15-07-2025
Workshop for MEPMA officials to identify SHG businesses held at Tadepalli
MEPMA (Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas) on Tuesday conducted a workshop on 'Livelihoods and Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme' (LEAP), a key initiative under MEPMA to achieve the goals set by the State government with regard to One Family-One Entrepreneur (OFOE) programme.
According to a press note from the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department (MA&UD), LEAP is aimed at strengthening urban business ecosystems by identifying, guiding, and scaling SHG-led enterprises. In alignment with the State government's OFOE programme, the LEAP project is being implemented in collaboration with the India SME Forum.
In this context, the workshop held at Tadepalli provided direction to MEPMA staff on how to enable entrepreneurship within families. MA&UD principal secretary S. Suresh Kumar and MEPMA mission director N. Tej Bharat were present on the occasion.
The workshop focused on capacity building for city mission managers, identifying SHG businesses, exploring market access strategies and digital formalisation techniques, and also training staff to become mentors and counsellors.
The officials also discussed subjects, including cluster development, promotion of women SHG clusters, and digital tools like dashboards, feedback systems, and performance tracking. MEPMA is aiming to nurture 30,000 entrepreneurs during 2025–26, and staff were briefed on the roadmap to achieve the goal.
According to a press note, an action plan is already under way for implementation of the project. Phase-1 audit has been completed in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Tirupati municipal corporations. Data of nearly 4,00,000 SHG members was analysed by India SME Forum and MEPMA staff. Phase-2 audit also has begun recently across 14 municipal corporations.
