"Swavalambini", a women entrepreneurship programme for the North-East is launched by which of the following ministries ?
1. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
2. Ministry of Women and

Question

"Swavalambini", a women entrepreneurship programme for the North-East is launched by which of the following ministries ?
1. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
2. Ministry of Women and Child Development
3. Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
Select the correct answer from the code given below :
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UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Only 1 — the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE). Swavalambini was launched in February 2025 by MSDE in collaboration with NITI Aayog, and is delivered through NIESBUD (the National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development), an autonomous institute of MSDE. It is a Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme for the North-East: a 40-hour course for around 300 selected students across nine colleges and universities in Assam, Meghalaya and Mizoram, combining entrepreneurship training with mentorship, access to finance and market linkages. Neither the Ministry of Women and Child Development nor the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises is a launching ministry here, so only statement 1 is correct.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) Statement 1 is right, but statement 2 is not. The Ministry of Women and Child Development runs the Mission Shakti umbrella (Sambal and Samarthya) for women's safety, security and empowerment; Swavalambini is not one of its programmes. This is the most tempting wrong option because the word 'women' in the question pulls a candidate towards WCD.  (b) Neither of these two ministries launched Swavalambini — and this option also drops the ministry that actually did. It is the option a candidate reaches by reasoning purely from the theme ('women' + 'enterprise') instead of from the programme's actual ownership.  (c) The Ministry of MSME supports enterprise creation through schemes such as PMEGP and the Udyam registration system, so 'entrepreneurship' feels like its territory. But Swavalambini is a skilling-ministry programme, run through MSDE's own institute NIESBUD in higher-education campuses, not an MSME scheme.

Concept: The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, created in 2014, is the nodal ministry for both halves of its name — skilling and entrepreneurship. Its delivery arms are the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development (NIESBUD) and the network of National Skill Training Institutes. When a Government of India programme trains people to start enterprises, MSDE is usually the owner even if another ministry or NITI Aayog is a partner; MSME's role is to support enterprises once they exist, and WCD's is women's welfare and empowerment.

State PCS 2025 Q46 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q46 — Current Affairs PYQ with Answer