Union minister of state for MSME Giriraj Singh on Sunday asked corporates and public sector undertakings to contribute more towards providing skill training and promoting entrepreneurship and livelihood in the Northeastern region. Inaugurating a corporate social responsibility centre called CSR Hub at the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) in Guwahati, Singh said coporates should come to the Northeast in a big way and contribute towards economic development of the region by extending hand-holding services to local entrepreneurs. “This CSR Hub has the potential of bringing about a revolution by way of involving corporate and PSUs in imparting skill training, entrepreneurship building, supporting livelihood clusters, providing solar solutions, creating model villages and promoting rural entrepreneurs,” minister Singh said. Pointing out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has laid special emphasis on skill development in the Northeastern region, Singh also asked corporates to take full advantage of the CSR Hub. IIE director Manoj Das said the Institute was already working with Oil India Ltd under the latter’s CSR project in promoting entrepreneurship and imparting specialized skills to local youth. A number of livelihood cluster projects are also in the offing in collaboration with Oil India Ltd, he said. IIE has also tied up with India Infrastructure Finance Corporation and ational ST inance Development Corporation to take up a major handloom development project spread across the region, he said.
