New Delhi, Jul 23 (IANS): The government on Friday said that around 60,000 candidates benefited under the Pradhan Mantri YUVA (PM YUVA) Yojana, a pilot scheme for creating an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurship development.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan said, "The pilot scheme is being implemented in 10 States and two Union Territories including the State of Uttarakhand. So far, around 60,000 candidates benefited from this scheme including 3,836 candidates from the State of Uttarakhand."

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) is implementing the PM YUVA Yojana for creating an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurship development through entrepreneurship education, training, advocacy and easy access to the entrepreneurship network in skill training institutes.

"Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, an autonomous organization under this Ministry is also providing training, research and consultancy activities in Small and Micro Enterprises (SME), with special focus on entrepreneurship development. So far, around 2.5 lakh persons have been trained through more than 6700 programmes conducted by IIE," the minister said.