Procedure for Gram Pradhans and urban local bodies (ULBs) to verify artisans on PM Vishwakarma website was held at DC’s office Conference Hall at Dimapur on Tuesday. The programmed was chaired by SDO (C) Dimapur, Yanthungbemo Kikon, DIPR has informed.
PM Vishwakarma, a Central Sector Scheme, was launched on 17th September, 2023 by the Prime Minister to provide end-to-end support to artisans and craftspeople who work with their hands and tools. The Scheme covers artisans and craftspeople engaged in 18 trades.
Benefits to the artisans and crafts persons include recognition of artisans and craftspeople through PM Vishwakarma certificate and ID card; basic training of 5-7 days and advanced training of 15 days or more, with a stipend of Rs. 500 per day; A toolkit incentive of up to Rs. 15,000 in the form of e-vouchers at the beginning of Basic Skill Training. It also provides support Collateral free ‘Enterprise Development Loans’ of up to Rs. 3 lakh in two tranches of Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 2 lakh with tenures of 18 months and 30 months, respectively, at a concessional rate of interest fixed at 5%, with Government of India subvention to the extent of 8%.
Beneficiaries who have completed basic training will be eligible to avail the first tranche of credit support of upto Rs. 1 lakh. The second loan tranche will be available to beneficiaries who have availed the 1st tranche and maintained a standard loan account and have adopted digital transactions in their business or have undergone Advanced Training and Marketing support will be provided to the artisans and craftspeople in the form of quality certification, branding, onboarding on e-commerce platforms such as GeM, advertising, publicity and other marketing activities to improve linkage to value chain.
In addition, the scheme will onboard the beneficiaries on Udyam Assist Platform as ‘entrepreneurs’ in the formal MSME ecosystem. Enrolment of beneficiaries shall be done through Common Service Centres with Aadhaar-based biometric authentication on PM Vishwakarma portal. The enrolment of beneficiaries will be followed by a three-step verification which will include Verification at Gram Panchayat/ ULB level, Vetting and Recommendation by the District Implementation Committee and Approval by the Screening Committee.
