Visakhapatnam: Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) Vizag District Entrepreneurship Mission (DEM) project director K Subhash Kiran stated that micro, small, and medium enterprises are crucial for strengthening the country’s economy and that the GAME is working with a goal of grooming 30 million entrepreneurs in the next five years.

Speaking at a media conference organised here on Thursday, he said that plans are afoot to encourage youth in rural and tribal areas to become entrepreneurs.

Subhash Kiran mentioned that they are bringing together entrepreneurs from all sectors and providing free assistance and support to them by facilitating training in industrial and business skills, marketing, technology and other areas.

The project director explained that the programme has already been launched in Nagaland and Nagpur and they are planning to expand their operations to 200 districts in the next five years.

Launched in September last year at the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub (RTIH) in Visakhapatnam, GAME is yielding excellent results in a short period, he said, adding six innovative projects have been launched in Visakhapatnam with an aim of developing youth, women and farmers in rural and tribal areas into entrepreneurs.He added that plans have been prepared to develop community tourism in the Paderu and Araku regions.

The GAME is working with the goal of transforming an entire village into a tourism village. GAME will be training the locals to operate five types of businesses, including homestays, a community kitchen and having a person from each household act as a guide to show tourists in the area.

Currently, five villages will implement the project, including Paderu and Vanjangi.

Subhash Kiran mentioned that they have launched a project with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).

Making efforts to export all the produce grown by the farmers such as coffee, turmeric, and millets, to foreign countries, the project director added.

He informed that 1.2 lakh farmers in the agency area cultivate coffee. He said that if this coffee receives the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) certification, it will fetch a higher price. The company is providing training to obtain the certification with the cooperation of the Coffee Board of India, he stated.

Also, the organisation is introducing portable cold chain solutions with PCL panels that do not require ice.

GAME co-founder Ravi Venkatesan, president Ketul Acharya and RTIH CEO Ravi Eswarapu participated in the meeting.