Tata Trusts aims to help set up 5,000 micro and small enterprises every year

Philanthropic organisation Tata Trusts on Tuesday said that it is helping entrepreneurs in starting their own businesses, mostly in rural areas by starting 5,000 micro and small enterprises every year.

“We have set a target to start 5,000 micro and small enterprises comprising first generation entrepreneurs every year. In the first year, we helped create 2,000 such units across the country, including 50 in Assam,” Tata Trusts’ Head (North East) Biswanath Sinha said.

Tata Trusts said that it will reach its target of training one lakh youths annually on various vocational skills across the country after two years.

“Last year, we had fixed a target to train one lakh youths nationally every year on various skills. However, we could train only 20,000 in the first year,” Sinha said at a press conference in Guwahati.

The organisation is working with government and also runs its own 12 institutes in different states, he added.

“Going forward, we will have more associations with the government.

Also, our own institutes will increase. In another two years, we will reach the target of training one lakh youths every year. In any case, it was a five-year target,” Sinha said.

Of the 20,000 it trained in the past year, around 1,000 were from the North East, he added.

Except Sikkim, Tata Trusts is currently present in all North Eastern states working on various fields to improve the livelihood of people, primarily in rural and semi-urban areas.

“In Assam, Tata Trusts has touched over 30,000 households in 15 districts through projects in agriculture, skill building, education, sports, water and sanitation, health and nutrition among others,” Tata Trusts’ Regional Head (Assam) Partho Patwari said.

The focus areas of the initiative for the region are agriculture and horticulture, household-level piggery enterprise, formation and strengthening of community institutions, skill building, education, water and sanitation, he added.

Nationally, Tata Trusts has set a target to positively and sustainably impact 10 crore lives by 2021.

(With PTI Inputs)