Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 17: Reserve Bank of India organized a Town Hall meet on MSMEs at Anantnag today. D. Sethy, Regional Director, Jammu & Kashmir chaired the meet and Bashir Ahmad Khan, DDC of district Anantnag was the special guest. The Regional Director, RBI explained the entrepreneurs and other participants that the main purpose of holding such a meeting by RBI was to assess and appreciate the problems and issues being faced by the entrepreneurs particularly in accessing the bank finance.
The Regional Director also highlighted the role being played by MSMEs in contributing to the various economic parameters of the economy particularly employment generation, GDP of the country, exports, etc. But he lamented that despite continuous efforts of RBI, GoI & banks to bring the sector under formal channels of finance, the level of financial exclusion was very high in this sector and hardly 8-9% of the total units were having access to the formal channels of finance. He said that there was need to increase awareness about various facilities and schemes available to the entrepreneurs from the Govt. of India, Banks and State Govt. and requested the participants to make use of these schemes to further their economic interests.
Bashir Ahmad Khan, DDC Anantnag, while addressing the audience, reminded them that the employment potential in the Govt. sector was limited and that there was a need for the youth of the state to think of self-employment by becoming entrepreneurs and take advantage of the liberal schemes of the Govt. of India and banks so that they could become economically independent. The bankers were also urged by him to be more sensitive to the requirements of the customers/borrowers so that they did not face hardships or have unnecessary documentation/requirements etc.
Before the start of the question answer session, the audiences were told about the various guidelines of Govt. of India and Reserve Bank of India relating to the MSME sector. They were also informed about the findings of pre-town hall survey which was conducted by RBI in five pockets of the Anantnag namely Halmulla, Chorsoo, Betengo, Anchipora and Godhanjipora. All the bank representatives present were advised to follow the instructions of Govt. of India and RBI in letter and spirit especially collateral free loans to the entrepreneurs.
The meeting was attended by A.K.Mattu, General Manager, RBI, Joint Director, Industries, Srinagar, officials from Handicraft, Handloom department, District Industries Centre, senior officers from banks functioning in Anantnag district, representatives of trade and industries association, besides entrepreneurs from local areas.
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