Lok Sabha Question No. 369 (STARRED), answered on 2019-12-13
Subject: Entrepreneurship Among Women
Ministry: WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Kaushal Kishore

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 369

TO BE ANSWERED ON 13.12.2019

## ENTREPRENEURSHIP AMONG WOMEN

369.   SHRI KAUSHAL KISHORE:

Will the Minister of WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT to be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  any  fresh  initiatives  have  been  taken  by  the  Ministry  to  promote

entrepreneurship among the women in the country, specially in Uttar Pradesh; (b) if so, the details thereof; and (c) if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (SRIMATI SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (c)  A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

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## Statement referred to in reply to Part (a) to (c) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No.369 for 13.12.2019 by Shri Kaushal Kishore regarding 'Entrepreneurship Among Women'

(a) to (c) The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship is the nodal Ministry for Entrepreneurship. The programs of the Ministry on Entrepreneurship development include:

Pradhan Mantri Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyaan (PM YUVA) was launched in 2017for creating an enabling ecosystem for Entrepreneurship Development through entrepreneurship education and training across the country. It is being implementedthrough the  Institutes  of  Higher  Learning  (Universities,  Colleges  and  Premier  Institutes),  Schools, Industrial Training Centers (lTls) and Entrepreneurship Development Centers (EDCs) for a period of five years. First phase of PM YUVA was conducted in 239 empanelled Institutes of Higher Learning under the scheme throughout the country including 21 Institutes in Uttar Pradesh. The pilot project on PM YUVA 2.0 is being implemented in six districts of Uttar Pradesh namely Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Fatehpur, Siddharthnagar, Chandauli and Varanasi.

With  an  aim  to  promote  a  culture  of  entrepreneurship  among  India's  youth  and inspire them to set-up their own enterprise and create employment opportunities for others, National Entrepreneurship Awards Scheme (NEAS) has been instituted in 2016. Under the scheme,  awards  are  conferred  to  the  aspiring  first  generation  entrepreneurs  including women to recognize and honour their efforts and achievements and those individuals/organizations who are working as eco-system builder in the field of entrepreneurship development. The awards also seek to highlight model of excellence for others to emulate and improve upon.

To encourage women entrepreneurship within the country, a pilot project 'Economic Empowerment  of  Women  Entrepreneurs  and  Start-ups  by  Women'  is  being  run  in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Germany.  The  project,pilots  incubation  and  acceleration  programmes  for  micro  women entrepreneurs  to  start  new  businesses  and  scale  up  existing  enterprises  in  Assam, Rajasthan and Telangana. The project has the target to pilot the incubation programme with 250 women and the acceleration programme with 100 women.

Interventions for entrepreneurship development by other Ministries include:

Start-Up  India,under  the  Ministry  of  Commerce  and  Industry,aims  to  build  a  strong  ecosystem for nurturing innovation and Startups in the country under which 10% of the total corpus of Fund of Funds amounting to Rs 1000 crore, has been reserved for women led start-ups.

Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, is a major credit-linked subsidy scheme to promote and set up micro, small and medium enterprises and to generate employment in rural and urban areas of the country. Under the scheme women entrepreneurs are provided 25% and 35% subsidies for projects set up in urban and rural areas respectively. For women beneficiaries, own contribution is only 5% of the project cost while for general category it is 10%. All the entrepreneurs  including  women  are  eligible  for  2  weeks  Entrepreneurship  Development Programme (EDP) after the sanction of their projects from banks for financial assistance to setup their unit.  The Ministry has launched a portal 'UdyamSakhi' for encouraging women entrepreneurs to aid, counsel, assist and protect their interests. UdyamSakhi network is a platform for emerging Women Entrepreneurs of India to get support, to understand current scenario of industries and to get guidance in various aspects of entrepreneurship. It helps Indian women to start, build and grow businesses and creating business models revolving around low-cost products and services to resolve social inequities.