Morung Express News
Dimapur | May 5
Small entrepreneurial ventures would become the biggest employers in the country, said BB Swain, Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).
Swain made the statement while addressing an outreach programme organized by the Ministry of MSME in association with NSIC Venture Capital Fund Limited (NVCFL) under its Self Reliant India (SRI) Fund at the Agri Expo, Chümoukedima on May 4.
The programme, stylised as BizAmp, stands for Amplifying businesses of North East region through SRI Fund. It aims to empower MSMEs from the NE region and amplifying their businesses by utilizing the benefits available under the SRI Fund.
Swain said that the MSME Ministry’s major objective will be to enable the MSME sector becoming the largest job providers in about a decade. According to him, entrepreneurs are the “bravest people, who take risks,” who create and give jobs for the country instead of looking for jobs.
Commenting on the strides made via the initiative, he said that it has made good progress for a venture that stared less than two years ago.
While stating that a lot of financing is going to the business enterprises in the bigger states, he said that the MSME Ministry’s target is to enable more MSME entrepreneurs from the NE region to benefit from the SRI Fund.
He said that there was a significant credit-equity gap in the MSME sector and that the SRI fund was created to bridge the gap.
According to him, the efforts made in the MSME sector would bring about “new avenues of growth” while promoting startups and existing enterprises.
The daylong event saw several entrepreneurs signing up for the event, which was divided into interactive sessions among the participants and a panel discussion.
The Government of India launched the SRI Fund with an outlay corpus of Rs 10,006 crore, concentrated towards financing an infusion of capital to MSMEs through “daughter funds.” The SRI fund which is being managed by NVCFL is an Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) providing growth capital to MSMEs through equity/quasi-equity/equity-like structured instruments. As on March 31, 2023, the fund has made a capital commitment of Rs. 5, 120 crore to 42 empanelled “daughter funds,” according to Saravana Kumar, CEO of NSIC Venture Capital Fund Ltd.
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