Govt’s entrepreneurship development scheme sees nearly 400 per cent jump in number of trainees

The number of trainees entering the Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP) has seen a jump of about 400 per cent this year so far.

From 3,535 programmes involving 49,548 trainees around January this year, 7,629 programmes were organised involving 2,37,192 trainees till December 22, 2020, according to the data available on the Development Commissioner (MSME) portal for ESDP.  Moreover, the total expenditure incurred so far stood at nearly Rs 27.90 crore while total revenue was Rs 2.91 crore.

The scheme aimed to encourage youth including men and women of scheduled caste and tribe, differently-abled and below poverty line, people apart from ex-servicemen to become entrepreneurs.

Last year in November, the government had issued guidelines on an up-scaled ESDP involving multiple activities viz a two-day Industrial Motivational Campaign (IMC), two-week Entrepreneurship Awareness Programme (EAP), Entrepreneurship-cum-Skill Development Programme (E-SDP) for six weeks and Management Development Programme (MDP) for one week.

The programmes have an intake capacity of 50-100 people in IMC for youth, 30-60 people in IMC for clusters, associations, and chambers; and 25 people in EAP, E-SDP, and MDP each.

“In order to help youth to become an entrepreneur, and to help them procure prerequisite skills, the government had sanctioned over Rs 135 crore under the Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP) for organizing various skill development programs along with state government, industry bodies, social enterprises, etc. In 2019, 3,000 such programs were conducted and sanctioned. The industry bodies and various other elements of the society have also taken the onus of partnering in the program and run their own skill development units to help achieve the goal,” Dr. Niranjan Hiranandani is President, ASSOCHAM & NAREDCO & MD, Hiranandani group said.

Importantly, the government eased the registration process for new entrepreneurs setting up their enterprises in July this year. Then it had launched a new online portal Udyam to let small businesses register paperless and based on self-declaration.

Small businesses now don’t have to upload any documents or proof except the Aadhaar number for registration. The MSME Ministry has also organised a single-window system at Champions Control Rooms (set up at MSME Development Institutes across India) and district industries centres for facilitating the process.