MSME Ministry revamps SFURTI scheme

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SME Times News Bureau | 02 Aug, 2014
In order to give a fillip to the Khadi and coir sectors, the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) has revamped the SFURTI scheme, informed ministry in a press release on Friday.

Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI) launched in 2005-06 for making Traditional Industries more productive and competitive by organizing the Traditional Industries and artisans into clusters has been revamped, said release.

The Government of India has approved the revamped SFURTI with modified norms for continuation during the XII Plan. Initially, in the first phase, 71 clusters will be developed across the country involving an outlay of Rs.149.44 crores. Under the 12th Five Year Plan it is proposed to take up 800 clusters with funding from the Government of India and Asian Development Bank.

Under the revamped SFURTI, there shall be three types of clusters involving artisans from 500 to 2500. The three types of clusters with their number and approximate artisan coverage for the first phase is as under:-

Type of clusters	No. of clusters under the scheme	Approx. Artisan coverage
Heritage clusters(1000-2500 artisans)	2	5000
Major clusters(500-1000 artisans)	10	10000
Mini clusters(upto 500 artisans)	59	29500
	71	44500

The time frame for the implementation of the project for each cluster will be three years and the funding pattern under the scheme has provision for soft interventions including skill training, capacity building, design development, etc. hard interventions including Common Facility Centres, Raw Material Banks (RMB), training centres, etc. and cross cutting thematic interventions which include brand building& promotion, news media marketing, e-commerce, innovation, R&D initiatives and developing linkages between clusters.

In addition to Khadi and Village Industries Commission and Coir Board as Nodal Agencies for Khadi and VI clusters and coir based clusters respectively, the revamped SFURTI also provides for engagement of reputed national/ regional level institutions with sectoral expertise in the major sub-sectors of the traditional industries, as Nodal Agency.

The scheme also provides for engaging the services of reputed national/ regional level institutions with proven expertise in artisanal and small enterprise cluster developments as Technical Agencies to provide handholding and implementation support to the SFURTI clusters, it said.