PM Modi's Diwali gift for MSMEs: National rollout of portal to give loans in 59 minutes

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Support and Outreach Programme on Friday to enhance credit access to the sector.

Speaking at the launch of  Support and Outreach Initiative for MSMEs at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi, PM Modi announced the national roll out of online platform for MSME credit which will enable businesses to get loans upto Rs 1 crore within just 59 minutes. The Portal reduces the loan processing turnaround time from 20-25 days to 59 minutes. Subsequent to this in principle approval, the loan will be disbursed in 7-8 working days.

The MSME 'Support & Outreach Program' is being attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Minister of State for MSME Giriraj Singh. The outreach programme will run for 100 days covering 100 districts throughout the country.

Touching upon several matters of vital interest to the MSME sector, he said, 12 major decisions taken by the Central government are the proof that when after breaking silos, collective initiatives are taken, collective responsibilities are fulfilled,  and collective decisions are taken, it creates a comprehensive impact.

The MSME sector constitutes a vast network of over 63 million units and employs 111 million people, contributing around 30 percent to the GDP. It accounts for about 45 percent of manufacturing output and around 40 percent to total exports.

A major obstacle for growth of MSMEs is their inability to access timely and adequate finance as most of them are in niche segments where credit appraisal is a major challenge.