Entrepreneurship and Innovation Schemes for SC and ST

Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in order to promote entrepreneurship among the Scheduled Castes and to provide concessional finance to them has started "Venture Capital Fund for Scheduled Castes (VCF-SC)" in FY 2014-15. Further, this Ministry in order to boost entrepreneurship and innovation among the SC students / youth (including SC women youths) has launched "Ambedkar Social Innovation Incubation Mission (ASIIM)" under VCF-SC on 30th September 2020. These schemes are operational and applicable throughout the country.

VCF-SC: The present corpus of VCF-SC fund is Rs.683.18 Crore with Rs.609.22 Crore Contributed by Govt. of India and Rs.73.96 Crore contributed by IFCI Ltd. Its objective is investments in projects/units ensuring asset creation out of the funds deployed.

ASIIM under VCF-SC: Youth identified by Technology Business Incubators(TBIs), Atal incubation Centers, Science and Technology Parks of India (STPI) being promoted by Department of Science and Technology and other incubation centers supported by Government of India.

Under VCF-SC and ASIIM schemes the beneficiaries are only companies owned by SC entrepreneurs. The number of the Companies owned by SC entrepreneurs sanctioned and disbursed financial assistance under the VCF-SC and ASIIM schemes are at Annexure.

To make the SC entrepreneurs aware of the VCF-SC and ASIIM funds, efforts are made regularly by way of publicity in media through advertisements as well as by holding various conferences/meets and webinars. These efforts are being done continuously to invite more applications and improve awareness. On 14^th April 2022, a national level competition namely "Dr.Ambedkar Young Entrepreneurs League (AYE League)" was convened to select SC young entrepreneurs for providing equity support of up to Rs.30 lakh over a period of three years under 'Ambedkar Social Innovation Incubation Mission (ASIIM)' initiative under VCF-SC. In this event, about 1042 numbers of applications were received under AYE League and about 1463 number of nominations were received under Dr. Ambedkar Business Excellence (ABE) felicitation. There were 67 winners under AYE League and 20 winners under ABE felicitation in 9 different categories. The event was attended by nearly 1,000 stakeholders from different parts of the country. In this event, a mentorship portal www.aye-mentor.inwas also launched for providing mentorship support to young SC entrepreneurs.

Annexure

The details of Beneficiaries who have availed VCF-SC and ASIIM scheme as on 20.07.2022)

This information was given by Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Shri A. Narayanaswamy in the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today.

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MG/RNM