ESDP Aids Over One Point Eight Million Participants In Five Years

02 Apr 2026 CW Team

The Entrepreneurship and Skill Development Programme reached 39,280 programmes and benefited 1,825,181 participants across India during the period from FY 2021-22 to 2025-26, as on 23 March 2026. The scheme aims to motivate young people from different sections of society, including Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, to consider self employment or entrepreneurship as a career option. Activities under the programme focus on basic enterprise skills, handholding for start ups and capacity building of existing micro, small and medium enterprises.

Financial allocations and expenditures are presented here in million (mn), with million defined as million (mn) on first mention. Allocations were Rs 20 mn in FY 2021-22, Rs 400 mn in FY 2022-23, Rs 650 mn in FY 2023-24, Rs 743.2 mn in FY 2024-25 and Rs 957 mn in FY 2025-26. Corresponding expenditures were Rs 15 mn, Rs 387.14 mn, Rs 628.4 mn, Rs 737.9 mn and Rs 898.3 mn respectively.

The total allocation over the five year period amounted to Rs 2,770.2 mn and total expenditure was Rs 2,666.74 mn. The programme seeks to promote new enterprises and to inculcate an entrepreneurial culture while addressing skill gaps across sectors and regions. Year wise and State wise details, including the numbers of programmes and beneficiaries, have been provided in annexure materials and underpin the reported totals.

The information was provided to the Rajya Sabha by the Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Sushri Shobha Karandlaje, in a written reply. The figures are drawn from the ESDP MIS Portal and reflect implementation outcomes through to 23 March 2026. Continued monitoring and reporting are indicated as part of the scheme administration to track outreach and expenditure.

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