Addresses International Mentoring Summit
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that fostering Grampreneurship can transform aspirational rural India. He was addressing the International Mentoring Summit with the theme ‘Mentoring Young Grampreneurs for Inclusive Growth’, on the occasion of Silver Jubilee of Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST), here today. His Royal Highness Prince Charles and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
The Vice President said that rural India is rapidly changing and the rural youth too are well informed, are eager to learn, have an entrepreneurial spirit, and quite often even global aspirations. He further said that the present Government has been tirelessly working to promote inclusive growth, to make India as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Policies like Start-up India and Atal Innovation Mission are geared to support the start-up environment, he added.
The Vice President said that the aim of the National Urban Livelihoods Mission was to reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities. He further said that the core belief is that the poor are entrepreneurial and have innate desire to come out of poverty. The challenge is to unleash their capabilities to generate meaningful and sustainable livelihoods, he added.
The Vice President said that the constraints like access to credit, advantages of technology, marketing support need to be addressed and the BYST model of mentoring can play a significant role in the growth of entrepreneurial culture. He further said that the challenge is to encourage more youth to make the choice of becoming entrepreneurs, rather than be job-seekers. Many more opportunities for decent livelihoods must be created rapidly in the rural areas, he added.
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