Entrepreneurship training for urban poor stressed

Entrepreneurship development training among urban poor beneficiaries could prove to be one of the most effective strategies for urban poverty alleviation through creation of self and wage employment opportunities, which in turn would promote micro enterprises, said experts at a national workshop on Entrepreneurship Development Strategy for Promotion of Micro Enterprises in Urban Areas.

Organised by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI), the workshop was an integral part of a Government of India-UNDP project on 'National Strategy for Urban Poor'.

Dinesh Awasthi, director of EDI, said the overall objective of the workshop was to share experiences of all the key stakeholders from the seven states "" Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Karnataka, Orissa, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, where EDI experimented the strategy of alleviating poverty in urban areas through promotion of micro enterprises.

The EDI will replicate the experience of developing entrepreneurs in the urban areas as well at the national level.

Harjit Anand, secretary, ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, while inaugurating the workshop said an entrepreneur be it at a micro, small, medium or large level, should perform competently and consistently.

KP Kannan, member, National Commission on Enterprises in the Unorganised/Informal Sector, Government of India, stressed the skill formation of potential entrepreneurs in doing business, at any level and said states could play an important role in facilitating such entrepreneurship training.

He said urban areas had to contribute at least 20 million new work opportunities to achieve the target of the 70 million new jobs in the 11th Plan. "The need of the hour is to motivate and groom potential entrepreneurs who could take advantage of the opportunities by converting them into commercially viable propositions."

The workshop was attended by a cross-section of stakeholders including planners and policy-makers and officials from the urban development ministry,UNDP and NGOs among others.