CHENNAI: Finance Minister O Panneerselvam on Monday announced that the State government would soon implement a new scheme, New Entrepreneur-cum-Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS) from 2012-13, to assist educated youth to become first generation entrepreneurs.The Minister said the scheme would impart training in entrepreneurship to the educated youth, assist them in preparing their business plans and help in tying up with financial institutions to set up new business ventures, besides linking them with major industrial clients. He said youth would be assisted to avail of term loans from banks/Tamil Nadu Industrial Investment Corporation (TIIC) with capital subsidy at 25 per cent of the project cost not exceeding `25 lakh and soft loans with three per cent interest subvention.Around 1,000 entrepreneurs would be trained each year under this scheme, half of whom would be women. The Entrepreneur Development Institute and TIIC would play a crucial role in this process. A sum of `100 crore has been provided as capital subsidy and other assistance for this scheme.Despite the rapid economic development there is a huge demand for skilled labour, and widespread unemployment and under-employment among the educated youth of the State, he observed. The reason for this probably was that many educated youth with good technical qualifications, are found wanting in soft skills and vocational skills, which makes them unemployable in the private sector.“An analysis of the skill-need gap of Tamil Nadu for the next 15 years indicates that about two crore persons are to be skilled afresh or re-skilled,” Panneerselvam said and added that the government would ensure that this arduous task would receive focus in the coming financial year under the umbrella of Tamil Nadu Skill Development Mission (TNSDM).“As employment exchanges attract a large number of youths, job seekers and employers, the Government would establish 37 district level Private Sector Placement Assistance Cells in all 32 districts at a cost of `1.93 crore,” he said.The minister also said that TN has nearly seven lakh registered Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) units, the highest in India, which employ nearly 50 lakh people. This would be revamped in all the District Industries Centres in 32 districts with better infrastructure at a cost of `50 crore, so that these Centres could serve as the hub to promote MSME units.
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