SFURTI: Govt’s MSME cluster development scheme gives Rs 40 cr grant for this many clusters in FY24 so far
Small business clusters: The government’s MSME cluster development scheme — Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) has approved 15 clusters with a grant of Rs 40 crore so far in the current financial year benefiting 8,875 artisans. The scheme, which brings traditional sectors and artisans into organised clusters, had 15 clusters commissioned or inaugurated as of September 8, 2023, according to the data available on the MSME Ministry’s Dashboard.
Launched in 2005 and revamped in September last year, the scheme aims at bringing together enterprises in the khadi industry, village industry (such as cottage industry, medicinal plants Industry, bee-keeping, agro-based & food processing industry, polymer and chemical based industry, fiber industry, textile industry, etc) and coir industry as collectives or clusters and enable support needed for their growth.
The scheme facilitates assistance of up to Rs 2.5 crore for the development of ‘regular’ clusters with 500 artisans or less and up to Rs 5 crore for the development of ‘major’ clusters with more than 500 artisans. This includes hard, soft and thematic interventions.
Hard interventions include the creation of common facility centres (CFCs) and worksheds, procurement of machineries, working capital and raw material bank, tools etc. Soft interventions are referred to general awareness, counselling, motivation and trust building; skill development and capacity building, participation in seminars, workshops, etc.
Thematic interventions such as brand building and promotion campaigns, new media marketing; e-commerce initiatives, research & development initiatives are provided at a sector level which includes several clusters belonging to that cluster.
In FY23, 62 clusters were commissioned/inaugurated while the number of clusters approved was zero. The scheme allocated Rs 280 crore in this year’s budget in comparison to Rs 1.95 crore in the previous year’s revised estimates.
Importantly, the government also runs a cluster development program for micro and small enterprises (MSE-CDP), which aims to strengthen capacity building for MSEs through Common Facility Center (CFC) projects and Infrastructure Development (IDs) projects.
CFCs provide testing and training centres, a common bank for raw material, effluent treatment, packaging facilities, export promotion facilities for food process orders such as processing, storage, etc., common facilities such as testing laboratories, repair and maintenance, etc., for services sector such as automobile, tourism, hospitality, health & medical, and more.
ID projects, on the other hand, focus on the development of infrastructure in new/existing notified industrial estate including flatted factory complexes. Flatted factory complexes are multi-story industrial buildings used for manufacturing and related processes.