As a part of it’s celebration of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM), Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has organised the launch event of the Convergence between PM Formalisation of Micro-food processing Enterprises (PMFME)&Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) scheme.

Shri Durga Shanker Mishra, Secretary, MoHUA, while launching the convergence jointly with Smt. Pushpa Subrahmanyam, Secretary, Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), said that helping and grooming Self Help Group members, who are involved in micro-entrepreneurship activities will make them financially empowered and help families of SHGs live a dignified life.

Both the Secretaries expressed confidence that this initiative is going to add a new chapter in the lives ofurban SHG members involved in food processing. The event was organised through video conferencing facility and was also streamed live through youtube channel of Ministry.

Minstry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) launched PMFME scheme as a part of “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan” to enhance competitiveness of individual micro-enterprises in the unorganized segment & promote formalization of this sector. Financial assistance in the form of Seed Capital, Credit linked subsidy for Capital investment and creation of Common Infrastructure are available to the micro-food processing industries, including those run by SHGs.

MoHUA is implementing a flagship Scheme named DAY-NULM, which has mobilised over 61 lakhs urban poor women into SHGs and their federations. Out of these, approximately 32,000 SHGs have been identified by States/ UTs to be involved in Food Processing activities.

Both the Schemes have been converged to benefit members from these SHGs. Guidelines have already been issued by MoHUA to States/ UTs.The online IT module developed on DAY-NULM MIS has also been launched today to help in effective implementation of this convergence. This module uses verification and authentication features like Aadhaar Authentication and e-KYC, Mobile Number Validation through OTP and on-spot photography of beneficiaries. It ensures seamless workflow from ULB till the State Nodal Agency (SNA) of PMFME and also enables online approval of eligible applications. This module sends SMS on the registered mobile of beneficiary to update application status.

During his opening remarks, Shri Sanjay Kumar, Joint Secretary, MoHUA informed that rigorous virtual trainings are being imparted to State as well as City Level Officials by the National Teams of both the Ministries to ensure  clarity during implementation. He further informed that the assistance for seed capital upto Rs. 40,000/- per member, credit linked subsidy for capital investment and creation of common infrastruture will give boost to the business of SHGs involved in food processing. As DAY-NULM has already signed MoUs with Amazon and Flipkart for sale of ‘SonChiraiya’ products made by SHGs on market place and making efforts for helping their business and showcase their products, this initiative will further add number of products on-boarded on e-Commerce Portals. All out efforts will also be made to get all such SHGs registered for FSSAI, in time bound manner in case they don’t have.

Virtual launch was attended by Officials of MoHUA, MoFPI, Principal Secretaries, and Mission Directors of States/ UTs dealing with NULM along with other Government Officials. Many SHGs and field functionaries also joined the launch event through the live streaming on Youtube channel.

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YB/SS