Pillar: Opportunity Infrastructure
A Rural Self-Employment Training Institute (RSETI) is a residential training centre that teaches short-term enterprise skills to unemployed rural youth, with the explicit goal of making them self-employed. The establishment of a new RSETI is based on a feasibility assessment, and a single RSETI may serve more than one district — particularly where districts are newly carved out or have a smaller population. Each RSETI is sponsored by a lead bank (assigned by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)); common lead banks include State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda, and Canara Bank. RSETIs are a joint initiative of the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the banking system. Courses are free, with food, lodging, and materials provided, running from one to six weeks. After training, RSETI helps graduates get bank loans to start their businesses. Under the RSETI 2.0 reforms, the annual trainee target per institute has been raised from 750 to 1,000–1,200 candidates, with the aim of training around 6–6.5 lakh rural youth nationally each year.
If you live in a rural area and want to start a small business but have no formal training or capital, RSETI provides free residential training and then helps you get a bank loan to start. The training covers everything from tailoring and food processing to mobile phone repair and dairy management.
- Conduct Entrepreneurship Awareness Programmes (EAPs) in villages to identify and mobilise trainees; each sponsor-bank official is expected to conduct around 5 EAPs per month - Use aptitude assessment, personal interview, and counselling to match candidates to the right trade, improving settlement outcomes - Identify candidates: under RSETI 2.0, courses redesigned to accommodate illiterate/semi-literate Self-Help Group (SHG) members; default eligibility 18-45; upper age limit extended to 50 only for National Skills Qualifications Committee (NSQC)-approved traditional-skill programmes routed through National Academy of RUDSETI (NAR). Priority to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families, Scheduled Caste (SC) / Scheduled Tribe (ST) / minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and SHG members - Provide free residential training with food, lodging, and materials; maintain an average programme duration of not less than 15 days across the year (total training days ÷ number of programmes) - Offer a wide portfolio of programmes: food processing, tailoring, beauty parlour, mobile phone repair, electrical repair, dairy/poultry management, beekeeping, computer basics, and others - Build credit linkage into training: every trainee prepares a project report and business plan during the course; loan applications are filled during training with branch managers invited; quarterly credit camps are held for RSETI trainees - Include compulsory sessions on branding and packaging in every training programme, and support trainees in marketing their products - Maintain official social-media accounts for awareness, outreach, and success stories, integrated with offline mobilisation - Track every trainee for at least 2 years and measure settlement rate - Provide post-training handholding: loan…
Portal: kaushal.rural.gov.in -- the Ministry of Rural Development's unified IT platform for Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) and RSETI. Institute-wise staffing and infrastructure data is available at kaushal.rural.gov.in//rpt-rseti-profile-view Also: Ask at the lead bank branch in the district headquarters or at the District Magistrate's office -- RSETI performance is reviewed in district-level meetings
For what this looks like in a particular district, start from the district courses or the English reference guide (Hindi).