New Delhi March 26 (KNN) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) Bank on 8th April, 2015 at New Delhi in the presence of Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley.

The Union Finance Minister in his Budget Speech for 2015-16 had announced the formation of MUDRA Bank.
 
Jaitley during the budget had said "The government firmly believes that development has to generate inclusive growth. While large corporate and business entities have a role to play, this has to be complemented by informal sector enterprises which generate maximum employment."
 
There are some 5.77 crore small business units, mostly individual proprietorship, which run small manufacturing, trading or service businesses. 62% of these are owned by SC/ST/OBC. These bottom of the pyramid, hard-working entrepreneurs find it difficult, if not impossible, to access formal systems of credit he added.
 
Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of  INR 20,000 crores, and a credit guarantee corpus of INR 3,000 crore will refinance Micro-Finance Institutions through a Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and lending priority will be given to SC/ST enterprises.

Through this initiative the govt believes that these measures will greatly increase the confidence of young, educated or skilled workers who would now be able to aspire to become first generation entrepreneurs.
 
In order to decide the modalities of functioning of MUDRA Bank, a meeting of stake holders consultation was held yesterday in New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Dr. Hasmukh Adhia, Secretary, Department of Financial Services, in which all stakeholders, including cross section of micro finance institutions, NBFCs, Banks, NABARD, SIDBI and RBI representatives were present.  (KNN/VV)