Slums are humming with business ideas: Chidambaram

Slums are humming with business ideas: Chidambaram

Chennai (PTI): Oscar nominated "Slumdog Millionaire" has a fan in Home Minister P Chidambaram, who on Saturday said its theme should inspire banks to provide loans to budding entrepreneurs from slums which are humming with business ideas.

Chidamabaram cited the movie portraying the rags to riches story of a boy from Mumbai slum as an example to show that young boys and girls from slums are not lagging behind corporate India.

"Please watch the movie after its release," he said speaking at the launch of the International Financial Corporation-Venture an NGO-sponsored fund to promote grassroots entrepreneurship in India.

Recalling the success story of girl at a slum in Delhi who had set up a beauty saloon with a government loan, he said "today, most of the residents in that slum are her clients and she earns Rs 5000 a month"

"A slum like Dharavi in Mumbai is humming with business ideas and innovations and we have to reach to such people also," he said and exhorted government and private lending organisations to help such people.

Besides, formal education was "not necessarily" the yardstick to measure success but was "a great boon and help," he said, citing the case of such people.

"Lot of young men and women in slums have the necessary qualities of being innovative and are willing to take risk to carry out a business venture," he said.