New Delhi, Sept 19 (KNN) The Small Industries Development Bank of India has signed multiple MoUs with the aim to help MSMEs embrace energy efficiency in their operations and also contribute to India’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030 targets.

It has signed an agreement with the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH for operating a Risk Sharing Facility (RSF) that provides credit guarantees to loans from commercial banks or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs).

The loan offering is towards enhancing activities of “waste management companies, low-carbon waste management solutions, biomethanation, recycling, composting, and refused derived fuel for use in cement kilns,” said SIDBI in a statement. 

The initial budget of the RSF would be around Rs 33.50 crore, which will be from the NAMA facility, reports financial express.

Another agreement signed is with the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) to identify scalable green and clean technologies by MSMEs. TIFAC will assess technologies and projects while SIDBI will support MSMEs through financing under its various credit schemes to implement the identified technologies.

SIDBI is also collaborating with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) to promote promoting clean and green initiatives among MSMEs and facilitating their implementation through SIDBI’s financing schemes.

Under this partnership, CII will organise webinars and workshops on different clean and green initiatives related to renewable energy (especially rooftop solar), energy efficiency/ management, net zero, green buildings, resource efficiency, circular economy, etc. 

SIDBI already runs initiatives such as the Srijan scheme to provide concessional loans up to Rs 2 crore per project for MSMEs at 3-5 per cent per annum interest rate for innovative technology projects that have either reached the pre-commercialization stage or have tested the market and are ready for scale-up.  (KNN Bureau)