Handholding and mentoring is one of the key elements of entrepreneurship development and training. Mentoring and Counselling is part of various Entrepreneurship Development Programmes/ Schemes of Government of India. The details of some of such programmes have been given below.

 

(i)        Pilot Project on Entrepreneurship Development (PM YUVA) has been launched in November, 2019 by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship for creating an enabling ecosystem through entrepreneurship education, training, advocacy and easy access to entrepreneurship network, for students and alumni of skill training institutes viz. Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs), Polytechnics, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendra (PMKK) and Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS). The scheme covers 10 States and 2 Union Territories: Assam, Bihar, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

 

One of the objectives of the Pilot Project is to provide handholding and mentoring support to potential and existing entrepreneurs through Entrepreneurship Hubs. Under the pilot project, a component of Mentoring and handholding of students/ beneficiaries aspiring to set up New Enterprise as well as scale up the existing enterprises, has been envisaged. Three-day mentoring camps are conducted in the pilot project which is followed up with one-on-one support and guidance as and when required by the beneficiary. During the camps the participants are guided by finance & marketing experts, mentors, bankers to help them realize their aim of becoming an entrepreneur or become self- employed. As on 22 March, 2022, a total of 2,986 beneficiaries have been provided support through 94 Mentoring camps.

 

(ii)       Entrepreneurship Promotion and Mentoring of Micro and Small Businesses in Six Holy Cities project of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship seeks to catalyse local entrepreneurial activities through involvement of potential and existing entrepreneurs, through entrepreneurship awareness, education and mentoring in Pandharpur, Puri, Varanasi, Haridwar, Kollur and Bodh Gaya. Under this project Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) has so far conducted 42 Counselling/Mentoring/Handholding sessions to provide mentoring to 446 entrepreneurs to scale up/ set up enterprises in Puri District of Odisha.

 

(iii)      Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) has been conducting programmes for Counselling/ Mentoring to Entrepreneurs under the project ‘Capacity Building and Handholding Support for certified beneficiaries of Jan Shikshan Sansthan & Cluster Artisans of North Eastern Region’. So far, mentoring has been provided to 449 entrepreneurs under the Project in the State of Assam.

 

(iv)      Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) is implementing Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETI) Scheme an Entrepreneurship Development Programme among the rural poor through 588 RSETIs sponsored by 23 various Banks under the aegis of MoRD, functioning in 570 districts across the country and imparting 64 approved training programmes for taking self employment ventures. The trainees are monitored and mentored for two years for taking up self-employment and also for any credit linkage with the Banks.

 

This information was given by the Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

 

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