‘MSME Prerana’, an online Business
Mentoring Programme for MSMEs, an initiative by Indian Bank was launched today
by Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala
Sitharaman, at the Bank’s Corporate Centre in Chennai. Shri Debashish Panda,
Secretary,Financial Services, MOF participated by VC in the launch.
MSME Prerana is a first of its kind
initiative by a Bank in the country for the MSME sector. This is for empowering
entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building workshops in the
local language. The program is in collaboration with M/s Poornatha & Co, a
firm that designs Entrepreneurial Development Programs in vernacular using
online web based interactive sessions and case studies.
Spread over 12 sessions, “MSME
Prerana” program enables MSME entrepreneurs to acquire expertise in handling
Finance and Managerial skills, capacity to handle crises in business,
understand the dynamics credit rating and risk management. While the sessions
on Managerial and Financial skills will be handled by M/s Poornatha & Co,
the Banking related topics will be handled by faculty from Indian Bank. On
successful completion, all participants would get a Certificate, issued jointly
by Indian Bank, Poornatha & Co and MADE (Michigan Academy for Developing
Entrepreneurs), USA.
Launching the programme, Hon’ble
Union Minister of Finance, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman said that Indian Bank has
taken an out-of-the-box initiative in launching MSME Prerana which will handhold
the entrepreneurs through a mentoring program. This novel initiative shall
further inspire others in the banking sector to adopt similar measures. She
appreciated the fact that the amalgamation process of Allahabad Bank into
Indian Bank did not distract the Bank from the care for customers. The Finance
Minister complimented the Bank’s leadership and management for this unique
initiative.
Smt. Padmaja Chunduru, MD & CEO,
Indian Bank said “During the outreach programs, webinars and interaction with
our MSME units, one main takeaway was that there is still a lot of dependence
on Chartered Accountants or Agents for these units to access bank loans and
scale up their operations. The barrier was language, it was the jargon, the
confusion about what the bank looks for when they approach for loans, how to
manage cash flows, which schemes of government are available and suitable to
them, how to register themselves for these etc. Many units were remaining in
the micro or small sector, despite opportunities to scale up due to the
apprehension about the tax burden.
MSME Prerana is our effort to bridge
this gap in the skill sets - it is a Business Mentoring Program that gives
inputs in simple terms (no jargon) and in the local vernacular. The objective
is to equip the entrepreneurs with business skills as well as communication&
HR. The first two programs will be in Tamil for the Coimbatore clusters of
Indian bank , then it will be scaled up across the country in Hindi, Telugu,
Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati etc. work is already underway for this.
Shri.Debashish Panda, Secretary,
Financial Services, MOF emphasized on the various initiatives taken by
government to support MSMEs and lauded the efforts of Indian Bank in
launching a unique initaive in MSME Prerana. He also exhorted the bank and
other financial institutions to reach out to new-to-credit customers and associate
with fintech players to accelerate the credit flow.
The e-launch was attended by the
Board of Directors of Indian Bank, Industry Associations,Customers of the Bank.
Executive Directors of Indian Bank,Shri.
M K Bhattacharya, Shri. V V Shenoy and Shri. K Ramachandranalong with General
Managers also participated.
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