The Ministry of Rural Development has launched the second phase of the National Campaign on Entrepreneurship under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana–National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), setting a three-month programme aimed at expanding support for rural women-led enterprises.

The campaign runs from August 21 to November 21, 2026. It is designed to promote entrepreneurship among women in self-help groups across farm and non-farm activities, according to the Ministry and public-broadcaster reports on the launch.

Its stated focus includes enterprise formalisation, stronger community enterprise-promotion cadres, producer groups and producer enterprises, as well as greater use of digital and e-commerce channels. The programme is also intended to support market connections through buyer-seller meetings and links with buyers, aggregators, retailers and institutional purchasers.

The campaign has set outcome targets that include orienting 50,000 community cadres and providing entrepreneurship and livelihood training to 500,000 self-help-group women. It also targets formalisation support for 50,000 enterprises, an increase of 200,000 members in producer groups and producer enterprises, and onboarding 25,000 self-help-group members on e-commerce platforms.

Other targets include creating a database of 500,000 adolescent girls from self-help-group households and promoting agro-ecological practices among 2 million women. The programme is part of the government’s stated effort to support the wider goal of creating six crore Lakhpati Didis.

At the launch, Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal released Sankalp Shakti, described as the first Rural Enterprise Technical Bulletin of the mission. DD India reported that it is planned as a monthly publication intended to share enterprise tools, models and market-linkage information with state rural livelihoods missions and field cadres.

The new phase builds on the campaign’s first stage and places emphasis on sustained enterprise support rather than training alone. The government has said the work will cover business planning, financial literacy, product development, branding and digital marketing alongside support for farm and non-farm livelihoods.

Source: DD India; News On AIR.