(ANI): The government informed Parliament on Tuesday that ₹9.98 lakh crore of loans were sanctioned to 16.67 crore loan accounts under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana in three years from 2015 to 2018.
In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad said the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) helped in generation of 1.12 crore net additional employment during a period of approximately 3 years (from 2015 to 2018).
The minister said the employment generation figure is based on a sample survey conducted by the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
As per findings of this survey, the minister stated, on an overall basis, loans under Shishu category accounted for 66 per cent of additional employment generated by establishments owned by MUDRA beneficiaries followed by Kishore (19 per cent) and Tarun (15 per cent) categories.
Further, as on 1 July 2022, more than 7.66 crore loans amounting to ₹6.12 lakh crore have been extended to New Entrepreneurs/Accounts under PMMY, since inception of the Scheme. However, data on employment opportunities created under the PMMY Scheme is not centrally maintained, the minister said.
As per the extant guidelines, any individual who is otherwise eligible to take loan and has a business plan for non-farm income generating activities in sectors such as manufacturing, trading, services and activities allied to agriculture and whose credit need is up to ₹10 lakh is eligible to avail credit under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY).
The minister stated that loans under the scheme are extended across three categories, viz. Shishu (loans up to ₹50,000), Kishore (loans above ₹50,000 and up to ₹5 lakh) and Tarun (loans above ₹5 lakh and up to ₹10 lakh).
The minister stated that as informed by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), 1,107 Centres for Financial Literacy (CFL) have been set up across the country as on June 30. These financial literacy centres inter-alia conduct training programmes to promote entrepreneurial skill among the rural people of the country.
Further, to increase village-level entrepreneurs, banks through their Rural Self Employment Training Institutes (RSETIs) impart training with focus on skill upgradation and entrepreneurship development of rural youth, the minister said.
In order to create livelihood avenues, the minister stated that National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), through its Micro Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (MEDPs) and Livelihood & Enterprise Development Programmes (LEDPs), has been promoting skill development for SHG members in rural areas. NABARD's endeavour in skilling the SHG members through MEDPs/LEDPs is to enable SHG members to start micro enterprises in rural areas.