New Delhi, Jun 27 (IANS): President Ram Nath Kovind launched the Solar Charkha Mission here on Wednesday under which the government will disburse a subsidy of Rs 550 crore to thousands of artisans, generating employment in rural areas.

Under this mission, the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) will cover 50 clusters and each cluster will employ 400 to 2,000 artisans.

While launching the mission during the event of Udyam Sangam -- National MSME Conclave -- on World MSME Day, Kovind said that it will generate employment in rural areas and contribute to the green economy, according to an official statement.

"The MSME sector is leveraging the demographic dividend of the country and promoting inclusive growth in rural and backward areas. MSME sector accounts for around 60 per cent employment in India."

He said that there are 6.5 crore MSME units across the country employing over 11 crore people and contributing over 10 per cent growth which is higher than heavy industrial units.

Giriraj Singh, Minister of State for MSME, said that 15 new state-of-the-art technology centres are being set up all over the country including in the Northeast of which 10 centres will become operational by March 2019.

Each centre, he said, is being built at a cost of around Rs 150 crore.

The 10 centres which will become operational soon are located in Durg (Chhattisgarh), Bhiwadi (Rajasthan), Rohtak (Haryana), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), Bengaluru (Karnataka), Sitarganj (Uttarakhand), Baddi (Himachal Pradesh), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Puducherry.