Aspire Scheme

Aspire scheme is the scheme of India’s Government launched to develop industries and enterprises in rural areas. The ASPIRE scheme is a short form for “A Scheme for Promotion and Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE).

This scheme focuses on transmitting the skills necessary to build and run an enterprise in rural areas. The government of India launched the project under the Make In India initiative to generate employment opportunities and encourage start-ups. The Aspire scheme works under the Ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

Aspire Scheme 

India is a country where most people are engaged in an agricultural activity directly or indirectly. The primary source of around 58% of the population of India is agriculture, and nearly 70% of the Indian population lives in rural areas. The Government of India introduced many schemes to tackle the problem of poverty and unemployment in rural areas. The Aspire scheme is one of them. Aspire scheme is the short form of “A Scheme for Promotion and Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE). The Government of India introduced the Aspire scheme in 2015 to build new enterprises in rural areas.

Following are the objective of Aspire Scheme:

• The main goal of introducing the Aspire scheme is to create employment opportunities in rural areas
• India’s young population thinks out of the box and has different innovative ideas. The Aspire scheme is launched to utilise this talent of the youth living in rural areas and enhance the entrepreneurship culture
• The project promotes innovative enterprises and a competitive market in MSME.
• To make the implementation of innovative ideas easier

Who is Eligible for Aspire Scheme?

1. Any person (above the age of 18) can build up a start-up if they have the potential to handle the enterprise.
2. The industries which deal with agriculture or products based in rural areas are eligible for this scheme.
3. The universities and the research institutes are ready to start the enterprise or research in agriculture.
4. All the MSMEs with the conditions that they are registered on the entrepreneurship memorandum
5. The private bodies which want to set up the laboratories, production parks, universities, research and development centres which help in the development of industry
6. All the cooperation is a body of the Central or State Government of the country and works for the rural development sector.

Aspire Scheme Components

The components of Aspire schemes are Livelihood Business Incubation (LBI), Technological Business Incubation (TBI) and Start-ups Promotion through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

Livelihood Business Incubation (LBI)

Livelihood Business Incubation (LBI) is the first component of the Aspire scheme, which deals with providing the knowledge and developing the skills of new entrepreneurs. The primary focus area of this component is to generate employment opportunities in rural areas and decrease unemployment. LBI provides an optimum ecosystem for enhancing the entrepreneurship culture in the nation.

Technological Business Incubation (TBI)

The second component of the Aspire scheme is Technological Business Incubation (TBI), a tool of economic development. It provides the strategy to the enterprises, which helps with technology and innovative ideas. This component offers technological support to the innovators and works as a backend in the production of enterprises.

Start-ups Promotion through Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI)

SIDBI provides financial support to entrepreneurs eligible for the Aspire scheme for a specified period. Quasi-equity, equity, angel fund, impact fund, challenge fund, etc., are ways SIDBI finances the fund to innovators and enterprises. This component of the Aspire scheme focused on the growth of start-ups in rural areas.

Aspire Scheme Benefits

The Aspire scheme is beneficial for developing entrepreneurs in rural areas by providing the required skills and economic support. The benefits of Aspire scheme are listed below.

• The aspire scheme promotes the new entrepreneurs of the rural areas and helps them build and run their start-ups
• It enhances the network of small investors and entrepreneurs from rural areas to conduct business in a large market
• Under the Aspire scheme, the government provides automatic and modern equipment for farming and agriculture
• This scheme helps improve the quality and worth of the items related to farming and forest with innovative ideas
• Recycling agricultural waste and earning additional money benefit this scheme from economic and environmental perspectives
• The improvement of agricultural activities creates numerous local jobs in non-urban locations 

Conclusion

Aspire scheme focuses on flexing the market networks and providing support to the enterprise of MSMEs to develop rural areas. The motive behind the Aspire scheme is to build skills and teach the importance of entrepreneurship in rural areas.