Patna: Bihar Industries Minister Sameer Mahaseth on Tuesday flagged off an outreach programme of Bihar Industries Association (BIA) to sensitise the entrepreneurs about scope for availing various kinds of incentives to small and micro sector by the Central Government to power industrial growth of the State.
As proposed, the outreach programme would be carried out in seven districts of Bihar in the first phase. The special campaign chariot prepared by the BIA will roam in different blocks of that area to inform the entrepreneurs about the future events of the association, so that maximum beneficiary could participate in it.
The association has decided to organize a business plan competition with the aim of generating interest among the people, under which it would invite people to set up future and ventures to write their thoughts about their enterprise. “We will also reward the best three business ideas and give hand holding support to 50 business ideas if they come up well,” said BIA general secretary Ashish Rohtagi.
The BIA at its meeting held under the chairmanship of BIA president Arun Agarwal, it was felt that about 90% of the fund allocated to the State under various incentive programme for promoting small and micro sectors returned unutilised for want of adequate awareness among entrepreneurs to claim it.
Launching the outreach programme, Mahaseth lauded concept of the drive and said the campaign would definitely play an important role in boosting industrialisation process in the state. “It is great to note that the target has been set to train and motivate people to work in the micro and small sector, which will accelerate industrialization in the State and provide a permanent solution to the problem of unemployment,” said the Minister.
Rohatgi said that the government has also been trying to encourage establishment of micro, small and medium enterprise, sector, but the objective could not be achieved very few people know about those policies and programs. “We have decided to encourage establishment of industries under MSME sector. In the first phase, BIA will try helping the people get advantage of the three programmes of the Centre such as Pradhan Mantri Employment Generation Entrepreneurship Scheme, Prime Minister’s Formulation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme and Bihar Agri Investment Promotion Policy,” he said.
The BIA functionaries said that entrepreneurs are doled out loan up to ₹50 lakh under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Program for setting up the enterprise. “In this programme, the Government provides grant-in-aid in the range of 25 to 35%. But in Bihar, the conversion rate of this scheme is about 10 percent, that is, the rate of rejection of the application is 90 percent. Whereas at the national level the conversion rate is 30 percent,” said Rohtagi.
Special Secretary of Industries Department Dilip Kumar, general manager of State Bank of India Manoj Kumar Gupta, deputy GM Satyaprakash, director of the State Khadi and Village Industries Commission, Mohammad Hanif Mewati along with officials of Reserve Bank of India, Central Bank of India and NABARD were also present.
Former BIA president KPS Keshari informed that the first event under the “industry dialogue-cum-awareness” program has been scheduled to be held in Patna City on August 27. Another former BIA president Ram Lal Khaitan said that the association’s drive to sensitise people about various schemes are being supported by different agencies and the Government departments.
