The Empowered Committee of the Ministry of Rural Development, chaired by Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal, reviewed proposals under the Non-Farm Livelihoods (NFL) component of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) to strengthen and scale up women-led rural enterprises.
The proposals aim to create a pathway for small-scale self-help group (SHG) enterprises to transition into higher-order, growth-oriented businesses.
Joint Secretaries (Rural Livelihoods) Amit Shukla and Swati Sharma were also present at the meeting. Discussions focused on accelerating entrepreneurship-led livelihood opportunities for rural women and contributing to the national goal of creating 6 crore Lakhpati Didis.
The Committee considered four new Incubator proposals from Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, with IIT Patna, IIM Jammu, IIM Lucknow and IIT Gandhinagar proposed as incubator partners, respectively.
The proposals were presented by the Principal Secretaries or Secretaries of the respective states, along with State Mission Directors or CEOs of the State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) and representatives of the proposed incubator institutions.
Together, the four proposed programmes are expected to support more than 600 high-potential rural enterprises through structured interventions in business strategy, mentoring, financial planning, formalisation, technology adoption, market access and access to finance.
The Incubator Sub-Scheme builds on four completed incubator programmes in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal and Karnataka, which supported more than 600 SHG enterprises.
The programme has since expanded, with 14 incubator programmes currently operational across 13 states, supporting around 2,100 rural SHG enterprises through partnerships with premier business and academic institutions, including IIMs, IITs and leading incubation organisations.
Earlier programmes recorded outcomes such as revenue growth, improved business formalisation and additional employment generation.
The proposed incubators will focus on sectors including food and agri-processing, textiles and handicrafts, manufacturing, retail and services, tourism-linked activities, digital enterprises and other locally relevant growth sectors.
A key feature of the initiative will be a transparent, merit-based Challenge Fund to identify enterprises with strong growth potential. Dedicated State Incubation Cells are also proposed to institutionalise enterprise support within the SRLMs.
The Committee also considered proposals to expand the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) in West Bengal and Goa, aimed at further strengthening the rural non-farm entrepreneurship ecosystem and enabling more SHG members to establish and grow sustainable enterprises.
The initiatives are part of the government’s broader focus on women-led economic development and the Lakhpati Didi initiative, with the aim of helping rural women entrepreneurs move beyond subsistence-level businesses towards enterprises with higher turnover, stronger market linkages, improved access to finance and greater employment potential.
The Empowered Committee emphasised the importance of innovation, institutional partnerships, convergence, digital adoption, market access and outcome-based monitoring to create a robust national ecosystem for the incubation and sustained growth of women-led rural enterprises under DAY-NRLM.
