Cabinet Approves $808 Mn For Raising And Accelerating MSME Performance

The union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a USD 808 million or Rs 6,062.45 crore, World Bank assisted programme on “Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance” (RAMP). 

RAMP is a World Bank assisted central sector scheme, supporting various coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) resilience and recovery interventions of the ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. According to the official press statement, the scheme would commence in FY 2022-23.

The total outlay for the scheme is  Rs 6,062.45 crore or USD 808 million, out of which Rs 3,750 crore or USD 500 million would be a loan from the World Bank and the remaining Rs 2,312.45 crore or USD 308 million would be funded by the central government. 

The statement added that the RAMP programme will address the generic and Covid-19 related challenges in the MSME sector by way of impact enhancement of existing MSME schemes, especially, on the competitiveness front. 

PM Modi took to Twitter and wrote, "The MSME sector is crucial for India’s economic progress. Our government is taking many steps to add new energy to the sector and support local enterprises. Today’s cabinet decision is a step in this direction."

Further, the programme will bolster the inadequately addressed blocks of capacity building, handholding, skill development, quality enrichment, technological upgradation, digitization, outreach and marketing promotion, amongst other things.

The programme with impacts across the country will directly or indirectly benefit all 63 million enterprises that qualify as MSMEs.

However, a total of 5,55,000 MSMEs are specifically targeted for enhanced performance and, in addition, expansion of the target market to include service sectors and an increase of about 70,500 women MSMEs is envisaged, the statement added.