India has a rich history of rural entrepreneurship in traditional industries such as coir, khadi, bamboo, cane, and more. Government bodies such as the MSME Ministry have been running various schemes to support and grow these industries.
These schemes range from providing collateral-free credit and access to incubation centres to better equipment and employment opportunities for entrepreneurs in various corners of India.
Most recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden Budget presented in Parliament on July 5, 2019 focussed on reviving traditional industries such as bamboo, khadi and honey, through a cluster-based approach.
“A hundred new clusters for traditional industries will be created in 2019-20, and this will allow 50,000 artisans to join the economic value chain,” she said.
This will be done under the Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), which aims to organise such industries and artisans into clusters to make them competitive and provide support for their long-term sustainability, sustained employment, and enhanced marketability of products.
Besides SFURTI, the government’s focus lies on schemes such as Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE), Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE), and more.
Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI)
It is as a cluster-based scheme for development of khadi, village industries, and coir clusters by providing them with improved equipment, common facilities centres, business development services, training, capacity building and design, and marketing support, etc.
The scheme invites applicants from non-government organisations (NGOs), institutions of the Central and State governments and semi-government institutions, field functionaries of State and Central government, Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs), private sector bodies by forming cluster-specific special purpose vehicles/entities (SPVs), corporates, and corporate scial responsibillity (CSR) foundations with expertise to undertake cluster development
MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari recently commented about the scheme, saying, “SFURTI Scheme has been revamped in 2015. A total of 34,791 artisans have benefitted with an assistance of Rs 143.15 crore during 2018-19.”
source: your story
Link:https://yourstory.com/smbstory/msme-rural-entrepreneurship-government-schemes
