New Delhi, Aug 21 (IANS): The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has signed an MoU with the Department of Posts under which the Postal Department staff working across the country will do the physical verification of new micro units being set up across the country under the Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMGEP), the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) said on Wednesday.
The KVIC will get the benefit of the services of 1,65,000 post offices spread across the country, out of which 1,39,067 are working in rural areas to ensure the success of its scheme. Along with physical verification of PMEGP units, margin money subsidy will also be settled at a faster pace as
The KVIC will train the staff of the Postal Department to enable them to carry out the physical verification.
KVIC Chairman Manoj Kumar signed the MoU in accordance with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision to promote a cooperative work culture between the two departments.
He said that the PMEGP has promoted entrepreneurship throughout the country and created new employment opportunities. Since the inception of the scheme, the PMEGP has supported the setting up of more than 9.69 lakh new projects and generated employment for more than 84.64 lakh entrepreneurs.
So far, the margin money subsidy of Rs 25563.44 crore has been distributed through this scheme against a loan of Rs 69,021.29 crore. In the last financial year 2023-24 itself, PMEGP has generated employment for more than 9.80 lakh entrepreneurs and distributed margin money subsidy of more than Rs 3,093 crore.
The KVIC chairman further said that in the last 10 years, Khadi has become the guarantee of a developed India as for the first time in the history of the country, the turnover of Khadi and Village Industries has crossed the figure of 1.55 lakh crore.
The Prime Minister's brand power has led to a five-fold increase in the sale of Khadi and Village Industries products and a four-fold increase in production in the last 10 years.
Kumar said for the first time, 10.17 lakh new jobs have been created in this sector.