Rural Development Ministry Launches National Campaign on Entrepreneurship-II for Rural Women

24 August 2026National

The Ministry of Rural Development launched the National Campaign on Entrepreneurship-II on 21 August 2026 under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission, timed with World Entrepreneurs Day. The three-month drive runs to 21 November 2026 and supports the goal of 6 crore Lakhpati Didis. Targets include training 5 lakh SHG women, formalising 50,000 rural enterprises, orienting 50,000 community cadres, adding 2 lakh producer-group members, promoting agro-ecological practices among 20 lakh women, and onboarding 25,000 SHG members onto ONDC and GeM. Secretary Rohit Kansal launched it and released the first issue of the bulletin *Sankalp Shakti*; enterprise cadres will be recognised as Udyam Sakhis.

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DAY-NRLM was launched in 2011 as NRLM and renamed in 2015; it is run by the Ministry of Rural Development to mobilise rural poor households into Self-Help Groups | ONDC, the Open Network for Digital Commerce, was incorporated in 2021 with backing from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry | GeM, the Government e-Marketplace, was launched in 2016 for public procurement

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