Addressing the India Rural Business Summit In New Delhi today, organised jointly by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) under the aegis of ministry of rural development and the department of commerce, the minister emphasised the need of providing sustainable jobs to rural house holds in such a way that poverty and unemployment could be eradicated effectively.

The biggest challenge in India today is to create income generating ventures for about 4.4 crore rural Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and majority of them have no start up capital or skills and lack credit worthiness as per banking perspectives and therefore, all forward linkages like activity choice, credit and market are required to be brought up to the doorstep of the rural beneficiary, the minister added.

Dr. Singh said there is lack of markets in rural areas and lack of adequate awareness of market trends among the rural artisans. Moreover, rural entrepreuneurship in India is a dual scenario, combining market potential with the object of poverty alleviation. Hence there is a need for strong support systems and hand holding by the government and other institutions.

The minister said his ministry implements the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) schemes, which is aimed at creating sustainable income generating activities for the rural poor in an effort to bring them out of poverty. Till now 26.59 lakh self help groups (SHGs) have been formed and at a total investment of Rs18,824.32 crore 88.5 lakh Swarozgaries have been given assistance.

The minister lauded FICCI for taking an initiative in recognising the potentials of our vibrant rural economy as a crucial factor in the growth of national economy and asked the champions of Indian industry to come forward for providing necessary training and finacial help to the rural entrepreneurs and artisans for the skill development.

He said, the government is providing all possible help to rural artisans in a bid to eradicate the poverty and unemployment from the rural areas and now it is up to the leaders Indian business community to do necessary market survey and share the feasibility report with rural entrepreneurs. It should also provide necessary technological assistance along with micro credit to them at reasonable rates.

Assistance to them may be also given to them in the production of intermediate goods in the rural areas and the integration of rural products with the urban supply chain can be done by the private sector so that the rural masses could brave the challenges of Global economy in a successful manner.

An exhibition of rural products by the rural artisans from all over the country has also been put up at the premise of FICCI auditorium during the two-day summit.