Punjab’s ‘Business Blaster Young Entrepreneur’ scheme empowers 52,000 govt school students

In a significant boost to entrepreneurship among students, Punjab Education Department has selected 52,050 Class 12 students from 1,920 schools across the state for the “Business Blaster Young Entrepreneur” scheme. This initiative, launched in 2022, aims to nurture entrepreneurial skills and provide students with real-world experience.

Under this programme, each selected student receives a seed money of ₹2,000 to develop their business proposals. The best proposals are then taken up by industrial houses. Education Minister Harjot Bains stated that 7,500 teams of Class 12 students were shortlisted based on the selection criteria.

To support these young entrepreneurs, ₹10.40 crore is being credited into their accounts, with ₹9.38 crore already disbursed to 46,910 students. The remaining amount is being processed.

The programme, an experiential learning initiative, was initially launched as a pilot project in 2022-2023 with 11,041 students from 32 government senior secondary schools in 9 districts. In its first phase, 3,032 students received ₹60.64 lakh as seed money.

In the current academic session, the programme has expanded to 1,920 government senior secondary schools, with 1,38,676 students from Class 12 registered across all 23 districts. Out of these, 52,050 students have been shortlisted to receive the seed money.