EDII To Create 36k Rural Enterprises Under Startup Village Entrepreneurship Programme

Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) – the national resource Institute for entrepreneurship education, research, training and institution building – has announced creation of over 7,600 rural enterprises aimed at boosting rural livelihood and employment. It further aims to create around 36K rural enterprises by March 2021.

On the development, Dr Sunil Shukla, Director of EDII said, “In its first phase of validating the concept, SVEP is expected to support creation and strengthening of about 1.82 lakh village enterprises in 125 Blocks across 24 States in the targeted five years, from 2015-16 to 2020-21. This is expected to create employment for about 3.78 lakh persons. EDII’s aim is to create around 36K rural enterprises in first phase of 5 years.”

The initiative launched under Startup Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) – a sub-scheme under National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), Ministry of Rural Development –  has been launched across 42 blocks across 11 states so far, and assisted in getting credit linkage to the tune of $3.1 Mn (INR. 21.2 Cr) for providing funds to rural enterprises.

In order to solve problem of credit linkages to rural enterprises and generate rural livelihood, Finance Minister had initiated the idea of SVEP in 2014-15, with project being launched in 2015-16. For 2018-19, the Government has targeted to create 25,000 rural enterprises and provide skilling to 4 lakh trainees under SVEP according to budget documents.

Shukla added, “The purpose of SVEP is to bring majority of micro-enterprises in the main stream and assist them in funding their business model, which is scalable and can generate rural employment. Through SVEP, these enterprises are provided training and adequate business skills so as to ensure their long-term survival and sustainable employment generation.”

In the most recent development, the government has appointed EDII as the pan-India national implementing agency to facilitate entrepreneurship sensitisation under the title, ‘Sustainable Development through Science and Technology Lead Entrepreneurship in 40 Aspirational Districts’ that aims to train over 7,000 youths spread across 40 districts in 28 states (except Goa) across India who have urged to set up small innovative startup.

The move is supported by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Speaking to Inc42 earlier, EDII DST-NIMAT-Project Director and Member Secretary SB Sareen said, “The idea to take the survey is to understand what exactly the ground realities are: what are the resources available; its population strength; education, literacy status; what kind of support or mechanism and banking structure are required; and what kind of business opportunities can be promoted.”

Set up 1983, Ahmedabad-based EDII is sponsored by apex financial institutions like the IDBI Bank, IFCI, ICICI Bank, and the State Bank of India (SBI).

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