The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is implementing the ASPIRE (A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry, and Entrepreneurship) scheme to promote entrepreneurship and livelihood opportunities in rural areas, the government informed Parliament on Tuesday.
The scheme aims to create an enabling ecosystem for job creation through skill development, incubation and support to micro-enterprises. As of now, 109 Livelihood Business Incubators (LBIs) have been approved across the country. Under ASPIRE, a total of 1,16,726 beneficiaries have been trained, of whom 18,444 have become self-employed, 13,824 have secured wage employment and 1,141 micro-enterprises have been established.
The ministry has been collecting category-wise (SC/ST/OBC/General) and gender-wise data since 2022. During this period, out of 56,721 beneficiaries trained, 27,970 were women, 8,365 belonged to the Scheduled Caste category and 9,311 to the Scheduled Tribe category.
The government has also undertaken several initiatives to promote women and SC/ST entrepreneurs. These include outreach programmes conducted by MSME field offices in coordination with state and Union Territory governments, banks and industry associations, as well as capacity-building initiatives under the National Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Hub scheme.
Vendor Development Programmes for SC/ST and women entrepreneurs are being organised under the Public Procurement Policy for MSMEs, while Central Public Sector Undertakings are also conducting similar programmes. In addition, the ministry launched the ‘Yashasvini Campaign’ in June 2024 to empower women entrepreneurs through awareness on formalisation, access to credit, capacity building and mentorship.
A new scheme to provide term loans of up to Rs 2 crore to women, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe first-time entrepreneurs was announced in the Union Budget 2025 to further promote MSME growth.
The ministry is also implementing the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a credit-linked subsidy scheme to generate self-employment opportunities through micro-enterprises. Of the total PMEGP beneficiaries, 39 per cent are women, who are eligible for a higher subsidy of up to 35 per cent compared to 25 per cent for the general category.
Further, the MSME Champions scheme is being implemented to modernise enterprises, enhance competitiveness and facilitate national and global reach through its components such as ZED Certification, Lean Manufacturing and Innovation, including incubation, design and intellectual property rights support.
To promote exports, the ministry has established 65 Export Facilitation Centres across the country to provide mentoring and handholding support to MSMEs, including training on export compliance, documentation and engagement with relevant stakeholders.
This information was shared by Minister of State for MSME Shobha Karandlaje in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
