SIDBI and Google join hands to infuse Rs 110 Cr in MSMEs fighting COVID-19

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) on Thursday said it has entered into a partnership with Google India Pvt Ltd (GIPL) for piloting a social impact lending programme with financial assistance up to Rs 1 crore at subsidised interest rates to MSMEs.

The programme — which will prioritise women-owned businesses and those engaged in the production of equipment for fighting the pandemic — aims to help Indian micro-enterprises make investments in their business operations, such as purchasing new machinery and equipment, production infrastructure, and working capital requirements.

This partnership with GIPL brings a corpus of $15 million (around Rs 110 crore) to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as a crisis response related to COVID-19, SIDBI said in a release.

Under it, a loan programme targeted at micro enterprises (having turnover up to Rs 5 crore), with loan sizes ranging between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 1 crore, is being implemented by SIDBI, the release said.

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"We look to this collaboration to enhance our efforts in expanding the sector's access to credit and are very eager to see the constructive impact that we can achieve together," SIDBI's Chairman and Managing Director, Sivasubramanian Ramann, said in the release.

This also marks SIDBI's launch of a paperless journey to its customers from onboarding to the disbursal stage, he added.

Google India Vice President and Country Manager Sanjay Gupta said, "In joining hands with SIDBI, which has a deep understanding of the growth needs of this large and dispersed ecosystem, we are pleased to expand our support to these enterprises."

Major focus under the programme shall be on enterprises run by women entrepreneurs, with suitable interest rate concession also envisaged for such enterprises, the release said.