RACHANA ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT CELL

The Rachana EDC, in a bid to fulfil its objective of developing entrepreneurs among the

community, examined the issue from all perspectives and seven months ago, drew up a

road map to achieve its stated goals. The road map emphasised activities in the following

areas.

1. Identification of Budding/existing entrepreneurs looking to set up, expand their

businesses.

2. Entrepreneurship Awareness

3. Training sessions

4. Follow up with aspiring entrepreneurs to start enterprises

Rachana EDC, has over the last seven months focussed on all of these areas and has made

considerable progress in three of its four focus areas, viz. Identification of budding / existing

entrepreneurs looking to set up / expand their businesses, provided Entrepreneurship

Awareness and Follow-up to start enterprises. Despite efforts to set up systematic training

sessions for existing and aspiring entrepreneurs, a lack of faculty and trainees has prompted

a reassessment of this initiative. One or two individuals approached the centre for training

in specific areas, and had to be directed the concerned Govt. Department for the same.

It is a well known fact, that economic and industrial development in the country is a by

product of government policy and support. In this context, during the first twenty days,

prior to reaching out to help aspiring and existing entrepreneurs, Rachana approached

various govt. departments and other NGO’s, to collect information that will support self

employment.

Departments such as the Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation, Karnataka State

Women’s Development Corporation, Veterinary Department, Mangalore, Life Stock

breeding and training centre, Koyla, National Urban Livelihood Mission, Swarna Jayanthi

Swa Rojgar Yojana, District Industries Centre, Mangalore, Dakshina Kannada dist. Karnataka

Milk Federation, Mangalore Taluk Primary Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Devt. Bank

Ltd., Commercial banks, Private Sector Banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, MCC Bank, RUDSET

Institute, Ujire and Sri Sai Candles, Shivamogga were contacted in this regard.

After collecting the requisite information, the Rachana EDC approached aspiring and existing

entrepreneurs who had expressed a desire for assistance in their endeavours for need

identification and analysis. This analysis, led the EDC to take up the following initiatives.

Candle Making Training:

Training in Candle making was organised for five women aspiring entrepreneurs of Kulur. Rs:

40600/- was spent on this project of which Rs.31600/- was provided as seed loan to these

entrepreneurs on 26th of October 2014. Currently, these five women entrepreneurs market

their wares at local exhibitions conducted by Karnataka State Women’s Development

Corporation under the banner of “Five Star group”. They market their candles as well as

local food products at Sthree Shakti Bhavan near KSRTC Mangaluru. The Five star group has

now requested the Sthree Shakti Bhavan to provide a permanent marketing set up.

Dairy farmers Training:

Dairy farmers training was conducted for 152 farmers (men and women) at Kulur and

Permude. They were taken for an exposure trip to Sasihitlu and Moodabidri where

progressive farmers are managing more than 100 cows with one to two labours. This

training and exposure has motivated them to adopt new methods to increase the milk yield

of their cattle and in some cases increase the head count of cattle too.

Pig rearing Training:

Pig rearing training was provided to 26 individuals interested in the same at the Life Stock

Breeding and Training centre, kolya. This has resulted in some of them entering this field

and in other cases, to increase their head count through the purchase of pig lets from the

training centre which needs a five month lead time before actual delivery.

Entrepreneurship Awareness Training:

Two entrepreneurship awareness training sessions were conducted at Mukka and St.

Aloysius ITI college, Mangaluru respectively in which 134 youths participated.

All round achievement

Rachana EDC mobilised an amount of Rs. 27650/- from various government departments to

conduct different trainings on agriculture and entrepreneurship training. The Rachana EDC,

through its four pronged approach to entrepreneur development, as per its mandate,

motivated and assisted nearly 118 individuals for assistance to start / enhance businesses in

46 different trades in the Agricultural, Industrial and Services sectors. They have been

provided with awareness training, exposure, liaison and guidance to obtain capital from

Government and financial institutions. Of these 118, 34 individuals have already availed

loans amounting to Rs: 39 Lakhs, while the rest are at various stages of their applications to

various Govt. Departments like KMDC, NULM.

All in all, it has been nine months in which the belief that Rachana, is the ‘go to’ mentor for

aspiring entrepreneurs in the community has grown tremendously, we at Rachana look

forward to build this trust further in the coming months.