Ministry of MSME

The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) is the central government body tasked with developing policies and programmes for India's MSME sector. It oversees a range of initiatives designed to support entrepreneurship, generate livelihoods, and foster enterprise growth nationwide.

Among its administered schemes is the Prime Minister's Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), a credit-linked subsidy initiative executed by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). The programme provides margin money through banks for manufacturing units (up to INR 25 lakh) and service units (up to INR 10 lakh). Since its inception in 2008, it has supported over 9.69 lakh micro enterprises with subsidy exceeding INR 25,500 crore, creating employment for an estimated 79 lakh persons. Another scheme, ASPIRE (A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industry, and Entrepreneurship), focuses on fostering innovation and rural enterprise, having trained over 1.16 lakh beneficiaries, with 18,444 achieving self-employment and 1,141 micro-enterprises established.

The intended beneficiaries are current and prospective owners of micro, small, and medium enterprises, rural entrepreneurs, and first-generation founders who require subsidised credit, margin money support, skill training, and incubation assistance to start or scale their ventures.