Lok Sabha Question No. 1874 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-08-01
Subject: Entrepreneurial Culture in Rural Areas
Ministry: RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: Mohanbhai Kalyanji Kundariya, Dipsinh Shankarsinh Rathod

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1874 ANSWERED ON 01/08/2023

## ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE IN RURAL AREAS

## 1874. SHRI MOHANBHAI KALYANJI KUNDARIYA:

## SHRI DIPSINH SHANKARSINH RATHOD:

Will the Minister of RURAL DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) the  steps  taken  by  the  Government  to  boost  entrepreneurial culture in rural areas of the country;
- (b) the steps taken by the Government to support such developments in agriculture  and  allied  sectors  in  rural  areas as there is tremendous scope for innovation and development in the country;
- (c) whether the Government plans a study to analyse the impact of  such  schemes/policies  in  boosting  GDP  in  rural  areas  as well as increasing employment generation; and
- (d)
- if so, the details thereof?

## MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT

## ANSWER (SADHVI NIRANJAN JYOTI)

- (a): The  Ministry  of  Rural  Development  is  implementing  Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) as a sub-scheme under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM)  with  the  objective  to  help  the  rural  poor  (from  SHG ecosystem)  to  set-up enterprises at the village level in  nonagricultural sectors. The operational unit of the project is Block. A maximum of 2,400 enterprises can be supported in one Block with the  approved  funds.  It  supports  existing  enterprises  as  well  as setting up of new enterprises. Besides helping the rural entrepreneurs  to  access  finance,  a  cadre  of  Community  Resource Persons- Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP) is also promoted to provide business support services to enterprises. The maximum budget for one Block under SVEP is Rs. 650.00 lakhs. The project duration is for  a  period  of  4  years  from  the  date  of  Detailed  Project  Report (DPR) approval .

Further, to boost the Entrepreneurial culture in India, 590 Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) are functioning across the country extending skill and entrepreneurship development training programmes to rural un-employed youth to facilitate them to employ themselves  by  commencing  self-employment  units/activities.  This Ministry  is  reimbursing  cost  of  training  imparted  by  the  RSETIs  to the rural youth through the State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs).

Ministry  of  Skill  Development  and  Entrepreneurship  (MSDE)  has taken  following   steps  to  boost  entrepreneurial  culture  including rural areas of the Country. -

Entrepreneurship  Development  in  Six  Holy  Cities  project  aimed  to catalyze  local  entrepreneurial  activities  through  involvement  of potential  and  existing  entrepreneurs,  unemployed  youth,  college dropouts, youth from backward community etc.  The temple towns include Puri (Odisha), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Haridwar (Uttarakhand),  Kollur  (Karnataka),  Pandharpur  (Maharashtra)  and Bodh Gaya (Bihar).

PM  YUVA  Pilot  Project:   PM-YUVA  Pilot  Project  (from  November 2019  to  March  2022)  towards  creating  an  enabling  ecosystem through  entrepreneurship  education,  training,  advocacy  and  easy access  to  entrepreneurship  network.  The  scheme  focused  on students/trainees  and  alumni  coming  out  from  skilling  ecosystem, i.e., Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics,  Pradhan MantriKaushalKendras (PMKKs) and Jan ShikshanSansthans (JSSs).

The project was implemented through organizations having experience in entrepreneurship development, entrepreneurship training  as  well  as  mentoring  and  hand-holding  in  Ten  States  and Two  Union  Territories  (viz.  Assam,  Bihar,  Kerala,  Maharashtra, Meghalaya,  Tamil  Nadu,  Telangana,  Uttar  Pradesh,  Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Delhi and Puducherry).

- (b): For  development  of  group  entrepreneurship  in  rural  areas  in agriculture and allied sector, the Ministry under DAY-NRLM facilitates  promotion  of  women  owned  Producers  Collectives,  i.e., Producers Enterprises/Farmer Producers Organizations and Producers  Groups  to  support  women  farmer  members  to  access better market for their produce through interventions like aggregation, value addition & marketing. The idea is to develop a complete business model to provide primary producers with end-toend  solutions  from  creating  producer  organizations  to  building marketing linkages.

In  addition,  to  build  the  technical  expertise,  so  as  to  support development  of  projects  for  promotion  of  large  size  Producer Enterprises,  the  Ministry  has  established  one  Section  8  Company 'Foundation  for  Development  of  Rural  Value  Chain  (FDRVC)'  with the support of TATA Trusts. It supports the State units of DAY-NRLM to develop and implement value chain projects through promotion of large sized Producer Enterprises.

(c)& (d): The mid-term review of the SVEP was done during 201819 by Quality Council of India (QCI); the key findings are as follows:

- i. 82% of  entrepreneurs  across  the  blocks  reported  being  from SC, ST and OBC categories.
- ii. 75% of the enterprises were owned and managed by women.
- iii. 57% of the total household income is through the enterprises promoted under SVEP.
- iv. Average gross income of the entrepreneurs is higher than the aspirational income stated by them from the enterprise at the time of starting the enterprise.
- v. Around 96% of the entrepreneurs reported an enhancement in savings.
- vi. 70%  of  the  entrepreneurs  interviewed  reported  that  taking loans from Community Enterprise Fund (CEF) was easy.

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