An initiative to give thrust to rural entrepreneurship with digital and technological intervention has been launched in Chamarajanagar to scale up local businesses and generate employment. The initiative is supported by eSaumdaay, a Bengaluru-based local commerce platform, the JSS Rural Incubation and Skill Development Centre (JSS RISDC), and other partners to help empower local communities economically.
Producer network
A release said a producer network will be developed in Chamarajanagar to create more employment opportunities and also to help in building self-reliant communities, empowering youth and women in the district. The effort in Chamarajanagar is to create a production hub focussing on agro-related and food produce, health and wellness, textiles, home decor, arts and crafts to start with.
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eSamudaay plans to develop a network of ecosystem players who can provide end to end assistance for local entrepreneurs right from incubation to skill development to digitising their businesses and scaling them. The technology infrastructure, digital skill development and access to a vernacular-enabled user interface for these rural businesses will be offered by other partners who are part of the initiative, the release stated. The incubation of the emerging businesses in Chamarajanagar will be anchored by JSS RISDC, while eSamudaay will be the digital platform enabling local commerce and connecting the local producers to the market outside of Chamarajanagar, it added.
Speaking of the initiative, Anup Pai, founder and CEO, eSamudaay said, “Atmarnibhar Bharat and making India a trillion-dollar digital economy by 2024 can be attained only when our collective focus includes strengthening the rural economies along with overall growth.”
B. Shivashankar, CEO, JSS RISDC, said ‘Empowering Rural Community’ is the theme under which RISDC is envisioned to create local business, entrepreneurs and employment for sustainable growth of the region by facilitating and connecting with ecosystem partner across the region to make it self reliant rural India.
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20 years
He said the JSS RISDC has more than 20 years of experience in rural areas and was leveraging its expertise and exposure in technology and rural development issues to bridge the digital gap and encourage entrepreneurship development in rural areas. The facilities and support at JSS RISDC will be ground up initiatives to engage entrepreneurs, self-employed and individuals or groups to start their activities to move up the value chain in the ecosystem for betterment of local economic activities, he added.