Two weeks after the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) announced its Cluster Development Fund to boost hard infrastructure support to state governments for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) cluster development, it has provided the first such approval for Tamil Nadu for upgrading existing MSME clusters and developing new industrial infrastructure.
SIDBI, however, didn’t disclose the loan amount and tenure.
“The thrust shall be laid on clusters in sectors/subsectors which can directly benefit the MSMEs in the state and to bring them to a level ‘NEXT’ wherein they emerge vibrant, higher on the value chain and become sustainable. SIDBI shall complement these with its customized direct lending products being channelized in the supported clusters,” SIDBI chairman and managing director Sivasubramanian Ramann said in a statement.
He said the bank will also examine supporting the soft infrastructure issues in select clusters. The issues could relate to technology, skilling/upskilling, energy efficiency, market, and credit. Ramann said a pilot has been launched for the same in the Ambattur leather cluster.
SIDBI has also launched the Business Development Services Intervention programme in five clusters that will attend to the soft side of it. Apart from the Ambattur cluster in Chennai, the other four clusters were tourism cluster in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi-NCR innovation cluster; Jodhpur wood furniture cluster, and Sambalpur textile cluster.
