The Ministry of Rural Development on Friday launched the second phase of the ‘National Campaign on Entrepreneurship’ under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), aimed at accelerating entrepreneurship among rural women and promoting both farm and non-farm enterprises.
The three-month campaign will be conducted from August 21 to November 21, 2026, with an expanded focus on enterprise development, intensive handholding and marketing of products made by Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
The launch coincided with World Entrepreneurs Day, observed globally on August 21.
On the occasion, the Secretary, Department of Rural Development, also released ‘Sankalp Shakti’, the first Rural Enterprise Technical Bulletin. The bulletin will be published as a monthly feature.
The second phase of the campaign will build on the experience of the first phase, with greater emphasis on enterprise handholding, formalisation, strengthening producer institutions and simplifying implementation processes.
The initiative is aimed at strengthening rural women’s entrepreneurship and contributing to the government’s vision of creating six crore Lakhpati Didis.
The campaign will focus on promoting entrepreneurship among SHG women across farm and non-farm livelihoods, strengthening the community enterprise promotion cadre, supporting enterprise formalisation, expanding digital and e-commerce adoption, and strengthening producer groups and producer enterprises.
Community Resource Persons for Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EPs) and Business Development Service Providers (BDSPs) will be recognised as ‘Udyam Sakhis’, giving greater visibility to community-level cadres engaged in enterprise promotion.
The campaign will also facilitate e-commerce opportunities through platforms such as ONDC, GeM and other digital marketplaces. It will support buyer-seller meets and strengthen linkages with buyers, aggregators, retailers and institutional purchasers.
States will undertake orientation programmes for Cluster Level Federation (CLF) leadership, exposure visits and entrepreneurship development training. Support will also be provided for business planning, financial literacy, product development, branding and digital marketing.
The campaign has set several targets, including the orientation of 50,000 community cadres and entrepreneurship and livelihood training for five lakh SHG women. It also aims to create a database of five lakh adolescent girls from SHG households and provide formalisation support to 50,000 enterprises.
Other targets include increasing the membership of Producer Groups and Producer Enterprises by two lakh members, promoting agro-ecological practices among 20 lakh women and onboarding 25,000 SHG members onto e-commerce platforms.
A key priority of the campaign will be to strengthen the farm and non-farm livelihood ecosystem by transforming viable livelihood activities into sustainable women-led enterprises rather than treating farm-based livelihoods primarily as training interventions.
The campaign will complement the existing Community Resource Person for Enterprise Promotion (CRP-EP), Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP), Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP) and other livelihood support architecture, helping women progress from livelihood activities to enterprise creation and growth.
The launch event was attended in person by the Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of the Rural Development Departments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Goa. State Mission Directors and Chief Executive Officers of 34 State Rural Livelihoods Missions (SRLMs) also participated virtually.
