Pariksha SaathiRural Development Ministry Signs MoU with National Academy of RUDSETI; RSETIs to Train 6.35 Lakh Rural Youth This Year
On 12 October 2026, the Rural Development Ministry and the National Academy of RUDSETI (NAR) formalised an agreement meant to bring uniform standards, better administration and stronger capacity building to Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) across the country. Rural Development Secretary Rohit Kansal was present when the MoU documents were exchanged. Under it, candidate registration will be routed through the Kaushal Panjee portal, with Aadhaar-based face authentication for attendance, and RSETIs will offer new courses aligned with the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), use industry-standard training equipment and run the core Entrepreneurship Development Programme courses notified by the ministry. Training of trainers, and the assessment and certification of both trainees and trainers, will be strengthened through the ministry's unified skilling portal. For the current year, RSETIs have been set a target of training 6.35 lakh rural youth — higher than last year's target — with a focus on women, SC/ST candidates, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. The ministry said the aim is to help rural youth start viable enterprises, with attention to settlement and credit linkage after training.
Drafted with AI assistance from the official PIB release linked above and checked against it by a second AI pass. Not line-edited by a human.
Learning context
RSETIs are a Ministry of Rural Development initiative run by banks, with the cooperation of the Central and State Governments, to give every district dedicated infrastructure for training rural youth in self-employment. Each RSETI is sponsored and managed by a bank, typically the lead bank of the district. The model is based on RUDSETI at Ujire in Karnataka, a society set up jointly by Syndicate Bank, Canara Bank and the Sri Manjunatheswara Trust. One RSETI is meant to be established in every district.
Check yourself: who runs an RSETI — the district administration or a bank?
A bank. RSETIs are sponsored and managed by banks (usually the district's lead bank), with support from the Central and State Governments; this is why credit linkage after training is part of the model.
Revision task: note this year's RSETI training target and the target groups mentioned, and link the 'credit linkage' goal to the fact that banks run these institutes.
Test yourself
Under the MoU between the Rural Development Ministry and the National Academy of RUDSETI, candidate registration for RSETIs will be routed through which portal?
Show the answer
Answer: Kaushal Panjee
Registration goes through the Kaushal Panjee portal, with Aadhaar-based face authentication for attendance; RSETIs have a target of training 6.35 lakh rural youth this year.
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