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With a view to transforming employment seekers into job generators, education system should prepare students right from college education to get oriented to setting up enterprises which would provide them with creativity, freedom and ability to generate wealth.In
the light of those words by Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, the government
and policy makers have been concentrating on promotion of
small business units. The small scale sector was considered
to be an employment generation sector. This sector began
to be recognized as an instrument for tapping latent entrepreneurial
talent. The government envisaged a promotion package and
financial assistance in the form of fund and non fund to
facilitate the setting up of new units or the expansion
of existing line of activities. The package consisted of
incentives, subsidies, concessions, infrastructural facilities,
technical and managerial guidance, etc., through a network
of organizations for supporting entrepreneurship development.
It
was found by the planners and the government that incentives
were not sufficient in themselves to ensure adequate entrepreneurial
response. In fact, entrepreneurial development and growth
required primary focus on human resource development through
Entrepreneurship Development Programs (EDPs).EDP
may be defined as "a program designed to help an individual
in strengthening his entrepreneurial motive and in acquiring
skills and capabilities necessary for playing his entrepreneurial
role effectively". The
main objectives of an EDP are-to identify and train potential
entrepreneurs, to develop necessary knowledge and skills
among the participants, to impart basic managerial understanding
and to provide post-training assistance.
EDP
has played an important role in Indian industrial development,
particularly in the development of small scale sector. Over
the last four decades a number of institutions all over
the country have conducted EDPs and created a large pool
of first generation entrepreneurs. In this context, the
mere conduct of EDPs is not enough, an assessment of EDPswhether
they ultimately benefit potential entrepreneurs in terms
of unit settlement-is necessary. Hence, this study. A
review of literature in relation to entrepreneurial promotion
through EDPs is essential to identify gaps. So, the study
efforts are concentrated on filling these gaps. In order
to identify entrepreneurial promotion through EDP in the
study area, it is essential to review a few EDP evaluation
studies conducted in a different region and methodology.
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