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Micro and Small Enterprises-Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) to develop business clusters across the country
This programme will provide a common facility centre which will act as a channel to address common issues such as technology development, skills, quality, among others
The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) has emerged as a highly vibrant sector of the Indian economy, as per the survey
In an effort to fuel India’s small businesses, the Centre has unveiled Micro and Small Enterprises-Cluster Development Programme (MSE-CDP) to develop business clusters across the country, the Economic Survey 2024-25 said.
This programme will provide a common facility centre which will act as a channel to address common issues such as technology development, skills, quality, among others, for MSEs, the survey said.
It further highlighted that the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) has emerged as a highly vibrant sector of the Indian economy.
Betting on the potential of MSMEs, the government also introduced the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund in 2020, with a corpus of INR 50,000 Cr, to provide equity funding for MSMEs to scale their business operations.
To note, the SRI Fund has the provision of INR 10,000 Cr from the Centre while the remaining INR 40,000 Cr came in via private equity and venture capital funds.
In the past year alone, SRI Fund participated in backing VC funds of early and growth stage investors such as Cactus Venture Partners in early February and Pavestone VC in mid-November.
This development also comes at a time when the ministry for MSME partnered with Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) to launch MSME Trade Enablement And Marketing (TEAM) with an allocation of INR 277.35 Cr, earlier this month.
It is pertinent to note that finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her previous budget presentation, announced plans to establish ecommerce export hubs in a public-private partnership (PPP) model to empower MSMEs and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets.
Among the various other initiatives that the last union budget revealed to bolster the growth of MSMEs, the credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs was a ray of hope for much-needed financial support.