The micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) Development Institute, Kanpur, is ‘hand-holding’ 250 candidates to enable them to become entrepreneurs rather than job-seekers. ‘Hand-holding’ is a process under which trainees are offered all the institutional help by the Development Institute to facilitate their own ventures.
“Under the Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojna of the central MSME ministry, eligible candidates are given a two-week vocational training under different disciplines such as leather, chemical, electronics and textiles,” institute assistant director H P Jaiswal told Business Standard.
However, the purpose of this scheme is not just to impart training, but also to assist the trainees in setting up their own units. “We offer all the support including arranging finance, statutory registration under different government and regulatory agencies, input of technology and preparing bankable project report to be presented to lending banks,” Jaiswal said.
As mandated by the Centre, all nationalised banks under the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) will provide credit on attractive terms based on the project report.
There are three MSME Development Institutes (DI) at Kanpur, Allahabad and Agra in Uttar Pradesh. The eligibility criteria for candidates to join the institute is 18 years with the minimum education qualification being class X.
Meanwhile, the Kanpur DI recently held a programme for readymade garment manufacturers to enable them to market their products online through a B2B (business-to-business) textile portal – fibre2fashion. “About 10 prominent garment manufacturers based in Kanpur have evinced interest in joining the network,” Jaiswal said.
A similar project is also on for around 50 leather manufacturers of Kanpur under the aegis of Uttar Pradesh Leather Association, he added.