Solar Charkha Mission to be launched soon in 50 clusters: Giriraj Singh.

The Solar Charkha Mission of the Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), will be launched by the President, Ram Nath Kovind on June 27, 2018 in New Delhi. The Mission will cover 50 clusters and every cluster will employ 400 to 2000 artisans. The Mission has been approved by the Government of India and will disburse subsidy of Rs. 550 crore to the artisans. This was informed by the Minister of MSME at a press conference in New Delhi today while releasing a booklet on the 4 years’ achievement of his Ministry.

The Minister further informed that 15 new state-of-the-art technology centers are being set up all over the country including North-East, of which 10 centers will become operational by March 2019. Each center is being built at a cost of around Rs. 150 crore. The 10 centers which will become operational soon are located in Durg (Chhattisgarh), Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), Rohtak (Haryana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Sitarganj (Uttarakhand), Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Bhopal (M.P.), Kanpur (U.P.) and Puducherry.

The Minister further informed that under Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) budgetary allocation for FY 2018-19 has been increased by 75% to Rs. 1,800 crore. In order to incentivize entrepreneurs, mainly women and SC/ST, Government will be making an investment of about Rs. 10,000 crore in the micro sector in this financial year.

The Minister also informed that work being done by the Ministry has promoted Ease-of-Doing-Business with the setting up of 4 portals: ‘MSME Sambandh’, MSME Samadhaan, Udyog Aadhaar and Udyam Sakhi.

He also informed that the Ministry of MSME has provided training to over 15 lakh people during the last 4 years through its various initiatives. (Source: PIB)