New Delhi, Dec 15 (KNN) A meeting of the Committee, the highest policy making body for the National SC/ST Hub, the benchmark project of the Modi Government for capacity building of SC/ST entrepreneurs, was held here on Wednesday.

Besides Union MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra, who chaired the meeting, the two Minsters of State, Giriraj Singh and Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhury and senior officers of Government of India also participated in the meeting.

At the meeting, Government informed that special subsidy schemes for SC/ST entrepreneurs under marketing assistance, registration for Government supplies and credit rating schemes have been approved.

Besides the routine agenda, the issues of minimising the cost of funds and handholding for the Government procurements of the SC/ST entrepreneurs were discussed in details.

Manoj Mittal, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, mentioned that more than 2000 SC/ST entrepreneurs have been provided soft loans ranging between 10 lakhs to 1 crore and SIDBI has sensitised all its Branches to upscale the programme.

From the Dalit Chamber of Commerce, it was stressed in the meeting that the cost of loans, even under the ‘Stand Up’ India scheme, announced by the Prime Minster last year, is formidable for the SC/ST entrepreneurs.

They mentioned that a mix of subsidy, equity and subvention is required to be offered, to make the SC/ST enterprises viable, which found support from the Ministers present also.

In the meeting, concern was also expressed about inability of the SC/ST entrepreneurs to graduate to Government suppliers, even after Government handholding. Opinions were expressed on involving cluster based Associations in handholding of SC/ST entrepreneurs to overcome the labyrinth of Government supply procedures.

The meeting also decided to request participation of State Governments in the activities of the SC/ST Hub and ‘Top Up’ the Central Government assistance to the SC/ST entrepreneurs.

At the meeting, proposal for a venture fund scheme for SC/ST entrepreneurs was also discussed and widely accepted.

Another important issue discussed at the meeting was liberalising of the CLCSS scheme of the Government to make the SC/ST entrepreneurs eligible for subsidy of 15% for any manufacturing project linked loan. (KNN/ DB)