much less lucrative. The author feels that it is not due to a notional salary opportunity loss that this class does not choose to become entrepreurs, but due to a non-conducive entrepreneurial eco-system. The article provides some ideas that could be implemented to encourage entrepreneurship among this class.

The next article, Venture   Capital - Recent Trends in the Liberalisation Context, reviews the availability of private equity in India and the role of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Indian Venture Capital Association (IVCA) in suggesting guidelines for VC funds. This article should be of interest to new and future entrepreneurs in the country who want to know more about this type of funding.

The fourth article, Problems and Prospects - A Small Business Owner's Perspective in Kazakhstan, is a study to find the problems faced by entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan. The authors surveyed 70 entrepreneurs through open ended questionaires to find the kind of problems faced by entrepreneurs during startup and subsequently during the running of the business. They also asked about how they dealt with the problems. Based on these, the paper suggests certain policy initiatives that can ease the path to entrepreneurship.

The last article, The entrepreneurial process: An institutional perspective, discusses the impact of different institutions, both formal and informal, on the three phases of "the entrepreneurial process", i.e., the initiating phase, establishment phase and the growth phase. The authors arguments are supplemented by two case studies on two Iranian immigrants in Sweden. That institutions do affect the business is generally agreed upon, but whether the effect is positive or negative depends on the situation and the industry, among other variables.