Hon’ble Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman met with MSME entrepreneurs in the marble and granite industries at a Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) event in Udaipur.
While speaking with the entrepreneurs, she reaffirmed the government’s commitment to expanding the reach of banking services to benefit MSMEs. She noted that the newly announced Union Budget has a number of critical proposals for the MSME sector, including the development of SIDBI’s branch network. As part of the budget announcements and to get feedback from the field, the Finance Minister stated her intention to visit many MSME clusters, with the illustrious land of Maharana Pratap in Udaipur being the first in the series.
Earlier in the day, the Finance Minister visited the SIDBI branch office in Udaipur, where he met with some of SIDBI’s existing clients to discuss various elements of loan demands and delivery and handed out sanction letters to MSME units.
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Speaking at the event, Shri Jitan Ram Manjhi, Union Minister of Micro, Small, and Medium companies, stated that the government was committed to extending the benefits of its initiatives to the last mile, with an emphasis on micro-companies. He emphasised the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Micro and Small Enterprises’ remarkable success in recent years, as well as the significant increase in its corpus achieved through budgetary allocation. He also suggested that banks devote more resources to promoting microenterprises and create job opportunities for the disadvantaged.
Shri M Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, Government of India, stated that improving lending to MSMEs is one of his department’s priority action points, and that banks’ performance is being rigorously reviewed in this regard.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was also signed in the presence of the Hon’ble Finance Minister between SIDBI and the Udaipur Marble Association, outlining a comprehensive plan to strengthen the Association’s capacities through both physical and soft interventions. SIDBI will also help Association members with their marketing activities by organising buyer-seller meetups to boost market access.
During the visit, the Honourable Finance Minister also visited the SIDBI branch in Udaipur, where he spoke with some of the bank’s existing clients and received direct feedback. She and the MEME Minister also handed over sanction letters to several of SIDBI’s MSME borrowers. While presenting the vote of appreciation, Shri Manoj Mittal, CMD of SIDBI, told the audience that SIDBI is committed to the promotion, development, and financing of MSMEs and will work hard to ensure that the Hon’ble Finance Minister and Hon’ble MSME Minister’s confidence is met. He also discussed SIDBI’s plans for branch growth, as announced by the Honourable Finance Minister in the Union Budget.
