Narendra Modi govt adds 27 lakh young entrepreneurs to economy, releases Rs 85,000 cr to boost start-ups

New Delhi: Since the Narendra Modi government came back to power in May, around 27 lakh young entrepreneurs have been added into the economy. Interestingly, the number of women entrepreneurs is more than double that of men in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. So far the Centre has released Rs 85,000 crore to encourage the young population to start their own businesses and contribute to the economy and employment. Government documents reviewed by Firstpost show support services to both formal and informal business at multiple levels have been tweaked to reduce the regulatory burden in order to facilitate the loans or investment more quickly. Since April 2019, the government has disbursed the money to 1.65 crore individuals in micro-enterprises sector, which includes 1.9 crore women entrepreneurs, constituting more than 67 percent of new business networks. [caption id=“attachment_2513194” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Agency[/caption] According to the documents the government has also created 94 enterprise development centres to facilitate young entrepreneurs about market access and latest available technology to help the micro and small businesses grow at rapid speed with skilled workers on board. Around Rs 2, 000 crore have been released to already operational micro and small enterprises to make business process more efficient and profitable. Documents show the government is targeting the marginalised section with early-stage finance to bring the educated young and employed youth from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe into mainstream economy. Nearly, 94 lakh youth from the deprived section of society has been provided with better access to capital and market. “A total Rs 17,000 crore has been released to cater individual grant between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore for the entrepreneurs from marginalized section and women for setting up manufacturing, services or the trade unit. Of the total amount Rs 14, 000 crore were granted to empower enterprising women. Rs 2,200 crore have been released to the potential entrepreneurs from Scheduled Castes and Rs 668 crore to the youth belonging to Scheduled Tribe,” the documents said. The government has approved 58 new business cluster to generate more employment for skilled workers since June 2019 in states like Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Mizoram, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Manipur, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Delhi. In a meeting in the first week of September, the states were told to submit as many proposals as possible to enhance the reach in order to create more opportunities for jobs and industrial growth. Keeping in mind the demand for and supply of skilled workers, the Centre last month finalised the agreement with 102 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) across the country. Even those opting out of school looking for jobs will be enrolled to get more trained technical workers to augment skilled labour market for both organised and unorganised sector which accounts for the bulk of total factories and jobs. Documents suggest that the Centre has decided to give state governments a bigger role and autonomy for multiskilling courses for the youth although they will be subjected to standard procedures and compliances. “Apart from supporting entrepreneurs, in the current year about 1 crore candidates have been given the certificates with specialization to work in Apparel, Information Technology, Power, Automotive, Manufacturing, Electronics, Organized Retail, Telecom and wellness. Of the total workforce ready to be employed 46 percent are female and 34 percent from marginalised section of society,” the documents further said. After the scrapping of Article 370, the Central government is also planning to improve the entrepreneur ecosystem in Jammu and Kashmir and so far two meetings have been held to assess the skilled workforce. Last year the Central government had released Rs 2.83 lakh crore to Rs 5.4 crore aspiring and ambitious young entrepreneurs. Majority of them around 3.4 crore were women who wanted to set up new business units feasible and suitable for the domestic market.