Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the country’s principal financial institution for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Meghalaya Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation Ltd. [MiDFC], Government of Meghalaya to develop the MSME ecosystem in the State. The MoU was exchanged by Dr. Vijay Kumar D, IAS, Commissioner & Secretary, Finance Department, Government of Meghalaya and Chief Executive Officer [CEO], MiDFC and Sh. V. Satya Venkata Rao, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI.
Under the MoU, SIDBI and Government of Meghalaya shall work closely to facilitate development of MSME ecosystem in the State. MoU’s few broad objectives includes the following:
- Entrepreneurship Development in the State
- Development of MSME clusters
- Capacity building of NGOs/ development organisations/ MSMEs
- Support and showcase replicable livelihood projects aligned to the priority identified by State.
- Expanding the digital offerings for MSMEs in the state
- Mapping State specific livelihood opportunities through expert consultants
- Extension of Promotion and Developmental initiatives of SIDBI in the State.
- Building capacity of MSMEs using online platforms PSB 59, Mitra portals, GeMS, TReDS etc.
- Initiating business information and Counselling Centres for micro enterprises
- Capacity building of the State Agencies working for development of the MSMEs in the State; etc.
On this occasion, Sh. V. Satya Venkata Rao, DMD, SIDBI said that SIDBI is actively undertaking number of developmental activities for the benefit of the artisans and MSMEs of State for enterprises promotion, livelihood and skill development. Sh. Rao indicated that SIDBI is supporting setting up a Swavalamban Alternate Livelihood Unit for The EAST (SALUTE) at Ramakrishna Mission Ashram [RKMS], Sohra [Meghalaya] to run vocational courses on weaving, tailoring, fashion designing, knitting, embroidery, product development etc. to provide alternate livelihood opportunities to the drop out students, women and tribals from the North-Eastern States. The priority target segments shall be school dropouts, skilled but unemployed, unemployed needing skills, migrants during covid, unserved/underserved segments etc.
Sh. Rao also requested the State Government to use the low-cost finance available for development of the MSME infrastructure in State under SIDBI Cluster Development Fund [SCDF]. On this occasion, Dr. Vijay Kumar, Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya and CEO, MiDFC said that this MoU shall help in the State in supporting the efforts of the State for development of MSME Ecosystem.
