1. Can Do Cater
A Catering Business by/for the women
S Janmajaya | 21-10-2016
SBI-Youth for India & AKRSP(I)
Aga Khan Rural Support Program (India)

2. Acknowledgements
I would like to thank SBI-Youth for India fellowship for giving me this golden
opportunity for learning and self-development. I consider myself very lucky and
honoured to have so many wonderful people lead me through in completion of this
project.
I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those women who believed
in themselves joined their hands together and provided the support to complete
this project.
I would like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of my
colleague Mr. Kanhaiya Pathak. He had invested his full effort in guiding and
directing this project. I have to appreciate the guidance given by my Block
manager and other colleagues present in the office as well.
I acknowledge and thank all people who supported me and were responsible for
getting this project on ground.

3. Abstract
"To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the
move, the family moves, the village moves, the nation moves". - Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru.
Women Empowerment has been a topic discussion across length and breadth of
the country for long. Governments after Governments have come up with various
schemes, but some have remained on paper and many implemented with limited or
with no visibility. The benefits have hardly reached the intended beneficiary – the
underprivileged women. Come to think of it. Is it only the Government who is
responsible for upliftment of such women folks? Aren’t we all, the citizens of India,
also not equally, if not more, responsible in coming forward and take up this
challenge and ensure our participation in uplifting lives of such needy women?
“Can Do Cater”, is committed to make the difference in the lives of women
especially the underprivileged lot in the society by making them independent and
self-sufficient.
Each year we celebrate International Women’s day on 8th March with a
determination to commemorate the achievements of women, and to acknowledge
the special status they deserve in society. Though women have progressed in a
number of spheres, yet looking from a wider perspective, the situation still remains
grim. According to the Census report of 2011, Females forms 49 % of the total
population of India, However the women literacy rate is 64.6 % against 80.90 % of
men, the labor force participation of 29 % against 80.7 % of Men. Above data
reflects that there is still lot more to be done.
Can Do Cater, led by a team of rural women who is committed to uplift the lives of
their livelihood through financially making them strong, who have undergone /
undergoing through various struggles in their life. We are committed to bring in
equality for women by creating and providing them with various livelihood
opportunities and bringing them into the mainstream as "Mini Entrepreneurs”. Can
Do Cater will continuously endeavor to fulfil the dreams of other women’s who want
to grow in their life and to become powerful.

4. Table of Contents
4 Executive Summary
Introduction
Background
Mission
5 Objective
Location
Targeted Audience
Literature Review
6 Process & methodology
8 Limitation
9 NGO & Location Introduction
10 Project Plan
12 Cost of Project
Company Ownership
Services
Market Analysis Summary
13 Service Business Analysis
Marketing Strategy
14 Sale Figure
Sales Forecast
Personnel Plan
Outcomes
15 Learnings
16 Challenges
List of Abbreviations
17 References
18 Certificate

5. Executive Summary
In the starting days it was a challenge to meet the daily needs. The location is
surrounded with number of offices like NGOs’, Banks, Micro finance institutions,
Hospital, Police Station & Railway Station and surprisingly most of the people working
in these institutions are migrated from nearby places, towns, cities & state and facing
the same issue which I was facing during my starting days i.e. healthy & quality food.
While talking to the localities it was understood that nearly 60%-70% people are
having breakfast, lunch and dinner outside or hired a cook for cooking and rest stay
with their family. Despite there being some hotels which provide food, still is not
hygienic enough. Hence, when the public/private institutions in the area conduct any
sort of programs or visits, it has become a norm to hire an outside food vendor for the
food supply as the hotels in the localities not meeting the minimum expectation.
The demand for healthy & hygienic food is high in both the cases so in order to cater
to the demand, I came up with an idea to start a food catering system which will
provide varieties of healthy & hygienic food. And this planned “Catering” System will
be operated by local SHG+ Women. “Can Do Cater” (CDC) is a catering
company owned by 7 rural ladies that serves Dardha and nearby market of
Muzaffarpur district. “Can Do Cater” offers local Bihari cuisines and authentic Bihar
food as well as the traditional standbys. The service offerings are quite a change
relative to the existing catering market which is quite stagnant. CDC targeted
customer base is rural villages. Most people make the incorrect assumption that only
male can own & run a catering or hotel business, this assumption prevails throughout
the rural community, which is right because doing a business involves lots of physical
& mental pressures and male presumes females are suited but unable to handle
these pressures. So to prove these assumptions wrong Can Do Cater came into
existence which is established, owned and run by rural women within their community.
By doing this project, we provide ownership to women who are willing to grow and
have a passion to be an entrepreneur and provide an alternate source of income &
employment to other women as per their interest of work in catering service. During
the survey it is also observed that in rural places people used to celebrate their each
and every happiness with their friends and family. CDC caters to these low income
people as per their requirements under affordable price which will be acceptable.
Socio Economic study seek to discover the social and economic viability of the
project. Can Do Cater will inject new life into the rural community mainly into women.
There is a great market opportunity for Can Do Cater in the local market which will
allow CDC to reach profitability within 24 months of operation and generate a
sustainable amount year after year.
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6. Introduction
Background, main Issues, due to dependence on rains, farmers are not able to
realize benefits in line with their investment. Lack of irrigation facilities is a major
problem. Another issue plaguing the region is dearth of employment opportunities.
Apart from agriculture and manual/wage labor, there is hardly any other major
economic activity. Although NGO has active SHGs in over 92villages with a total
SHG+ members count to 6687, the women have not gone on to think beyond saving
and credit cycle. Encouraging them to think about undertaking income generation
activities will give a boost to region economically and will also go a long way in
empowering the women. The strong network of women in SHGs and their federation
can be leveraged to undertake alternate livelihood opportunities in the region.
The people are quite aware with respect to education and are sending their kids to
school. It’s another matter that dropout rates continue to be high, with youth going
back to agriculture or remaining unemployed. Further, the level and quality of
education in village schools continues to be a matter of concern. You can see a
positive changes with sanitation in few villages but there is still a long way to go.
The behavioral aspect is something to be worked on though. Health and
menstruation continue to be topics which most of the rural population lacks
awareness in. Although ASHA and Anganwadi wokers’ efforts are to be appreciated,
there is scope for intervention on a much larger scale. Myths, taboos and
superstitions continue to plague rural areas, thus adversely impacting their health.
Nature of Issue, as previously stated, people are primarily dependent on
agriculture as a source of income. But due to factors like high input cost, decreased
landholding size and dependence on monsoons, farmers are not getting profits in
line with their investments. More than 65% of the country depends on agriculture,
and yet due to multiple reasons like those mentioned above, income from land is
becoming unsustainable for small and marginal farmers. Thus, it has become need
to generate employment in rural setting, not only as this would directly benefit
majority of Indian population residing in rural area, but also benefit indirectly by
curbing of rural to urban migration.
Mission, CDC (Can Do Cater) mission is to provide the customer with the finest
catering. We exist to attract and maintain customers. When we adhere to this
maxim, everything else will fall into place. Our services will exceed the expectations
of our customer’s satisfaction.
Objectives, the main objective of this project is “To increase the marginalizing
power in women and girls so that they can play a significant role in the society” and
“To make them financially strong”
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7. Location, Dhardha Muzaffarpur district.
Targeted Audience, the beneficiaries of this activity are Rekha Devi, Sabana
Khathun, Ashima Khathun, Anokha Devi, Pramila Devi, Kayali Devi who own & run
the catering business under name Can Do Cater. All financial benefit will accrue by
the Can Do Cater team . Currently, the revenue from sale is deposited in their Can
Doo Cater bank account in UBGB, Sakra.
Literature Review, to achieve the above goal, CanDoCater (CDC) a catering
service has been established, which will be owned and ran by rural women. Initially,
a quantitative survey of the selected villages was conducted to assess the
requirements and the problems that these women were facing due to shortage of
work and low income through personal interviews, group discussion on their current
involvement in monthly earnings. The study has been taken at the instance of
covering the in and around blocks & panchayats of the project location. The
purpose of the survey was:
 To find characteristics of the occupational group
 Identification of needs of individual families or group
 Status of residential and financial condition
 Assessment of available opportunities and skills
 Need of caterer for providing a healthy catering service
The survey revealed poor living condition of the community, particularly in terms of
poor education, poor health and most importantly low employment with low
financial condition. It is evident from the survey that communities are in a state of
precarious economy stagnation and suffering a lot due to wide spread poverty,
illiteracy etc. The excessive pressure of population on land and unavailability of
handful land did not guarantee a gainful income to the targeted groups who
suffered both ways having no alternative sources of income earn their livelihood.
After the initial assessment, research was conducted to design an appropriate
livelihood enterprise model which would address the work and finance problems,
while bearing in mind the local culture and various other factors.
Process & Methodology,
For successfully setting up CanDoCater
Identify SHG+ group for women entrepreneurs:-
 Meetings were conducted with SHG+ group members to present the business
idea of a catering system, process, ownership and the advantages to the
joining group/members.
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8.  It was ensured that the primary person to be given responsibility in CDC team
had received at least some level of formal education, self-motivated, smart and
good to have interpersonal skills, so as to ignite the thought process of the
person and further enable her to motive other women’s to take up such livelihood
activities.
 Women’s associated should have passion of cooking and should be quick
learner. Basic calculation, reading and writing skills will be enough.
Cooking Training:-
 Skill development training sessions were arranged for the selected group of
women entrepreneurs from hotel management institute. These training sessions
were conducted to make CDC team aware the basics of hygiene and cleanliness
and most importantly cooking quality, delicious food and traditional food of Bihar.
Place for set-up the business:-
 This aspect covered checking land availability with the team members first but the
availability of land with the team is like none. So we conducted market research
for the well suited place for our business which will be easily accessible and with
a great visibility to customers and should generate a good number of orders.
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9. Business Set-up:-
 After some hectic months of land hunting
finally CDC team got all dots in place and
the remaining job which is yet to complete
is just to join these dots and give a
profitable picture. We constructed a
kaccha building which we call it as our
office where orders will be taken and
delivered and. We stock our owned
inventories, such as utensils.
After incubation of Can Do Cater
 To create a service-based catering company whose primary goal is to exceed
customer's expectations.
 To increase the number of client's served by 20% per year through superior
service.
 To develop a sustainable start-up business.
 To develop enough cash flow to grow the business.
Limitations
 The women have long way to go before they become completely independent in
running the business. They will still need hand holding support from the NGO.
 Marketing activities continues to be a major issue. Although the sales have been
decent considering the limited amount of marketing effort, CDC team and their
family members will have to increase their efforts to ensure regular and
sustained sales over time.
 If some marketing linkage could be identified which would ensure sale of at least
certain number of bricks, that would give a huge confidence boost to the CDC
team. Although we tried liaising with a couple of clients, but still yet to get the
green signal from them.
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10. NGO & Location Introduction
Having extensively working in Gujarat for close to 20 years, in mid-2008 AKRSP,
India in collaboration with Aga Khan Foundation, started development oriented
interventions in Bihar with an innovative MIAD (Multi Input Area Development)
approach. MIAD address various themes including health, eater & sanitation, skill
development, education, agriculture, saving & credit and alternative energy. The
main objective of these interventions has been to meet the basic needs of the most
marginalized and vulnerable communities by providing various thematic inputs
leading to self-reliance.
In Bihar AKRSP (India) is active in 2 districts viz. Muzaffarpur and Samastipur.
Herein, the purpose of its intervention is to address issues of chronic poverty and
marginalization among disadvantaged communities and civil society in order to
create effective models of inclusive human development.
Bihar ranks lowest in the country in Human Development Index (HDI) and has the
largest percentage of poor people. It ranks lowest in terms of literacy rates. However
due to lack of employment opportunities, migration to the urban areas is a key source
of livelihood.
About SAKRA, Sakra is a development block, with 28 Panchayats and 121 villages
under it. The income is largely agricultural dependent and animal rearing is a
secondary source of livelihood.
Population and Literacy Rates, Sakra block have a total household of 63523 and total
population of 306833. Males constitute 52.5% of the population and females 47.4%.
Sakra block has 52254 children in the age bracket of 0-6 years. Among them 27294
are boys and 24960 are girls. Sakra block has an average literacy rate of 57%. In
males the literacy rate is 64% whereas female literacy ratio is 50%. The negative part
is that illiteracy rate of sakra block is 42%. Here 129237 out of total 306833
individuals are illiterate. Where male illiteracy is 35% and in female’s illiteracy level is
49%.
Agriculture and area, in Sakra block 14927 individuals are fully dependent on
cultivation. Rice, Wheat, Tobacco and seasonal vegetables are the main crops
grown in the area.
Due to insignificant landholdings, monsoon dependence, high investment required in
form of fertilizers etc., the profit from agriculture is declining. This past year itself, due
to lack of rainfall, most farmers suffered huge losses.
Community and language, Sakra block is situated in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar and
villages around it are inhabited by diversified communities like SC, ST, OBC, Dalit,
Muslim & Rajputs. The regional language is Bhojpuri, apart from people speaks
Maithili too. Here people also speaks & understand Hindi.
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11. Project Plan
October, November & December 2015,
 Training, arrival and settling in the project location, familiarization with local
community and conditions.
 Interview with stakeholders-SHG+ Women’s
 Regular field visits with staff to get a sense of programs being implemented by
AKRSP(I) in the location.
 Discuss, analyzed and finalized the catering business activity as a livelihood
activities with SHG+ women’s to increase their income, with my local mentor.
January-2016,
 Conducted a training program of entrepreneurship development in association
with microfinance department AKRSPI, where I discussed about the catering
business proposal and the outcomes of the said business.
 Conducted meeting with the local people/community & SHG+ women to
understand their mindset on catering business through open table discussion and
side by side I was also doing head hunting of eligible women entrepreneurs for
running the catering business.
 Conducted survey to identify a village/tola/area/place to setup the catering
business and talked with the respective land owners for renting the plot for a
period of 1 year.
 Visited & talked with lots of line hotel owners and catering business owner to
understand the demand and supply.
February & March 2016,
 Prepared full plan of catering business like project implementing area, cost
involved (construction cost, cooking set, interiors etc.) and Team.
 Met my local and domain mentor of (AKRSPI) and discussed on catering
business Plan)
 Surveyed, talked and finalized the vendors who for providing the raw materials for
building hotel.
 Conduct market research (MR) for perspective customers. (As this block has
many NGO’s and banks and most people are migrated from nearby cities, most
of them eat outside or hire a cook. This MR will help us to identify the target
group and conduct direct marketing for tiffin system, mainly for breakfast & lunch)
 Finalized the group of 6 women with whom catering business project is going to
piloted.
 Finalized the place to build the catering business contact point.
 Checked on the resource required & available at the project location to determine
cost components.
 Got the final list of women interested to take up this livelihood activity and after
that we (microfinance team) selected 6 women to take this project forward.
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12. April-2016
 Due to some issues with the land owner regarding monthly rent CDC team had
to lose the proposed land and started the land hunt again.
 Printing of pamphlets for advertising activities
 Discussed and finalized the menu to be served and price to be charged.
 Conduct training program for the team to enhance their skills on cooking
varieties of items by keeping local taste in mind.
 Follow up on the ongoing work.
May-2016
 Opened the bank account.
 Advertise about the hotel, food & team.
 Worked on onboarding perspective customers who want to avail tiffin system
during lunch.
 Follow up on the ongoing work.
 As the project was going slow as per the plan, so I conducted a casual lunch
meeting with CDC team to keep up their motivation.
 Conducted an exposure visit and meeting for CDC team with various hotel and
catering business owners to understand the business and challenges.
June-2016
 Got a place to set-up our catering business and finished all paper work related to
it. Land was rented for 11 months starting from July, 2016-May, 2017.
 Met with the dean of IHM Hajipur, discussed about my project and planned a 9
days skill development program for CDC team on hygiene and cleanliness.
 CDC team completed the above 9 days training and I saw a change in them
after the training.
 Worked on the linkage of the hotel with other NGO’s/Offices to provide bulk
orders. (When NGO’s/Offices conduct any training/meeting they provide lunch to
their community members)
July-2016
 Start construction work and procure other hotel related materials gradually and
try to finish hotel set up work and to get first order and to deliver the high quality
hygiene & tasty food at the end of the day. Construction was got over on 18th
July-2016.
 Start training the team on managing the hotel business like taking & delivering
orders, managing financials and understanding customer needs.
 Conducting marketing activities for getting orders and at last on 24 July-2016
CDC got its 1st order worth of Rs.600/-
 Gathered feedback from client and worked on overcoming those issues
August-2016
 Worked on the linkage to onboard more customers and to increase the profits
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13.  Stabilize the complete business model starting from procuring the raw material
till delivering the final product, clients availing hotel facilities, financials & future
expansions)
 Monitor sales and gather feedback report from vendor.
 Follow up on the ongoing work.
 Work on the linkage to onboard more customers and to increase the daily order.
September-2016
 Conducted training programs on:-
 Health & Hygiene and cleanliness through you tube videos
 Financial literacy training like account maintaining, profit sharing.
 Soft-skills training like marketing activities, customer management
 Training and knowledge transfer on bank related activities
October-2016
 Updating sales register
 Meeting with CDC team to encourage them to keep the good team work for
success and profit.
 Total number of orders successfully delivered-16 nos. worth of 13650/-. Total
bank balance as of date, Rs470/-
 Documentation and Handover of the project.
 Share out of 1st 3 months of profit.
Items Quantity Cost Items Quantity Cost
Wooden
Board 1 Pc 500
Patila with
Top:- 20 kg 1 Pc 2200
Gas Stove 2 Pc 2200
Patila with
Top:- 10 KG 1Pc 1100
Fry Pan 1 Pc 500 Karchul 5 Pc 500
Chouni 5 Pc 500 Serving Tray 3 Pc 600
Cooker (10 LT) 2 Pc 5000 Bucket 4 Pc 400
Kadai (15 KG) 1 Pc 1500 Handi 2 Pc 450
Total :- 15450/-
Total Expense
Kitchen Utensils 15450 Hotel Banner 500
Construction 10000 Bill Book 1000
Leaflets 1000 Training 12500
Total :- 40450/-
Cost of the Project
“Can Do Cater” will incur the following start-up costs
Total Start-up Expense
Kitchen Utensils & Cookery Items
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14. Company Ownership
“Can Do Cater” is a sole proprietorship owned by “7 Rural Women:- Rekha Devi,
Sabana Khathun, Ashima Khathun, Anokha Devi, Pramila Devi, Kayali Devi, Seema
Devi.
Services
The catering services is targeted for office parties, weddings, small get-together and
other assorted parties.
Our concentrated services will be the following:-
 Catering Service
 On Call Food Delivery System (Future Expansion plan)
 Dabba Walla System (Future Expansion plan)
Market Analysis Summary
The catering market is an interesting one. There are several caters that offer
services that are quite similar to each other in terms of price and menu options. For
whatever reasons, there has been little demand by consumers to get caters to
innovate their menu. This is not too say that consumers would not welcome Can Do
cater and its menu items. This market consists of two target segments that are,
Lower/Middle, this group of people does not have huge amounts of disposable
income, recognizes that it is costly to sponsor a food cater for party, and is willing to
incur the expenses.
Upper/Office Clients, as this is a rural location and most NGO’s are working for the
betterment of the rural people, for this they conduct various types’ community
meetings and trainings where these NGO’s provide lunch & snacks to the attending
participants.
Service Business Analysis
The Can Do Cater business is fairly unique as it is owned, established and run by
rural women. At the Mid to High price point of the cost spectrum, there are many
caters. These caterers tend to serve the part of the market. But very less are there
who serve the low end but still most of the targeted places are still untouched. So
we are the caterer that will serves the lower end of the market as well as the high
end of the market.
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15. 275
2275
1925
720
July August September October
300
2750
3675
1730
July August September October
1
7
5
3
July August September October
575
5025
5600
2450
July August September October
Sales Figures
It was a tough start for CDC, some of the
reasons behind, catering service run by
women’s and lower income group where
catering service is not in their to do list
explained in (Market Analysis Summary).
