ASPIRE – Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI)
The main objective of Livelihood Business Incubation is setting up business incubators to incubate, provide skill development training to youth, impart entrepreneurship and facilitate funding for empowering the entrepreneurs to set up their business enterprises. The main focus of these incubators is creating jobs at the local level and reducing unemployment. These incubators create a favorable ecosystem for the development of entrepreneurship in the country. Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) is an entity set up for imparting skill development & incubation programmes for promoting entrepreneurship and employment generation in agro-rural sector with special focus on rural and underserved areas.
- To generate employment opportunities by facilitating formal, scalable micro-enterprise creation.
- To skill, up-skill, re-skill unemployed, existing self-employed/ wage earners in new technologies.
- To provide skilled human capital to nearby industrial clusters and promote innovations for strengthening the competitiveness in the MSME sector
- To conduct outreach programs to create awareness about the initiative and on-board prospective
- Design and conduct incubation programs in the form of workshops to facilitate new micro-enterprise creation.
- To offer varied support services like financial, legal, product designing, accreditation, compliance, trademarks, etc.,
- To offer advisory services to the existing and informal enterprises to formalize them and make them scalable.
- To facilitate funding for micro-entrepreneurs by leveraging various Central Government /State Government Schemes and engaging with financial institutions.
- To provide hands-on training to trainees by simulating the industrial processes on the plants & machineries
- To create a conducive ecosystem for promoting entrepreneurship and generating employment by
- Partnering with local entities catering to the upstream and downstream activities of the chosen thrust area.
- To make provision for using the facility at the Livelihood Business Incubation Centre for development of product prototypes.
The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MMSME) sanctioned Rs.100 Lakhs to the Department of International Business, Pondicherry University on 8th January 2021 to start “MSME-ASPIRE Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) in the Pondicherry University Campus.”
The following are the objectives of the LBI: Firstly to Enhance the Agricultural Productivity through Innovative Practices, Secondly Imparting Entrepreneurship and Employability skill among youth, Thirdly to Promote Marketability for Agricultural and Agro Based Products and Finally the identification and development of low end technology for cost effective production.
The MSME-ASPIRE Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) Pondicherry University is to impart skills and entrepreneurship ideas specially focusing on five different thrust areas: (1) Agricultural Equipment Servicing (2) Seed Bank and Nursery Management (Horticulture), (3) Bio-fertilizer (Waste to Wealth Management), (4) Exports of Fruits and Flowers and (5) Use of Solar for Agriculture and Agro based industries by covering youth belongs to Union Territory of Pondicherry and its bordering districts of Tamil Nadu.
The LBI in Pondicherry University proposed to train 600 -700 incubates every year which includes the students studying in Pondicherry University and its affiliating colleges and also the farmers and unemployed youths belonging to this region. Apart from imparting employment training and entrepreneurship orientation, this LBI is proposed to run certification courses as per National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) in the above said thrust areas.
Presently, the people who are engaged in agricultural sector in the targeted area of Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu are lacking scientific agricultural production methods, lack of training in servicing of agricultural equipment’s and products, lack of knowledge on value added products from agricultural sectors and export opportunities, lack of idea in use of bio-fertilizers and solar energy for agricultural sector development.
The training and skill set to be offered by “MSME-ASPIRE Livelihood Business Incubator (LBI) Pondicherry University” will fulfil the above short comings with the help of institutional support in terms of conducting training programme and entrepreneurship development with the support of faculty specialized in the areas of Green Energy, Pollution Control, Bio-Technology, Earth Science, Micro biology and ecology. The LBI also got its linkage with agro industries, NGOs, Government Agencies to impart entrepreneurship and skill development of the youth in these region.
( No. of Trades / Courses to be conducted along with Course duration, Course fee, batch Size and no. of Batches)
Sl. No | Thrust Area(s) | Course | *NSQF Compliance (No. Of Hours) | List Of Machinery Used | Number Of Batches | Participants Per Batch | Estimated Fees (Rs.) |
1 | Agri equipment’s services | Tractor servicing | 200 hrs (level 4) | Model Tractors | 3/Year | 25 | 5,000 |
2 | Agri equipment’s services | Tillage Equipment | 200 hrs (level 4) | Model Tillage | 4/Year | 25 | 5,000 |
3 | Agri equipment’s services | Spraying & Dusting | 200 hrs (level 4) | Model pesticide equipment’s | 4/Year | 20 | 5,000 |
4 | Agri equipment’s services | Soil Testing & Crop Technician | 1600 hrs (level 4) | As per NSQF guidelines | 1/Year | 20 | 43,000 |
5. | Exportable Fruits | Horticulture | 2080 hrs/level 4 | As per NSQF | 1/Year | 20 | 43,000 |
6 | Exportable Fruits | Entrepreneurship Development | 600 hrs/level 4 | Smart class room | 2/Year | 25 | 10,000 |
7 | Seed Bank & Plant nursery Management | Seed Processing worker | 130 hrs/level 3 | As per NSQF | 5/Year | 25 | 3,000 |
8 | Bio Fertilizer Development | Organic Grower | 200 hrs/level 4 | As per NSQF | 4/Year | 25 | 2,150 |
9 | Fabrication of Solar materials for food processing | Solar Energy | 200 hrs/level 4 | As per NSQF | 2/Year | 20 | 5000 |
*Courses are as per National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF)- Government of India
Sl. No | Thrust Area | Name of Machinery and equipment’s | Budget Allocation |
1 | Agri Equipment’s services | Model tractors, Tillage & Agri related Machines | 38.80 |
2 | Seed bank & Plant Nursery Management | Equipment’s for Horticulture and Floriculture Automatic Nursery Tray Machine | 7.50 |
3 | Bio fertilizer development | Soil testing equipment’s and Lab tools | 19.20 |
4 | Exportable fruits | Fruit Processing Equipment’s (Dryer), Packaging Machines | 23.50 |
5. | Solar Drying Systems For | Fully automated sheet bending machine, Tig welding machine and Solar dryers | 11.00 |
Total | 100 Lakhs | ||
“PU ASPIRE LBI is in the process of Purchase of Equipment’s and Machinery”
Prof. Gurmeet Singh – Chairperson – ASPIRE -LBI
Vice-Chancellor, Pondicherry University
Puducherry – 605014
Mr. U. Venkatachalapathi – Member
General Manager (SG)
NSIC Technical Services Centre
National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC)
Chennai
Pincode -600032
Dr. B. Ramakichenin @ Balagandhi – Member
Director of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Department of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare
Government of Puducherry
Puducherry
Dr.Shamarao Jahagirdar – Member
Former – Dean
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute
Karaikal – 609 603, U.T. of Puducherry, India
Prof. K.Chandra Sekhara Rao – Special Invitee
Dean, School of Management
Pondicherry University
Pondicherry – 605014
Prof. P.G.Arul – Coordinator, ASPIRE – LBI
Department of International Business,
Pondicherry University
Puducherry – 605014
