Solution:

Evaluation of EDPs:

• Developing entrepreneurship has become a movement in India in recent years. EDPs have been considered an effective instrument for developing entrepreneurship in the countryside.

• Hundreds of EDPs are conducted by some 686 organizations to impart entrepreneurial training to participants in thousands. As mentioned earlier, the main objective of EDPs is held to be enterprises creator.

• Hence, it seems necessary to see whether the objective of EDPs is fulfilled or not. In simple words, there is a need to have a retrospective look into how many participants have started their enterprises after completing the training. This calls for the evaluation of EDPs.

• So far some 16 evaluation studies have been conducted by various organizations and individual researchers. No doubt, these studies vary in their objectives, coverage, and content. But, one common thread in all of them is the assessment of the effectiveness or impact of EDPs, howsoever, loosely, defined.

• One of the earliest attempts in this direction were made by a team of researchers and experts appointed by the Gujarat Corporations to evaluate the effectiveness of EDPs.

• The most recent and nationwide evaluation study on EDPs is carried out by the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, Ahmedabad.

• Here, we are presenting a bird’s eye view of the findings of this study.

Problems faced by EDPs:

• EDPs suffer on many counts. The problems and lacunae are on the part of all those who are involved in the process, be it the trainers and the trainees, the ED organizations, the supporting organizations, and the state governments.

• The important problems EDPs face are listed as follows :

1. Trainer motivations are, not found up to the mark in motivating the trainees to start their enterprises.

2. ED organizations lack commitment and sincerity in conducting the EDPs. In some cases, EDPs are used as a means to generate a surplus (income) for the ED organizations.

3. Non-conducive environment and constraints make the trainer motivators’ role ineffective.

4. The antithetic attitude of the supporting agencies like banks and financial institutions serve as a stumbling block to the success of EDPs.

5. Selection of wrong trainees, also leads to the low success rate of EDPs. Thus, it is clear that the problems are not with the strategy but with its implementation.

• One way of evaluating the EDPs is to assess their effectiveness in developing the ‘need for achievement’ among the entrepreneurs. This is also called ‘the qualitative evaluation’ of EDPs.