New Delhi, Aug 17 (IANS): The various initiatives launched over the past 100 days are aimed at promoting growth, boosting entrepreneurship, creating employment opportunities, Union Minister for Micro Small and Medium Enterprises, Jitan Ram Majhi, said here on Tuesday.

The achievements are reflective of the government’s commitment to ensuring the sustainable growth of the MSME sector, fostering innovation, and enhancing job creation, the minister told reporters.

Majhi informed that the MSME sector has continued to play a pivotal role in driving economic growth, employment, and entrepreneurship across the nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently emphasised commitment towards promoting sustainability, innovation, and ease of doing business for MSMEs, aligning with the larger national vision of making India a global leader and highlighted the importance of MSMEs.

Over the last 100 days, the government has accelerated the implementation of development programmes and rolled out numerous initiatives to empower MSME and ensure their sustainable development in line with the nation's broader objectives.

Under PMEGP (Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme), approvals have been accorded (till June 9) during the past 100 days, whereby 26,426 new micro-enterprises have been established with loan disbursements of Rs 3,148 crore.

This initiative is expected to benefit approximately 2.11 lakh people in terms of generation of employment opportunities, the minister informed.

Formalisation drives, including mass awareness camps, were conducted across the country in collaboration with state governments and MSME associations to onboard MSMEs onto the Udyam Registration Platform and the Udyam Assist Platform (UAP).

In this accelerated drive, the total number of MSME registered on Udyam/UAP has crossed 5 crore. In comparison to a total of 1.06 crore MSME registrations in 2023, the number has now increased to 5.07 crore in 2024.

With the increase in MSME registrations, this is expected to benefit approximately 21 crore people in terms of the generation of employment opportunities.

“Under Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), employment has been provided to more than 55 lakh people in the last 10 years. Under this scheme, many new micro-enterprises have been established, and it aims to increase employment opportunities in rural and urban areas,” the minister informed.

The Ministry of MSME has accorded approval to 12 projects for infrastructure development, including the establishment of new Technology Centres and the re-development of industrial estates in the North-Eastern region, including Sikkim.

The projects aim to generate employment and boost economic growth by providing technology support and business services.

The CGTMSE Scheme (approved on September 9) will now include enhanced credit guarantees for women-owned MSME, with a guarantee coverage of 90 per cent, the minister informed.

The Ministry of MSME is in the process of establishing 14 new technology centres, with an investment of Rs 2,800 crore. These centres will be set up in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Nearly 1,00,000 MSMEs are set to benefit from technology access and 3,00,000 youth to be trained in the next 5 years.