What happened: Empowered Committee reviews incubator proposals under DAY-NRLM’s NFL and discusses SVEP expansion

The Ministry of Rural Development’s Empowered Committee, chaired by the Secretary (Rural Development) Shri Rohit Kansal, reviewed proposals under the Non-Farm Livelihoods (NFL) component of DAY-NRLM. The focus was to strengthen and scale women-led rural enterprises and enable small-scale SHG enterprises to graduate into higher-order, growth-oriented businesses.

The Committee considered proposals presented by State leadership from Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, along with State Mission Directors/CEOs of the State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) and representatives of the proposed incubator institutions. The incubator partners proposed in these four cases were IIT Patna, IIM Jammu, IIM Lucknow and IIT Gandhinagar, respectively.

The Committee also considered expansion proposals for the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) in West Bengal and Goa, aimed at strengthening the rural non-farm entrepreneurship ecosystem and supporting more SHG members to establish and grow sustainable enterprises.

Background and earlier position: Incubation approach and prior incubator programmes under DAY-NRLM

The incubator effort under DAY-NRLM builds on experience from four completed incubator programmes in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka. These completed programmes supported over 600 SHG enterprises.

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