Chandigarh, 3 October : Punjab Government’s Business Blasters program tasted success from government school students. Disclosing this here on Thursday, School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains said that Punjab Government led by Bhagwant Singh Maan launched the Business Blasters program through Department of School Education, Punjab under the Young Entrepreneurs Programme Scheme, in November 2022.
Initially, the program was launched in the state with 11,041 students of 11th grade from 32 government senior secondary schools of 9 districts, which is an experiential learning program with the aim of developing entrepreneurial mindsets among Secondary level students through providing them real-world entrepreneurship experiences, supported by a seed grant of INR 2000 to each selected student.
Mr. Bains said the program is aiming to prepare Punjab’s young students as job creators and troubleshooters towards realising the dream of Making Punjab a state of Entrepreneurs.
Over 1.38 lakh government school students registered for Business Blaster Program: Harjot Singh Bains
More than 52K students shortlisted for their business idea, to be given Rs.10.41 crore as seed money
Mann Government introduced BBP in all 1920 government senior secondary schools of the state
7,813 teachers are supporting students in their endeavours
Education minister said thet after following a selection criterion, performance of the teams were analysed and 52,050 students (now in 12th grade) from the around 7,5000 students, working on different business ideas, were shortlisted for the disbursement of seed money.
Harjot Singh Bains said that Punjab government has released the seed money of INR 10.41,00,000 to ensure that deserving students get all necessary support in experimenting and initiating their entrepreneurial journey.
As of 1st of October 2024, seed money of INR 9,38,20,000 has been credited in bank accounts of 46,910 students and the process is still going on, remaining amount will be credited in the student accounts in next couple of bank working days.
He further said that our Government has decided to implement the program at a wider scale to benefit the maximum number of students, during the academic year 2023-2024. The program has introduced in all 1920 government senior secondary schools with over 7,813 teachers and 1,83,192 students of 11th grade across all 23 districts in the state.
The program became an instant hit among students, motivating 1,38,676 students to get themselves registered for the program.