Five lakh units to be set up under PM job plan: MSME Ministry

The Centre intends to set up around 5 lakh small industrial enterprises with an aim to create employment avenues for nearly 40 lakh people under the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17), a Minister said today.
These enterprises will be established under the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) for which a sum of Rs 8,050 crore has been earmarked, Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) K H Muniyappa said.
He was talking to reporters after inaugurating a state -level khadi exhibition here.
"PMEGP is the UPA Government's flagship scheme. Ever since its inception in 2008, over 2.34 lakh new entrepreneurs have been assisted under it and 21.16 lakh employment opportunities created across the country. Also, margin money (subsidy) to the tune of Rs 5,167 crore has been released."

The programme, a credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities as well as wage employment through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector, is implemented by the MSME Ministry.
"We have now targeted over 100 new enterprises per district every year under PMEG in all the 650 districts in the country," Muniyappa said.

The UPA Government has accorded top priority to the MSME sector. Consequently, the fund allocation to the Ministry has been enhanced to over Rs 24,000 crore in the 12th Plan from Rs 11,000 crore in the 11th Plan (2007-12), he added.
The Ministry is also implementing a comprehensive reform package for the khadi sector. This envisages upgradation and capacity building of 300 khadi institutions and improving their marketing skills, the Minister said.

"Under the package, steps are being taken to distribute 1 lakh modern charkhas to artisans and also new handlooms to various khadi sansthans," Muniyappa added.
He said "79 clusters have been sanctioned under the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFRUTI)."
So far in Gujarat, Rs 1.69 crore has been released and more than 814 artisans have benefited under STRUT, which seeks to make traditional industries more competitive and felicitate their sustainable development, he said.