The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has released margin money of Rs.20 crore for acceleration of its entrepreneurship schemes in Tamil Nadu. After a two-year hiatus for clearing pending amounts in the State, the KVIC will implement schemes under Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme through Khadi Village Industries’ Board and District Industries Centre.
Minimum eligibility is only a pass in VIII standard and the prospective beneficiary will have to invest only 5 to 10 per cent of the project cost, K.Sudhakar, KVIC State Director, informed while addressing students of Urumu Dhanalakshmi College on Monday.
Till last year, KVIC-promoted industries provided employment to 15.26 lakh persons and registered sales of Rs.1,860 crore through 1,219 retail outlets countrywide and exhibitions abroad with a range of products. Alongside, cotton, silk and polyester varieties of cloths with embroidery designs, the KVIC was also coming up with khadi jeans, Mr.Sudhakar said, in his presentation on ‘programme on KVIC sector’ designed to attract student community towards entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurship promotion in rural areas will result in arresting urban migration, he said, and dwelt at length on the advantages of starting biogas plants as a solution for sustaining environment and saving non-replenishable resources.
There were successful biogas models in Namakkal and Salem districts, Mr. Sudhakar said, citing instances of an engineering college in Namakkal district operating a bus with biogas and the conversion of night soil into biogas in Salem Bus Stand, with an output of power that was sufficient to light 200 lamps.
In Tiruchi, the district administration has evinced interest to implement the model in panchayats. Biogas projects are also to be established by Dalmia Cements and St. Joseph’s College, he said. Delivering a lecture on ‘how to become entrepreneurs?’, C.Jayaprakash, Divisional Manager, Canara Bank, Circle Office, Tiruchi, explained that entrepreneurship simply meant transforming ideas into action with the right mindset to contribute to the country’s Gross Domestic Product by becoming employers. Canara Bank’s RUDSET (Rural Development and Self-Employment Training) institutes. Urging graduates to start their own enterprises rather than looking for jobs, Mr. Jayaprakash said how the 2.9 crore units in MSME sector contributed to eight per cent of the country’s GDP by accounting for 45 per cent of industrial production.
Providing details about term loan and working capital requirements, he said as much as Rs.One crore loan would be provided without collateral security under CGTMSE (Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises) scheme.
The loans could be repaid over durations ranging from 36 to 84 months, he said.
College Principal S. Sekar exuded hope that the exposure would motivate the student audience from Commerce department to take to entrepreneurship.
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