Context: Recently, National Institute of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD)signed a MoU with the Ministry of Rural Development for implementing the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme.

• Aim:  to develop a sustainable model for promoting entrepreneurship at the grassroots by initiating the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP).

Significance of this partnership

• It will help create an innovative ecosystem, accelerating economic and social gains at the community level.
• Under this, rural entrepreneurs will be able to access banking systems for receiving financial support for starting their enterprises, including support from MUDRA bank.

Integrated ICT techniques and tools will also be provided for training and capacity building along with enterprise advisory services to augment the entrepreneurship ecosystem in India’s villages.

• It will help to move from the concept of job seekers to job creators.
• It will help in training the rural community and will provide them with the necessary resources for entrepreneurship to increase their income.
• It will pave the way for building Aatmanirbhar Bharat.

Start-Up Village Entrepreneurship Programme

• It is a sub-component of Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Ministry of Rural Development.
• It aims to support entrepreneurs in rural areas to set up local enterprises.

Vision: to provide support for a start-up to 1 crore village enterprises and provide direct employment to 2 crore people.

• It addresses three major pillars of rural start-ups namely - finances, incubation and skill ecosystems.
• It promotes both individual and group enterprises, set-up and promotes enterprises majorly in manufacturing, trading and service sectors.

Objectives

• To enable rural poor to set up their enterprises, in its proof-of-concept phase, by developing a sustainable model for Village Entrepreneurship promotion through integrated ICT techniques and tools for training and capacity building.
• Develop local resources by training a pool of village-level community cadre (CRP EP) and build the capacity of the NRLM and SHG (Self-help Group) federations to monitor and direct the work of the CRP-EPs.
• Help the rural entrepreneurs to access finance for starting their enterprises from the NRLM SHG and federations, the banking systems including the proposed MUDRA bank.
• Handhold the rural entrepreneurs/ enterprises in the initial six months of start-up, with visits from the CRP-EP's supported by guidance from an advisory panel of experts for the relevant enterprise.

Achievements of SVEP

• Around, 2,000 trained cadre of Community Resource Person-Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP) is providing services to rural entrepreneurs.
• Some of the women SHGs were involved in running community kitchens, serving cooked meals to over 5.72 crore vulnerable community members.
• Around 318,413 SHG members are involved in the manufacturing of face masks, protective kits and sanitizing products.