GAME partners with SIDBI to help MSMEs revive business amid COVID

The Global Alliance for Mass Entrepreneurship (GAME) and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) have signed a pact to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) address their challenges that were accentuated during the pandemic.

The broad themes covered under the partnership include expanding credit access, increasing formalisation, building competitive clusters, and improving the legal framework for ease of doing business, according to a statement released on Sunday.

The two organisations have committed that at least 25 per cent of the beneficiaries from the partnership would be women entrepreneurs, it added.

"SIDBI has been at the forefront of supporting and innovating MSMEs since its inception. The organisation also helps promote some of India's largest MSME-focused platforms and schemes such as CGTMSE and TReDS (RXIL).

"This long-standing experience combined with the force of GAME's over 80 diverse partner alliances should ease the access to credit and a range of new support services for MSMEs at a large scale," GAME co-founder Mekin Maheshwari said.

Focus areas of the partnership will include scaling up Udyam Registration as a unique ID for an MSME to access schemes across the entire MSME universe; leveraging SIDBI's financial schemes as a pull to further formalisation of enterprises and enhancing credit access to micro-enterprises, especially the 'new to credit' segment.

It will also co-create and support pilots that spur financing innovations for micro and small enterprises.

The two organisations will also collaborate on online and offline campaigns to align with Mission Swavalamban and Mass Entrepreneurship developmental projects of SIDBI, the statement said.

SIDBI Chairman and Managing Director Sivasubramanian Raman said, "We hope the power of the Alliance can be leveraged for nation building efforts such as formalising MSMEs, and substantially improving access to credit and non-financial services."