PMEGP extended till 2025-26

31 May 2022 , 02:59 PM

Prime Minister Employment Generation Program (PMEGP) will now be continued till 2025-26. This scheme provides financing and help to young people in setting up micro-enterprises.

The biggest challenge that the government is facing is high unemployment in both the formal economy and the large informal economy.  The key strategy of the government to tackle unemployment is to promote self-employment. This strategy has two aspects. One is to provide financing to the youth so that they can set up their own businesses. Second is to provide training in useful skills to the youth so that they can run their own businesses.

The extension of PMEGP is an acknowledgment by the government of the continuing unemployment crisis in the country. With general elections less than two years away, one of the topmost priorities of the government will be to generate more employment.

According to data from Centre for Monitoring of Indian Economy (CMIE) unemployment rate of India increased to 7.83% in April from 7.60% in March. Unemployment rate is the percentage of labour force who are actively looking for job but have no job. It needs to be mentioned here that this unemployment rate given here mainly factors in the unemployment in the organized sector of the economy. India has a large informal, unorganized sector. Actual unemployment in the country may therefore be much more than this figure.