New Delhi, Feb 28 (KNN) Finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government would start a refinance agency by the name of Mudra Bank with an initial corpus of Rs 20,000 crore to finance the SMEs particularly SC/ST. The Mudra Bank will also have an additional credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crores.
 
He said the agency will refinance institutions through a Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and lending will be done prioritising the SC/ST enterprises.
 
Currently there are 5.77 crore small business out of which 62 per cent are owned by Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes. These units that are mostly individual proprietorships, running small manufacturing units and are hard pressed for finance
 
The act will imbibe confidence among young & educated and encourage them to become first generation entrepreneurs. The govt. aims at banking the unbanked and funding the unfunded," he said.
 
It is a step forward to generate inclusive growth for the finance starved informal sector and will boost their growth. He also allocated Rs 1000 cr for support of Start-ups.(KNN/VV)