Finance Minister launches two funds for promoting MSMEs and Start-ups

On 18 August Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched two funds the India Aspiration Fund (IAF) and SIDBI Make in India Loan for Enterprises (SMILE) under Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) in line to carter funding for start-ups and to aid small enterprises in India.
SIDBI under the first fund India Aspiration Fund (IAF) would invest in venture capital funds for meeting the equity requirement of MSME start-ups and for this the initial corpus of Rs. 2,000 crore has been set. Life Insurance Corp. of India (LIC) will be a partner and co-investor in this fund.
Under second fund the SIDBI Make in India Loan for Enterprises (SMILE) is a debt-fund which will carter soft term loans to MSMEs to meet debt-to-equity norms and pursue growth opportunities, SIDBI has set Initial corpus of Rs. 10, 000 crore under SMILE fund.
Finance Ministry has launched these funds under SIDBI to boost MSME and start-ups under Make in India initiative and expects to create employment for over one lakh person for four to five years.
Ministry also intend to move people from overstaffed agriculture sector to areas such as services and manufacturing through MSMEs and start-up which fund their own business and creates employment.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015