Rural Development and Self Employment Training Institute (RUDSETI), a unique initiative in mitigating the problems of the unemployed, was taken up in Ujire, a small village near Dharmastala. This venture was taken up by Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwar Educational (SDME) Trust and two nationalized banks namely Syndicate Bank and Canara Bank under the visionary leadership of Padmabhushan Dr. D. Veerendra Heggade, Dharmadhikari of Dharmastala. The collective thinking of the trust, the banks, and the people had led to giving a shape and an institutional framework to the initiative taken up in the form of RUDSETI in 1982, which was registered under Karnataka Societies Registration Act 1960. Due to the success of the Ujire experiment, RUDSETI has now been encouraged to establish 578 units in India out of which 31 units are in Karnataka (National Directory of RSETIs, 2015).

Keyword: Rural development and self-employment training institute (RUDSETI).