SAVIORS OF THE INDIAN MSME SECTOR

The Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the toughest time periods in the history of human kind. More than 200 million cases all over the world with India being the 2nd worst-hit country by Covid with confirmed cases rising over 30 Million. The economic crisis that has been brought forth by the pandemic has resulted in worldwide turmoil, especially in developing nations like India. Mass lay-offs and businesses shutting down has been a common theme across the Covid Era. India has seen its economic crisis escalate with 10 million jobs being lost in the 2nd wave alone and with jobs being scarce and corporate not hiring further, entrepreneurship became the only way out for many and with banks not giving out small loans, micro-lending became the only alternative. Micro-lending is the practice of lending of money in small amounts to impoverished individuals or groups who are otherwise unable to obtain loans from banks.

- Saptak Bardhan

U GRO:

HELPED ~ 8,300 Companies across 8 sectors

LENT ~1600 Crore till July 2021

AYE FINANCE: Lent to 70+ clusters of MSMEs across sectors like Manufacturing, Trading, Service, etc.

India being home to more than 63 million of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and all of the MSMEs don’t have access to the banks. However, the development in technology has further helped the cause of micro-lending as the credit can now be sanctioned much quicker than before and FinTech’s growing importance all over the country has caused NBFCs to also grow in prominence. The emergence of FinTech has made it easier for Micro-enterprises to obtain a certain amount of money by the means of microlending. The NBFC-MFIs are helping the poverty-stricken people of India to uplift themselves from poverty and start something afresh or investing in their existing business to make it better especially after struggling for more than a year in those tough times. Global conglomerates are getting involved in micro-lending with Alphabet Inc., Facebook, etc. either investing or forming partnerships with companies that are involved in micro-lending in India. MFIs like U GRO, Indifi, Aye Finance, etc. are providing credits to individuals as well as Micro enterprises.