A renewed push to turn skilled youths into independent entrepreneurs has taken shape in Arunachal Pradesh, with Chief Minister Pema Khandu announcing a soft loan scheme tailored for recent ITI graduates. The initiative, unveiled on Friday, seeks to provide financial backing for technically trained youths aiming to set up businesses in their respective trades.
Khandu said in a social media post that the Chief Minister Soft Loan Scheme (CMSLS) would be implemented by the skill development and entrepreneurship department and made available to candidates who have passed out from Industrial Training Institutes in the last three years, beginning in 2022. He said the objective was to help trained graduates “establish their own entrepreneurial ventures and move confidently towards self-reliance.”
Under the scheme, beneficiaries will receive soft loans in two tranches, up to Rs 1 lakh in the first and up to Rs 2 lakh in the second, along with a toolkit incentive of Rs 15,000. A 25 per cent loan subsidy and a 7 per cent interest subsidy have been included to ease the repayment process.
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“When we invest in skills, entrepreneurship, and in our youth, we invest in the future of this land,” Khandu said, adding that the government’s ambition was to nurture job creators rather than job seekers. He described the scheme as a step towards the vision of an ‘Atmanirbhar Arunachal’.
Khandu stressed that the effort was not merely a disbursal of loans, but a wider push to help young people “take charge of their futures by converting their technical skills into viable and sustainable businesses”. The government, he said, was working to strengthen the state’s entrepreneurship ecosystem and enable youths to contribute meaningfully to the local economy.
Applications for the CMSLS can be downloaded from the state’s skill development portal, and completed forms, along with supporting documents, must be submitted to the principals of the respective ITIs by 31 December, he said.
Officials from the department said the scheme had been designed to encourage small-scale entrepreneurship in areas such as carpentry, welding, electrical works, tailoring, automobile repair and other trades where ITI graduates already possess hands-on training. They added that the CMSLS would complement existing programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and Start-up India Mission, creating a more robust skill development framework in Arunachal Pradesh.
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