NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government spent over Rs 52 crore on publicity of its flagship Business Blasters scheme wherein it was able to utilise only Rs 30 crore so far, which is 175 per cent of the scheme itself. According to an internal report on the expenditures under the Entrepreneurial Mindset Curriculum (EMC), which runs the Business Blaster programme, overall Rs 52.52 crore was spent on different publicity mediums, including TV, radio, print, and digital media.
A total of Rs 28.79 crore (Rs 28,79,20,000) was spent in just two months (November 2021 and January 2022) on telecasting eight episodes of the Business Blasters programme, which was televised on various TV channels, government sources said citing the report.
The TV show was created as part of EMC in the style of the popular show Shark Tank.It featured 24 teams comprised of students from classes IX-XII who presented their projects and pitched for funds from investors who came to the show along with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia.
Each team was provided with Rs 2,000 as seed money for their entrepreneurship projects and came to the show seeking further investments. “This precisely means that the government spent a whopping Rs 1.19 crore (Rs 1,19,96,666) on a single team for publicising it on electronic media,” a senior official said. Besides, Rs 23.73 crore (Rs 23,73,04,357.56) was spent by the Delhi Information Publicity on print, TV commercials, radio, outdoor, and digital channels, according to the report.
Schools returned Rs 26 cr of Rs 56 cr distributed as grant
Meanwhile, the internal report also stated that the city government allocated Rs 60 crore, of which only 50 per cent was realised in the scheme. “While the government was able to distribute Rs 56.14 crore, schools were unable to distribute Rs 26 crore due to a lack of takers. Only Rs 30 crore from the scheme was spent,” government officials said. The city government provided Rs 2,000 as a seed amount to students who wanted to start an entrepreneurship project under the scheme.
“The internal note explains nothing about the actual input and process applied for inculcating an entrepreneurial mindset under EMC. It mentions nothing about any expert engagement, entrepreneurship lab, or incubation centre being developed at the school level. There is no information about the sector or subject of student-generated entrepreneurial ideas, nor is there any real impact of the project.