MSME Minister Highlighted the Work Done Towards Promoting Women Entrepreneurs

Government has provided financial assistance to women entrepreneurs in setting up 14,768 projects in 2016-17 under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) aimed at   generating employment in rural and urban areas of the country.

A total of over Rs. 389.49 crore subsidy was disbursed for these projects. Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Mr. Giriraj Singh informed this to Rajya Sabha in a written reply today. The maximum number of 1,484 projects were from Assam, followed by 1,387 in Uttar Pradesh, 1,248 in Tamil Nadu, 942 in Odisha, and 915 in Bihar, besides other States/UTs with varying number of projects.

Under the PMEGP scheme women entrepreneurs are provided 25% and 35% subsidies for the project set up in urban and rural areas respectively. The maximum cost of the project under PMEGP scheme is Rs. 25 lakhs for manufacturing sector units and Rs.10 lakhs for units under service sector.

For women beneficiaries, their own contribution is only 5% of the project cost. Besides PMEGP, Coir Board under the MSME Ministry is implementing the Skill Upgradation & Mahila Coir Yojana for attracting rural women artisans to set up coir industrial units.