SIDBI to focus on 115 aspirational districts, promote micro enterprises

An employee works inside an undergarment factory in Kolkata, India, February 1, 2017. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri - RC148ADCFDE0

Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) has charted a plan to promote micro enterprises in 115 aspirational districts across the country to contribute in their development.

The bank has tied up with Common Service Centre (CSC) to meet this objective, Sidbi Chairman and Managing Director Mohammad Mustafa told PTI.

"SIDBI has decided to focus on 115 aspirational districts to run micro enterprises promotion programme (MEPP), which will be run with the help of CSC," he said.

The 'Transformation of Aspirational Districts' programme which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 5 this year, aims to bring about socio-developmental changes in these backward districts which have been chosen from all states of the country.

District magistrates of these areas have been made ‘prabhari' officers, who will implement the parameters under the programme. They will be assisted in this task by additional secretaries of central ministries in the national capital.

The objective of the MEPP is to promote potential rural entrepreneurs by hand-holding them and also facilitate financial tie-up with the formal banking sector.

Since its launch, the programme has promoted about 41,500 enterprises and has generated employment opportunities for about 1.07 lakh persons mainly belonging to underprivileged section of the society.

Last month, Sidbi signed a memorandum of understanding with CSC e-governance Services (CSCeGS) to take Udyami Mitra portal to the unserved and the underserved MSMEs.

The 'udyamimitra.in' portal helps improve accessibility of credit for the MSMEs. It allows entrepreneurs to apply for a loan without physically visiting bank branches.

CSCeGS is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up by ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY) which acts as connect point for various digitally aligned services to villages in the country.