RGUMY being revamped to push MSME sector growth

NEW DELHI: The Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana (RGUMY), which has been renamed as the Business Accelerator and Start-up Programme, is being revamped to generate more employments and speed up growth in the MSME sector.

The government has also sought comments on the proposed changes to the programme to make more effective for promotion of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The scheme is scheduled to be implemented on a pilot basis through the 12th Plan, and its primary objective is to focus on the growth of the sector and creation of jobs.

"The Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana is being revamped and restructured to make it a more effective tool for promotion of MSMEs.

"The new scheme called the "Business Accelerator and Start-up Programme (BASP) will aid and assist the developing competitive and resilient new MSEs out of potential entrepreneurs and will also nurture and upscale the existing MSEs through a large range of models for mentoring and advisory support," an MSME Ministry statement said.

The scheme aims to achieve the objective of job creation and growth by developing competitive and resilient new MSEs out of potential entrepreneurs willing to set up enterprises by providing mentoring and advisory support in areas of registration, statutory compliances, production, sales, marketing, access to finance etc.

It will also rely on up-scaling and nurturing the operations of the existing micro and small enterprises who have been rated and assigned moderate or poor ratings.

Such units will be provided mentoring and advisory support in the areas of their need with respect to technology, marketing, finance and entrepreneurship development so as to improve its operational and financial performance and information support through Udyami helpline.

The revamped scheme will introduce the concept of business mentors for potential entrepreneurs.

The mentors will be entrepreneurs or industrialists with at least 5 years of experience in running an enterprise or in the MSME sector with the ability to bring in interventions in the areas of technology/marketing/finance/information support.

The National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), a Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of MSME, will act as the Nodal Agency to implement the scheme.

Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitra Yojana (RGUMY), a central sector scheme, was launched in 2008-09 with the objective of providing handholding support and assistance to the potential first generation entrepreneurs.