loans worth about Rs1 lakh crore have been sanctioned to small entrepreneurs under the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday, emphasising that the government wants youth to be job creators and not job seekers.
Speaking at the inauguration of Indian Oil Corp's (IOC) Rs34,555-crore Paradip Refinery, Modi said apart from public and private sector, there was a need for developing ‘personal sector’ in which youth can become self sufficient, start businesses and generate new employment avenues.
“We do not want youth of the country to become job seekers, we want that they become job creators so that they give employment to one, two or five people. So, under MUDRA Yojana we are giving fund to the youth. We have disbursed about Rs1 lakh crore. Within such less time, giving so much money to such people is not a small thing,” Modi said.
Under Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana, which was launched in April last year, loans between Rs50,000 and Rs10 lakh are provided to small entrepreneurs.
In India, about 65 per cent of the population is below the age of 35 years and for the progress of these youth, there was a need to boost entrepreneurship, Modi said.
“We need to create employment opportunities for youth in the country. So, through MUDRA Yojana, we wanted to make the youth self sufficient,”he said, adding that the government is moving ahead with the economic principle to make each individual and every family self sufficient.
Modi said whenever there is a discussion on economy, it is only public and private sector that is talked out.
“I'm giving emphasis on third sector. If there is importance of public and private sector in the economy, then the third sector on which emphasis should be given is the personal sector.”
The Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency ltd (MUDRA) focuses on the 5.75 crore self-employed who use funds totaling Rs11 lakh crore and provide jobs to 12 crore people.
The banking sector has been allocated an overall disbursement target of about Rs1.22 lakh crore during 2015-16 for MUDRA loans. The unit will manufacture 78 crore kg of lPG, 500 crore litres of petrol, 660 crore litre of diesel, 250 crore litre of kerosene and ATF, 27 lakh quintal of sulphur and 120 lakh qunital of petroleum coke.
“You can imagine how much these products will give momentum to economic development,” he said. lPG from the refinery will replace firewood in rural households. One hour of cooking on firewood subject rural women to smoke equivalent to 400 cigarettes.
“We are trying that the poor get lPG gas cylinders to give them freedom from smoke,’ he said. Also, fertilizer plants in the region are being revived to produce urea for farmers, he added.
Paradip refinery, he said, has added to the 'Make-in-India' glory as IOC's indigenously developed INDMAX has maximised lPG yield to 44 per cent, the highest in the world. “lPG production is going to increase. Economy will get a boost at low cost,” Modi said.