The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), the country’s principal financial institution for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Meghalaya Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (MiDFC) to develop the MSME ecosystem in the state.
The MoU was exchanged by Vijay Kumar D, Commissioner and Secretary of the Finance Department and CEO of MiDFC, and V Satya Venkata Rao, deputy managing director of SIDBI.
Under the MoU, SIDBI and Meghalaya shall work closely to facilitate development of the MSME ecosystem in Meghalaya. The MoU’s few broad objectives includes entrepreneurship development, development of MSME clusters, capacity building of NGOs/development organisations/MSMEs, support and showcase replicable livelihood projects aligned to the priorities identified by the 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, building capacity of MSMEs using online platforms, initiating business information and counselling centres for micro enterprises, capacity building of the state agencies working for development of the MSMEs.
Rao stated that SIDBI is supporting the set-up of a Swavalamban Alternate Livelihood Unit for The EAST (SALUTE) at Ramakrishna Mission Ashram in Sohra to run vocational courses on weaving, tailoring, fashion designing, knitting, embroidery, product development, etc. to provide alternate livelihood opportunities to dropout, women and tribals from the North East. The priority target segments shall be school dropouts, skilled but unemployed, unemployed needing skills, migrants during Covid and unserved/underserved segments.
Rao also requested the state government to use the low-cost finance available for development of the MSME infrastructure in Meghalaya under SIDBI Cluster Development Fund (SCDF).
