World Bank offers financial help for MSMEs in UP

LUCKNOW: The World Bank today said it will offer financial help to create new infrastructure for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises ( MSMEs) and improve the condition of existing ones in Uttar Pradesh.

The offer was made to Sanjiv Saran, principal secretary, industries and infrastructure development, by Lead Urban Specialist of World Bank Barjor Mehta.

A three-member team of World Bank, including Mehta and Senior Country Economist at World Bank Denis Medvedev, met Saran and submitted a report on Infrastructure and Investment Strategy for the identified three sub-regional growth centres on Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor ( EDFC) to make each industrial cluster economically viable.

The report has been prepared by consulting agency CRISIL Limited under the aegis of World Bank for Agra-Firozabad sub-region, Kanpur-Lucknow-Unnao-Auraiya sub-region and Allahabad-Varanasi sub-region.

Mehta said to start with, the World bank was focusing on Kanpur-Lucknow-Unnao-Auraiya sub-region. He said the World Bank was financing the development of EDFC in three phases, out of which work is already underway for first two phases.

The World Bank has offered two options for funding, namely - Development Policy Loan (DPL) and Programme-for -Results instruments.