3-Oct-2018: SIDBI launches a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign, Udyam Abhilasha

On the occasion of Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi i.e. October 02, 2018, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), had launched a National Level Entrepreneurship Awareness Campaign, Udyam Abhilasha in 115 Aspirational Districts identified by NITI Aayog in 28 States and reaching to around 15,000 youth. SIDBI will join to contribute to “the transformation mission” unleashed for these districts.  The campaign would be running parallelly from 3rd October to 8th October, 2018 across India. The campaign would create and strengthen cadre of more than 800 trainers to provide entrepreneurship training to the aspiring youths across these districts thus encouraging them to enter the admired segment of entrepreneurs.

SIDBI has partnered with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle, (CSC SPV) set up by the Ministry of Electronics & IT, Govt. of India for implementing the campaign through their CSCs. The  objectives of the missionary campaign includes :- (i) to inspire rural youth in aspirational districts to be entrepreneurs by assisting them to set up their own enterprise, (ii) to impart trainings through digital medium across the country, (iii) to create business opportunities for CSC VLEs, (iv) to focus on women aspirants in these aspirational districts to encourage women entrepreneurship and (v) to assist participants to become bankable and avail credit facility from banks to set up their own enterprise.

SIDBI is also taking-up with stakeholders including Banks, NABARD, NBFCs, SFBs, District Industries Centres, State Govt. etc. to be a part of this campaign and ensure multifold impact. Further, CSC Village Level entrepreneurs (VLEs) would play role of catalyst for these aspiring entrepreneurs. Apart from training, VLEs would also provide handholding support to the aspirants to establish new units by assisting them in availing loans for their enterprise and making them aware about various initiatives of Government of India like Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, SUI etc. and educate the youths in these districts on business literacy.

Speaking about the campaign, Shri Mohammad Mustafa, IAS, CMD, SIDBI said “As the task of transforming ‘Aspirational Districts’ is challenging, SIDBI has taken a bold step by entering into these aspirational districts and working on ground level activities in these areas, to create livelihood and promote sustainable development. This is part of our programmatic approach to induce entrepreneurship as dream choice by turning job seekers as job creators. We are connecting different dots through policy advocacy initiatives of MSE Pulse & CriSidEx, entrepreneurship series & campaigns, revamping digital aggregator portal, free access to project profiles and so on. Idea is to remove information asymmetry and make the youths in these ‘resource challenged’ districts to be ‘access rich’.”

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), is the Principal Financial Institution for the Promotion, Financing, Development and Coordination of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector. SIDBI meets the financial and developmental needs of the MSME sector with a Credit+ approach to make it strong, vibrant and globally competitive. SIDBI, under its revamped strategy SIDBI 2.0, has adopted the theme of ease of access to MSEs and being Impact Multiplier & Digital Aggregator. Efforts have been initiated to strengthen the eco system both in setting up and stepping up stages of business cycle. To take the agenda forward, SIDBI has had series of initiatives.

25-May-2018: SIDBI to extend direct funding facility to village level entrepreneurs in common service centres(CSCs).

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the special purpose vehicle that operates common service centres (CSE SPV) for providing financial support to CSCs across the country.

Common Services Centers (CSC) scheme is one of the mission mode projects under the Digital India Programme. CSCs are the access points for delivery of services to citizens. Through the MoU, SIDBI seeks to extend financial support to the village level entrepreneurs (VLEs) of common services centers, with a minimum one year of operation, under the direct financing window of SIDBI.

CSC SPV will approve the list of VLEs, within 25km distance of SIDBI branch offices, who require financial support. To avail the loan, the VLEs need to submit their CSC project, with maximum project outlay of Rs3.50 lakh and term loan requirement not exceeding Rs 2 lakh per project.

Through the MoU, both CSC SPV and SIDBI seek to work together to bring more citizens under the ambit of financial inclusion. It also seeks to enhance the financial viability of CSCs by including additional services in their bouquet of products.