What: Solar Charkha Mission
When: June 27, 2018
Why: Linking five crore women and self help groups
- President Shri Ram Nath Kovind will launch Solar Charkha Mission on June 27, 2018.
- Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises’s this Mission will entail a subsidy of 550 crore rupees in the initial two years for 50 clusters.
- As per the Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Giriraj Singh, the scheme is aimed at linking five crore women and self help groups to the initiative.
- The Mission will cover 50 clusters and every cluster will employ 400 to 2000 artisans.
- The Mission has been approved by the Government of India and will disburse subsidy of Rs. 550 crore to the artisans.
- 15 new state-of-the-art technology centers: The Minister further informed that 15 new state-of-the-art technology centers are being set up all over the country including North-East, of which 10 centers will become operational by March 2019.
- Each center is being built at a cost of around Rs. 150 crore. The 10 centers which will become operational soon are located in Durg (Chhattisgarh), Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), Rohtak (Haryana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Sitarganj (Uttarakhand), Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Bhopal (M.P.), Kanpur (U.P.) and Puducherry.
- According to the Union Minister, under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) budgetary allocation for FY 2018-19 has been increased by 75% to Rs. 1,800 crore.
- In order to incentivize entrepreneurs, mainly women and SC/ST, Government will be making an investment of about Rs. 10,000 crore in the micro sector in this financial year.
- The Minister also informed that work being done by the Ministry has promoted Ease-of-Doing-Business with the setting up of 4 portals: ‘MSME Sambandh’, MSME Samadhaan, Udyog Aadhaar and Udyam Sakhi.
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