Guwahati: Guwahati-based Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) under the aegis of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), to promote entrepreneurship at a local level amongst the rural youth.

Under the agreement, the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), the sub-scheme of the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM), with the core objective of promoting employment opportunities in rural India, particularly developing self-employment avenues for unemployed rural people.

By developing a sustainable model for Village Entrepreneurship Promotion, the programme aims to enable the rural poor (from the SHG ecosystem) to start their own businesses.

Dr. Lalit Sharma, Director of IIE, and Shri Raghvendra Pratap Singh, Director of MoRD, signed the MoU in the presence of Shri Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, MSDE, Ms. Anuradha Vemuri, Joint Secretary, MSDE, and Shri Charanjit Singh, Joint Secretary MoRD.

The Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, Assam, will act as a National Resource Organisation (NRO) for the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) and will provide support to the State Rural Livelihoods Mission (SRLM) for the scheme's successful implementation. The NRO is expected to play a two-fold role in the SVEP's implementation, i.e. Implementation Role, which will include direct SVEP implementation in the blocks as implementing partners with the States, and Programme Scale-Up Role, in which IIE will be responsible for scaling up the scheme based on the blocks' experience with the SVEP and their prior experience with entrepreneurship development programs.

The main objective of the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) is to develop local resources by training a pool of village-level Cadre of Community Resource Persons-Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP) and build the capacity of the NRLM and SHG federations to monitor, direct the work of the CRPEPs.

Commenting on the MoU, Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, said, "The Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) being implemented by the IIE is a great way to empower the youth of rural India with the relevant skill sets and promote entrepreneurship at local level. With the experience that IIE has, we will ensure a strong implementation mechanism and handholding support to State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) implementing Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP). We are certain that this will further boost the employment opportunities in rural India with a step in the direction of Atmanirbhar Bharat and as our Hon’ble Prime Minister states, Start-ups will be the backbone of the New India of our dreams.”