Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wants the wheel of MSMEs to roll fast. The sector provides maximum employment to the people. Now, the UP government has said it is going to provide capital to 3.5 lakh units as per their requirement through three online mega loan fairs in June, July and August.

Earlier in May, the government had provided more than Rs 2,000 crore to 57,000 units. The state is now on the path to become a major hub for industries related to textiles, food processing and ODOP (one district one product). The biggest hurdle was lack of capital, but the Chief Minister seems to have found the solution to a large extent.

The target is to provide loans to one lakh units in June and 1.25 lakh units in July-August. An agreement to this effect has been reached in the meeting of the state level bankers committee. It was also decided that the bankers would soon set a target for providing loans.

There are reasons behind the Chief Minister's thought to technically upgrade MSMEs to increase their production capacity and quality to match world standards. The number of these units in the state is about 90 lakhs which is about 14 per cent of the total units in the country. There are unique products from every district. Having nine types of agro-climatic zones, the state is the leader in the production of a variety of foodgrains, fruits and vegetables.

The central government recently announced a package of Rs 3 lakh crore for the MSME sector. The government intends that Uttar Pradesh should get the maximum share in view of its maximum population, MSME units and diverse kinds of products. The chief minister has also instructed the concerned departments to chalk out a plan for this.

Recently, Union Minister for Skill Development Dr Mahendra Nath Pandey and his deputy Kapil Dev Agrawal announced in a webinar organized by the PHD Chambar of Commerce and Industries that their department will provide training to 7.5 lakh people as per the demand of industrial units. Such training programmes will also be conducted in technical institutes and industrial units.

MSME Principal Secretary Navneet Sehgal said, "This is a field of unlimited possibilities. Employing maximum people at minimum risk and capital with less infrastructure are the main characteristics of the MSME sector. This sector has also proved its capacity. These units contribute the most to the state's imports."