Exchanges MoU with IIMB and Subiksha

Govt. inks 2 MoUs to scale up women-led enterprises

Bengaluru, June 23: The Government of Karnataka on Wednesday inked two memoranda of understanding (MoUs) with the objective of further strengthening the economic activities of women self-help groups and facilitating organic farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers.

Out of two MoUs, one was with IIMB, the most prestigious business management institution in South India. The other MoU was with Subhiksha claimed to be India’s ‘First vertically integrated Multi-state Co-operative Society’ which promotes organic farming.

The MoUs were exchanged in presence of Dr.C.N.Ashwath Narayana, Minister for Livelihood. On behalf of the government, Sanjeevini – KSRLPS (Karnataka State Rural Livelihood Promotion Society), the Nodal Agency for implementing national flagship programmes such National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and National Rural Economic Transformation Programme (NRETP), exchanged MoUs with the institutions.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister Narayan said, “Located in India’s high technology capital, IIMB Incubator for Women SHGs will be a proud platform that helps women entrepreneurs get access to resources. It will enable to scale up existing women-owned/women-led growth-oriented enterprises in the state. The intended incubator will focus on supporting rural home-grown entrepreneurs, especially women, who face additional constraints in accessing such services”.

The aim of the initiative is to scale up at least 100-150 existing women-owned/women-led growth-oriented enterprises in the state. Further, it is expected, that the MoU would facilitate creating business models for generating local employment, improving the creditworthiness of enterprises, enabling access for credit from formal financial institutions, and capacitating women entrepreneurs to run businesses themselves.

About MoU with ‘Subhikha’, he told it would create a direct linkage with the consumers through the online marketing platform ‘Subhiksha Farmers to Consumers’ App. He added it would fetch 73% of the MRP directly to the farmers’ account. It also provides traceability to consumers of every item that is procured through the platform along with a ‘Note from the Farmer’ to introduce the farmer’s family to the consumer.

Other advantages are, that it will assist in high-order food processing, supply quality inputs to farmer members at reasonable costs, provide farm advisory services, incentivise farmers for adopting ‘Good Agricultural Practices’ and enable access to farm data on soil fertility, and moisture levels.

During the event, Minister also launched the integrated web portal (www.kaushalykar.karnataka.gov.in) of the Department of Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, and Livelihood.

A S Ananda (State Organic Farming Mission Chief), Prof.Venkatesh (IIMB), Manjusri (NRLM Director), Jyoti (Commissioner, Dept. of Employment and Training), Ashwin Gowda (MD, Skill Development Corporation), and Raghavendra (MD, GTTC) were present.

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