‘A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry, and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE)’ implemented by Ministry of MSME is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities in rural areas. Its core objective is to create an enabling ecosystem for job creation through skill development, incubation, and support to micro-enterprises. As on date, 109 LBIs have been approved across the country. Under the Scheme, a total of 1,16,726 beneficiaries have been trained, out of which 18,444 have become self-employed, 13,824 have secured wage employment, and 1,141 micro-enterprises have been established. The ministry started collecting category (SC/ST/OBC/General) wise data & Gender wise data from 2022 onwards. Since 2022, out of the total 56,721 beneficiaries trained, 27,970 are women, 8,365 belong to the SC category, and 9,311 to the ST category.

The Government, inter-alia, has taken the following initiatives to promote women and SC-ST entrepreneurs:

i. To improve outreach among Entrepreneurs in the country including SC/ST and women, programmes are conducted by the field offices of Ministry of MSME, in coordination with MSME/ Industry Departments of States/UTs concerned and other stakeholders like CGTMSE, SIDBI, Banks, MSME Associations, etc.

ii. Ministry of MSME implements National Schedule Casteand Schedule Tribe Hub Scheme aiming at capacity enhancement of SC/ST entrepreneurs. Further, Vendor Development Programmes (VDPs) for SC/ST and Women are organised under PMSS. Central Public Sector Undertakings also organise such VDPs.

iii. Ministry of MSME launched the ‘Yashasvini Campaign’ on 27.06.2024 to empower women entrepreneurs across India through various schemes on formalization, access to credit, capacity building and mentorship through awareness generation about these schemes.

iv. A new scheme to provide term loans up to Rs.2 crore to Women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes first-time entrepreneurs has been announced in the Union Budget 2025 for promotion and development of MSMEs.

v. Ministry of MSME implements Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) which is a credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and rural/urban unemployed youth. Out of the total PMEGP beneficiaries, 39% are women and they are provided higher subsidy (35%) vis-a-vis general category of micro enterprises (upto 25%).

vi. Ministry of MSME implements MSME Champions scheme with a holistic approach to unify, synergize, and converge various schemes with common purpose. The end objective is to pick up enterprises and modernize their processes, reduce wastages, sharpen business competitiveness, and facilitate their national and global reach and excellence.  The scheme has three components which include MSME-Sustainable (ZED) Certification Scheme, MSME-Competitive (Lean) Scheme and MSME-Innovative (Incubation, Design & IPR) Scheme.

vii. Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises has established 65 Export Facilitation Centers (EFCs) across the country with the aim of providing requisite mentoring and handholding support to MSMEs in exporting their products and services. Export Facilitation Centres (EFCs) provide support to MSME exporters through comprehensive assistance across key areas. These include dissemination of information on exportrelated schemes and benefits, training and workshops on export compliance, handholding in export documentation and procedures, engagement with industry associations, State Governments, and DGFT to facilitate MSMEs.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (Sushri Shobha Karandlaje) in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

*****

 

AKS

(Release ID: 2204536) Visitor Counter : 473