New Delhi, 22 August (H.S.): The Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development reviewed several key proposals aimed at scaling up women-led rural enterprises and transforming them into growth-oriented businesses.

According to the Ministry of Rural Development, the meeting was held under the non-farm livelihoods (NFL) component of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) and was chaired by Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal. The initiative seeks to promote rural women entrepreneurs and accelerate the national target of creating six crore “Lakhpati Didis”.

The meeting was attended by senior officials from the states as well as academic representatives, including Joint Secretary (Rural Livelihoods) Amit Shukla and Swati Sharma.

The committee finalised the framework for new incubator programmes in partnership with leading academic institutions across four states. These include IIT Patna in Bihar, IIM Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir, IIM Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh and IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat.

Through these programmes, more than 600 high-potential rural Self-Help Group (SHG) enterprises will receive structured support in areas such as business strategy, mentorship, financial planning, technology and market access. The new incubators will primarily focus on sectors including food and agro-processing, textiles, handicrafts and manufacturing, retail services and tourism-related activities, as well as digital enterprises.

The committee also approved the expansion of the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) in West Bengal and Goa to strengthen the ecosystem for non-farm enterprises in these states.

Following successful models implemented in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka, 14 incubator programmes are currently operational across 13 states, supporting more than 2,100 SHG enterprises.

The initiative is designed to help rural women move beyond subsistence-level livelihoods towards sustainable enterprises capable of achieving higher turnover, stronger market linkages and large-scale employment generation.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar