Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) implements a number of schemes that provides large scale employment especially in rural areas of the country. Although there is no such target specifically set for the current year, cumulative employment in khadi and village industries sector is expected to reach an estimated 1.30 crore by the end of current year.
In particular, KVIC has been implementing a credit-linked subsidy programme named Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) since 2008-09 for generating self-employment in all the States/Union Territories including West Bengal by providing assistance in setting up micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector. Under the programme, general category beneficiaries can avail of margin money subsidy of 25% of the project cost in rural areas and 15% in urban areas.
For beneficiaries belonging to special categories such as scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, OBCs, minorities, women, ex-servicemen, physically handicapped, beneficiaries belonging to North Eastern Region, hill and border areas, etc., the margin money subsidy is 35% in rural areas and 25% in urban areas. The maximum cost of project is Rs 25 lakh in the manufacturing sector and Rs.10 lakh in the service sector.
An outlay for margin money subsidy of Rs.1238 crore has been made for PMEGP in the 2012-13 which would assist an estimated 53,826 projects creating employment opportunities for an estimated 4.31 lakh persons.
