The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the country was witnessing a start-up revolution and to harness the potential of India’s innovators and entrepreneurs, a vibrant financial ecosystem was essential.
“The Government is trying to bridge the gap between policy and implementation,” said Mr. Jaitley, while inaugurating the India Aspiration Fund and SIDBI ‘Make in India’ Loan for Enterprises (SMILE) of SIDBI here.
“India Aspiration Fund is intended to play a vital role in this financial ecosystem,” he added.
He mentioned that the Fund is expected to catalyse tens of thousands of crore of equity investment in start-ups and MSMEs, creating employment for lakhs of persons, mostly educated youth, over the next 4-5 years.
India Aspiration Fund, is a fund-of-fund managed by Small Industries development Bank of India (SIDBI) which is India’s principal financial institution for the promotion, financing and development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.
Mr. Jaitley also launched two funds by Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), a fund of funds with total corpus of Rs.12,000 crore. The funds are Rs.2,000-crore India Aspiration Fund (IAF) and SIDBI Make In India Loan For Enterprises (SMILE) scheme with an investment size of Rs.10,000 crore.
Fund amounting to R. 20,000 crore has been sanctioned by the MUDRA Bank and we are targeting to take it to Rs.1 trillion,” Mr. Jaitley said.
The idea behind the launch of SMILE scheme is to provide soft loans in the nature of quasi-equity and term loans on relatively soft terms to MSMEs to meet the required debt-equity ratio norm as also for pursuing opportunities of growth by existing MSMEs, a SIBDI release said
LIC has also agreed to be a partner and co-investor in the India Aspriation Fund.
While speaking on the occasion, Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Finance mentioned the importance of the start-up ecosystem and India’s stellar position at number three in terms of start-ups launched.
He said very soon, India was expected to take over the U.K. in terms of start-ups launched and would be behind only to the U.S. “India is an inspirational country and the entrepreneurs are doing a wonderful job. With the launching of these schemes, we are adding fuel to that.”
SBI Mobile WalletMeanwhile, Mr. Jaitley also launched State Bank of India’s ‘Buddy’ — a Mobile Wallet, here on Tuesday.
The Finance Minister said that the advent of technology will change the habit of consumers. There are millions of people who will no longer have to rely on passbook, and cheque will become outdated due to mobile wallet. He also said that cash money transaction would go down, and expenditure would become easier.
The App will be available in 13 languages and for all customers irrespective of the bank the customer is banking with or the card customer is using. It is currently launched on the Google Play Store and will soon be available in the Apple app Store. This application comes with features such as Send Money to registered and new users, Ask Money and Send reminders to settle dues, transfer additional cash into an account of your choice free of cost, Recharge and Pay bills Instantly, Book for movie tickets, flights and hotel and shop for your favourite merchandise. Mr. Jaitley also unveiled SBI Foundation Logo and website. SBI Foundation, a subsidiary of the State Bank of India, has been set up for implementing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of the State Bank Group.
SBI Foundation will promote aid, help, encourage, develop, causes related to education, environment, health, women empowerment, children welfare and all other such activities under the ambit of CSR and Sustainability policy of the entire SBI Group.
