Hyderabad: Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) disbursed a margin money subsidy of Rs 300 crore to 11,480 service sector beneficiaries across the country under the Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP). For southern zone States - Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, subsidy of Rs.116 crore was disbursed covering 4565 projects, while loans of more than Rs 343 crore were sanctioned for these projects. This disbursement was done against the loan sanction of Rs. 906 crore. The event was held at the Rajghat office in New Delhi, from where Manoj Kumar, Chairman, KVIC, along with his team, released the subsidy to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries through a virtual medium. Speaking on the occasion, Manoj Kumar opined that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the vision of 'Self-reliant and Developed India' is being recognized, and the PMEGP scheme has become its strong pillar. He reiterated that this scheme is not limited to providing only financial assistance, but it has also become a social movement which is connecting lakhs of youth, women and artisans with self-employment and entrepreneurship. The role of this scheme has been significant in creating employment and self-reliance in every village. All six zones of the country actively participated in the disbursement program. Under the central zone, a subsidy of Rs 72 crore was disbursed for a total of 2403 projects in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand for which a total loan of Rs 218 crore was sanctioned. In the east zone, a subsidy of Rs 22 crore was disbursed to 996 projects in Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while loan sanction was about Rs 71 crore. To States of North India – Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Rajasthan and Union Territory Chandigarh – a total of 2713 projects were given a subsidy of Rs 61 crore and a loan of Rs 184 crore was sanctioned for these projects. The 81 projects of the north east region received subsidy of Rs 2 crore, which included states like Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. In west zone states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, a subsidy of more than Rs 26 crore was disbursed for a total of 722 projects, against the loan sanction of Rs 82 crore. Since its inception till the financial year 2024-25, the PMEGP has become a pillar of entrepreneurship and self-reliance in rural and urban India. A total of 10,18,185 micro enterprises have been set up under the scheme so far, for which loans of Rs 73,348 crore have been sanctioned by the central government. So far, more than 90,04,541 people across the country have got direct and indirect employment through this scheme, which makes it one of the most effective self-employment schemes in the country.
