The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR/TIKIRI, FEB 7, 2023
Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL), a subsidiary of Hindalco Industries Limited of the Aditya Birla Group, has launched Project Udyamee in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) as part of its unrelenting efforts to provide self-employment opportunities to rural youths.
It has set up a Rural Business Incubation Center at Tikiri and is promoting young entrepreneurs in non-farm and agri-allied sectors both at Kashipur of Rayagada district and Thuamul Rampur of Kalahandi district in Odisha. The facility is offering local potential young people a complete solution for starting their own venture.
Project Udyamee offers services such as counselling, business planning, market facilitation, financial linkages, subsidy/scheme linkages, and market mapping.
By promoting the start-up ecosystem in the rural tribal hinterlands, this creative and special project is advancing the national agenda of “Atma Nirbhar Bharat. “Udyamee works in a multi-stakeholder manner to support the Odisha’s government ecosystem of MSME, SMEs, OLM, etc. while bringing the plan to realization on the ground for a sustainable outcome.
Over the course of a year and a half, the project was effective in developing 133 young local entrepreneurs who went on to start their own enterprises, employing 136 more people, and providing them with a means of living by providing indirect livelihood. The average monthly income earned by each entrepreneur is Rs. 10,120 while the cumulative income earned as on January 31, 2023 is Rs. 79.31 lakh.
To achieve these milestones, UAIL has extended Rs. 25.08 lakh as seed fund capital directly to the entrepreneurs while the entrepreneurs have invested Rs.65 lakh from their own contribution and the government has released Rs. 30.50 lakh under the PMEGP and Rs. 1.5 lakh under OLM.
Utkal Alumina Unit Head & President Mazhar Beig shared that the greater goal of UAIL is to develop the local economy in order to transform this tribal hinterland into a sustainable self-sufficient community. Project Udyamee would become the ideal option for young unemployed youth, migrant workers, and aspiring existing business owners of these two aspirational districts like Rayagada and Kalahandi to become self-sufficient, he said. “We at UAIL are committed to changing the economic landscape of this area with this project,” he added.
Bikash Chandra Bain, GM, RIC (Regional Industries Centre), Rayagada, lauded Utkal Alumina’s efforts in implementing Project Udyamee and putting such an innovative initiative into practice that is creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem in this tribal area. He urged other corporate houses to start similar innovative projects in their respective fields. “I’m confident that “Project Udyamee” will foster the development of first generation business owners as well as equip them to take on larger start-ups under MSME and PMEGP,” he added.
As a responsible corporate citizen, Utkal Aluminium International Ltd. is committed towards socio-economic wellbeing and transforming the lives in the tribal hinterland. UAIL is relentlessly working to improve the Human Development Index of our community through various CSR, CR & Sustainability initiatives in 232 villages of 25 gram panchayats of Odisha. UAIL is touching the lives of more than 2,01,000 people through its 5 pillars of interventions — education, healthcare, sustainable livelihood, rural infrastructure and addressing the issues of their socio-economic concern. UAIL’s unique multi-stakeholder-based initiatives are in line with the Sustainable Development Goal of United Nations 2030 agenda.
