– Ronita Torcato
Various initiatives are being employed by the Maharashtra government to inculcate the entrepreneurial spirit in youth. The latest, called ‘Saksham’, has been implemented in government and aided schools and junior colleges in Nagpur and Amravati districts through ‘Udyam Learning Foundation’, a non-profit organisation.
The objectives of the ‘Saksham’ programme are to develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills in students aged between 14 and 25 years through project-based learning and to equip teachers with teaching skills .
Through the Saksham programme, in which 15,000 students have participated to date, more than 2,500 business ideas were presented, 1,500 prototypes were created, and more than 500 students sold their products.
Introduced in 2023-24, the programme aims to reach around 45 lakh students in Maharashtra. So far, Udyam has imparted entrepreneurial education to over 29 lakh students in government schools, colleges and ITIs.
As around 14 lakh youth manpower enters Maharashtra each year, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that programmes like ‘Saksham’ should be implemented on a wider scale by coordinating between state government agencies, local self -government bodies and NGOs, to lay the foundation for entrepreneurship through education.
The initiative will achieve transformation in the future as well, asserted Soumya Sharma, the then chief executive officer of Nagpur Zilla Parishad.
Through Udyam, 500 educators have also been trained in entrepreneurship, pilot projects have been implemented in 30 schools in Nagpur and 40 projects have been exhibited to date.
In Amravati, the programme has been implemented with 8,000 students from 212 schools and will be expanded to 400 schools in 2025-26, Sharma said.
