New Delhi, Jan 27 (KNN) In order to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship across the country, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MoSDE) has instituted the “National Entrepreneurship Awards”.

These premier awards seek to recognise and honour young entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurship ecosystem builders for their outstanding efforts in the field of entrepreneurship development.

The Awards also seek to highlight models of excellence for youth of India and encourage them to take entrepreneurship as a preferred career option.

The National Entrepreneurship Awards will be presented annually in a public function beginning 2016.

The first Award Ceremony will take place on 30th January 2017 where awards in 11 categories will be given. Home Minister, Rajnath Singh will be the chief guest. Minister of State (I/C) for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Rajiv Pratap Rudy will preside over the function.

Involvement of youth is at the heart of this Award Scheme, to ensure the involvement of youth, the Ministry has partnered with premier institutes of higher learning across the country, including IIT Delhi, IIM Ahmedabad, IIT Mumbai, TISS Mumbai, IIT Chennai, XLRI Jamshedpur and IIT Kanpur, to implement the scheme.

The applicants have undergone two levels of rigorous assessment, followed by selection of winners by a National Level Jury. Top three entries under each category were recommended to the National Jury for the final selection of the winners. The National Jury comprised of eminent persons drawn from academia/research, industry, social sector, banking etc.

Pioneering this national initiative will provide models of excellence in the entrepreneurship ecosystem that would inspire the youth, especially the first generation entrepreneurs to improve and excel in their entrepreneurial pursuits, and at the same time, this would give a tremendous encouragement and inspiration to the ecosystem builders in excelling in their commitment towards spearheading a cultural shift in youth entrepreneurship through education and capacity building that includes teaching, training, practice, handholding, mentoring, networking, funding and scholarly and/or creative activities. (PIB Inputs)