Skill, Labour, Talent for MSMEs: Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has made the highest quantity of jobs below the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) ever considering the fact that the latter’s launch in 2008, according to the government information. KVIC, the nodal agency for implementing PMEGP, disbursed Rs 2188.78 crore margin cash in FY21 to make a whopping 5,95,320 PMEGP jobs via 74,415 micro-enterprises set up across the nation amid the Covid pandemic. The quantity of jobs had improved from 5,80,896 in FY20 throughout which Rs 2,149 crore margin cash was disbursed to make 72,612 new enterprises. However, this had declined from 5,87,416 jobs made in FY19 even as the margin cash disbursed had improved from Rs 2,070 crore. The quantity of new enterprises or projects set up in FY19 was 73,427.
The creation of regional jobs would provide a livelihood to lakhs of men and women, in turn, bolstering the country’s economy, MSME Ministry stated in a statement citing MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday. The FY21 disbursement by KVIC was 103.2 per cent of the targeted Rs 2,120.81 crore disbursement though in setting up of new projects and employment generation, KVIC accomplished 106.2 per cent of the target, the statement added. The ministry stated that the two big choices by KVIC with regards to timely execution of applications helped overachieve the target. First, the timeframe for scrutinizing and forwarding the applications to the banks by its state directors lowered from 90 to 26 days. Second, month-to-month coordination meetings with the banks had been began at unique levels which has also helped timely disbursal of loans to the beneficiaries.
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Even as the employment generation below PMEGP hit a record higher in FY21, 88 per cent of micro beneficiaries below the programme had been ‘negatively affected’ due to the Covid pandemic, according to a current KVIC study. Among the impacted 88 per cent, 57 per cent stated that their units had been shut down temporarily throughout the Covid period, though 30 per cent reported a drop in production and income. Under PMEGP, about 2.37 lakh micro-enterprises had been supported with a margin cash subsidy of Rs 6,833.32 crore from FY18 till February 28, 2021.
The information shared by Gadkari about Covid’s influence on MSMEs in a written reply to a query in the Rajya Sabha final month also noted that the remaining 12 per cent of PMEGP beneficiaries benefitted throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Among these beneficiaries, 65 per cent stated that their small business improved as they had units in the retail and overall health sector though about 25 per cent stated that their units benefitted as they had been dealing with crucial commodities or services.