Nitin Gadkari launches Indian Bank’s ‘MSME Prerana’ in Maharashtra

Mumbai: Indian Bank launches its flagship Business Mentoring Program ‘MSME Prerana’ in the state of Maharashtra. ‘MSME Prerana’ is a novel, unique and innovative business mentoring program, first of its kind to empower MSME Entrepreneurs.

The program will begin from Nagpur followed by other important cities in Maharashtra. While launching this flagship program, Shri Nitin Gadkari, Hon’ble Union Minister of MSME and Road, Transport and Highway said, “I thank and appreciate Indian Bank team for thinking out of the box and introducing this great initiative for MSMEs."

He further added, "The sector contributes 30% to Indian GDP and 48% to exports while creating 11 crore jobs in India. I suggest banks to introduce a mechanism which can help in evaluating the financial ratings of the MSMEs at the preliminary stage. New entrepreneurs have the energy, skill and talent and timely support to MSMEs by financial institutions like Indian Bank will help expedite the growth of this sector. Such steps can helps us in bringing down the imports by becoming Atmanirbhar. With this initiative I am confident that the MSME sector will succeed in this field.”

Indian Bank is providing financial support to its 20 lakhs MSMEs with credit exposure of over ₹70,180 cr ‘MSME Prerana’ has been launched with an aim to develop managerial and financial capabilities of MSME Entrepreneurs besides creating awareness on various initiatives taken by GOI / State Govts. / RBI and Other agencies. Currently, Maharashtra accounts for ~15% of India’s GDP gained through some of the prominent sectors such as BFSI, Entertainment, Textiles, auto & auto ancillary space. As per the MSME Annual Report by the Ministry, Maharashtra is one of the top 5 states with ~48 lakh estimated MSMEs reflecting the relevance of this program to enhance productivity of the businesses in the state.

Smt. Padmaja Chunduru, MD & CEO, Indian Bank said, “We are delighted to extend our flagship program MSME Prerana to our customers in Maharashtra. We are the 7th largest Public Sector Bank in the country, and in the MSME segment we are the second largest in terms of % growth (15%). Maharashtra being one of the important markets for our Bank, it is our endeavour to instil confidence among small entrepreneurs and equip them with business acumen. We are committed on taking this one of its kind program to other cities and empower the entrepreneurial community.”The program christened MSME Prerana has been designed in collaboration with Poornatha and Co. to empower entrepreneurs in driving business more efficiently by optimizing value and capacity. ‘MSME Prerana’ adopts a step-by-step approach in providing training to MSME,to understand their business numbers, concept of balance sheet, cash flow management, managing their business during the crisis time, decision making, communication and leadership skills, awareness on various initiatives taken by Govt. / RBI / Bank.

The trainers/coaches extend hand holding supports to Entrepreneurs for on boarding to various digital platform viz Udayam Registration, TReDS, MSME SAMADHAN, GeM portal etc.

This business mentoring program enhances the confidence & sense of empowerment especially among women Entrepreneurs. Women found that knowledge and business planning helped them to set goal and target for their enterprises.

MSME Prerana’ has broken the geographical and language barriers by extending web based training to Entrepreneurs in local dialects using simple terminologies without using jargons.

A series of 10 virtual programs have been successfully conducted in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and parts of Uttarakhand.

According to a release by the bank, ‘MSME Prerana’ is spreading its outreach to Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat during June/July, 2021 and will be conducted in all major languages pan India in a phased manner