Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) organised an awareness workshop on SRI Fund for supporting Women-Led MSMEs
PIB National (English) · Published 5 November 2026 · Last updated
The MSME Ministry's awareness workshop under the Yashasvini Campaign highlights the Self-Reliant India Fund's role in providing patient equity to women entrepreneurs, mobilising nearly ₹48,000 crore across 824 MSMEs.
Key points
- The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) organised an awareness workshop on the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund for supporting women-led MSMEs on 4 November 2026 at Kartavya Bhawan 3, New Delhi.
- The workshop was held as part of the Yashasvini Campaign, an initiative dedicated to promoting and scaling women entrepreneurship across the country.
- The event was chaired by Shri Bharat Khera, Secretary, Ministry of MSME, and attended by over 60 women entrepreneurs from across India.
- Key institutional participants included NSIC Venture Capital Fund Limited (NVCFL), SBI Ventures Limited (SVL), daughter funds under the SRI Fund, and Atal Incubation Centre ALEAP Women Entrepreneurs Hub.
- The Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) of NITI Aayog also participated to support ecosystem convergence for women founders.
- Addressing the workshop, Dr. Rajneesh, Additional Secretary and Development Commissioner (MSME), emphasised the necessity of moving beyond traditional debt to provide growth capital and patient equity to women-led units.
- The SRI Fund operates with an initial anchor commitment of ₹10,000 crore from the Government of India, designed to crowd in private capital at a leverage ratio of four times the public commitment.
- The SRI Fund has successfully leveraged nearly ₹48,000 crore in private investment, backing a total of 824 MSMEs to date.
- Investee enterprises supported under the SRI Fund have reported growing their turnover three to four times within a period of two to three years.
- Multiple investee MSMEs have leveraged their performance under the SRI Fund framework to subsequently secure further growth capital from commercial private sources.
- Entrepreneurs were urged to utilise the Ministry's extensive network of Development Facilitation Offices for technology upgradation, skill building, and institutional handholding.
Background
- Traditional MSME financing in India has remained structurally skewed toward debt, leaving early-stage and growth-stage enterprises starved of equity and risk capital.
- To address this structural risk-capital deficit, the Government of India conceptualised the Self-Reliant India (SRI) Fund with an anchor allocation of ₹10,000 crore to crowd in private institutional investment.
- Under its mother-fund and daughter-fund architecture, implementation was entrusted through NSIC Venture Capital Fund Limited (NVCFL) and investment managers such as SBI Ventures Limited.
- Alongside general MSME expansion, gender disparities in formal enterprise ownership prompted targeted policy initiatives to bridge the credit and equity gap for women entrepreneurs.
- The Ministry of MSME launched the Yashasvini Campaign to specifically enhance awareness, market access, formalisation, and growth capital for women-led businesses.
- On 4 November 2026, the Ministry convened women founders, venture partners, and incubator heads at Kartavya Bhawan 3 in New Delhi to directly connect women-led units with SRI daughter funds.
UPSC relevance, Prelims facts and Mains angle for this issue are in the full SWAदेSH note.
Original report: PIB National (English)