Govt Reviews New Plans to Boost Women-Led Rural Enterprises and Create 6 Crore Lakhpati Didis
A government committee held discussions focused on accelerating entrepreneurship-led livelihood opportunities for rural women and contributing to the national goal of creating 6 crore Lakhpati Didis, an official statement said on Saturday.
Government Steps Up Push for Lakhpati Didis
The Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development, chaired by the Secretary (Rural Development), Rohit Kansal, considered proposals under the Non-Farm Livelihoods (NFL) component of DAY-NRLM to strengthen and scale up women-led rural enterprises and create a pathway for small-scale SHG enterprises to graduate into higher-order, growth-oriented businesses.
Four New Incubator Programmes Proposed
The committee considered four new incubator proposals from Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, with IIT Patna, IIM Jammu, IIM Lucknow and IIT Gandhinagar, respectively, as the proposed incubator partners.
The four programmes are proposed to support more than 600 high-potential rural enterprises through structured interventions in business strategy, mentoring, financial planning, formalisation, technology adoption, market access and access to finance.
According to the statement, the Incubator Sub-Scheme builds on the experience of four completed incubator programmes in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka, which supported over 600 SHG enterprises.
2,100 Rural SHG Enterprises Already Being Supported
The programme has since expanded significantly, with 14 incubator programmes currently operational across 13 States, supporting around 2,100 rural SHG enterprises through partnerships with premier business and academic institutions including IIMs, IITs and leading incubation institutions.
The earlier programmes demonstrated tangible outcomes, including revenue growth, improved business formalisation and additional employment generation.
Focus on Food Processing, Textiles and Digital Enterprises
The new incubators will focus on sectors such as food and agri-processing, textiles and handicrafts, manufacturing, retail and services, tourism-linked activities, digital enterprises and other locally relevant growth sectors.
The committee also considered proposals for expansion of the startup Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) in West Bengal and Goa, aimed at further strengthening the rural non-farm entrepreneurship ecosystem and enabling more SHG members to establish and grow sustainable enterprises.
SVEP Expansion in West Bengal and Goa
“These initiatives reinforce the Government’s commitment to women-led economic development and the Lakhpati Didi initiative, by enabling rural women entrepreneurs to progress from subsistence-level businesses to enterprises with higher turnover, stronger market linkages, improved access to finance and greater employment potential,” said the statement.
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