Nagnur, ShobhaKarigar, Gayatri2021-11-262021-11-262017-07https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810178354The present investigation was undertaken in Dharwad and Belagavi districts of North Karnataka during 2016-2017. From each of the two districts 80 women respondents were selected for the study. Out of these, 40 were entrepreneurs and 40 were non-entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs were selected by purposive snow ball sampling method while non-entrepreneurs were selected by simple random sampling method. The total sample was 160 respondents. The data were collected by personal interview method with the help of a well-structured pre-tested interview schedule. The profile of the respondent women revealed that most entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs were in the middle age category (62.50 % and 65.00 % respectively), from nuclear families (77.50 % and 80.00 % respectively). Most respondents were from small families and were married. Entrepreneurs had more land holdings than non-entrepreneurs. The average family income of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs was between Rs. 34,000 - 51,000. Both the groups of respondents were having agriculture as their family occupation (76.25 % and 68.75 % entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs respectively). Extension participation of both the groups was however low. Among the agriculture and allied enterprises selected by rural women the most popular enterprise was dairy (91.25 %), this was followed by vegetable cultivation (23.75 %), poultry (10.00 %), goat rearing (8.75 %), floriculture (7.50 %), sericulture (5.00 %), sheep rearing and fruit cultivation (3.75 % each) and beekeeping (1.25 %). The calculated indices for the different variables showed that the index for overall entrepreneurial quality of entrepreneurs was 64.86 and of non-entrepreneurs was only 43.26 per cent. The empowerment indices of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs were 43.86 and 38.97 respectively. The quality of life indices of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs was 57.19 and 48.65 respectively. Thus indicating that entrepreneurs had better entrepreneurial qualities, were more empowered and had better quality of life than the non-entrepreneurs.EnglishThesis