Govt’s entrepreneurship development scheme sees over 350% jump in trainees in this many programmes

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The scheme aims for overall 40 per cent participation by women.

Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Modi government’s key scheme to promote entrepreneurship — Entrepreneurship Skill Development Programme (ESDP) has seen an increase of more than 350 per cent in the number of trainees entering the programmes from around January this year till September 29, 2020. According to the data available on the Development Commissioner (MSME) portal for ESDP, 7,629 programmes have been organised by the government involving 2,31,812 trainees. This is up from 3,535 programmes involving 49,548 around January this year. Moreover, the total expenditure incurred so far stood at Rs 26.39 crore while total revenue was Rs 3 crore.

“While the steps taken by the government are welcome but one has to look at the on-ground impact of the scheme. There doesn’t seem to be much currently. It is not about the trainees entering the programme but enterprises being set-up by them after the programme. One has to also look at further support provided to acquire land, capital, talent etc. to launch an enterprise. Out of these 2.21 lakh trainees, even if 40,000-50,000 are able to become entrepreneurs that will immediately have an impact on the ecosystem in India,” Vishwanath, Co-chairman, Industry Committee, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry told Financial Express Online.

ESDP intends to encourage youth including scheduled caste and scheduled tribe men and women, differently-abled, and below poverty line people apart from ex-servicemen to opt for entrepreneurship as a career option. The scheme aims for overall 40 per cent participation by women. The government had last year in November issued guidelines on upscaled 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 intake capacity for the programmes are 50-100 people in IMC for youth and 30-60 people in IMC for clusters, associations, and chambers; 25 people in EAP, E-SDP and MDP each.

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Moreover, 20 per cent of the total targeted ESDPs are conducted exclusively for weaker sections of the society including SC/ST, women and physically handicapped with a stipend of Rs 500 per month per candidate under the Promotional Package for MSEs, according to the DC (MSME) portal. The minimum training fee is Rs 200 for general candidates while there’s a 50 per cent discount for women and physically handicapped trainees while it is absolutely free for SC/ST trainees.

Meanwhile, PM Modi’s Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) had disbursed 83 per cent applications for margin money claim so far in the current financial year to set-up new micro-enterprises, as per the government data available. Out of 22,124 applications with banks involving Rs 660 crore, 18,455 have been disbursed involving Rs 551.65 crore, data from the KVIC portal for the scheme showed.