FM launches Indian Bank's online mentoring programme MSME Prerana for small business owners
Indian Bank's online programme MSME Prerna is aimed at empowering entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building workshops.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday launched 'MSME Prerana,' an online business mentoring programme for MSMEs by the state-run Indian Bank.
The programme — which will be available in local languages — is aimed at empowering entrepreneurs through skill development and capacity building workshops, the bank said in a release.
"Indian Bank has taken an out-of-the-box initiative in launching MSME Prerana, which will handhold the entrepreneurs through a mentoring programme. This novel initiative shall further inspire others in the banking sector to adopt similar measures," Sitharaman said.
The initiative was launched by the finance minister at the bank's corporate centre in Chennai.
Financial Services Secretary Debashish Panda, who also participated in the launch event through video conferencing, delved on the various initiatives taken by the government to support MSMEs.
The initiative is in collaboration with Poornatha & Co, a firm that designs entrepreneurial development programmes in vernacular languages, using online web-based interactive sessions and case studies, the bank said.
Indian Bank's Managing Director and CEO Padmaja Chunduru said, during its outreach programmes, webinars, and interaction with the bank's MSME units, one main takeaway was that there is still a lot of dependence on chartered accountants or agents to access bank loans.
The barriers these MSMEs face include language, confusion about what the bank looks for when they approach for loans, how to manage cash flows, which government schemes are available and suitable for them, and how to register themselves for these schemes, she said.
"MSME Prerana is our effort to bridge this gap in the skill sets. It is a business mentoring programme that gives inputs in simple terms (no jargon), and in the local vernacular," Chunduru said.
The first two programmes will be in Tamil for the Coimbatore clusters of Indian Bank. It will then be scaled up across the country in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and Gujarati languages, the statement said.
Spread over 12 sessions, the programme enables MSME entrepreneurs to acquire expertise in handling finance and managerial skills, capacity to handle business crises, understand the dynamics of credit rating, and risk management, the bank said.
While the sessions on managerial and financial skills will be conducted by Poornatha & Co, the banking related topics will be handled by the 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, the release said.
Edited by Suman Singh