President to launch Solar Charkha Mission on June 27

President Ram Nath Kovind will launch Solar Charkha Mission on June 27, which will entail a subsidy of Rs 550 crore in the initial two years for 50 clusters, Union Minister Giriraj Singh said today.

The scheme also aims at linking five crore women across the country to the initiative, the minister said.

"We are going to launch a new scheme called the Solar Charkha Mission on 27 June. The objective is to link 5 crore women to this initiative. We will also link it to self help groups," Singh said while addressing a press conference here.

The mission is expected to create one lakh jobs during the first two years, MSME Secretary AK Panda told PTI.

"The Solar Charkha mission has been approved by the government ... As of now the government has approved Rs 550 crore of subsidy for around 50 clusters. Every cluster will have between 400 to 2,000 artisans," Panda said.

According to him, investment up to Rs 10,000 crore is expected only in the micro enterprises sector in the current fiscal through subsidy as well as the credit component in the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme.

Out of 1.14 lakh crore enterprises registered under GST, 7 lakh are large enterprises, whereas 1.07 crore MSMEs are registered, the secretary added.