Under the Sahakar Mitra scheme professional graduates in disciplines such as agriculture and allied areas, IT and others will be eligible for internship.

In order to promote entrepreneurship among youth of the country by providing them paid internship and assured loan projects on liberalized terms, the National Cooperative Development Corporation has come out of ‘Sahakar Mitra’ scheme.

Launching it on Thursday, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Narendra Singh said the scheme will provide the young professionals an opportunity to develop leadership and entrepreneurial roles through cooperatives as Farmers Producers Organizations (FPO).

“Sahakar Mitra scheme is expected to assist cooperative institutions access new and innovative ideas of young professionals while the interns gain experience of working in the field giving confidence to be self-reliant. It is expected to be a win-win situation both for cooperatives as well as for the young professionals,” the Union Minister said.

He added professional graduates in disciplines such as agriculture and allied areas, IT and others will be eligible for internship.

Professionals who are pursuing or have completed their MBA degrees in agri-business, cooperation, finance, international trade, forestry, rural development, project management will also be eligible.

NCDC has earmarked funds for Sahakar Mitra paid internship program under which each intern will get financial support over a 4 months internship period. Online application portal for internship application available on NCDC website was also launched by the Union Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister.