As India advances towards a new era of entrepreneurship-led local economies, the call for collective action has never been stronger. SAM-UDYAM, is an inclusive entrepreneurship collaboratory that brings together people, ideas, and institutions to build inclusive micro-economies and co-create strategies for local economic resilience. At its core is a shared mission: enabling One Million Livelihoods by 2030!

To advance this mission, on 5th November 2025, we hosted a high-level outcome-oriented roundtable, bringing together senior leaders from government, philanthropy, finance, and the private sector. The dialogue, "Reimagining Local Economies: A Systems Approach to Inclusive Entrepreneurship", centered on the mission of enabling One Million Livelihoods by 2030 through women- and youth-led enterprises.

The roundtable featured participation from Shri T.K Anil Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Her Royal Highness the Infanta Cristina, Director of the International Area at the "la Caixa" Foundation, Marta Solsona, Head of the Work4Progress Programme, "la Caixa" Foundation, Saachi Bhalla, Deputy Director, Gates Foundation, Anjani Kumar Singh, Senior Program Officer, Gates Foundation, Shubham Mittal, DGM, Bajaj Finserv, alongside other distinguished ecosystem partners.

The broad aims of this roundtable were to inspire and guide action on ecosystem solutions, catalyse capital to where it is needed the most, and build key partnerships to scale sustainably.

The systemic approach being used by DA and its partners, rooted in social innovation and community ownership, has helped co-create thriving entrepreneurial ecosystems and 75,000 jobs to date. Given that job creation, along with social inclusion, is one of the most critical needs of our time, especially in the face of growing climate change, the next ambitious project is to enable thousands of micro-movements that, together, can create One Million Livelihoods by 2030. It was encouraging to see that the rich, action-oriented insights and perspectives shared all served to underline the commitment of those present to the same mission, which is also an urgent national priority.

Development Alternatives and partners - Givfunds, ImpactLens, Haqdarshak, NASVI, GramVaani - remain committed to advancing this mission. With Climate Asia’s support in convening the dialogue, the discussions reaffirmed that sustained collaboration is the key to building entrepreneurship-led local economies.