Saurabh Gupta | 28 Jan, 2010
To encourage entrepreneurship among people, the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) has revised and modified the scheme of 'Assistance to Training Institutions,' commonly known as the EDI  (Entrepreneurship Development Institute) scheme, Joint Secretary, MSME Ministry, Pravir Kumar told SME Times recently on the sidelines of 4th Indian Marketing Summit in New Delhi recently.

"We have revised and modified the EDI scheme. And it has come back after approval from the Ministry of Finance as well. Now we are not only providing assistance to the institutions in the form of capital, but also providing support in developing training programs too," Kumar said.

"Earlier the financial support was given up to the maximum limit of Rs. 1 crore on matching grant basis, on a 50 percent basis, but now that has been raised to Rs. 1.5 crore. The grant is basically to set up new EDI and to strengthen the infrastructure of existing EDIs. So now we provide matching grant up to Rs 1.5 crore," he added.

Under the scheme, assistance is provided to existing and new training Institutions for establishment of EDIs and strengthening of their training infrastructure on a matching basis, not exceeding 50 percent of the project cost or Rs. 1.5 crore, whichever is less.

While elaborating more on the scheme, he said, "We have so far supported 28 EDIs across the nation. And for state-level EDIs in Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands, we have made it 90 percent or Rs. 2.7 crores of the project cost whichever is less as we want new EDIs to come up there."

"The balance 50 percent of the matching contribution (10 percent for State level EDIs in Union Territories of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands) should come from the concerned Institute, State/UT Government, public funded institution(s), NGOs/ Trusts/ Banks/Companies/Societies/Voluntary organizations etc," he added.

He also said that earlier the institutes had infrastructure, but didn't have programs to run. So now under this renewed scheme the institutes will get the training programs also.

Kumar said, "Now a new component of training has been added under the EDI scheme. It is proposed to train 2,11,500 persons at a cost of Rs 95.74 crore i.e. Rs 4500 per person during remaining period of XI Plan."

"This has been done to achieve the Target set by the Prime Minister to train 500 million persons by 2022. It is also proposed to train 1000 trainers at a cost of Rs 1.80 crore i.e. Rs 18,000 per trainer. At least 50% of the total persons to be trained would be in the rural areas," he added.

Assistance would be provided under the scheme to following Training Institutions, for conducting Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) and Entrepreneurship cum Skill Development Programmes (ESDPs) and Training of Trainers (ToTs) programmes in the areas of Entrepreneurship and/ or Skill Development.

(a) National level EDIs (including branches),
(b) Training Institutions established by Partner Institutions (PIs) of  national level EDIs,
(c) Training/Incubation centres of NSIC,
(d) Training cum Incubation Centres (TICs) set up by Franchisees of NSIC

Skill Development (SDP) training would normally be of 100 to 300 hours (1 to 3 months). Entrepreneurship Development (EDP) training would be of 72 hours (2 weeks) and Trainer’s Training for 300 hours.