CDC started operation on July-2016 during
end of the month and team decided that CDC
will complete maximum 10 orders and
minimum 0 in a month. In July CDC start with
a small house hold party worth of Rs.600/-. It
was a good for a start but it is not nice.
August was a healthy and hectic month, as
CDC stared its operation and still CDC is
sitting ideal. Marketing activities like word of
mouth and order hunt was going in full phase.
During 1st week end of August CDC got its 2nd
order from “Ram Naresh Paswan & Friends”
and after that CDC got 3 more order from the
same reference. It was a good month but
CDC ended with only 7 orders. In September
CDC saw a decline in orders i.e. 5 but got
huge experience working on client location for
big orders. October was festive season,
celebration time we ended up with 3. Got
some future contacts, hope CDC team will
get the right move to go ahead.
Marketing Strategy
Can Do Cater marketing strategy will be based on developing visibility among
rural community. This will be accomplished through two ways. The first method is
a targeted advertising campaign. For this leaflets are designed and will be
distributed in various neighboring tola. The other marketing strategy which is less
formal is word of mouth among the rural population who had experienced our
service. And third will be using own contacts and networks to get the
order/contract. While the networking might not cast as large of a net as
advertisements will, but it costs far less and the relationships that it builds will be
far stronger because of the trust relationship that has already been established.
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16. Sales Forecast
Word will have gotten out from the advertising as well as networking that Can Do
Cater is the new caterer and offers a very high-quality service. The first 2 month
will be used to set up the operation and a few catering jobs, but still will not be a
significant source of income. Months three and four will see a steady increase in
sales. Throughout the year it is forecasted that sales will incrementally grow in size
until profitability is reached toward the end of year one.
Personnel Plan
Besides creating women entrepreneurs CDC is also planned to provide part time
opportunities. CDC will hire these part time professional as and when required as
per the order received.
Outcomes
The impact of the project can be viewed primarily through the gender lens. Women
are an important target group in the community and the project demonstrates the
potential to be replicated as a gender driven initiative. As it is a mind set in rural
place that men are made for doing business/work but women’s are not. This
projects aim is to change the above mindset i.e. women are not capable of doing a
catering business, to help the women and their peers in developing confidence
and start working on the same. It will also empower women by increasing their
income and having a decisive say in the way their incomes are utilized. These
women entrepreneurs can become role models in their community, thus
stimulating women aspirations and social transformation.
Learnings
It is an eye opening experience to be working with women when they belong to
remote location experience gender inequality every day women have to do this
they are not supposed to do that, bla bla.it is easy to make assumptions regarding
their problems and needs, hence it is important to spend time and understand their
real need, before jumping to solutions.
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17. While working with communities at the grass root level there are difficulties one
encounters in motivating people to work towards improving their own lifestyle, be it
financially strong, education or good health.
Behavior and mindset change is an important aspect Can do Cater a catering
system was being set up within the community which is bound by the limitations of
gender inequalities. The idea of a catering system owned and run by women
community is quite new to the community and it was pretty difficult during the
starting phase to convince the community to come forward and take this
opportunity. But during the course women who are associated with “Can do Cater”
and the community have shown increased self-confidence and the ability to
analyze and approach an issue. They are now able to understand and appreciate
team work.
Challenges
 One of the key challenges that loom large over the project is the lack of
frequent orders and generating adequate funds.
 The other important challenge is the difficulty in establishing the nature of the
group. It could not be established whether the group will run as an SHG+ group
or as a separate CDC group.
 The group lacks conventional organizational structure.
Can Do Cater Team – The 6 Women Entrepreneurs
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18. Team is busy in counting
Smiling face after a drop of success
References
muzaffarpur.bih.nic.in
wikivillage.in
http://msme.gov.in/mob/SchemeNew.aspx
www.akdn.org/india
http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census
List of Abbreviations
AKRSP(I) - Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India)
SHG+ – Self Help Group +
CDC – Can Do Cater
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19. Certificate
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