The Centre on Friday launched the second phase of its national campaign on entrepreneurship under the rural livelihoods mission, seeking to turn more livelihood activities of self-help group women into sustainable enterprises. According to reports from PTI, the three-month 'National Campaign on Entrepreneurship-II' was launched by Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal on World Entrepreneurs Day and will run from August 21 to November 21, 2026. The campaign builds on the experience of its first phase, with greater emphasis on enterprise handholding, strengthening producer institutions and simplifying implementation processes. The initiative will focus on farm and non-farm enterprises, formalisation of businesses and marketing of products made by self-help groups.
Under the campaign, the government has set ambitious targets including providing entrepreneurship and livelihood training to five lakh SHG women and supporting the formalisation of 50,000 enterprises. As reported by PTI, the initiative also aims to orient 50,000 community cadres, create a database of five lakh adolescent girls from SHG households, strengthen producer groups and producer enterprises by adding two lakh members, promote agro-ecological practices among 20 lakh women and onboard 25,000 SHG members on e-commerce platforms. The campaign will promote digital commerce through platforms such as ONDC, GeM and other digital marketplaces and facilitate buyer-seller meets and linkages with buyers, aggregators, retailers and institutional purchasers. The Ministry of Rural Development noted that the extended phase will focus on promoting entrepreneurship among Self Help Group women across Farm and Non-Farm livelihoods, strengthening the community enterprise promotion cadre, promoting 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' under the campaign to give greater visibility to the community cadre working to promote rural enterprises. According to PTI, 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 ministry said the campaign will seek to strengthen the farm and non-farm livelihood architecture by converting viable livelihood activities into women-led enterprises, rather than treating farm livelihoods merely as training interventions.
Kansal also released the first edition of 'Sankalp Shakti', a monthly rural enterprise technical bulletin under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission. As reported by PTI, the bulletin will focus on issues related to the empowerment and enterprise development of Lakhpati Didis. The launch event was attended by the secretaries and principal secretaries of rural development departments of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Goa, while state mission directors and CEOs of 34 state rural livelihoods missions participated virtually. The campaign is part of the government's accelerated progress towards its target of creating six crore 'Lakhpati Didis'.
