Govt, Nabard deliberate to boost 'Lakhpati Didi'

Bhubaneswar: In a significant move towards women's economic empowerment, Nabard and Mission Shakti held a high-level meeting chaired by deputy chief minister Pravati Parida to boost the ‘Lakhpati Didi' initiative in Odisha. The state aims to create 2.5 million women entrepreneurs by 2027 through various sustainable livelihood programmes.

Nabard's regional office allocated Rs 197.8 lakh for 2024-25 financial year supporting 59 micro-enterprise development programmes, 15 livelihood enterprise programmes, six mobile units, and three rural marts across the state.

The initiative includes innovative projects such as digital empowerment of women as bank facilitators, dairy collaborations with BIAF, and value chain creation with Heritage Dairy. Special attention will be paid to ‘One District One Product' initiative and establishing community kitchens under the combined branding of ‘Lakhpati Didi' and ‘Subhadra Shakti.'

Parida also emphasised developing food trucks operated by SHG women at tourist locations and creating robust supply chains to sustain these interventions.